In these Wednesday services,
we’ve been looking at the events that led up to Jesus dying on the cross. And we’ve been talking about how Jesus had
any number of chances to stop these events, to take a different course. He did not have to die on the cross. He did so willingly, and he did it out of
love, love for you and me. He did it because
that was the way he could gain salvation for us and for everyone who believes
in Jesus as their Savior.
We talked last week about how Jesus could have stopped
Judas, but instead let him go and almost gave him his blessing, telling him,
“What you are about to do, do quickly.”
Now, knowing that Judas has gone to get the authorities to arrest Jesus,
Jesus and the disciples go to the Mount of Olives.
And here’s something that I don’t know if I’ve ever
really thought about before. Luke tells
us that “Jesus went out as usual to
the Mount of Olives. In other words,
this was an established pattern for Jesus, to go out to the Mount of
Olives. Going there was something he
usually did. What that means is that
Judas knew where Jesus was going to go.
And Jesus knew
Judas would know that. In other words,
Jesus deliberately went to a place that would make it easy for Judas and the
authorities to find him and arrest him.
He did not have to do that. He
could’ve gone somewhere else. He
could’ve gone into hiding. He could’ve
left town completely. But Jesus did not
do any of those things. Instead, he went
right where Judas would expect him to go, right where Judas and the authorities
could find him.
Jesus goes out
there to pray. And sure enough, here
comes Judas, bringing what’s described as “a crowd” with him. And people who are described as “Jesus’
followers” see what’s going on.
Now, in
picturing this, we have no idea how many people there were on either side. But it sounds like both sides are ready to
rumble. Jesus’ followers are. They say, “Lord, should we attack with our
swords?” In fact, one of them does just
that, attacking the servant of the high priest and cutting off his right ear.
This sounds
like a situation where all kinds of stuff is about to break lose. It sounds like it could be complete
chaos. It could be a riot. And of course, in that kind of a riot, Jesus
could easily have gotten away. There
would’ve been all kinds of mayhem left behind, and some people probably
would’ve been killed, but Jesus could’ve saved himself quite easily.
But Jesus
won’t allow it. He says, “No more of
this!” And he heals the servant. Then he says to the authorities, “Am I
leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?” And he goes off with them quietly.
I try to
imagine how Jesus would’ve felt at this point.
Scared, of course. We heard how
he had prayed that God the Father spare him from this if there was some other
way. We heard that he was praying so
hard that the sweat was pouring from him like drops of blood. Jesus knew how hard this was going to
be. Even though he was doing it
willingly, he was not looking forward to it at all.
But more than
that, I think Jesus probably felt sad.
For a few reasons, I suppose. He
was sad to be leaving the disciples. He
was sad that he had so little time left on the earth. But I don’t think either of those reasons was
the main reason he was sad. I think
Jesus was sad mostly because, after all this time, nobody really seemed to
understand why he was on earth and what he was doing. He had spent years trying to explain it to
people, and it seemed like nobody got it at all.
Certainly the
authorities did not. They came, as we’re
told, “with swords and clubs”. They were
expecting a fight. Maybe Jesus’ behavior
at the temple, where he overturned tables and went after people with a whip,
had them scared. We don’t know.
But what must
have saddened and disappointed Jesus most of all is the way his followers
reacted. They pulled out their
swords. They seemed to want a fight. Before the authorities even do anything, they
ask, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?”
It sounds like they’re almost eager to have a chance to attack, to go on
offense, to wipe out these Jewish and Roman authorities and take over.
When Jesus
said those words, “Am I leading a rebellion”, I wonder if he might have been
speaking as much to his own followers as he was the authorities. It’s understandable why the authorities might
think he was leading a rebellion. Jesus
had said and done a lot of things that upset the applecart. If you took his statements and actions out of
context, and did not understand the meaning behind them, it would be easy to
understand why the authorities would think Jesus might, in fact, be leading a
rebellion.
But Jesus’
followers. The disciples and the other
people around him. They should’ve
understood that this was not about an attack.
Jesus was the one who had told them to love their enemies. He was the one who had told them to pray for
people who were persecuting them. He was
the one who had told them that if someone hits you on the cheek, turn the other
cheek toward him. Love your neighbor as
yourself, the Good Samaritan, a new command I give you: love one another—did none of this mean
anything to them? Did none of it sink
in? Had Jesus just been wasting his
breath for three years? Did none of his
followers understand that he was not about fighting and violence, that he was
about love?
But then, how
much do we understand it now? How many
of us really love our enemies? How many
of us pray for people who persecute us?
How many of us would really turn the other cheek? How many of us really love our neighbors as
ourselves?
These are not
rhetorical questions. And I’m not asking
them in a judgmental way, because it’s not for me to judge you. Maybe you do all those things, I don’t know. But I know that I don’t always do all those
things. I might do some of them,
sometimes. I might, on occasion, pray
for people who persecute me. I might, on
a good day, love my neighbor as myself.
But I certainly don’t do any of them all the time. They’re things I struggle with. I know I should do them, but a lot of times I
don’t.
Imagine
yourself there with Jesus at the Mount of Olives. What would you have done? What would I have done? Would I have just allowed Judas to come up,
to lead the authorities to Jesus? Would
I have just stood there and watched them grab Jesus and take him away? Would I have meekly submitted to the
authorities? Or would I have pulled out
my sword and taken the fight to them, and urged the rest of Jesus’ followers to
do the same?
Now, put this
into our current context. There are a
lot of people these days who say Christianity is under attack. There are some places where the attack is
real and physical. There are Christians
in the Middle East and elsewhere who are being brutally killed for no more
reason than that they state that they are Christians and refuse to deny
Jesus. That’s just reality, and we need
to keep those Christians in our prayers always.
But there are
people who say Christianity is under attack here in the United States,
too. Not in the same way. But it’s not hard to find people who will
criticize us just for being Christians.
It’s not hard to find people who will make fun of us and ridicule us for
our faith in Jesus. And it’s not hard to
find people who want to get rid of any mention of God and Jesus in public,
other than as swear words. There are
people who will tolerate our Christian faith, so far, but only if we keep it to
ourselves. And there are some who say
that, as Christians, we need to fight back.
In fact, some say that if we don’t, Christianity itself may no longer
exist.
So, we think
about that. And we think about what
Jesus told us to do, not just the statements I’ve mentioned here, but all of
Jesus’ teachings. And we’re left with
the question: what would Jesus do? And what would Jesus tell us to do?
Well, as you
may have noticed, I’m not Jesus. So I’m
not going to tell you the answer. I
don’t think it would serve any purpose anyway, because I really cannot give you
“the answer”. The most I could do is
give you my opinion. And my opinion is
no more valid than yours.
But I do ask
you to think about it. And as you do, I
ask you to remember two quotes from Jesus, two quotes you probably already
know. Number one is from Matthew
twenty-two, thirty-seven through thirty-nine.
Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. He answers, “’Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And
the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” That’s the first quote. Here’s the second, from John thirteen,
thirty-four and thirty-five: “A new
command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one
another. By this everyone will know that
you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
As I said, I
don’t claim to have the answer to what Jesus would say. But I do know what the basis of Jesus’ answer
would be. Jesus’ answer would be based
in love.
And so, as we
form our opinions and decide how to live our lives, not just in the situations
we’ve discussed tonight but in all aspects of our lives, let’s make sure our
opinions and decisions are based in love.
Because at the end of the day, what the Apostle Paul told us is still
true. In the end, three things
remain: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
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