Three days...

It was Thursday night. Three and half years of teaching, caring, healing, building people, trying help people to see the big picture of the Kingdom of God, was coming to a culmination. As he neared the last few days of His time of this earth, the context was becoming hysterical.  The formal leadership from the existing religious institutions, whose status was being challenged by this new entrant into field, was plotting to eliminate him. The state authorities were listening to those from the formal structures and were not willing to see anything other than the stories, the leaders brought to them.

The common man – the crowd, had been well brainwashed by those wielding political power and influence and were crying to murder this well meaning, innocent Rabbi.  The close friends, who were expected to stand with him, were running away. One of them, the senior finance manager had switched allegiances and was part of the gang plotting to pull the rug from under His feet. The closest confidant was making the right statements, but when it came to the crux of the time, had decided to give up on his allegiance by rejecting Him. A few women, who were close friends and wanted to support Him, at this crucial juncture, had no idea what to do, because they had no power or influence, all they could do was to follow him from a distance.

Even His relationship with father seemed to be at low ebb, He seemed to be silent not answering to His cries….The Cross He had to carry seemed unbearable, leading Him to cry out – remove this cup from me….pressured to give up???

The loneliness He felt, the rejection He experienced, the pain He was about to face in the next 24 hours, was deep and almost unbearable.

It is this cross He had in mind – the cross of loneliness, rejection, and pain, when He told his disciples (including me) that unless you take your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. A mandate which we are expected to take up.

But in the midst of all this deep sense of pain, loneliness and rejection, there was a clear sense of purpose and tenacity. This was what He had come for, and in no way He was going to give up. There was deep sense of passion and love, for those whom He had come to care for and lived with, though they were abusing and rejecting Him, and He cried out for them. At the same time there was the pain of the brokenness He saw around Him, which was crushing Him, but a hope of a future when some of them will be with Him in paradise. And a deep sense of fulfillment – when He cried out, it is finished. A model to follow – to hold on with tenacity in the midst of all the pain and challenges we carry.

Friday and Saturday, were days of a sense of failure, gloom and loss of purpose and direction for His close friends. They could not make sense of the cross and death. A perceived reality many a times in our lives.

But on Sunday, the tables were turned, when their perceived to be failed and dead leader, became the risen living God who will accompany these dejected disciples throughout their life. A future of confidence of being accompanied by the living God Himself. This is the current reality of our lives.