Saddle Up

Luke 24:9-12  When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.  But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. 

Don't you just love the Apostles? Cranky, fearful, social climbers, weak of faith? They've just spent three years with Jesus, three years in which they witnessed incredible miracles. Just days earlier He told them precisely what was going to happen....for the third time. Luke 18:31-33  Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him, insult Him and spit on Him; they will flog Him and kill Him. On the third day He will rise again.”

 And when the women tell them what they've seen they did not believe them. I love these guys. They were  to become world changers and martyrs, yet they were men just like me, filled with human weaknesses and character flaws, subject to fears and doubts. How can you not have hope that somehow in all your splendid weakness that God can use you to change the world just like He used the Apostles?

Maybe one of the messages in Luke's depiction of the crucifixion of Christ and it's immediate aftermath is that when God comes calling just saddle up. Whine all you want, experience doubt that you are up to the task, don't believe He means what He says, but saddle up you must or you'll miss the ride of a lifetime.