Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: October 19

“And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” ~ Mark 14:26

If you read on in the Gospel of Mark, you find that Jesus immediately begins to tell them that the Shepherd will be smitten and the sheep will be scattered in just a few hours.

Jesus knew, of course, what Peter would do in those hours ahead. He tried to tell Peter, but I’m sure Peter kept on arguing his devotion. Like us, Peter only stopped protesting his “spirituality” in words, when Jesus looked at him after the third blasphemous denial. Peter stopped vowing his love then. He was weeping too hard for words. We make large claims of loyalty to Christ until the temptation to disobey and deny Him sweeps over us as it swept over Peter that night. But Jesus knew all along what Peter would do. And this is the main reason this verse is among our “green stones.”

“And when they had sung an hymn, they went out …” I’m [Eugenia Price, the author] sure that Jesus led the hymn. And He did it knowing not only that He was about to die, but that Peter would do what he did. He still goes right on with us too, as He went right on with Peter. Knowing what a vile thing we may do tomorrow or ten years from now. This just melts me. When we displease earthly loved ones, they often grow angry with us. Not the Lord Jesus. He is a different kind of love. He woos all the more strongly, until we come back. Only Jesus can “sing a hymn knowing what is up ahead by way of disobedient, broken hearts. And He can do it because He knows His own intention to restore. He knows about us, and He knows about Himself.

“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”