Harder Than We Think

Just a few days before the death of Jesus, two brothers among his disciples—James and John—asked to sit on his right and left in his kingdom. His profound answer was, “You don’t know what you’re asking” (John 10:38). That comment covers two areas of ignorance we all have: not knowing the future and not knowing ourselves.

The brothers did not realize what they and the other disciples would have to deal with in establishing Christ’s kingdom. That’s why Jesus asked them whether they could drink “the cup” and “be baptized with the baptism” of suffering that he would drink and undergo.

But more importantly, the brothers did not know themselves either. Standing outside the experiences Jesus predicted, they said, “We can do that” (Matthew 20:22; Mark 10:39). Indeed, all the disciples said the same thing (Matthew 26:33, 35).

We all know enough about the human condition to believe those disciples meant what they claimed and thought they would do it. They were like many of us who vow to lose a pound a week for a year only to fall away after fourteen days—or if we do succeed, we lapse back into our former condition or worse.

Aside from the trials, aspiration to endure falls short of accomplishing endurance. Those who vowed to die with Jesus slept to escape the sorrow (Luie 22:45), fled at his arrest, or resorted to lying to save themselves—only to sob later for their failure.

If we want to reign with him (2 Timothy 2:12), this communion service pledges us to carrying through like the One who did not cave when the time came, whose spirit was willing whose flesh was not weak, who did not call twelve legions of angels to save him (Matthew 26:53) or continue to radiate power to fend off his arresters (John 18:6), or strike his accusers dead, or come down from the cross to shut them up. Living a godly life will sometimes be harder than we anticipate when the hard times hit us. Jesus stood his ground to save us from times when we fail to fulfill our intentions and regret it afterwards. Here we honor him for it.