“Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (Mark 14:42)
Earlier this year, six coffee shops in Washington, D.C. issued a ‘Disloyalty Card’ in an effort that some believed was designed to take business away from the Starbucks chain. Buying a coffee at one of six local shops earns a stamp on the card; collect six stamps and you get a free drink from any one of the participating stores. Whether or not the creative move was in reaction to the national chain’s ‘loyalty card’ can’t be certain. But for sure, the DC locals’ card doesn’t encourage patrons to be loyal to any one shop.
How loyal are we? We have our favorite sports teams, but as soon as they have a losing season – many will begin the next season in search of a more certain winner. We’re friends with a couple, until there are separation issues. Then we either take sides, or the friendship is abandoned. While in life not everyone has the same talents and abilities, loyalty is one of those traits that is attainable by anyone. We are either loyal, or we’re not. If you’ve ever been in a life-altering situation, you quickly find out who is in your corner. And there are often surprises both ways in terms of who your loyal supporters turn out to be, or not. We quickly come to understand that ‘fair-weather friends’ are defined as those who last only as long as there are no storm clouds in our life.
Just as the world provides plenty of opportunities for us to be disloyal, the events of Holy Week bear witness to an agonizing display of disloyalty in the life of Jesus. During the Last Supper, Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him (John 13:21). In the garden of Gethsemane, they fall asleep when Jesus needs a friend. It is there that Judas leads the temple guard to Jesus, and then identifies Him with a kiss (Luke 22:47-48). Later Peter swears that he doesn’t know Jesus and as predicted, the rooster crows for a third time (Luke 22:54-62). John was the only one of the called twelve who was at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother (John 19:26-27). Like the others, there were times when he too had failed Jesus. But he understood the reason he was so beloved was not based on his faithfulness to Jesus but rather on Jesus’ faithfulness to him.
Jesus never fails us; however there are many times that we fail Him. An outward show of loyalty to Jesus on the Lord’s Day is meaningless unless we also follow Christ in our heart every day of the week. The world will try to get us to betray Jesus in many ways. But unlike the disciples during that week of Passover, we know how the story ends. Good Friday has no significance without Easter. It is in the Resurrection that we have confirmation that Jesus is who He claimed to be. Just as He promised the thief on the cross next to Him at Calvary, He offers us forgiveness and Eternal Life as well. This gift is not because of anything that we have done, but by what He alone accomplished. He simply asks that we be loyal followers
REFLECTION: In what ways has the world challenged your loyalty in your relationship with Christ? Are you a true follower or a secret pretender? In your failings of loyalty, are you able to seek restoration and accept His forgiveness?
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