To Encourage You

John 18:18 “Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.”

Indifference: sometimes it’s an ok thing, but sometimes it’s not. In the account above, Jesus is headed to the cross.  It’s at His first trial before Annas that these servants and officers were warming themselves by the fire.  While the Creator of the universe was on the way to the cross to die for them, their interest was in keeping themselves warm on a cold night.  Sure, there’s nothing wrong with keeping oneself warm.  It’s a natural thing to do. However, to be focused on the natural when the supernatural is right in front of us is such a strange reaction.  The greatest moment in the history of the world was about to come to pass. And the greatest One who has ever lived, the God who made us all and yet condescended to come to earth as a man for the purpose of giving His very life for us, stood before them.

So again, what was their reaction?  What was their response?  Indifference. They were more interested in keeping warm than they were in Jesus. They needed the comfort of a warm fire more than they needed Jesus.  They were more focused on what would comfort them for a few moments than they were in the Comforter Who alone could bring comfort to their souls for all eternity.  How could there be such indifference? 

And yet, the same holds true today, at this very moment.  Perhaps you’ve heard about Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and teaching a thousand times. You live in America, the home of the free, and you’ve had the freedom to worship your whole life. You have had one opportunity after another to learn about Christ. But what has been your response? What’s your attitude about all this right now?  Is it indifference? Could you care less?  Are you more interested in what you’re having for dinner tonight than you are about the One who loved you so much that He gave up the glory and comforts of Heaven to be tortured and murdered on a cross for you?  Are you indifferent? 

And maybe, like Peter, you are a believer, but your heart has grown cold.  You’ve left your first love like those in the Ephesian church that Jesus rebuked in Revelation 2.  You never talk about Jesus to anyone. You never think much about Him. You’re indistinguishable from the unbelievers all around you. You fit right in with them, and your indifference does nothing to affect their indifference.   

How can this be?  There may be many things that describe a follower of Christ but may one of them not be indifference!  And it can happen so easily as time passes.  We can take what Jesus has done for us for granted, and go on in life, seemingly indifferent to what it all means for us and for everyone else in our life.  Perhaps that’s why we must be reminded to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). 

You see, there’s a time coming when indifference will end for everyone.  Jesus is coming again and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him” (Revelation 1:7).  We are warned that when He comes “the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, (will hide) themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:15-16).  The reactions will be many on that day, but one of them won’t be  indifference.   

Yet Jesus waits for our attention now. The One who died that we might live waits for us to believe.  And He waits to fill our hearts with the passion of His love.  He longs to open our eyes to His greatness so that our hearts burn within us (Luke 24:32). 

May God save us all from the curse and dullness of indifference.