by Beth Moore
My most recent memory work has been out of James 3. I keep thinking of the words of James: "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom" (James 3:13). One thing I have learned about the wisdom of humility is that if you're riding high on the horse one day, you'd be wisest not to feel too uppity lest you be rolling in the manure the next. I hope that wasn't too plainly stated for you, but sometimes all the words in Webster's can't say it the way my country heritage can.
Circumstantially the disciples didn't have the least hint that trouble was coming. Wisdom might have warned them differently had they been listening. Christ had told them on several occasions what awaited Him, but they, like we do, cut and pasted the parts of His sermons they liked on their mental files and deleted the rest.
Word traveled quickly that Jesus was on His way to the city, so a crowd gathered to meet Him. They waved palm branches and shouted, "Hosanna! / Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! / Blessed is the King of Israel!" (John 12:13 NKJV).
The disciples should have had a tip-off that this week was going to be unlike anything they had ever experienced with Jesus. Right in the middle of a parade approaching Jerusalem, Jesus took a good look at the landscape of the city and wept loudly. Luke 19:41 simply tells us that Jesus wept over it, but the Greek uses the strongest word for grief in the New Testament text. The wording suggests that His grief was not only deep, it was demonstrative.
Luke relates Jesus' words, which explain such emotion. He said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you" (Luke 19:42-44).
Imagine Peter, James, and John standing close by and glancing at one another. Perhaps they even shrugged their shoulders. Just about the time they thought He had pulled Himself together, however, He entered the temple and began to drive out the merchants.
Obviously, the week of Christ's passion began almost as passionately as it ended. In between, only Jesus could have retained the presence of mind to perform some of the duties that meant the most to Him. Luke 19:47 tells us that between the Sunday of the Triumphal Entry and the actual observance of the Passover meal, Jesus taught every day at the temple.
All the people hung on His words. How soon they would yell, "Crucify Him!" and He would hang on theirs.
Unlike the disciples, Jesus knew what was coming and became the embodiment of the humility that comes from wisdom. Because the disciples brought knapsacks full of selfish ambition to town, they no doubt felt the disorder James 3:16 says the ambitious are bound to experience: "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." Life can be so confusing when "it's all about us."
Between Luke 19:47 and Luke 21:38, you'll find a sampling of the teachings Christ offered in the temple on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Luke 22:1-6 follows with Satan's possession of Judas and the subsequent deal he made with the chief priests and officers of the temple. Then, according to Luke 22:7, came the Day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare for the Passover meal.
Christ's appointments are never haphazard. He can accomplish anything He desires by merely thinking it into existence. That He assigns men and women to certain tasks implies that the experience of the servant or beneficiary is often as important as the accomplishment. Sometimes more so. God can do anything He wants. He sovereignly chooses to employ mortals to flesh out an invisible work in the visible realm ... even Jesus the perfect Word made flesh.
I believe that Peter and John were not only chosen for the job of preparing the Passover but that the job was chosen for them. When I considered this scene in Jesus the One and Only, I shared what I believe is far more than a coincidence: Peter and John's repetitive references in their letters to Christ as the Lamb. They seemed to have understood the concept of the Paschal Lamb like none of the other writers of the New Testament. I believe a tremendous part of their understanding came in retrospect after their preparation for the last Passover with Christ.
God added an insight in our present study as I became more deeply aware of the early influence John the Baptist had upon Peter and John. We know that each was either directly discipled by the Baptizer or indirectly influenced through their brothers. John 1:29 tells us that these disciples first encountered Jesus through the words of the Baptizer: "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
Jesus would not rest until He taught Peter and John exactly what that title meant. The pair didn't run by the Old City market and grab a saran-wrapped package of trimmed lamb for a buck fifty a pound. They picked out a live lamb and had the sweet thing slaughtered. Very likely they held it still for the knife. Most of us can hardly imagine all that was involved in preparing for a Passover, but you can be sure that none of it was wasted.
That's one of the things I love about Christ. He's not into waste management. If He gives us a task or assigns us to a difficult season, every ounce of our experience is meant for our instruction and completion if only we'll let Him finish the work.
The other day I came across a verse that causes me to stop, meditate, and ask big things from God every time I see it. Psalm 25:14 says, "The LORD confides in those who fear him." I desperately want God to be able to confide in me, don't you? The King James Version puts it this way: "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him." I want God to tell me His secrets! I believe these hidden treasures are not secret because He tells them only to a chosen few but because not many seek to know Him and tarry with Him long enough to find out.
I believe as Peter and John prepared the Passover meal that day, they were privy to many secrets that became clearer and clearer to them as time passed. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God makes everything beautiful in its time. I truly believe that if we're willing to see, God uses every difficulty and every assignment to confide deep things to us and that the lessons are not complete until their beauty has been revealed. I fear, however, that we have such an attention deficit that we settle for bearable when beauty was just around the corner.
Surely many years and Passover celebrations passed before Peter and John fully assimilated the profound significance of the one in which Jesus became the Lamb. John never could get over it. From the pen of an elderly, shaking hand, we find over twenty references to the Lamb in the Book of Revelation. And it was Peter, his sidekick, who wrote:
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19)
Look at the expression again: "from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers." When I think of a Jewish heritage, I imagine it to be anything but empty! We Americans are such a hodgepodge of cultures that many of us lack the rich traditions of other less alloyed cultures. And who could have enjoyed richer ways of life and more tradition than those handed down by Jewish forefathers to their sons and daughters? Yet Peter called them empty. Why? I think because once He saw their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, he knew they were empty without Him. Once he knew the true Passover Lamb, an Old Testament Passover meant nothing without its fulfillment in Jesus. Christ became everything, and all former things were empty without Him.
Thank goodness for the patience of Christ to make all things beautiful over time. How can we be sure they didn't fully grasp the significance of their Passover experience that evening? Luke 22:24 tells us that "a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest."
Hmmmm. Sounds like a good time
for a pitcher and a towel to me. We'll push the hold button on the washing of the disciples' feet until we consider the uniqueness of John's Gospel. I wonder how many times the disciples looked back on that argument with humiliation. I can relate. I have had my share of moments when I said something so entirely ludicrous that I cannot even think about it without my whole face screwing up in a knot. You, too? I have a feeling we're going to have to take some good-natured ribbing about some of those things in heaven. I hope they are funny by then.
Let's conclude this chapter with a snapshot moment that precipitated the dispute over who among the disciples was the greatest. Jesus told them that one among them would betray Him. At this exact moment, John's Gospel adds an important tidbit of information. Assuming "the disciple Jesus loved" is our John, his place at the table was "leaning ... against Jesus" (John 13:25).
John's location constitutes one of the chief reasons many scholars believe John was the youngest disciple. At the traditional Jewish Passover, the youngest child at the table who is able to talk often sits nearest the father or father figure and asks the traditional questions that prompt the father to tell the story of deliverance from Egypt. The room was small enough for Peter to ask Jesus a question even if he was seated at the opposite end of the table. The fact that he prompted John to ask the question suggests that John may have assumed the role as the official petitioner that evening.
I also love imagining that the youngest among them might have had the least protocol and acted as he felt and not just according to what was proper. Hence his leaning against Jesus. Glory! You see, there's just nothing doctrinal about John's leaning on Jesus. It wasn't the law. It wasn't in the proverbial Passover book of rules. John didn't have to lean on Jesus to talk to Him. Christ could hear him just fine. John leaned on Him because he wanted to. Because he loved Him. Because He was . . . leanable. Approachable. Downright lovable.
Both of my daughters are very affectionate, but my older is without a doubt more proper. My youngest wouldn't know the word protocol if it were tattooed on her forehead. (I hope I don't give her any ideas. She's threatened a tattoo before.) I have often said if she is with me, she is somehow on me. As my mother would say, attached to my person. From the clues we gather here and there, I like to think that John was somehow the same way with Jesus. Very likely, he was the baby of this family. And his affection for Jesus wasn't encumbered by silly things like protocol. I love that about him.
One of our primary tasks through this journey is to explore the deep affection that flowed like a teeming brook between Jesus and John. I'll just be honest with you. I want what they had. I want what God and David had. I want what Christ and Paul had. If a mortal can experience it with the Immortal Invisible, I want it. I want to know this love that surpasses knowledge that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). All else is just an empty way of life handed down by bored and unmotivated forefathers. No thanks. Give me Jesus. If I make someone else uncomfortable, that's too bad.
Chapter 10
FROM THE EDGE OF A
GARDEN
He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. (Matthew 26.37)
When Peter and John prepared the Passover, they could never have imagined the events that would fall like one domino upon another. They prepared a table for thirteen. They had no idea they were preparing a table before their enemy. At that point, they didn't even know an enemy sat among them.
Few things startle and shake us to the core like the sudden revelation of a Judas. Maybe because we can't believe we didn't see it. Maybe because we're terrified that if one of us could be Judas, couldn't we all? Aren't we all self-centered, vain, and ambitious? Did he seem altogether different than us? Didn't he say, "Surely not I," like the rest of us? We are terrified by our similarities! And rightly we should be. But one thing sets us apart. He sold his soul to the devil.
John's Gospel tells us something none of the Synoptics include. Jesus told them one at the table would betray Him. Peter prompted and John asked who the betrayer would be. Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish" (John 13:26). He then gave the bread to Judas.
John 13:28 tells us no one at the meal understood. Over the course of years and countless replays of the scene in the mind of the apostle John, he knew the devil entered into Judas at that table right before their very eyes.
How did he know? Christ taught in John 14:26 that the Holy Spirit is also the Holy Reminder. He can reveal the truth even in something past and remind us what He was teaching us at the time that we were unable to grasp. Jesus often teaches us lessons that He knows we wont fully assimilate until later.
Try to grasp that Judas was not inhabited by any old demon from hell. Satan is not omnipresent. He can only be one place at a time, and for that time, he was in Judas. The prince of the power of the air flew like a fiery dart into the willing vessel of one of the Twelve. We can follow. Closely. And still not belong to Jesus. We can talk the talk. We can blend right in. We can seem so sincere.
I believe through the videotape of his own retrospect, John saw the devil in Judas's eyes. I think he saw Satan in his hands as he reached for the dipped bread. Think about it. For the briefest moment, two hands held the same bread. One soiled by silver (and not nearly enough). The other only a thin glove of flesh cloaking the hand of God. John saw the devil in Judas's feet as he walked away, ... for if we are ever truly with Christ, we cannot leave Christ (see 1 John 2:19).
Two-thirds of a century later John would write, "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us" (1 John 2:19). We learn some of our best, and worst, life lessons at the table. He learned that lesson at the table. He learned all too well.
Later the same hands that betrayed Christ would tie a knot in a rope and loop it around his own neck. Those same feet would spasm and jerk, then dangle lifelessly. I think perhaps Judas took his own life because the same devil he betrayed Christ to please then betrayed him. The devil used him and left him just as surely as Judas used Christ and left Him. Judas did not even have the dignity of a warrior of hell. He was discarded like a soiled rag. Less than nothing. That's Satan's way. He is friend to no one. He only pretends. He is Judas. The Betrayer. I wonder, . . . has the devil ever betrayed you? Has he ever talked you into anything and used you, then left you dangling? He has certainly betrayed me.
Soon after Christ confronted Judas and he departed their midst, Christ and His disciples observed the ordinance of the New Covenant, sang a hymn, and went out to the Mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30). Again, what they could not assimilate in the teaching of the bread and the wine, the Holy Reminder would later explain to them.
The Mount of Olives was perched east and directly across from the Old City overlooking the temple. The view was so good that several decades later the Roman commander Titus set up headquarters on its northern ridge, successfully planned the city's destruction, and named it Mount Scopus, or Lookout Hill. In ancient times the whole mount must have been heavily wooded. As its name implies, it was covered with dense olive groves. It was from this woodland that the people, under Nehemiah's command, gathered their branches of olive, oil trees, myrtle, and palm to make booths when the Feast of Tabernacles was restored after their years of captivity in Babylon (Neh. 8:15).
According to Luke 22:39, Jesus had obviously been often to the Mount of Olives. Unlike the disciples who took the steep walk beside Him, as Jesus climbed that hill, He knew its significance both past and future. No wonder He had been there so many times. On the previous Sunday He had stood on Lookout Hill over His beloved city and baptized the Mount of Olives with His tears. "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace... !" This most profound of all Passover nights, He would baptize the Mount of Olives with sweat like drops of bloo
d falling to the ground.
Matthew 26:36-46 tells the familiar story of Jesus' ultimate struggle in the garden called Gethsemane. During Jesus' agony there, Peter, James, and John were once again drawn out from the others. Gethsemane is the third time Scripture documents them as eyewitness to a scene the others did not observe. I've mentioned all three. I think we can rest assured the disciples had never seen Jesus like the three saw Him in Gethsemane.
I have studied this scene many times before but never from the point of view of the disciples. Imagine that you are one of the three. Consider what Jesus represented to the disciples for the past three years. He certainly represented security and strength to them. Grown men don't follow for three years with virtually no income unless they are completely taken with the leader. I believe Jesus was their whole lives. In Him their pasts made sense. Their present was totally immersed in Him, and all their hopes for the future rested in His faithfulness to do what He promised. And indeed He would ... but never in a million years would they have expected how.
"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me" (Matt. 26:38).
Wait a second! This was their Rock! Their Strong Tower! "What in the world is wrong with Him? Why is He on the ground like that? Why is He writhing in anguish? Why is His hair drenched in sweat? It's freezing out here! And why does His sweat look like blood drops falling to the ground? Why does He keep asking for a cup to be taken from Him? What cup? He's crying Abba!" [Mark 14:36]. What's He so upset about? Is it because one of us betrayed Him? Why won't He stop? I hate seeing someone cry like that. I thought nothing could get to Him. Why won't He stop?"