The Message
We'll add this to the list of verses they don't print on inspirational t-shirts. No one gets a tattoo of Mark 13:9 when Jesus tells us that it'll go from bad to worse after you get dragged into court. Jesus was upfront with the apostles about the hardships they would go through.
But here's what we need to remember -- 11 of the 12 stayed committed to following Jesus, despite being warned ahead of time about the suffering they would face. Jesus was upfront with them about the danger, about the risk, about the violence that would come their way.
And still they followed.
Why? What compels someone to continue to follow an itinerant Jewish teacher who was rejected by the Jewish leadership, threatened with death, and eventually hung naked on a cross to die? Who risks their life for him?
Only people who are absolutely convinced, through supernatural means, that Jesus Christ is truly the son of God. Only people who are compelled forward by what they have seen and what they have heard can give everything to follow him. None of them took this lightly, almost all of them gave their lives.
The reward was worth it.
So may we value the treasure that is passed down through the church, and may we run our race well, with endurance, with our eyes on what lies ahead, beyond the finish line, knowing that whatever obstacles we face, whatever challenges we must endure, are worth enduring because Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
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