Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 13 verses 36 through 38:
36 Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterwards.’ 37Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ 38Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.
It is Good Friday and we follow Jesus to the cross.
Many will turn back.
Actually, we all will.
It is too much to expect anyone to go — as the old hymn says — “all the way with Jesus”. Even brave Peter will turn back.
And afterwards, when he goes where he does not want and dies crucified upside down, as tradition has it, even then he will not go so far as the Lord. For only of one does the creed speak when it says, “He descended into hell.”
We follow faithfully. We follow as far as we can. But God does not require more sacrifice. God desires “mercy and not sacrifice.”
Not if, but when, our unarmed courage ends, and we either run or fight, there is no shame. We are human; and our blood may cry out to the God of justice, but it will never, ever quench the thirst of the God of wrath and vengeance.
Jesus came to put an end to violence; but the violent took him by force.
This is the day of violence. It killed the son of righteousness; and even the sun hung its head.
“It is finished,” was what the witnesses heard him say.
And what he meant we are still trying grasp.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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