Who Can Find A Righteous Man?By Synthia Robinson-Pack At the Last Supper, Jesus sat with His twelve disciples to eat the Passover feast. The passage in Matthew 26 reads: 21 And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 22 And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord is it I? How many times have we read this passage and not understood the mood of the Last Supper? Although we do realize that this was the final meal Jesus would have with His disciples before His crucifixion, we may not look at the heart of each of the disciples. Isn't it interesting that the very men who had been with Jesus for three and a half years could not guarantee that they were not the one who would betray Him? Imagine what it was like to eat with Jesus, to see Him walk on water, to witness Him raise up Lazarus. Think about how they must have felt when they heard Jesus personally preach the Sermon on the Mount. "Isn't it interesting that the very men who had been with Jesus for three and a half years could not guarantee they were not the one who would betray Him?"
These disciples walked in the very Light of God! They heard the Truth speak! Yet, each one of the disciples had to ask Christ "Lord, is it I?" The men who loved Jesus could only reply with a sad, fearful answer. Why did Matthew not cry out "NO Lord, it's not me!"? How could Stephen not rebuke the Lord for His statement? If the old axiom "Seeing is believing" is true, then does it mean that they did not believe? No, the truth is that the disciples did believe. They could see in Jesus the Righteousness of God: His Trust, His Love, His Truth, His Light. They could also see the condition of their own heart. Each man knew that he still harbored darkness in his heart. Each man understood that his righteousness was as filthy rags before the righteousness of Christ. The light of Christ revealed the darkness and the shadows of each of the disciple's hearts. It was in truth, not doubt, that they asked individually "Is it I?" The disciples realized that they had darkness in their hearts, but they could see the light of Jesus. They opened up their hearts, their lives, to Him. Webster's Dictionary defines a disciple as "a pupil or an adherent of another." If we look up the definition of adhere, we read "to hold closely or firmly." Romans 12:9 tells us "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave [or adhere] to that which is good." The true disciples clung to Jesus. They left everything to follow Him, to cleave to the Lord. Most people do not realize that Jesus called more than twelve disciples. We catch a glimpse of his earlier "disciples" in the Gospel of John. In John 6, Jesus was explaining that unless they ate of His flesh and drank His blood, they would have no life. The Scriptures read in verse 60: "Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, "This is an hard saying; who can hear it." Let's pick up the reading at verse 66.
The disciples knew that the only hope they had was in Jesus. They knew that He was the Son of God. They knew that because of their impurity, they could not reach the Pure, Holy YHWH. They recognized that Jesus was Pure, God from God, Light from Light. If the men who were in the Holy Presence of Jesus Christ could not trust the purity of their hearts should Christians who walk in faith, not sight, trust their hearts? Just as the disciples realized their need for Jesus because of their impure hearts, so must we. When we see Jesus, the light of God surrounds us and reveals the darkness within us. It's a simple matter of natural law: light uncovers darkness. We cannot hide from it but must accept it. We must realize that light overcomes darkness. That's wonderful news for us! We do not have to continue in darkness. By the Light of Jesus Christ we can overcome. Only through Him can we become pure, righteous, holy. We must submit to the Light of Jesus. We must open our hearts freely and ask Jesus to touch our darkness with His light. We must cleave to that which is good, Jesus Christ.
"And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." II Samuel 23:4 © Synthia Robinson-Pack. All rights reserved. |
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