Midweek Lenten
Service 2 –
Forgive
Our Fearful
Lack of Trust!
Mark 14:48-52 – “Am I
leading a rebellion,” said Jesus, “that you have come
out with swords and clubs to capture me?
Every day I was with you , teaching in the
temple courts, and you did not arrest me.
But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.”
Then everyone deserted him and fled.
A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following
Jesus. When they seized him, he fled
naked, leaving his garment behind.
“Even if I have to die with
you, I will never disown you” (Matthew 26:35). “Even if all fall away on
account of you, I never will” (Matthew 26:33). “Lord, I am ready to go with you
to prison and to death” (Luke
The sad fact about courage is that, all too often, we feel
it most when we need it the least and feel it the least when we so desperately
need it the most. Before the catastrophe in
And why did their courage
flee? It was because trust in Jesus was abandoned. The man had once walked
across water to rescue them and had rebuked a strong wind when it had
frightened them. But now they feared that if they would stay with him, they
would be doomed.
Doom doesn’t threaten us too often. And yet, like the
disciples on that sad Thursday night so long ago, we sometimes find ourselves
tempted to run away from wherever it is that Christ, our Lord, wants us to
stand. And, to our sorrow and shame, we run away for the same reason. And that
is when we must pray:
1. We abandon you when our faith is weakest.
2. Father, increase our faith.
The disciples had never thought of themselves as braggarts,
but they had never considered themselves cowards either. They really loved
Jesus, and they really wanted to be his loyal followers. When they had said
those things about staying with him through thick and thin, they had meant
them—every word!
But how soon the disciples’ loyalty changed to fear and
flight! The most festive night of the year, the Passover, steadily became a
nightmare. They had seen Jesus’ sorrow during the supper, and had heard him
once again speaking of his rejection, betrayal, and death. Worn out by sorrow and worry, they fell
asleep while Jesus prayed and even after he had asked them to keep watch with
him. Dumbfounded, they watched as one of their own number betrayed Jesus to his
enemies. Confused and frightened, they then ran to
hide while their Lord was bound and led away to trial.
Jesus had foreseen it. Again and again during his time with
the disciples, he had rebuked them for the weakness of their faith. When a
storm had threaten them at sea and they cried out in despair, he asked, “You of little faith, why are you so
afraid” (Matthew
It was their confusion that had caused their faith in Jesus
to wither. Jesus had told them exactly what was going to happen; he had been
telling them for months. He had taught them again and again what he was here to
do: to give his life for the sins of all people. When they—some of them,
anyway—had first met Jesus, John the Baptist had told them clearly, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Yet
somehow they still held to the idea of an earthly king and of glory and honor
in this world. All the old legends and hopes about the splendors of the days of
the Messiah still danced in their heads. Even as they trembled in the chill
night air on the
And then, when Jesus wouldn’t lift a finger to stop the
temple guards from arresting him, all the air went out of their balloon. What
was Jesus doing? Why wouldn’t he fight? Why didn’t he summon those 12 legions
of angels to defend himself from his bloodthirsty enemies? The disciples didn’t
know. They were scared. They lost all their hope that Jesus would make things
turn out right in the end. And with their faith in him shattered, they ran in
fear.
It is the same lack of trust that so often results in our
abandonment of our Lord as well. Like the disciples, we find courage is easier
to come up with when it isn’t being challenged. What grand and successful
struggles against temptation we can conceive of in our dreams and imaginations!
Satan may coax and entice us, the sinful world may sing its seducing song, but
we know that we will stand fast. We won’t give in. We will fight the good fight
of faith—we will! And yet we know, when
push comes to shove, how our resolve can fail. It’s easy here, in church, to
make the promises of everlasting loyalty to Christ. It’s easy during our
nighttime prayers in the privacy of our bedrooms to pledge undying devotion to
our Savior and our King. But get out from behind these walls; get out of your
house; be forced to deal with that world of sin and temptation and see what
happens!
And our fears are so much less than those of the disciples.
They abandoned Jesus to save their lives. The stakes are never that high for
us, are they? We abandon his commands so that we won’t be laughed at or thought
of less highly; so we don’t lose a friend; or so that we won’t miss out on
something that looks like so much fun. We know what his commandments say and
the price of loyalty to him, but we fail him.
And it is the same sad story: Our lack of trust leads to our foolish
fear and falling. We don’t think he is leading us to a place that is safe and
good for us. We figure he mustn’t know what we know. Instead of trusting that our Good Shepherd
knows where he is leading us, we fear that he has taken a wrong turn. It looks
as if he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
And so we run from him,
driven by foolish fears that often hardly merit a shiver! Our trust in him
melts away, and with it dissolves all our resolve to be his true and obedient
followers. We abandon him, as surely as the disciples did, when our faith and
trust in him grow weak.
And that is why every Christian, yes,
you and me, every day, needs to pray these words: “Father, forgive our fearful
lack of trust and increase our faith!” When our trust in our Savior is at its
lowest point, that is when our prayers must rise to
their highest level and greatest commitment. God forbid that we should run away from him
because our faith has grown weak! Such action will only lead our faith to grow
weaker - if not die. He has certainly
done nothing to deserve such lack of confidence from us.
That is why we must remain constant in his Word and
faithful to the sacraments by which he increases our faith and, consequently,
decreases our fears. Do you fear sometimes that he has left you? Then remember
your baptism, the day he claimed you through the washing of water with the Word
and told you, “I have cleansed you; you are mine. I will never leave you or
forsake you.” Do you fear that Jesus may not always have your best interests in
mind? Then come to his table. As you eat that bread and drink that wine,
remember the dark road he traveled alone so that he could purchase your
forgiveness with the sacrifice of his body and his blood.
That is why we study the stories in the Bible, so we might
see again and again how true it is that “in
all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Let us read again and again the
examples of how faith in God’s guidance has never been a mistake. Remember
Moses and the people of
That is why we take time out of our busy schedules to worship
our Lord during these mid-week Lenten services, so we might marvel still more
at our Savior’s willingness to die for us.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to win our salvation! There was nothing he didn’t do to win our
salvation! He kept God’s law completely. He suffered ridicule completely. He endured our hell completely. He died completely. He paid our penalty completely. We have complete forgiveness in him. Now he completely rules our hearts by
faith. Completely intercedes for us on
our behalf. Completely rules the world
for our good. Is there any doubt that we
should always be able to say with the psalmist, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4).
“Lord,” we must
pray, “help us trust your wisdom in all things, even if actual dangers should
come from our following where your Son leads us.” The Christian life is not a
cakewalk; God has made it abundantly clear to us that troubles will plague us
if we follow his guidance. We walk in danger all the way, as the hymn puts it.
But it was his wisdom that mapped out the route of our salvation through a path
that was filled with pain and danger. He will never lead us into any place
where his Son has not already been and has not already conquered all that might
cause us fear. Jesus assures us, “Take
heart! I have overcome the world” (John
And so, cleansed from our guilt by Jesus’ blood, we can
dedicate ourselves, body and soul, to living out the trust that he so rightly
has earned from us. Let us never fear that he doesn’t know what is best for us
when he points out the way for us to follow him. Let us never think that we are
better suited to figure out the best path for our lives, but let us always rely
on our Savior to know and show it to us.
And, finally, let us follow those better examples that the
disciples gave later in their lives. Remember Jesus’ final words to Peter: “‘I tell you the truth, when you were
younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old
you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you
where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by
which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, ‘Follow me!’” (John 21:18,19). And Peter
followed, and the other apostles followed, through danger and fear, but this
time unafraid, trusting in the Lord they had once abandoned in fear and doubt.
God grant that we, who too
often have followed the bad example, may receive God’s grace to follow the
good. We won’t end now with great and eloquent promises of lifelong
faithfulness. Such pride went before the disciples’ downfall in the