⁵⁵At that time Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. ⁵⁶But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.” Then all the disciples left Him and fled.

The first time we read of disciples abandoning Jesus was just after the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus had just finished an extended discourse about total commitment to Him, using the hyperbolic illustration of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. It was time to separate those who followed because of the benefit they got from Christ from those who were ready for the next step of discipleship. We read:

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66–69)

The twelve apostles stayed with Him, even though they didn’t fully understand His teachings—they had the main thing right, namely, who Jesus really was. However, in the Garden of Gethsemane, there was a further abandonment of disciples, this time His inner circle of twelve. They were the ones who followed Jesus regardless of how hard His teachings were, no matter what the commitment was—yet they abandoned Him when the arrest came! They had always rallied around Him, but in the end, they fled.

This is not how a typical story should end, where the hero is abandoned by his closest followers. Skeptics might say that if Jesus closest fellows didn’t stand with Him, then His message wasn’t all that inspiring after all. Instead of being a motivational leader who changed the world, He would have to settle for being a martyr for the cause, which He would not live to see fulfilled. His reformation movement fell short.

But this story doesn’t end with the disciples’ abandonment; no human could have penned the surprising outcome. The clues were there all along, both in Jesus’ teachings and the OT prophecies. But no one understood it. We now know, because the story is familiar to us, how it ends. The novelistic intrigue resolves in a fantastic, conclusive series of events that we know as Jesus’ death and resurrection. Every detail, from the minute to the magnificent, comes together—all according to the divine plan. As the apostle Paul taught, our God is faithful even when we are not (2 Tim. 2:13). How great is that!

Lord, I am fully aware and confess that given the right circumstances, I might fall away from You, just like the disciples of Jesus did. However, I still believe that You are always faithful to me. Thank You!