2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” Jesus, did not hide the fact of what was coming. I wonder how I would have responded if I was told something of that gravity. We then read about the plots going on behind the scenes to keep their power and get rid of Jesus.
In verse 6, "While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper." Simon must have been healed or no one would have been able to be around him and his property would have been taken. Why did Jesus stay here? Jesus seems to always do the unexpected. Next a women places very expensive perfume on his feet and Jesus says that "she has done a beautiful thing... and were ever the gospel goes, she will be remembered"
If I am honest, I think I can relate more to the religious leaders and Judas than the other people. God help me to see when I am acting like something that you do like and I should not be. Then we see how Judas tries to capitalize on what the religious leaders wanted. What selfishness...
Then we get to the last supper and Jesus again warns the others that he will be betrayed. I can not imagine having to go through life and know that you are about to be betrayed and to even know the betrayer. Jesus knows the big picture and I guess that is something we must learn to do. We may not have the knowledge of Christ, but God blesses us with discernment and I think the battle that I face is learning to be patient and wait on God.
But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” This makes me think of all the times I make promises that I shouldn't. This goes back to the big picture and how things must happen to further God's kingdom. How many promises have I made to God and not kept???
Now I am to verse 36 "the garden of Gethsemane" Jesus takes 3 disciples with him and asks them to sit and wait for him. I am assuming that he wants to pray so maybe he is expecting them to pray. I am not sure but what happens is that they fall asleep and Jesus comes back and has to wake them up and this happens not once, but twice. It is hard to image the series of events that led to the garden, but in my mind I assume that with passover and Jesus talking about being betrayed and dieing that there should be some sense of urgency. I wonder how often I should have this sense of urgency about holy things and I fall asleep when I have been asked to wait and pray...
Now in verse 47 Jesus is arrested and these verses jumped out at me.
52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”
I have noted several times about a series of events and Jesus confirms that with these verses. I still can not wrap my mind around what Jesus knew would happen and then had to allow it to happen, to fulfill scripture.
The chapter ends with the religious leaders trying to find grounds for having Jesus killed. There were lies and all sorts of trouble but they come back to the comment Jesus made about the temple being destroyed and rebuilt in three days. The moral of this story was crowds of religious people can find many ways to get want they want and the end justifies the means in their eyes or so it seems. They
decide he is worthy of death and then Peter denies Jesus 3 times just as he was
told he would. The death of Jesus is hard and we are not even there yet, but I
can picture the passion in my mind and what it is expected that Christ went
through and I am at a loss of words...
Matt 26:1-16
ReplyDeleteHad the woman heard that Jesus would die in 2 days and so she was acting in faith preparing him for burial? Or was she just doing what she felt moved to do in worship?
Was it unusual for them to be eating at Simon the Leper’s house? What a horrible name.
I’ve always wondered why the priests need Judas. It’s not like they didn’t know who Jesus was to recognize him. Were they afraid he would run away and Judas was a distraction while they snuck up on him? I really don’t get it. Also Betrayal is something I really don’t like thinking about. Sometimes I feel like I have been betrayed, but this is something else. Did Judas know they would kill him? What motivated him? Why is the bible so silent on this point? Was he in desperate need of money and without the faith that Jesus could meet his needs? Was he bitter or jealous or felt like he didn’t fit in with the other disciples? What did he believe or feel about Jesus, who he had spent so much time around?
17 - 30
ReplyDeletemore Judas. Judas makes me sad. Jesus said it would have been better had he never been born. I just read Mark 9:42 which also says "it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck." I don't know what to make of these "it would be better" verses. They are so harsh, and we don't like to judge ourselves harshly. But it is so easy to judge others in anger and confusion. May I stop excusing myself and take my own sin more seriously.
This may seems a silly thing to notice, but Jesus says that this will be the last time he drinks the fruit of the vine until he drinks it with them in his father's kingdom. I've been thinking about giving up alcohol for maybe a year now, maybe longer.... Should I? Will I ever make up my mind?
31-35
Peter, so sure of himself. Jesus isn't surprised by our failures, we are. I don't like reading the scripture about the cock crows, it reminds me of The Year of The Rooster. I feel like we barely survived that year and perhaps it changed us. The next year was The Year of Transformation. Were we? How? Did it last?? How can we get it back? This year I thought had something to do with "This is my son, who I love, in whom I am well pleased." But I just don't know. I don't feel that at all this year. Quite the opposite actually.
36 - 45
ReplyDelete38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
In the end, we suffer alone. We will always be disappointed. We will always cry alone in the dark at night with only God as our witness. Jesus took wished for companionship in his grief, for his friends to hold him up, but they failed him, they weren't enough. It was just him and his Father.
He warned Peter to do as he did: 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus spent his last night before the most horrible and significant event of this whole world, but also his life Alone Awake Praying honestly, fervently, painfully. I keep longing for joy and celebration and feeling confused and disappointed when my heart is heavy, but this life is not all celebration. Certainly it wasn't for our Savior. He was a man, just like us, who was Heavy, who felt Much, who knew the pull of temptation, who knew the call to sacrifice and the pain giving yourself for another produces. Love for Christ wasn't all joy it was also pain, why should we expect any different?
47 - 55
A peaceful rebellion, one of words and teaching and truth and miracles, was still in the end brought down (although unnecessarily) with clubs and swords, because we are violent people. When we are afraid and defensive we become wild creatures with deadly weapons. This is not Christ's way, but still we revert to war with each other (as nations and as individuals). I am weary of war.
57-75
Why did Peter deny Him? Why did he weep when he saw that was exactly what he had done? Was he afraid for his life? Was he afraid Jesus had tricked him, that he was a fool who had followed the wrong man, a blasphemer? The rooster proved that Jesus knew the truth and the future all along. If Peter doubted that Jesus was not just another man, the rooster confirmed that this was supernatural. Sometimes it is amazing to see with your own senses that this is a supernatural life we are living, sometimes it is a bit frightening and overwhelming.
Like Peter, we are devastated when we see ourselves for who we really are, how weak, how our confidence in Christ is so fragile, how we fail. It hurts so bad to look at ourselves and see that we are nothing. How can we embrace the truth that when we are weak that is when Christ's strength is complete in us?? I look forward to the coming chapter when I get to see how Jesus comforts Peter, welcomes him back. I hate leaving Peter at the end of this chapter weeping bitterly.