Every year in this season, and sometimes when I oversee communion, the thought behind Today’s Holy Nougat passes through my mind. What about you, how do you feel about this?
Matthew 26:31, 56 AMP
[31] Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night [disillusioned about Me, confused, and some even ashamed of Me], for it is written [in the Scriptures], ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ [Zech 13:7]
[56] But all this has taken place so that the Scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.
Falling Away
Siblings, the original Greek includes a word used by Y’shua Jesus pahs, refers to every, entirety, the whole, or all. We notice that Jesus was speaking to and about the disciples when He made that statement. So, ‘all of you’ would therefore be every single disciple, barring none. Not even John, the beloved, was exempt.
Exempt from what you say, I’m so glad you asked. Because the Greek skandalisthēsesthe translates as ‘falling away’ in our Nougat today. The root is a verb, skandaliźo, which can be understood as trap, offend, or cause to stumble. So what Jesus was saying is that all the disciples, excepting none, would stumble spiritually. They would fall away and get scattered that night.
Self-Check
Have we ever been told that we would fall away from Y’shua? If we did, how did we make our way back?
Application
By the time we get to verse 56, the second part of our Nougat, it was no longer a questionable prophecy. All the disciples fled. In fact, Matthew uses very stark language. He said, the disciples deserted Him and fled.
The disciples ‘deserted’ Y’shua like a soldier who leaves the battle in the height of combat. They did not remain. He was abandoned by those He loved.
Just as Jesus prophesied.
He was not alone in His prophesying. As he spoke, Y’shua quoted Zechariah, who was very clear: The striking of the (Good) Shepherd, Y’shua, would result in the sheep of the flock, the disciples, being scattered (dispersed, from the Greek diaskorpizó). The falling away is not recorded in Genesis 3. But, we may realize that the struck Shepherd is Adam’s son whom Elohim (God) told the First Couple would bruise the serpent’s head. Prophecy was coming to pass thousands of years later.
What if the ‘you’ to whom Y’shua referred also included some of us who face trials because of our faith in Jesus Christ? Are we among those who desert Him? Perhaps the real question is, how often do we desert our faith for our own ‘security’? Do we, like the disciples, fail to remember that our Shepherd does everything for the sheep, even at the cost of death? Let’s be on our guard, lest we fall into temptation.
Point to Ponder
Knowing all He did, Y’shua still opted to partake of the Supper with the disciples. Knowing all we (will) do, Y’shua forgive … let’s not remain away for too long.
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May all we seek be found in Christ
