Matthew 26:45-46
Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

It was time.  There would be no more sermons in the temple, no more intimate conversations along the way, no more miracles by the seaside, no more clamoring multitudes.  There would be no more parables, but instead a powerful demonstration of all that Jesus had been trying to say.  And with their teacher torn from their grasp, the disciples would struggle a bit with this next lesson.  They were all about to graduate very soon from their Rabbi’s class.

Many times before the rulers tried to take Jesus, but He escaped their grasp.  It hadn’t been time, but now His fateful moment had arrived.  He’d foretold this moment, and now it was happening.  Sinful man would wrap their chains around the sinless Son of God and do with Him as they would.  A close friend would betray his Master.  A gruesome death was on the horizon.  Pain and suffering awaited, but then redemption would rain down upon the world through that sacrifice.  A closed door would be open.  A heavenly light would shine into earth’s darkness.

The most important moment of Jesus’ life was His death, but His life hadn’t meant nothing.  All He’d done wasn’t in vain.  There was a purpose to everything He did, a significance.  Every life He’d touched would never be the same.  And the disciples would build upon the work of Christ the foundation of the church that stretches to us today.  The words Jesus spoke and the things He did reach us today in the form of our Bibles, and we benefit still so much from all that He did during His short life.  And then He gave that life so that we could receive eternal life and have a relationship with Him.

Every moment of our Lord’s life mattered.  Every step He took was important.  He obeyed God’s will and glorified His Father and fulfilled the Scriptures.  But now our time is at hand.  We are living our lives at this specific time ordained by God for us.  We have a path to take and a purpose to fulfill.  So will we make our lives matter for the One who gave His life for us?  Will we, too, obey God’s will and glorify our Father in heaven?  Will we submit to the plan laid out for us and go forward into all that He has for us?  All we have to do is follow Jesus.  He led the way, and it’s time to put all we’ve learned into practice.