I have imagined the reactions and thought processes of those people involved in the Good Friday and Easter narrative.
I hope that it will assist you to meditate on these events with fresh thoughts.
I
always seemed to be the one who was pointing people to what was really going to
be good, before being inevitably side-lined as others took the glory.
In
a way, I was getting used to being the quiet one in the background who never
got all the limelight because there are more prominent people.
Although
my brother Simon Peter and I were in the family fishing business, you would
hardly know it as he always seemed to take the credit. So, to set out my own
stall, when John the Baptist started preaching his message of redemption, I
decided to become his disciple.
However,
John pointed to his cousin Jesus and stated that we should follow Him as He was
greater. I was so mesmerised by this Man
from Nazareth that I was ready for the moment that Jesus commanded me to follow
Him – I was way ahead of Him in that I had already seen and heard something
about Him that was incomparable to anything else that I had experienced.
This
new-found fervour meant that I forgot my insecurities and worries so I started enthusiastically
inviting others to follow Jesus. The big breakthrough was when I told Peter
about the Promised One who was now in our locality. My brother, being impetuous
as ever, went to have a look and was hooked by Jesus’ teaching and compassion.
The
result was that both of us left our fishing business and became part of the
inner circle of Jesus. It did not bother me when Peter subsequently became part
of the ‘inner-inner circle’ of three. I was not envious, just keen to do my
part in inviting others to meet with Jesus.
A
group of Greek men wanted to meet Him and, at that time, Jesus said that His
time had come, although I did not fully realise what He meant.
Not
long afterwards, the Man - who I had been so keen to invite others to meet –
was arrested and I did not want to be associated with Him. I ran away as fast
as possible from Gethsemane, not having a thought for anyone else. If anyone
had asked if I knew Jesus, I would have denied doing so just as my brother did.
But
there was awesomeness in the fact that He rose again from the dead. He wanted to
restore us to relationship with Him and He wasn’t ashamed of us.
From
that point on, I wanted to carry on inviting people to know my Lord with
abandonment – for He was more than the
Man who walked the land at Galilee and Judea, but who is the Lord in heaven.
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