Year 1, Day 231: Luke 22

The End Is Near!

One thing is for certain.  The first twenty-three verses of Luke 22 show that finally Jesus and the Jewish leaders get on the same page and start working toward the same agenda.  No, I’m not saying that Jesus was in league with the Jewish leaders.  I’m using an opening sentence to get your attention so you continue reading!

Both Jesus and the Jewish leaders begin to make plans for Passover.  I’m not talking about the Passover that the rest of the world is thinking about.  Jesus knows that He is about to quite literally become the world’s Passover Lamb, so He has one last festival with His disciples.  The Jewish leaders know that they need to get Jesus off the scene, so they begin to make plans to crucify Him, which God will use to make Jesus the true Passover Lamb.  Certainly Jesus and the Jewish leaders are not on the same “side.”  But that doesn’t mean that God cannot use them to bring about His will.

Judas

I find Judas’ plan to hand Christ over quite telling of his character.  If we can stray away from Luke and go to John 13:10-11 we can see that Jesus not only knows of Judas’ plan but that He also considers Judas unclean.  What I find so shameful is that here is a man who has spent the better part of three years listening to Jesus and he is still lost in the world.  It gives us a relevant perspective as to how some people can get so close to Jesus and still not find true faith.  It makes me sad to think how close Judas was to true faith.  After all, the other 11 managed to get there!  Yet Judas does not, at least not yet.  Perhaps never.

Jesus Still Has the Power

In spite of Judas’ plan, Jesus’ arrangement of the Supper in the Upper Room demonstrates that He is still in control.  Jesus has everything set up and things happen just the way that He predicts they will.  People might have their own schemes that involve using Jesus to their own agenda as Judas does in this chapter, but Jesus is still able to work in the world and have dominion over it.  All kinds of people try to use Jesus in all kinds of ways.  But the one who is Christ’s disciple is the one who lets Jesus be in control, the one who listens to Jesus as he gives the marching orders, the one who anticipates things to be as Jesus promises, and the one who follows through with what Jesus asks of him.

Among Yourselves

Looking to Christ’s celebration of Passover – what many of us now think of as the predecessor to communion – something struck me today that I had never taken the time upon which to dwell.  Jesus took the cup and told them to divide it amongst themselves.  Even here at this table Jesus is instituting the priesthood of all believers.  Jesus doesn’t distribute to them their share of the cup; Jesus lets them divide the cup up among themselves.  They distribute the cup to each other.

Now, I’m not saying that it is wrong to receive communion from the pastor – after all that is the practice of my own congregation!  But I think it is neat to stop here and reflect that the priesthood of all believers is inherently a part of Christ’s celebrating of the Passover meal.  There is no primary priest; there is no chief disciple.  Rather, there is the Body of Christ doing what the whole body of Christ is empowered to do: minister to one another.

Squabble Among the Empowered

In this light I think the passage that follows the Passover is telling.  The disciples immediately get into a squabble about who is the greatest among them!  Jesus has just given them a great example about unity in service to one another and they immediately begin to argue about hierarchy.  Oh, how they continue to miss the point! 

For the record, we do the same thing.  We think that the only visit that matters is when the pastor comes by the home or hospital.  We think the only person rightly capable of distributing communion is the pastor.  We think the only person capable of preaching is the seminary qualified.  Jesus gives us the Priesthood of All Believers and we can’t wait to establish a hierarchy of who can do what based upon the human-made qualifications of gender, education, and social status. 

Sigh.  We take the great gifts of God and trample upon them like … pearls before swine.

Even Still

In spite of the squabble, Jesus turns and gives His disciples an immense compliment.  He recognizes that these twelve are the ones who have stayed with Him.  They are the faithful.  They are the remnant.

They are also the ones who will reign with Him.  They will sit and eat at the great table in the Lord’s Kingdom.  How many times do we hear Jesus tell His disciples that those who persevere to the end will be saved?  It’s a huge compliment to the disciples to be included – even if they did just squabble.

Hard Knock Life

Now the conversation really turns serious.  Peter will deny Jesus.  Jesus prays that God’s will be done as hard as that is to imagine.  Jesus tells the disciples to grab money pouch, knapsack, and sword for the road to come is going to be tough.  The world is about to show just how much it hates Christ.  The world is about to go on a God-hating binge – the thirst of which has still not yet been drunk to its fullest. 

Jesus’ warning about the difficulties do not stop when He is resurrected and among the disciples again.  No, they go even to us now.  10 of the 12 disciples died in torture.  Paul was most likely also killed.  Stephen, a deacon, was one of the first to be martyred.  The world hates God, and it will hate anyone who truly loves God.  Yet we are called to love, love as Jesus did.  If necessary, we are called to love so much that we are willing to die.  No, the road ahead is not easy.

Sheep to the Slaughter

So Jesus is handed over by Judas.  He is arrested.  He goes willingly, like a sheep to the slaughter.  Peter does deny Christ as predicted.  Jesus is mocked.  He is abused.  He who has all the power of the world willingly takes the hatred of the world upon Him.  Friends turn against Him and He is alone to face His trial.  But it could be no other way.  Who but Jesus is capable of righteously dying an unrighteous death?  Jesus alone could take the sin of the world upon His shoulders.  Jesus alone is the source of all salvation.  Solus Christus.

How does it end?  Jesus proclaims the truth in the presence of the Jewish leaders.  Jesus tells them that He is the Son of God.  He is the one to come.  He is their Messiah!  And they hear the words but cannot hear the Spirit.  Their ears, their eyes, and their minds are closed.  They hear truth and think it blasphemy.  So it is with the world.

Romans 1:21-23 speaks to me as we end this passage.  “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Where this applies to me, Gracious God, mea culpa.  Mea maxima culpa.

<><