Deserting Jesus

Then everyone deserted him and fled.

Mark 14:50

Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane with 11 disciples, but He came out alone.

At first, the disciples tried to resist Jesus’ arrest. One of them drew his sword and attacked a man in the mob. But once it became clear that Jesus wasn’t going to resist, once it became clear that He would surrender, and that He was going to be put on trial…well then…then the disciples all fled.*

In fact, Mark’s gospel tells us that there was a young man who wasn’t one of the 11 disciples who was also there. As the mob tried to seize him and he wriggled away his linen garment was torn. He fled from that place naked, leaving the garment behind. I think that detail is included to show us just how desperate and panicked the disciples felt in that moment.

The old Puritan Pastor Matthew Henry captures the point I want to make here rather succinctly. He says, “It is easier to fight for Christ than [it is] to die for him.”**

Before he was stripped of His clothes and hung on the cross, He was first stripped of all friendly support. It wasn’t just that Judas betrayed Him. It was also that EVERYONE deserted Him. No one was willing to suffer with Jesus in the end.

Are you? Are you willing to suffer with Jesus? Or like the disciples, will you run away when true suffering comes? Will you disappear, go home, or fall silent to avoid suffering for Jesus? Have you already begun to draw back?

Let us learn from the disciple’s mistake. Make up your mind now that you are willing to suffer for your Lord should it ever come to that. That no matter what, you will stand with Jesus even if it means your life.

* John D. Grassmick, “Mark,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 181.

** Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Mk 14:43.