For The Few (Reprised)

“And the second time the rooster crowed. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the rooster crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.” Mark 14:72

I have no doubt that our Lord knew this exact moment in Peter’s life. In fact, it was Jesus who told Peter that before the rooster crowed twice, that he would deny Him three times. At the time Jesus told him, Peter protested. No, he would never deny him, but he did as Christ foretold.

I wonder.  How many times have we denied Him? Countless. Our faith is not as strong as we would like to believe it is, that’s for sure. A complete stranger might be within earshot, and we would not speak openly of our love for the Lord. We are ashamed. We don’t want to sound like a religious fanatic. We’re too sophisticated for that. We’re too intelligent to say that we believe in God, and that He manifest His love for us through sending His Son to die on the cross two thousand plus years ago.

We should all weep. We would if we could only imagine seeing ourselves, as Jesus saw Peter across the courtyard, as Peter started to curse in an effort to ‘appear to be not one of those; not one of His disciples.’ I can imagine that Jesus had such piercing eyes that he could see, if not cut, through all of our phony pretenses, and yet, his eyes were soft with compassion and understanding. His penetrating gaze, as a scalpel, would cut to the very core of our heart; exposing our betrayal, and then, as His eyes would soften, we would find the ointment of His love gently applied as He whispered “Is it finished for you? My work upon the cross for you is.”

Jesus could have such compassion because He knew the enemy that we faced and the darkness that covered our world. In Ephesians we are told that the Devil is the Prince of the power of the air. I found the Matrix Trilogy fascinating in the sense of what it portrayed. We were all pawns at birth and have been played by the lusts of our flesh and pride of heart. We are all Cyphers, more than willing to betray Zion for a piece of succulent, but digitalized red meat. As Jesus said of the strongman (the Devil) in his realm, he kept his goods in peace. As long as men are left to rest undisturbed in their sin; kept satisfied with a cheap night’s stand and beer, they’re happy. What is it that God says of them? “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” Luke 12:19,20

Jesus was said to be a man of many sorrows; rejected of men. I don’t think He was sorrowful because man rejected Him in the sense of a personal slight. He knew that many would reject Him from the moment in time that He accepted His Father’s plan for our salvation. No, He was sorrowful because He knew the reality of eternity and death that all men are facing, when death takes the final breath and our soul exhaled.

He knew that many would be called, but few would be chosen. For some who hear that ‘few will be chosen’, they will become indignant towards God. Others will become momentarily fearful but that soon will pass as they settle into another day of activity and their minds are drawn elsewhere. The next evening they will drink a glass of wine and find everything to seem ‘as right as rain.’ But, for the few, they will hear the call and will cry out, knowing that Jesus is truly the light of the world; their strength and peace. They will see themselves and their sin in the light of His perfection and glory, and they will repent. In true sorrow for their sin, their lives will forever change, and with renewed eyes of faith they will look up and see the Holy Spirit descend upon them, and they will hear the Father say, ‘you are my beloved child; adopted through the blood of the Lamb.’

All I can say is that to some, mercy is apportioned; to others, justice. I pray for our friends, God’s mercy.