When I Grow Up I Want To Be

 (“Strike the Shepherd…”)

Mark 14:27-42

  

In 2006 Monster.com ran a commercial called, “When I grow up”. It featured a series of children who gave antithetical answers to the same question. See if you can relate to some of their answers.

“When I grow up I want to: file all day; climb my way up to middle management; be replaced on a whim; be underappreciated; be forced into early retirement”.

I don’t imagine that the disciples dreamed of denying Jesus during his most trying time; or to fall asleep when he needed them most; or that Peter hoped one day to deny Jesus not once, but three times just before he was crucified.

Before all of this happened, Jesus quoted a verse from Zechariah which was a prophecy of how the disciples, his closest friends and followers, were going to respond to the series of events that would occur over the following 24 hours.

 ^“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.”    Zechariah 13:7 NIV

 Zechariah was a prophet during the time when the Israelites were rebuilding the Temple. The verse Jesus quoted was followed by these verses.

 ^“Two-thirds of all the nation of Israel will be cut off and die, but a third will be left in the land.  I will bring the third that remain through the fire and make them pure, as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call upon my name and I will hear them; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” Zechariah 13:8-9 TLB

Isn’t this what happened to the disciples. Jesus used these difficult circumstances to refine them; to make them as pure as silver or gold. And doesn’t he do the same thing in our lives? Doesn’t he use those painful experiences, hurtful relationships or catastrophic losses to mold and shape us into the man or woman that He created us to be?

The children in the commercial had only unfulfilled dreams. They didn’t represent faith in the Living God who had a plan for their life. The commercial was selling Monster.com as a means for being a dream maker-come-true; but we know better. There’s only One capable of this, and that is The Shepherd who is always with us.