Joyful Ruins

John 13:18-38

Jesus Predicts His Betrayal and Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

Naturally, as humans, we tend to avoid pain and discomfort at all costs. There are exceptions to that, but overall, I believe we would ALL choose to guard our hearts from wounds and scars.

This past year I experienced a deep wound from a close friend. Perhaps, that is why this passage stuck out to me more than ever before.

We, unlike Jesus, do not know whether certain people or situations will hurt us. Yet Jesus, in His knowing Judas would hand Him over to die, and Simon Peter would turn his back on Him three times, still chose to bring them both into His close circle of disciples.

You may argue that Jesus is the Son of God, so He was able to compartmentalize, to not feel the pain of these betrayals. Perhaps, but Jesus was also human, experiencing all that a human does: He wept, felt compassion, zeal, hunger, and temptation. He certainly felt the sting of Judas and Simon’s actions.

Although Jesus felt pain just as we do AND being God, knew the pain to come, He chose it for God’s glory and our salvation. He chose betrayal, denials, and the cross because He know what kind of glory and good would come from those things.

We might not know if someone will betray us down the road and we may not know whether a situation we are in will lead to a trial, but we can befriend others and walk forward confidently because of Jesus.

When we are hurt or betrayed, when a situation, season leads to pain, we can trust that God will use it.

Just as Judas’s betrayal and Simon’s denial were stepping stones and active parts of Christ’s death, resurrection, and our ultimate salvation, those painful things which happen to us could be vital to God’s purpose in our lives, in the world.

I feel a lot of shame when I am hurt by others. I question my choices in that relationship or circumstance, but I can choose, instead, to trust Jesus with my choices and the pain that may result from them. He is the One who brings the dead to life. He is the One who used Simon’s denial to make him into Peter, the rock of the church.

He can certainly take your losses and make them gains and if you never see how they are a gain while on this earth, take comfort in remembering the Savior understands your suffering better than anyone.