Arise

“Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand.”  Matthew 26:46

Arise – In Greek, egerio. Wait a minute.  We just looked at this word yesterday.  It doesn’t have any “hidden” meaning.  It means, “get up”.  That’s all.  So why do we need to look at it again?  Because this word tells us something very important about Jesus’ leadership.

Jesus asks his disciples to watch and intercede (gregoreo).  Three times he finds them asleep on the job.  But when it is time to go, his request is not baited with contempt, filled with blame or derision.  It is the simple, straightforward notification “Get up. Time to go.”  Jesus doesn’t take his disappointment out on his followers.  He simply moves on to the next agenda item – go meet the enemy.

Jesus is a man of purpose, even when his closest friends fail to help him.  Jesus knows who he is.  His identity is not tied to the performance of others, not even to the fact that they failed to perform the way he wanted them to. 

There is a great lesson to be learned in Jesus’ calm acceptance of their failure.  Those we lead will often falter.  They will often fall asleep on the job even with the best intentions.  If we disrupt our own purposes because we consider the lack of response of others an offense to us, we will have missed the lesson in the garden.  All men fail.  But life is constructed in a divine way so that our failures can be revisited in different circumstances as God shapes us to be like the Man who was not discouraged by the failure of his followers.

We are all leading someone.  Are we attuned to the pathway of Jesus, able to accept the failure of our followers and know that the road goes on anyway?  Or are we offended by someone else’s collapse because it is too close to home?  Do we lead by blame or do we lead by purpose? 

Arise.  Just get up.  It’s time to go.  There will always be other days for lessons to be learned.