Infinitum Lent JourneySample

Today we will consider Mission & Me in the context of Lent.

Welcome to Mission & Me in the Infinitum Lent Collection.

You’ll remember from previous weeks the three Lenten features—fasting, penitence, and preparation for baptism—roughly correspond with the Infinitum foci of surrender, generosity, and mission, and we are matching them in our reading plans through the Infinitum Lent Journey. And now, Mission & Me.

This short story in our Bible reading today is an incredibly encouraging one. The pressures were intense. Jesus has just been crucified. Do you notice who isn’t mentioned here? Simon, Thomas, Matthew, James, Judas, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and so on (otherwise famous members of ‘the 12’ disciples). Most of his closest official disciples were lost and distraught. Most of them had given up. The mission was over—an ignominious failure. When the stakes were highest, when the future of this movement was ‘do or die,’ they were off the radar.

We’re not the only ones to have ever given up. Or felt like we were on the verge of giving up. If you have ever been in that position, you are in the company of Peter, James, Philip, and the others – members of the literal, apostolic fathers of the universal church of our Lord Jesus Christ! Hallelujah!

Subtly, this is yet another bit of evidence that Scripture is true—it paints a colorful picture of the co-stars- sometimes the disciples do well, and often then do not fare well.

Now, this isn’t meant to be an elegy for antinomianism—an apologetic for ignoring Biblical norms, for basically being a spiritual slacker engaged in all kinds of backsliding behavior and still thinking that grace will carry you through.

Not at all.

But it is a reminder of mercy.

This whole thing is not a religion. It isn’t a set of rules to observe, nor a page of boxes to check, as if your rigorous compliance to regulations is a condition of qualification for a smile from Jesus or an address in heaven.

Not at all.

It is a friendship with Jesus. It is the joy of the amazing adventures he has dreamed up for you with him as your divine companion. As we see so poignantly through Lent, sometimes intimate companionship makes us partake in profound suffering. Even with a human friendship, we recognize we might occasionally make missteps here or there.

We’re not saying they are necessary or inevitable.

We’re noting that, aside from Judas, all of those disciples who don’t appear in this story do return to Jesus and end up—as extrabiblical accounts attest—advancing his mission for his glory to the end of their lives.

There is the blueprint for every Christian who has ever doubted, faltered, messed up. There’s a redemptive precedent for you.