He Sees Past Your Failures

“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Mark 14:27–28

Jesus knows His disciples will scatter and abandon Him in His hour of greatest need, and He tries to prepare them for it. He tells them they will all fall away, but that He will meet them in Galilee after He has risen.

Notice that even though Jesus knows they will abandon Him and fail Him and prove unfaithful to Him at the worst possible moment, yet He loves them still! Jesus doesn’t cast them out early. He doesn’t say, “You are all gonna fall away, so just go ahead and get out of my sight now." Jesus isn’t speaking to them in anger, but with a sense of sorrow and compassion. He is trying to prepare them for what’s ahead. And He makes a special point to give them hope for reconciliation after their failure. That is why He mentions the resurrection. He wants them to know where they can gather again after they have been scattered so that they will not be lost forever.

What Jesus does is He looks beyond their failure and sees their potential. He sees what they will become. So, He deals gently with their failures in the meantime until they are fully formed into the apostles who will shake the world after His ascension.

I want you to know that Jesus is the same with you. He knows you will fail. And He sees your failures coming, but He loves you still. And He sees past your failures to what you will become, what He is making you into. So, do all you can to avoid failing Him, but when you do fail, know that He isn’t surprised. When you fail, don’t run away from Him for good, but rather go back to the place where you first met Him, at that place called repentance and be reconciled to Him. And let Him keep shaping you through your failures into the mature Christian He wants you to be.