Take for example the gospel letter of Luke, written to his
friend to enumerate what we believe and why.
Jesus had been living with His disciples for a little more than 3
years. They went everywhere with
Him. If they had a question, they just
asked Him. Even if they did not
understand everything He said they were always with Him, and stayed with Him,
hoping that someday they might understand.
Living that way with God literally a few inches from your fingertips
might have given them hope abounding. Living
with our God just nearby in the person of Jesus, might have given them such comfort. They still mistakenly believed that Jesus
would soon take up His role as Messiah leading all of Israel out of Roman
bondage, and making them, His first followers, all prominent leaders in the new
independent kingdom. This was their
chief ambition. And in chapter 22 they
had just been recently arguing about which one of them might be the chief ruler
among the others proving their mistaken belief had yet to be released.
But the time had come when that hope was to be completely
crushed. And with it, the loss of having
Jesus right at their fingertips. God, in
the form of Jesus, was about to undergo the most cruel torture and death. And even after His resurrection it would not
be the same as it was before. He would
only be with them from time-to-time and then He would ascend to heaven forever
until He returned to take us all home with Him.
That is the equivalent of losing everything. From one moment you are right there with God,
right beside Him, right there talking to Him, asking Him questions, listening to
His every word hoping to understand as much as your poor brain was capable of
understanding. Then the next minute, He
is ripped away from you by the powers of darkness. And mystery of mysteries we shall never fully
understand, Jesus will allow this to
happen. As disciples, you will lose
everything. Everything you believe in,
everything you have lived for, everything you have hoped for. There could be nothing worse. So how do you prepare for that?
Jesus begins by setting a change in how the disciples will
be living for a while. Luke picks up in
verse 35 saying … “And he said unto them, When
I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said,
Nothing.” Up to now Jesus had
asked them to take no preparations at all.
This was done to kill the human instinct in them to trust in oneself
instead of in God to handle all our needs.
Can you imagine an evangelist coming to your area with no preparations
made today? No, in today’s world
evangelism is handled more like a full-blown marketing campaign, with media
interactive presentations done well ahead of time. It is not handled like a spur of the moment
thing done because the Spirit moves us to do it, with words given only at the
time they are needed. But the disciples
recall their time with Jesus noting they never lacked for anything, even though
they should have. But miraculously they
did not miss meals, or catch colds, or lose garments to wear and tear. Every need was met up to now. They all agreed they lacked nothing.
Jesus continues in verse 36 saying … “Then said he
unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let
him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell
his garment, and buy one.” Wow
what is changing? That should have been
the question that tops the disciples’ minds.
Why do they go from needing nothing, to now, needing to take coin
purses, or paper money, and swords to defend it all. They have never needed swords. In the minds of the disciples, they may have
thought that the Messiah was about to emerge.
To stand against Rome finally as they had hoped. They may have thought that taking up swords
now was just Jesus being practical with them all, solid advice if a conflict
was coming. And ironically a conflict
was not only coming, it was here. The
weight of the separation with the Father was already pressing down on
Jesus. To be counted among the
transgressors of the Law of Love was by nature to keep Son separated from the
Father. Jesus could not see what was
coming next, not in full anyway. But
Jesus could see His time with His disciples was at an end, and the Comforter
had not yet been sent by the Father. His
disciples were to be alone for a while.
So Jesus tries to take practical measures to keep them prepared … to
lose everything. At least to prepare as
well as anyone could for that kind of tragedy.
Luke continues in verse 37 saying … “For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in
me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me
have an end. [verse 38] And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he
said unto them, It is enough.” Jesus was about to put Himself in harms way
by choice and without defense. All that
power in the Son of God would NOT be used to save Himself from any of
this. This had been foretold in
scripture but was now coming to pass in front of them, and of course they still
clung to mistaken beliefs that would make it even more difficult for them to
accept. And for those of us who think we
must each have a gun to defend ourselves now, you may notice Jesus was never
talking about guns at all. And only 2
swords were ever produced, to defend 12 people, Jesus, plus the women who
followed, and these measly 2 swords were enough according to Jesus. Surely that would have never fended off the
Roman army. Nor would it prove enough to
fend off even the corrupt priests and their temple guards. They were only symbolic pacifiers as if for
children who still might look for them. Jesus
was not advocating war, and in point of fact not even defense. It was meant to calm the disciples and keep
their grief and feelings of helplessness slightly in check during a time when
they watch it all slip away. Jesus knew
fear would eat at them, He knew the first questions they would ask is “what
now”? The purse, script, even swords
were not advocated to replace faith, but to be practical when their faith would
seem all but lost.
Most of their lives, the concept of a Messiah was always far
off. It was only recently that the
Messiah had become real to them, real and in person. And it was now time for the fulfillment of
the mission of our redemption. But the
disciples had chosen not to understand that, for it would undo all of their
previous hopes and beliefs. But still
they clung to Jesus. Dinner was
over. Jesus desperately needed to
pray. So Luke continues in verse 39
saying … “And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his
disciples also followed him. [verse 40] And when he was at the place, he
said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into
temptation.” You will notice now,
the most practical advice that could be given is offered. Notice too, that Jesus does not even ask for
prayer for Himself in all of this. He
asks them to pray for each other, and for themselves, that above all they do
not enter into temptation. Not for
forgiveness of sin, but for the avoidance of sin before it can even become sin,
to avoid any situation that could turn into sin. To avoid sinful thoughts, desires, and or
opportunities to sin. To keep a pure
faith when the world is crashing down around them. Keep in mind they too were in the midst of
losing everything, even if they did not understand that yet. And still, as always, Jesus asks them to pray
to avoid temptation. Is there a lesson
there for us as well? Do our prayers so
often focus on what we want, that we forget to ask for the thing we need most?
Luke continues in verse 41 saying … “And he was withdrawn from
them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, [verse 42] Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me:
nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. [verse 43] And there
appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. [verse 44] And being in
an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground.”
Luke may not have caught the full sequence of events just as they
happened, but he does present an accurate summary of the highlights here. Jesus repeats this same prayer more than
once. And He is ultimately strengthened
by Angels from heaven, or He may have never made it out of the Garden of
Gethsemane. But Luke does catch
something we often look over, the sweat of Jesus was so intense he was dropping
great drops of blood on to the ground around Him. He now bore the brunt of His separation with
His Father. Jesus was alone as bearing
our sin demanded. The Father must allow
His Son to take on the mantle of our sin, He must allow His Son to die, and for
the first time in either of their lives, to be alone from each other. The Father must sacrifice and sit still
during all of this. The Son must bear it
alone. And Jesus did not know now, as it
finally came upon Him, whether it would work at all. Perhaps having been stained with our sins,
His Father could never look upon Him again.
All of this for nothing, all of this not enough to purchase our
redemption, man still lost, and now He along with us. The weight of it is too much. And the intensity of it so great, he sheds
blood as we do sweat.
Luke continues in verse 45 saying … “And when he rose up from
prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, [verse
46] And
said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray,
lest ye enter into temptation.”
Luke credits the disciples with falling asleep in sorrow. Perhaps the sadness was palpable in that
place, or at least in the face of Jesus, who had never borne such grief in His
life. Perhaps the devil had just been
pressing down on His disciples to make them so tired they could stay awake not
another minute. But as Jesus approaches,
He repeats the same advice again, waking His disciples and warning them to pray
to NOT enter into temptation. Even now,
that prayer to avoid temptation is still top of mind for Jesus. That is His best and only advice for us now
that we are deeply in the process of losing everything. If the world is truly coming to an end, what
advice does Jesus offer – to pray to avoid entering into temptation. For ONLY God can keep us from falling into
temptation. Have you ever considered
that? Your willpower is not enough. Your best efforts are not enough. You encouraging each other and trying to be
supportive of each other is still not enough.
You must pray to avoid even temptation of sin, let alone sin itself. Jesus in the midst of the greatest trauma of
His own life, still cares more about His disciples, about us than He does about
Himself. And Jesus knows best what we
need. And prayer to keep us from
temptation is still what we need.
Luke continues in verse 47 saying … “And while he yet spake,
behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went
before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. [verse 48] But Jesus said
unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man
with a kiss?” And while He was
yet speaking. Jesus was still in the
middle of telling His disciples to pray to avoid temptation, when Judas led the
mob to Jesus to betray Jesus to them, marking Jesus with a kiss so they would
know Him in the moonlight. Judas was an
object lesson of what happens when we have already fallen into temptation. Satan was now in him. Judas had far less control than he wanted
having already yielded himself to temptation, that had grown into full blown
sin. Jesus calls to Judas through the fog
of Judas’ mind, do you intend to betray me with a kiss. You would use an act of love to send Me to my
death. Jesus knew Judas was not strong
enough to get through all of this. Judas
had refused the faith he needed to survive it, to claim and receive the
forgiveness Jesus was still right there willing to offer. But Judas felt his own unworthiness and could
not bring himself to ask. And the weight
of sin, that was crushing Jesus, would smash Judas like a bug for only his own
crimes against our God. But our own sins
are no less, and we are no more worthy than Judas, but we must find the faith
to ask for and claim the forgiveness Jesus still offers us. He paid this price for you, for me, to make
it all possible.
Luke continues in verse 49 saying … “When they which were about
him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the
sword? [verse 50] And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and
cut off his right ear. [verse 51] And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed
him.” Now an object lesson about
using a sword to defend the faith, to defend Jesus Himself. He does not need it, does not want it. He wants us to sheath our swords even in the
face of certain torture and death. To be
like Him, to have power but refuse to use it to any detriment of others, even
in the most extreme circumstances. We
cannot use the faith as our justification for “defending ourselves”. For Jesus would not allow it then. He never had.
In prior dangerous circumstances He just disappeared, He never allowed
His disciples to draw swords and protect Him anytime, or anywhere. Jesus simply reminds the disciples to suffer
this, and anything else thrown at them, just like He is. But Peter jumps the gun and cuts off the
servant’s ear, which Jesus picks up and promptly heals. No blood spilled in defense of our God, but
even then healing to His perceived enemies.
Luke concludes this early part of the story picking up in
verse 52 saying … “Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the
temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be
ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? [verse 53] When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth
no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Jesus calls out to his killers and reminds
them they could have easily taken Him in the Temple anytime with no sword or
spear. But that would have required
taking Him in front of an audience. They
wanted this kept secret and out of public view.
How many sins are committed just so, in secret, out of public view. Sin craves the darkness to keep from being
identified as sin. Betrayal prefers
secrecy and darkness to cover its heinous damage. But covering sin does nothing to reduce its
damage to us or to those we claim to love.
Time passes by and the damage and pain is only increased. For to one sin we add others, deception, and
more. Until we are so riddled with sin
we look worse than Swiss cheese with holes in our souls that we put there
ourselves. How could these enemies of
Jesus have been prepared to lose everything?
How can we?
Jesus harkens back to a single theme, a single set of
advice. He asks us to pray that we enter
not into temptation. That we allow God
to change what we want, what we desire, in order that temptation is no longer
temptation to us. It is like God fixing
the addict to no longer be an addict.
For whether we like to think of ourselves as addicts or not, we are each
of us addicted to sin in one form or another.
But hope remains in knowing that our God does fix addicts, from end to
end, and completely, so that temptation is no longer even temptation
anymore. And finally, we are freed from
needing forgiveness because we transgress no more, through His power to
transform us into the new creations He intended us to be. Same advice even when we are in the midst of
losing everything. There is no set of
circumstances when Jesus does not offer this same advice. Our transformation is not accomplished by
force of will, but by the submission of will to Him. This is why we need Jesus who alone offers to
do this for us, and begs us to ask for it, ask for the avoidance of even
temptation. There are not multiple
pathways to God, nor many concepts of a one true God, there is only what the
Bible lays out for us. One God, who
loves us one way, who gave everything for us.
He wants us back that bad. He is
willing to forgive us anything, even Judas, even Peter, even me, even you.
We do not need to get “off the grid” to be prepared for the
end of everything. We need instead to
get on our knees and pray as Jesus has asked us to pray, to avoid entering into
temptation. And for many who sleep and
keep sleeping whether for sorrow or not.
Jesus says again, Rise! And when
awakened He asks again, to pray that we enter not into temptation. Can we still ignore the words of Lord,
especially in a time when we could be facing the loss of everything …
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