Welcome, how rare to have no tournament storms in March. This nice weather is great. Our text for Sunday is very large, almost two chapters in Luke. The only way I think I can go through it is in chunks as going verse by verse would take forever.
22:14-23 The Passover meal has been prepared and they are reclining at the table. The Passover meal celebrated their freedom from bondage in Egypt and the Exodus. A lamb was sacrificed and was part of the meal. During the meal Jesus institutes the Last Supper and the New Covenant. He breaks a loaf of bread, declaring it his body, and gave a piece of it to each one of them. They were to eat it in remembrance of him and the sacrifice he was about to make with his body being broken on the cross. He took the cup of wine (there are four significant cups of wine at a Passover meal and this may have been the third-the cup of salvation) and shared it with each of his disciples explaining this cup of wine is the symbol of his blood poured out for them and in shedding his blood he is making a new covenant. Typically a covenant was made (ratified) by shedding the blood of animals; here Jesus is shedding his own blood on the cross as the sacrifice for us once and for all. He is the lamb sacrificed and eaten at a Passover meal. This is a new Exodus event not from a physical place but from the real enemy – the demonic. Judas, whom the demonic has entered into, is at the table too. The demonic is using Judas as a tool to prevent Jesus from going to the cross. Judas wants a political revolt against Rome and it trying to force Jesus into that revolt.
22:24-30 The disciples seem to miss the significance of this and start to argue who was the best. Jesus replies that his kingdom is different than the worldly kingdoms. In the worldly kingdoms people in power take advantage of others while in his kingdom to be great is to serve all people no matter what their status. They are to be in unity with each other, no one is greater or lesser, but all are equal. This is the kingdom he is opening up to them. He does state that as his new community (the New Israel) the disciples (the new twelve tribes) will judge the former tribes of Israel.
22:31-38 He then directs his attention to Peter and tells them that Satan has asked to test each of the disciples. Jesus has prayed for each disciple that their faith will remain strong and not fail during this testing. Peter bravely replies he will follow Jesus anywhere but Jesus tells him no you won’t, you will deny you know me and run during your test and Jesus gives Peter a sign so he can recognize his failing-the cock crowing three times. Jesus now instructs his disciples that the world can be a dangerous place and they must prepare to remain in it.
22:39-46 They left for the Mount of Olives and upon reaching it he requested the disciples pray that they not come to the time of trail. He prayed for his Father to remove the events that were about to happen if he could but if it must be this way he would follow through to the end. Jesus was so distressed about the coming events that “sweat became like great drops of blood falling from him”. This is great distress and agony, more that we can even imagine. He went back to the disciples for support but they had fallen asleep. He woke them and asked why they weren’t praying for success in their own testing from Satan? After all they had been boasting how great they each were.
22:47-55 As he was speaking the crowds including Judas came to arrest him. A kiss was a common form of greeting but Jesus speaks before Judas can kiss him indicating he knows what Judas has done. One of the disciples strikes the slave of the high priest with a sword cutting his ear off. Jesus rebukes the man, as his kingdom is not of war and political takeover. Instead Jesus heals the slave. This is Jesus’ kingdom, one of healing and restoration, one of overcoming evil not perpetuating it. Jesus then questions the mob why have they brought weapons to arrest him. They didn’t need any as he had openly been in the Temple, they could have arrested him then. Why weapons and cover of darkness to do this deed?
22:54-62 They took Jesus to the house of the High Priest. Peter followed at a distance and stayed in the courtyard probably to see what was going to happen. Because of Peters Galilean accent people start to question him about knowing Jesus. They know Jesus had mainly ministered in the Galilee and his disciples were from there. Three times Peter is questioned and three times he denies knowledge of Jesus until the cock crows and the sign Jesus gave him is realized. Peter is mortified. He has just done the very thing he bragged that he wouldn’t. Satan has tested him and he has failed. But Jesus has looked at him with sympathy and understanding knowing Peter would recover and become stronger from this testing. Jesus didn’t abandon Peter, Peter abandoned Jesus.
22:63-65 The people at the High Priests house; members of the Sanhedrin, other priests and scribes-honorable men in the community-start to act like a bunch of thugs. They hit him, mock him and taunt him. These are the supposed men chosen by God to lead the nation and they act in the most ungodly way, while Jesus, the true Son of God, takes the punishment.
22:66-71 Friday morning came and the leaders have decided that even though Jesus needs to die, they need to make it look respectable and legal. A night “trial” wasn’t legal. So they gather under the guise of legality and hold a trail. They ask him if he is the Messiah, as he has claimed to be. Jesus responds that no matter what he answers they won’t accept it. He then says something profound. That he is the Son of Man (the New Israel) and his vindication that he is correct will be his seat at the right hand of God, in the seat of power. If God seats him in this seat it means Jesus will rule the world, with God. It also means that the current nation of Israel won’t be seated in this seat and they will not rule the world as they hoped would happen. They had gotten this idea from their interpretations of Daniel 7:13. Jesus turns this upside down. They ask if he is the Son of God and he replies “I Am” the name God had revealed to Moses at the burning bush. This sealed his fate. He had equated himself with God and for this he must die. No one was to equate themselves with God.
23:1-12 They now had their main reason for killing him but this wouldn’t stand in a Roman court. The Romans didn’t care about the Jewish God or their religious practices so the leaders had to find a charge against Jesus that would stand in a Roman court. They came up with the title that he called himself “King of the Jews”. This would be a threat to the Roman emperor and a threat to Roman peace. For this Rome would kill him. Pilate questions the leaders and they keep coming up with new charges against Jesus. Pilate didn’t want to deal with this obvious Jewish infighting so he found a way out by saying it wasn’t his jurisdiction it was Herod’s. He sent Jesus off to Herod and thought he was finished with the conflict. Herod was happy to see Jesus as he had been hearing much about this man. Maybe Jesus would even perform a miracle for Herod. Jesus was silent. The mob mocked Jesus and Herod even put one of his royal robes on Jesus as a taunt to the claim he was King of the Jews. Everyone knew Herod was the real King of the Jews, that was his title. Unfortunately for Pilate, Herod did nothing and sent Jesus back to him. Now Pilate had to deal with this mess.
23:13-16 Pilate called together the Jewish leaders and told them he had found no guilt with Jesus. He had questioned Jesus and had not found him speaking out against Rome. Neither had Herod found anything of guilt with Jesus. Pilate offered to pacify the leaders by having Jesus flogged, as a warning, and releasing him.
23:18-25 At this the crowd of leaders becomes angry and requests the release of a man named Barabbas. Barabbas had stirred up a revolt in the city and had killed some people in the process. Rome was holding him for crucifixion. Pilate tries to bargain with the crowd to release Jesus but three times the crowd calls for the death of Jesus. Finally Pilate gives in to the crowd’s demands and orders that Jesus be crucified.
23:26-31 The soldiers led Jesus away after his flogging to the place of the crucifixion. A large number of people followed the precession. Women beat their breasts and wailed. He turned to those women and said that a time would come when they would weep for their own children. They would be so distraught that they would wish they had never had children, they would wish for mountains to fall on them and end their misery. This was a warning to the women of Jerusalem about the coming judgment on them and their children and the destruction that would result from the city refusing her true king. If they (the Romans) do this to me, Jesus, the green living tree who is innocent what more will they do to you the dry dead tree who wants a revolution against Rome? This came to pass in 70 AD when a revolution against Rome failed and Rome destroyed all including the Temple. There was horror inside of Jerusalem during that siege and the Temple has never been rebuilt to this day.
23:32-38 Two criminals were crucified on either side of him to increase Jesus’ shame. Jesus asks his Father to forgive the people because they don’t understand what they are doing. His clothes were divided between the soldiers. He was crucified naked to increase the shame. He was mocked by the leaders and the soldiers. They are doing their worst to him, he is doing his best for them.
23: 39-43 Even one of the criminals mocked him but the other realized that Jesus was innocent. The other criminal actually defended Jesus from his cross and agony admitting what he had done was wrong but that Jesus had done no wrong. He then asked for Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. He understood that Jesus really was the King of the Jews as the sign that mocked him claimed. He was the Messiah. Jesus assures the criminal that he will be a part of his kingdom. Jesus made this claim to an unclean man dying on a cross. Even in His worst agony he still searched for and found the lost. This man hadn’t been baptized nor done any works to enter the kingdom, he just had faith.
23:44-49 At noon darkness covered the land. The prophets Amos 8:9 and Joel 2:31 had spoken of darkness as a symbol and accompanying God’s judgment. It was dark for three hours. The curtain in the Temple separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies-where they thought God lived was torn in two. Now all had access to God, not just the High Priest on the Day of Atonement once a year. When this had happened Jesus spoke sending his spirit into the hands of his Father. This was a Jewish child’s nightly prayer but Jesus added the word “Father”. At this point one of the Roman guards understood the impact of what had occurred. Jesus was God’s son and innocent of the charges made against him. A gentile understood who Jesus was while his own people missed it. Everyone left except the women, they remained faithful. The disciples had previously scattered and run.
23:50-56 A member of the Sanhedrin, that had condemned Jesus to death, went to Pilate and asked for the body. He had not agreed with the council’s judgment. He took it down, wrapped it and laid it in a new tomb. This was the beginning of the Sabbath and he had touched a dead body. Think about his sacrifice to bury his Messiah, he could be kicked of the council, he would be ritually defiled as he had touched a dead body, he could not celebrate the Sabbath and most likely he would be ridiculed by others for his actions. None the less he did it, so great was his honor for Jesus. The question is why didn’t he speak up when Jesus was still alive? Why wait until now when he is dead to honor him? The women noted where the tomb was so after the Sabbath they could return and anoint the body properly for burial. No work could be done on the Sabbath.
We need to grapple with this story, the “whys” and the “how comes”. Why do we wait so long to pay honor to Jesus who died on a cross so I wouldn’t have to be punished? Why do we deny Him? Why do we treat our fellow community members (other Christians) so nasty in the name of change? The vile filth that comes from our mouths against each other is really harbored in our hearts. Our mouths are just the vehicle we use to express it. The name calling of people who don’t share our views is not what Jesus would have done. Did you know that people dying on a cross swore and cursed profusely because of the agony they were in? It was some of the worst language you would ever hear. What did Jesus say? “Forgive them”, made provision for his mother, invoked three Psalms (22, 23 and 24) and then uttered “it is finished”. Not one profane thing passed through his lips. We need to thoroughly clean out our hearts!
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