THAT OLD ROOSTER

Mark 14:19

“… am I the one?”

As Jesus looked at the Twelve seated around the table with Him, His heart must have been bursting with joy and sorrow at once.  He knew where He was going but His beloved disciples didn’t yet grasp it.  And then He had to say the hard thing to them.

“I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here will betray me.” 

And with those words, the tone of the evening changed again.  The disciples, by now, had an inkling that Jesus wasn’t there to overthrow the Roman oppressors.  They knew that the plans they’d harbored in their hearts were not in His.  But this?  One of them a betrayer, a traitor?  Unthinkable!  They began looking around at each other.  Which one?  Slowly, I think, very slowly, their eyes turned inward, as they wondered, “Am I the one?” 

It’s always like that, ever since Adam and Eve pointed at each other in Eden.  It takes God awhile sometimes to force us to ask ourselves, “Am I the one?”.

So, I ask myself as I read this passage:  Am I the one?  Have I betrayed Jesus?  The sad answer is “yes”. 

Each time I do not respond to God’s Spirit with a “Yes, Lord!” I am the betrayer!  God requires immediate, complete obedience from His children.  For the creature to say to the Creator “maybe later”, or “You can’t possibly want me to do THAT”; or “I don’t think You understand my gifts, Lord.  I’m not the right person for that job” is disobedience, betrayal.

I betray Jesus when I study a passage of Scripture and immediately apply it to someone else instead of to myself.  I betray Jesus when I hear the voice of God and ignore it.  I can hear the rooster crowing as I type these words!  Am I the one?  Yes!

Father, please forgive me for being the one!  Please

Help me to follow closely in Your footsteps, instead

Of “standing out in the courtyard” as Peter did.

May I recognize the rooster crowing every single time

And immediately repent of my betrayal.  Amen.