The Abandonment of Jesus’ Disciples
The Abandonment of Jesus’ Disciples
That Jesus’ disciples abandoned him at his arrest fits the criterion of embarrassment. For disciples to abandon their teacher in this way was a betrayal of their bond of intimacy, and in the social order of the day would have been deeply shaming to the teacher.55 The abandonment could reflect badly on Jesus in terms of status and clearly reflects badly on the disciples; it is surely not the invention of the later church.
This abandonment is also plausible, even for disciples who had seen Jesus’ healings and exorcisms and believed that God was with him. Indeed, disciples attracted to kingdom signs of power, such as healings and exorcisms, might readily miss the parallel trajectory that led to the cross. Their expectations of Jesus’ mission to Jerusalem could well be different (as Mk 10:32-37, for example, suggests), just as some groups today emphasize only one or the other of these aspects of Jesus’ life.
From the perspective of disciples, because God blessed Jesus with healings and exorcisms or even was offering Jesus to Israel as a king was no guarantee that he or they would survive at the hands of a political and religious elite who treacherously apprehended him away from the crowds. Had not God previously deferred Israel’s deliverance because of their disobedience? The disciples could retain belief in God and even in the truth of Jesus’ mission while believing that something had gone horribly wrong — indeed, what else could they assume? Even if Jesus had emphasized his impending death as part of his mission, the disciples had little motivation to embrace this particular perspective of his, which, from their frame of reference, contradicted his clearer messianic identity. He might simply be discouraged; or perhaps he had come to realize that Israel would prove unworthy, hence God would await a worthier generation for the messiah. Surely God would raise Jesus up at the resurrection of the righteous, but the current mission seemed shattered.