OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS ONLY SON

After their last supper,  The Lord Jesus, in Matthew chapter 26 verses 31 - 35, prophesied to His disciples that it was not only Judas who would stumble that evening but rather all of them. 

31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

‘I will strike the Shepherd,

And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are [g]made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”

34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

And so said all the disciples.

In this passage, the Lord Jesus referenced Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7 which reads this way;

“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion,” Says the Lord of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.

Locked into the scriptures written centuries before, was the behaviour of the disciples when their leader was arrested and taken for trial.

The Lord of Hosts, calling the weapon of the state against His Shepherd, a man whom He named His companion (a glimpse into the nature of Jesus being One who was alongside God the Father ), foretells that the sheep would scatter.

When Jesus said this to His disciples, the apostle Peter declared that he would never deny Jesus but Jesus, to make a point that the scriptures cannot be broken, described the specific circumstances (a cock crowing three times) that would surround Peterˋs denial to which Peter replied that he would not deny Jesus even to the point of death.

The other disciples also made the same profession but the scriptures were indeed unbreakable and within a few hours, the disciples were scattered when Jesus was apprehended by the authorities in the garden of Gethsemene.

If a non-metaphoric shepard were to be struck, real sheep would scatter and so it was not against nature that the disciples were prophecied to scatter in the face of an attack on their master. 

When Jesus ressurected and the disciples were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, they no longer had the nature of sheep but rather the nature of their master and they boldly testified about Jesus in the face of the ones who had plotted His death.

Amen.

4