Luke 22

Many hands were raised to wound the Son of God, but it was our sin that sent Him to the cross. The chief priests and the scribes were certainly against Him, but why did they pursue the course of murder? One can disagree with an adversary vehemently without seeking to actually kill Him. Something else was going on here that is hard for us to understand unless we admit the truth about what the Scriptures teach us concerning our own inner depravity. The religious leaders were not neutral observers of the Messiah who gave Him a fair hearing. In fulfillment of the Scriptures (See Psalm 7, 35, 69, 109), they hated Him without a cause. They were not alone in this. They found a co-conspirator in one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot. Satan, we are told, entered into him, and the close companion of the Lord sought an opportunity to betray Jesus away from the crowd. No one anticipated that the crowd would soon consent to Jesus’ death. Nor did anyone seem to expect that Jesus would rise from the dead prior to the general resurrection, despite the fact that He told them this would happen on more than one occasion.

Jesus understood exactly what was taking place that night. This is especially clear as the disciples prepared to eat the Passover with Him according to His instructions. It is at this “Last Supper” that Jesus instituted the meal that the church calls the “Lord’s Supper” or “Communion,” the meal that we eat when we gather together in worship, a meal that we eat in memory of His death. Think of what the events of this night tell us about Jesus’ understanding of what was about to take place. He knew that Judas would betray Him. He knew that He would die. He knew that His death, portrayed in the bread and wine that He called His body and blood, was something so central to His mission, that it would be right for us to remember it regularly in the most solemn and joyous celebration of a death that could ever be given among men. He knew that there would be great trouble for the man who betrayed Him. He knew that His death was somehow connected to the Old Testament ceremony of the Passover, where an animal was the substitute for the people, a substitute that ensured that they would live, though they deserved to die. He knew that His death would not be the end of the story, but that He would live in something He called the kingdom of God, where He would eat and drink again. He knew that this meal, and the death that it represented was a covenantal meal, a meal for the people of God’s covenant blessing, and that it signaled such a change from the way of the Mosaic ceremonies, that it could be called a “New Covenant,” in accord with the prophecies of Jeremiah. All of this Jesus knew, and that is why He earnestly desired to eat this Passover with His disciples.

Though Jesus understood these things, even at this late moment, it is clear that His disciples had missed not only the facts of the coming kingdom, but more importantly that had no feel for the values of the kingdom. Though the King was headed to the cross, thus taking the lowest position of humble service, they still wanted to be the greatest. Nonetheless, they were not rejected by Him because of this, but they were kept by His grace, and their confusion and sin underscored the overwhelming fact that He alone could be the Lamb of God. The disciples would have a place eating and drinking with the Master, and even judging the tribes of Israel. Though Satan wanted to grind Peter to powder, His faith would not fail, but He would deny they Lord before these events were over. Jesus was about to face the trial that He was born to face. They too would have troubles, but He would fulfill His unique role according to the Scriptures, and would be numbered with the transgressors. As they left that important meal, they went to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus consecrated Himself to the will of His Father above every other desire.

It was there that the Son of God was soon betrayed with a kiss. There he gave Himself up to everything that would follow this wretched moment, everything that was necessary for Him who came to do the will of God in dying for us. The way to the glory of the kingdom of this unusual King would be through the cross and the grave. Victory would not come through the sword. Nor would the Son of Man be trapped against His will by the clever plots of His adversaries. He was willing to face the horror of divine wrath that we deserved. He did not need to be taken away in handcuffs. He was ready to serve in this unusual way, and he was the only One who could do it.

Everything that Jesus had predicted would come to pass. Peter did deny Him three times. Yet this low point for the man who had confessed that Jesus was the Christ would not be the end of his life, but something of a new beginning that would be especially seen when the Spirit was poured out upon the church. This great apostle would preach Christ, and suffer for the Name of Jesus. Here there is a beginning hint of a transition that is coming, a transition that was given in brokenness, as the Lord looked at Peter, and Peter wept bitter tears.

But now was not the time of preaching, but the time of darkness. The Son of God would face new hands coming against Him in vicious hatred. Petty officials would have their moment to say what they really felt about the Lord of Glory. They made fun of Him, blindfolding the God who sees, and then beating Him up. Here was God in the flesh. What a target for blasphemy! Now the council of Jewish leaders would have their chance. They would decisively reject the Messiah of the Jews, the One who was to sit at the right hand of the power of God. This prophesy and with His claim to be the Son of God was enough for them to believe that He was pretending His own divinity, and they rejected Him without any consideration of the facts before them.

Did they want the truth? Apparently they did not. They did not investigate the signs that He patiently had performed. They did not give careful consideration to His public teaching, and then compare these things according to the standard of the prophetic Scriptures. They raised their hands against Him. This is how the Lamb of God was treated when He came in the fullness of divine love. Any suffering that we face today is much smaller than what our perfectly holy Redeemer knowingly and willingly faced for our sake. If we have been called to give anything for Him, it is not too much for God to ask of us. It was by our sins that Jesus died, and it was by His death we have been granted life.