While meditating on the ‘Stations of the Cross’ on my commute yesterday to pick the girls up from play practice, a detail emerged for me that I had never noticed before. While we talk about how Jesus didn’t speak up at times, or how that others accused him falsely, (and you may have already noticed this detail, but for me it is one I’d never spent time thinking about) did you ever notice that no one stepped forth to defend Jesus? There were many who lied about him, spit in his face, beat him, condemned him… but this man who had just spent three years traveling the country side healing the sick, feeding the poor, loving the broken, forgiving sins, and raising the dead… had no one step forward and declare his innocence. Granted they might have lost their life for doing so… granted that it was a different time, a different stage… but it still brings a potent thought into our present time.
Are you willing to stand up for Jesus? Do you stand idly by while others make false accusations about him? When others deny his deity, or claim he is just a man, do you step forward with confidence ready to drink the cup with him?