Two verses, one from Psalms and another from Matthew tell the Jesus-followers what to expect. One is a prophecy from the Psalm that is about Christ, and the other from Jesus’s own words to his followers after Palm Sunday and before the celebration of Passover in the upper room. Here they are in part:
From the Jesus Psalm: Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. (PSALM 69:20)
From Matt. 21: ...you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.... but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matt. 21:9)
Still today it is the same. Everyone loves a party. Free food and favor will draw a crowd every time. Everyone tunes in to the gospel of positive thinking, but that attention gets very short if the positive thinking is long term and entails some getting worse before it gets better.
Throw a free picnic and you can't keep an accurate count of the multitudes that show up. But drag those same folks to Gethsemane at night with Calvary in view, and you lose their attention, even if on some grand philosophical plane, they profess to understand. Esteem seems to be generated by being the bold and the beautiful, the wealthy and the powerful.
But lay down the power, become poor, quit being a party animal, and let the tears flow, turn ugly from pain, and you, too, will be able to count your friends on one hand. But oh, what true friends!
Jesus’s still askes the question he asked when theologians without discernment couldn’t sign up for the requirement that His followers would need to eat and drink His very self, the life force of the Spirit. “Will you also go away?” He asked his disciples, knowing that even one of these closest twelve would eventually betray Him to be crucified. Then Simon Peter answered for us all: “Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life,”
Eternal is the operative word here. Will we choose long-term commitment to short-term advantage. And can we recognize what is eternal in this moment? Because now is forever. Forever starts here. Party or perseverance.
Now is forever; forever starts here—
My treasure in heaven is what I hold dear.
The things that I value, will show in the mirror—
Now is forever; forever starts here
