Fall Away

Fall Away (Written by guest writer David Peterson)

After the Last Supper, while they were walking to the Mount of Olives, Jesus predicted what would happen after He was gone.

Mark 14:27–30 records:

“And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all fall away, because it is written: I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP WILL BE SCATTERED. But after I am raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’ But Peter said to Him, ‘Even if they all fall away, yet I will not!’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.’”

This interaction is also recorded in the other three Gospels. Jesus made it known that His disciples would scatter when He was captured on the last night of His freedom. This prophecy references Zechariah 13:7, and Jesus knew they would fear for their lives if they were associated with Him.

John Charles Ryle, a 19th-century Anglican bishop, wrote this about falling away:

“Men will never come to Jesus, and stay with Jesus, and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come, and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.”

It seems the disciples had not yet grasped the meaning of truly following Jesus, and they succumbed to their carnal fears of self-protection.

Isaac Watts wrote a hymn entitled “Like Sheep We Went Astray” in 1837. Its first verse reads:

Like sheep we went astray,

And broke the fold of God;

Each wandering in a different way,

But all the downward road.

Watts drew from Isaiah 53:6, which reminds us that our natural tendency is to turn to our own way—to our own demise.

Let us pray:

Savior Jesus, forgive us for our tendency to fall away and forsake Your leading and teaching. Indeed, we have gone astray and are lost without You! Remind us of the good news that, as our Good Shepherd, You can bring us back into the fold. Amen.