Mark 14:26-31-- Alone

After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, because it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED.' But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." But Peter said to Him, "Even though all may fall away, yet I will not." And Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times." But Peter kept saying insistently, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" And they all were saying the same thing also.

The night of the last supper was a difficult one for the disciples, thus far.  First, Jesus said that one of the twelve would betray him, but he didn’t indicate which one.  Second Jesus’ pronounced his death before their next meal.  But Jesus had one more announcement to them.  

Jesus knew that this was the night that his passion would happen, so he informed the disciples that they would all leave him and no longer be disciples—they would forsake the school.  Jesus didn’t say this because of some insight in their character (although that might have come into play) but because of the fulfillment of Scripture.  In Jesus’ reading of Zechariah 13:7, he sees himself as the shepherd struck down by God, and the disciples are the sheep.  Thus, he says that the disciples would leave him when he would be struck.  

Peter, one more time, made the bold (but wrong) statement, proclaiming that he would stick with Jesus, no matter what.  Jesus then makes his famous prophecy that Peter would deny Jesus three times before the early morning.  Peter (true to form) denied his denial claiming that he would die with Jesus.  Of course, Peter was thinking of dying in a battle, not humbly surrendering himself to the authorities to be killed, which is what Jesus had in mind.  

On thing in the midst of this passage is sometimes missed, which is that Jesus also prophesied his resurrection here, and told his disciples to meet him in Galilee.  The disciples must have missed it as well, because they didn’t know about it when the event happened.

It is one of the most depressing facts of being a leader that follows God that, at one point or another, everyone will forsake you.  This happened to Job, to David, to Paul, to Francis of Assisi, to Elijah, to Jeremiah, to Ezekiel, and on and on.  

Perhaps it's because God's path is so difficult.  Perhaps it's because the leaders who choose God's path live such a different life, and seem so isolated. Perhaps it's because they seem so arrogant or heavenly minded to really connect well to others, except at a distance.  But God's leaders often find themselves alone, without any real friends.

There are two things to remember when we are isolated for the sake of God.  First, we need to remember that just because we are alone that doesn't mean that everyone has forsaken God.  As God said to Elijah, that he still reserved 5000 people who didn't bow the knee to other gods.  Even so, God leads people in many different directions.  No matter how right we seem to be, often those directions are away from us.

Secondly, we must remember that when we are isolated, we are never alone.  Often our period of isolation is right on the edge of our greatest victory, because God has not forsaken us.  God is the one who pulls victory out of a situation that seems a couple steps past defeat.  Never think that God's plan has failed.  We just don't see the end game.