From My Daily Reading #6: How Far Will You Follow

Luke 23:55

At times it seems like there are many who profess Christianity, and to follow Jesus.

But inevitably “the many” are whittled down to “the few” when things get hard.

Many followed Jesus when He was feeding the thousands and healing the blind, lame, and leper, but the crowds largely dispersed after he preached that He was the bread of life in John chapter 6.

Jesus even taught that we must weigh the costs of following Him, and that if we are to be his disciples we must take up our deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.

Throughout Jesus ministry we find that when the going was good, and miracles were abundant everyone wanted to hang around and see what exciting thing might take place.  But, when the going got tough, and religious leaders were seeking to kill Jesus, the mobs of followers were nowhere to be found.

Even his closest disciples abandoned him when he was arrested in the garden.

Judas betrayed him, and Peter Denied him.  Still others left him and hid to protect their own interests.

But the WOMEN, they could always be found following Jesus.

Worshipping, serving, following, learning.

Not just in the popular times or when food was being multiplied, but when the hard lessons came, and when Jesus was arrested, beaten, and crucified…the women were there.

This should come as no shock to us today.  In today’s church world, it is often the women that we find filling the pews in church.  It is often the women making sure the children are taken to church.  It is women teaching, and leading spiritually, not because they want the mantle of leadership or responsibility, but because the men are no where to be found or often straggling behind.

So we aught not be surprised when we find that after they watched Jesus die on a cruel cross, they continued to follow Jesus.  In the hardest and darkest time, there they were watching and following.

Why, so that even in the the crushing moment of his death, they were going to minister to Jesus in preparing his body for burial.

It could well be said that they followed Jesus to the end.

The end as they at that time understood it.  Obviously we know that it was not the end, except for the end of Satan’s power, and sin’s grip on humanity.  Little did they realize that in their greatest loss, they were witnessing the world’s greatest victory.

No wonder God chose a woman to be the first to meet the resurrected Christ!

Which is a lesson for us isn’t it?

While in reality all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose, it often times does not seem like that is how it is going to work out; and we may be tempted to cash in/throw in the towel and give up.

But we must keep following Jesus, in “the good times” and “the challenging times.”

As the old song says:  The God of mountain is still God of the valley.

Christian we must keep on keeping on no matter how pleasant or difficult the path may grow…

…we must follow Him until the end.