Holy week: When you are done with Jesus, he is not done with you

By Dean Collins

For some, it may seem shocking for one ever to be done with Jesus. When Jesus becomes the center of your life, your Savior, your Lord, and your faithful friend, it is hard to imagine tossing that aside. Yet I suspect we could all name examples of someone we know who once followed Jesus but due to wounds inflicted by the world, by family, and even by other believers, chose to be done with Jesus.

Choosing to be done

Many of the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees had determined to be done with Jesus. His presence, his teaching, his miracles, were all a threat to their beliefs, their power, and their control of their community. But the fame of Jesus continued to grow. In a final act of desperation, they chose to have Jesus killed, thinking they would finally be done with Jesus.

Pilate saw through their motives and eventually gave in to their hatred. But after his wife warned him about Jesus because of a dream she’d had, he tried to find a way not to give in to the demands of the mob who called for the death of Jesus. In fatigue and desperation, he finally submitted to the wishes of the angry crowds and handed Jesus over to be crucified. He then literally washed his hands of any responsibility for the death of Jesus.

Difficult to accomplish

The season of Lent, and Passion Week in particular, helps us remember that all of us have sinned, all of us have failed to live completely for Jesus. We also realize that at times of temptation or struggle, we have sought solutions besides Jesus to ease our pain and solve our problems. We may have never gotten a bowl of water and literally washed ourselves of connection to him, but we have decided we have better solutions than to trust Jesus.

Pilate would find out that simply washing one’s hands does not eliminate decisions one will need to make about Jesus. Later Friday, Joseph of Arimathea interrupted Pilate with a request to have the body of Jesus so that he could bury him in a tomb he owned. Once again, Pilate was faced with a decision about what to do with Jesus. He granted Joseph’s request and released the body. He must have surely thought this was the end of anything he would ever have to do with Jesus.

Pilate didn’t understand that Sunday was coming.

Natural to decide

If it weren’t for Resurrection Sunday, it would be easy and even natural for us to be done with Jesus. In fact, if it weren’t for Easter Sunday it is likely we may have never heard of Jesus. He would have been just another teacher whose influence lasted a generation and faded away. Maybe we would quote a couple of his best lines the way some quote Confucius or Plato. But his influence in the world would be minimal.

But it is hard to be done with someone who comes back from the dead three days after they were in the grave.

The better alternative

Since you are reading this devotional, you likely are not one who is done with Jesus. In fact, you are likely one who wants more of Jesus, not less. I suspect you share my grief over many we may know and love who have decided to distance themselves from Jesus. Some seek pleasure, philosophy, or psychology to guide them. Some may seek some ism or political ideology to order their lives by. In the end, though, what they will discover is an end and nothing more. To be done with Jesus will lead to ultimate sadness.

So what do we do? Instead of washing our hands of Jesus, we allow ourselves to be washed by him. We choose to go deeper in his Word, to model our lives on his life, and to love like he loved. When we lean into Jesus and allow his Spirit to guide us, we will see that our lives can and will cause others to reconsider Jesus.

One thing we can choose to do is pray for those we notice who seem to be done with Jesus. Some may have once considered Jesus and walked away. Others are done with Jesus because of the way his followers seem to argue with one another or have forgotten to love like Jesus. Our prayers first should be about our repentance and rededication to Jesus. And then our prayers should be for the lost and disillusioned friends and acquaintances. I keep the names of some of these friends on my daily prayer list. It reminds me to not be done with them, just as I am committed to not being done with Jesus.

Come Easter morning we will once again proclaim that Jesus is far from done with transforming the world. He can and will bring death to life again and again.

Your time with God’s Word
Matthew‬ ‭27:24-26; 57-61 ESV‬

Photo by Wesley Tingey and Nathan Dumlao at Unsplash

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