Deaf Apostles in the Upper Room
In the upper room, His hour had finally come. Immediately after His baptism, He spent those forty days in the wilderness. Luke 4:2 shows that every one of those forty days He had been tempted by the Devil. There were those three great temptations at the end of that period; and victorious Jesus won and the Devil departed from Him. Satan had returned and before Him lay the greatest trial—Gethsemane and Golgotha. His hour had finally come. His greatest hour of temptation lay before Him.
Where is your attention?
The Passover was at hand and He gathered the apostles for that last supper. He ate it with them. As they sat around that table He instituted His Supper and promised He would eat it with them when His kingdom was established. Immediately after making this promise, He startled them by saying, “Behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table” (Luke 22:21). We know the apostles’ response with each of them asking, “Is it I?” None of them thought it might be Judas. Before they left that upper room, He said something even more remarkable which we many have overlooked. At least it was something that each of the disciples failed to hear. “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night” (Matt. 26:30).
It seems they heard only His words about the betrayer. Read their conversation carefully. They did not spend much time on Judas. Instead they focused on who would be the greatest in the kingdom. Their pride and arrogance stand in marked contrast to the Lord of all mankind kneeling before each of them and washing their feet. They heard the words about the betrayer and ignored the sobering words about all of them stumbling that very night. It was not only Peter who said, “Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you” (Matt. 26:35). They all said these same words.
They then sang a hymn and left the upper room. The events which had just happened would change the destiny of the world. Yet their concern was not about what really mattered.
Is it possible that we too do this very thing? We come to the worship. We sit and eat the Supper with Him. We sing with Him and then we listen as His messengers speak to us, giving us His words in that assembly. Is it possible that we, like the disciples, hear only the words which talk of others’ sins and never hear the words which apply to us and which could change our hearts? We sing a hymn and leave that assembly never having heard the words which apply to us. God help us never to sit with Him around His table, to sing hymns with Him and then leave, failing to apply His words spoken to us. God help us to never be “deaf” and fail to hear the words from heaven.