Everything
from Thursday evening after Jesus’ third prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane
until the Resurrection on Sunday morning seemed stained with darkness, evil and,
ultimately, betrayal. Judas is the
figure of betrayal. But he wasn’t alone;
the betrayal of Jesus was rampant in Jerusalem.
The religious leaders, the crowds, the Roman government all—fell in line
with Judas. Judas stands out as the
ultimate betrayer because of his personal relationship with Jesus. His betrayal cut a little deeper because his was
disguised by friendship and a kiss. He was
so convincing that the other disciples thought nothing of his departure from
their sacred dinner to carry out his evil mission.
The facts
contained in the gospels from the last 14 hours of Jesus’ life are filled with
the horror of betrayal. Putting the
pieces together, the closest I can come is that Jesus was arrested around 1:30
a.m. and by 3 p.m. that same day He was dead.
In less than 14 hours He was tried by illegal courts, flogged, walked
the 650 yards to Golgotha—was crucified on the cross and died.
Arrested. What was that like? It is a trauma that causes huge shock. My son was shackled and taken from a
courtroom, sentenced and treated as a dangerous murderer. It was so overwhelming to him that he
appeared as a madman. The guards
mistreated him and brought him to court the next day with his hair (full of
cowlicks) sticking up on all sides. He
could not make eye contact with me. He
was in total shock or a psychotic break.
By now he is used to being locked in cages and subjected to all kinds of
humiliations, but he had never faced that before. It was overwhelming and shocking to be
treated in that manner. Jesus was
manhandled by angry guards and tied up as if He would even try to escape.
Jesus was
spit on, slapped, accused of lies, tied up.
Most of that night He was alone
with only one friend somewhere in His vicinity (John). He watched as the leader of the work He spent
three years building made eye contact with Him and walked away—turning his back
on Jesus after denying Him three times (Peter).
The loss of friendship was the emotional shock in the midst of the three
religious trials, added to by the additional trials before Pilate, Herod and
Pilate again. The physical shock came
later when He was flogged, his body so weakened He was unable to carry a beam
the short distance to the outskirts of town.
He walked the whole way while Simon carried His cross for part of it. In the manner one treats an animal to be
slaughtered, He was nailed and hung in the air on a cross—a sight so horrific
it was hard to even look at him. Isaiah
53:3 described that we can only imagine.
He was despised
and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Through
all of this His one hope was relationship with you and me. It would have been too much to attempt to
right all the things that were so wrong even in the last fourteen hours. He didn’t even think of attempting that. What would become of us if God allowed His
legitimate wrath to be unleashed? We
would have no hope. This was only
happening so that we could have hope in the life of Christ. The betrayal of the cross was necessary to
bring the hope of eternal life. It had
to be this brutal, this wrong, this unjust.
There was no other way to trample down sin and to give hope to any who
will believe that Jesus is God’s son a promise of eternal life.
There is
no question that the betrayal was brutal. In the midst of the betrayal of many,
the gospels are clear to bring out the delight God has with those who want to
be in relationship with Him. John’s
loyalty, His mother’s constant presence, the women who stayed by His side, the
thief and the Roman centurion who believed that He was the Son of God, and
possibly the conversation with Pilate—all of these were bursts of the hope that
some would welcome relationship.
Restoring relationship was what His death was all about.
As you
walk through Holy Week—don’t look away from the brutality of the rejection
because it will help you understand that for Jesus it was all worth it. He was willing to do whatever was required to
give us the hope of relationship with God that happened on Easter Sunday.
Copyright © 2018.
Deborah R Newman teatimeforyoursoul.com
All Rights Reserved.
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