Happy Monday! Remember yesterday when I said that this week was going to feel a whole lot different? That's because this week's devotionals are only going to cover about 48 hours worth of real time events. Today we read immediately what happens after Jesus is the garden of Gethsemane. Judas Iscariot has officially betrayed Jesus, and, Jesus is ready for it,
Jesus was ready? Yeah, Jesus was ready to die. Can we grasp that? I mean, really. Jesus just sweat blood over this, actual blood, but he's ready. He doesn't run, confuse the soldiers, or argue with them. In fact, he encourages them to take him. Why would Jesus do that? I ask all these questions because I feel that sometimes living in a world 2000 years removed from the actual Easter day, we forget how the disciples must have felt. Can you imagine? "Why is he letting them just take him?" "He said he was going to bring the kingdom here...isn't now a good time to fight back?" "Why isn't Jesus calling out Judas?" "How could Judas do this to Jesus?! To us?!" "Why isn't Jesus doing anything?" Frustration, anger, and fear all probably filled the disciples in some way. In reaction, we see Peter cut the ear off of the High Priest's slave. Jesus responds by telling Peter to put away the sword, and that this pain, this suffering, was meant for him. He's ready. Jesus is ready to die. For them. For you. "After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove. Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they said. “I am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” “I told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.” Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up. First they took him to Annas, since he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at that time. Greek that year. Caiaphas was the one who had told the other Jewish leaders, “It’s better that one man should die for the people.” (John 18:1-14 NLT)
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AuthorThe Pastors of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church Archives
July 2017
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