It is Thursday and the last day of April. We have come to the readings in Luke that describe the night they arrested God! Read Luke 22:39-71 today and come back so we might spend some time thinking about what we've read.
The reading we've just finished is not unfamiliar to us. Jesus took his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. As we have made note of previously, Gethsemane means "olive press". It is a grove of Olive trees - one of the hundreds like it in Israel. They had to cross the brook Kidron to leave the city. All of it is symbolically familiar. King David had fled Jerusalem when his son, Absalom, had sought to take his Kingship - two Kings, without thrones.
It was here that the full weight of what lies ahead for Jesus begins. "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup..." What is the cup? It is the wrath of God poured out on sin (Psalm 75:8). His death was the payment for that sin. Martin Luther remarked, “No man feared death like this man!” This cup is described as a cup of shame at one point in the Old Testament. Jesus feels what is to come and Jesus is full of sorrow.
Dr. Luke alone tells us that an Angel from heaven came alongside as Jesus felt the agony of his soul. He had never sinned and didn't know the feelings of guilt and shame, and as it all began to settle upon, and Angel is sent to strengthen him. Luke tells us that he begins to sweat in a way that becomes like his own blood dripping to the ground. There is a medical condition that has happened to people where this can occur. It is all affecting Jesus in body, soul, spirit...and his heart is heavy with grief. His disciples have fallen asleep - he must bear this weight alone.
The Roman soldiers and Jewish Temple guards are shown the way to Jesus by Judas. “Satan entered into Judas” and now we see it come to fullness...A Kiss...not born from love and friendship, but of treachery. Why such a large contingent of soldiers? The Temple rulers are taking no chance and they won't let Jesus get away. What Judas failed to understand, and what the soldiers could not have comprehended was that Jesus had no intention of running away. He was "giving up" his life, not having it taken away from him.
Luke tells us that "one of them" - Peter - picked up a sword and struck the ear of the High Priest's servant. It was not a fatal mistake, but it clearly was a mistake. It was a misguided attempt to stop what Jesus intended to occur. Peter had made his boast of following Jesus even unto death, but the only death that was to occur would be Jesus! Jesus graciously reached out to heal the servant's ear. Symbolic of so many things, Jesus is acting in grace while malice stands around him.
They took Jesus away to the High Priest's house. Peter followed at a distance and sat down to warm himself at a fire. In three questions that are more accusations than questions, Peter is cornered: "you are one of his followers, aren't you?". Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times. At the end of the third time, the rooster crowed, and Jesus "turned and looked at Peter". Peter saw that look and remembered Jesus' words. He left and wept bitterly. Two disciples...one with Satanic bitterness in his soul betrayed Jesus...the other with bitter weeping, guilt, shame, turned and walked away for he had betrayed his own soul.
The beatings, mocking, torture - a cruel blind man’s bluff sort of game - began. They mock him: “Prophet? Prophesy!” It is all becoming true. Jesus had told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem and there “the Son of Man would be mocked, insulted, spit upon” (18:32-33). In the first and second of six so-called trials, Jesus stands first before the High Priest, and then before the council. Here, he is accused with a question: "If you are the Christ, tell us!" They are not looking for clarity, but for a reason to accuse him of blasphemy. Jesus said, one day they will see him as he truly is in the ascended risen Lord. He is the King they deny they want.
The symbols are many in this familiar story: Gethsemane teaches us Jesus’ submission. Judas’ betrayal teaches us human hypocrisy. The journey that Peter took, a journey of failure, teaches us humility. The authorities teach us of power without truth. William Stalker wrote in The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ: "It may be said that they walked according to their light, but the light that was in them was darkness."
"None so blind as those that will not see," wrote Matthew Henry, the noted Bible commentator.
Jesus had said in a prophetic warning once before: "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light" (John 12:36). Darkness was setting in, because it had to.
Peace
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