Character in a Crisis: Courage
/
This week is what Christians all over the world call Holy Week—the week leading up to Easter when we celebrate a risen Christ. As I read the story of Jesus’s last gathering with his disciples, I was struck by the character traits that Jesus emulated. Traits that allowed him to step toward the cross and purchase our redemption.
I want to look a little more closely at the character of Christ as he walked through his own crisis, in hope that it will help us walk through what is surely our collective time of crisis in the world.
*****
Courage: John 14:31
“Rise, let us go from here.”
In this simple, declarative statement, Jesus shows such courage because he knows what’s ahead of him.
Beatings. Betrayal. The cross. Death.
And yet he says to his disciples, “Let’s go. Let’s do this thing.”
Commentators are not clear about whether this was their signal to literally get up and head to Gethsemane, or whether they were just moving into another room, or whether they just stayed where they were, because chapter 15 continues Jesus’s teaching to his disciples.
But no matter what they did in that moment, Jesus is clear that he has a job to do and that he must get on with it. It took courage to stand up in the face of what would surely be the worst day of Jesus’s life, especially because he knew (and knows) all things. Courage to lead the way rather than to be led. Courage to face his betrayer. Courage to walk into the arms of his captors.
This makes me think of healthcare workers who are on the front lines fighting Covid-19 right now. Many who are coming out of retirement to serve in this war. Those who are volunteering to work on Covid floors in their hospital. Those who are working around the clock to set up field hospitals in cities that will need extra beds.
Each person doing his or her part. With courage.
But it also takes courage to stay home when everything in us wants life to go back to normal. It takes courage to heed the call of our authorities and to obey when we might disagree with how things are being handled. It takes courage to come together when we’ve been so divided.
C.S. Lewis said this about courage: “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
We are being tested in America right now. Will we do the right thing and stay home? Will we put the needs of our neighbors, our community, our society, before our own needs? Will we fight for the common good, a term we don’t talk or even think about much today, rather than for the good of ourselves or even our family? This takes courage, friends.
Where do you need to take courage today?
“In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
*****
Character in a Crisis Series:
