1 Maccabees 9:28-34: a reflection

28All the friends of Judas were gathered together, and they said to Jonathan, 29“Since your brother Judas has died, we have no man like him to go out against our enemies and Bacchides, and among those of our nation who hate us. 30Now therefore we have chosen you this day to be our prince and leader in his place, that you may fight our battles.” 31So Jonathan took the governance upon him at that time, and rose up in the place of his brother Judas. 32When Bacchides found out, he tried to kill him. 33Jonathan, and Simon his brother, and all who were with him, knew it; and they fled into the wilderness of Tekoah, and encamped by the water of the pool of Asphar. 34Bacchides found this out on the Sabbath day, and came—he and all his army—over the Jordan.

Judas Maccabeus, the great leader, is dead, and his followers are shaken: we have no one like him to lead us against our enemies, they say. It is the fear that comes when an irreplaceable person is gone, that the whole cause will collapse with them. But the story does not end there. They turn to Judas's brother Jonathan and ask him to lead in his place, and Jonathan rises up and takes the burden.

Notice what happens after the loss of the leader. The people's first response is despair, no one is like Judas, but the work does not die with him. Another steps forward, and the cause goes on. Jonathan is not Judas, and does not need to be; he simply takes up what is his to carry now, and leads the people through the next stretch.

There is reassurance here for when a leader we depended on is gone, in a family, a church, a community, and it feels like everything will fall apart. God's purposes do not finally rest on one irreplaceable person. When one falls, God raises up another, often not as celebrated, but faithful to carry the work forward. And there is a call in it too: sometimes you are the one asked to step up into a gap left by someone greater, and the right response is not I am not like them, but simply to rise up and carry what is now yours. The work does not die; take up your part.

Lord, when a leader I depended on is gone and it feels like everything will collapse, remind me that your purposes do not rest on one person. Raise up others to carry the work, and when you ask me to step into a gap, give me courage to rise up and carry what is now mine.