At times I have been paranoid about the fact that I lack courage. In particular, at times, I have thought back to my school days. I was a boarder and in our year of boarders there was a lot of emotional bullying. Looking back I think ‘should I not have stood up against those who were doing this?’ But like everybody else I was scared that this would make me the victim. So when others were getting a hard time I did little about it, and when I was getting a hard time others did little about it.
I was also a coward when it came to my faith. I had asked Jesus into my life shortly before I started secondary school. Yet for the years that I was in school I hardly every stood up for being a Christian. Again it was a lack of courage. This lack of courage still affects me as there are still times when I keep my head down and don’t want to mention my faith with people, when I don’t speak out about things that I know are wrong, and when I don’t enter into conversations that scare me—like asking people questions about where they stand with the Lord. I can not say that I am a courageous person!
One of the things most striking about these passages that describe the lead up to the cross is the amazing courage of Jesus, and the lack of courage of his friends. Knowing what is ahead of him he resolutely sets his face towards the awful death that awaits him, what amazing courage!
Background:
It is the night
before the cross. Jesus is in the
He thinks about taking the cup. The cup was a picture of God’s righteous anger and judgement against human sin. He prays, ‘Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ There is no way that he can fulfil his mission if the cup is taken from him. The only way that sinful humanity can be reconciled to a holy God is to have a perfect mediator take the judgement that should be ours. So he submits himself to the Father’s will and sets his face towards the cross. What depths of love the Father has for this world that he would send his beloved Son to die for us! What courage his marvellous Son has that he would face what lies before him to be Saviour of the world. To be Saviour of people like us!
Judas betrays
him with a kiss
Having prayed he
finds the disciples sleeping again. He
says, “Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the
hands of sinners.” Presumably they
could see the torches of the crowd coming up the
Judas knew that
Jesus would be in the
Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. This was the typical greeting of a Rabbi by a pupil. However, the word translated ‘kiss’ means a fervent kiss. How cold-hearted Judas must have been to betray Jesus in such a manner. What irony that Jesus would be betrayed with a sign of affection. How terrible that Judas would hand Jesus over for the price that had been arranged!
How did Jesus feel? The psalms point forward to this moment when David writes, ‘If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God (Ps. 55:12-14). Betrayal is always painful, betrayal by a friend is doubly so. However we may have been betrayed in the past it is nothing compared to what Jesus suffers here.
Peter does the
wrong thing, again!
The men seized Jesus and arrested him. Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. We know from John’s Gospel that it was Peter who did this. Luke tells us that Jesus healed the man’s ear. But what are we to make of this action? Was it brave? Possibly! Was it well-intentioned? Maybe! Was it the right thing to do? Definitely not!
All through this Gospel the disciples have lacked understanding and demonstrated unbelief. How can a man like Peter not put his foot in it in a situation like this? If he had listened to Jesus he would have known that he was meant to be taken by these men, and if he had obeyed Jesus command and prayed he would have had more wisdom. Passion and enthusiasm are not enough if we are going to honour Jesus with our lives—we ought to spend time to study Christ, ask him to increase our faith, and make sure that we bathe our actions in prayer.
Jesus is left
utterly alone
The scene so far has been one of disorder and confusion. An overly armed crowd of men arresting a man who is not leading a rebellion, coming at night for fear that there would be a riot if they arrested him in public during the day, and a disciple who acts rashly slicing a man’s ear off. Yet in the midst of all this it seems as if Jesus is the one who is in control!
Having prayed to his Father and committed himself to doing the Father’s will he is resolute in moving towards the cross. He addresses those who have come to arrest him. “Am I leading a rebellion,” said Jesus, “that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” Earlier, in the evening, Jesus had quoted Zechariah 13:7, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” “Then everyone one deserted him and fled,” despite the fact that each of the disciples had each claimed that they would never disown him.
Our passage ends with a curious couple of verses. A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. The young man appears to come from a wealthy home, garments were ordinarily made of wool—his is made of linen. He appears to have followed Jesus that night in a rush—he was not wearing an under garment so when his outer garment was grabbed he was left naked. But who is this man? Commentators suggest that it was Mark. Mark is saying ‘I was there.’ Even this young man deserted him. Jesus is left utterly alone with the crowd that is arresting him.
Conclusion
A couple of things might go through our minds when we read this passage.
Maybe it reminds us of times when we have been the ones to desert Jesus. Times when we have kept our mouth shut and our head down not wanting to admit that we are a Christian for fear that people will look down on us or mock us. Thankfully this isn’t the end of the story for those disciples, Jesus still cared for them. Even when we let him down he longs to restore us. Even Judas could have found forgiveness, if only he had sought it.
However, more than anything what I want us to go home thinking about
is what Jesus went through, in obedience to the Father’s will, to be Saviour of
the world. He experienced the ultimate
betrayal by one of his closest friends, he watched as the rest of them
fled. He was left utterly alone. This was God’s will that we might experience salvation. This was the fulfilment of Scripture. This was part of what Jesus went through that
we might have our sins forgiven and be put it right relationship with God. How desperate our condition in our sin was
that God needed to go to such lengths to restore us. I hope that this passage causes us to marvel
at our resolute, obedient, courageous Lord and to think ‘if he was willing to
do this for our sake surely I should be willing to respond to him with my
life.’
No comments:
Post a Comment