Chapter Twenty-five

The week of July 8


Jesus the Son of God

Jesus certainly became well known and drew a crowd to His teaching and healing. But His goal was not popularity, but allegiance from His followers. He had authority but wanted people to be disciples not merely of His teaching, but to give Him their personal loyalty. His claim was not just as the greatest person who ever lived, but direct lineage with His Father God…He was the Son of God.

PP 353-5 After many months living among the twelve and through the small towns of Galilee Jesus asked His disciples about their knowledge of Him: Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

Peter was the first to speak and was often wrong at other times, but this time he was right: You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God. Jesus used this occasion to confirm this but warned the disciples that He would suffer, rejected and killed, only to be raised again. Peter protested against this but Jesus showed that God’s plan doesn’t always match with man’s ways. (Jesus often told of His identity, the news that He would die by the Jewish authorities, and that people were not to tell this to others. Why?) In fact, a disciple of Jesus must deny their own interests and take up their cross (an agent of death) to follow Him. Why was Peter correct in his first response and wrong in his second? Why do we want the authoritative Jesus but not the suffering One? Why are we averse to suffering in our following Jesus?

Close to a week later a transfiguration took place in which the three closest disciples witnessed a transfigured Jesus conversing with Moses and Elijah about His exodus, or His departure from the earth. Imagine being in this dreamy state and awakening to speak. We might have been like Peter in wanting to build three tents to prolong the experience.

Pp 355-8 Controversy surrounded Jesus. Would he be public in Jerusalem or not? Was he the Messiah or not? Would He be arrested or not? Jesus used these times to introduce important topics, such as: If thirsty people believe in Me, rivers of living water will flow from within them (speaking of His Holy Spirit).

Jesus spoke other shocking things. He was the Light of the world. He would go to a place that others could not follow. He was the Truth; His disciples would know that truth and be set free. Before Abraham, the founding patriarch even existed, Jesus said: I AM. This was a direct claim to deity for earlier God had said He was I AM to Moses. People predictably picked up rocks to stone Jesus, but He slipped away.

PP 358-61  Near the end of His ministry Jesus was given word that His friend Lazarus was sick but He deliberately did not go to him. Then word came that Lazarus had died and Jesus did go to Bethany, even though Bethany was close to the hotbed Jerusalem.

Jesus expressed compassion at the graveside of Lazarus, brother to followers Mary & Martha. He also expressed authority to have the concealing rock removed from the tomb so the resuscitated Lazarus could rejoin his family, four days after he had died! This miracle was a billboard directing people to see Jesus and the once-dead Lazarus. The miracle doubled the efforts of the religious authorities in Jerusalem to kill Jesus so their freedom of movement would not be taken from them by the Romans. How does one action produce such opposite results?

Pp 361-3  Jesus was unafraid of the authorities and acted like Himself at all times. He welcomed children to sit with Him while the disciples thought: He was too busy for that. People must enter His kingdom with the discovery, trusting spirit like children. Rich people have so many things as distractions, it is harder for them to enter the kingdom.

When you do follow, you will be rewarded a hundred times over, including in persecutions. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus again warned of His impending condemnation by the Jews and death by the gentiles (Romans). His rising after three days was also told. The people of Jerusalem knew of the intrigue. Would Jesus even show?

Pp 363-6  Jesus arrived at Jerusalem for Passover week riding on a donkey, not a stallion. The people cheered Him, praising in Messianic words: Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord. Jesus accepted this praise then went to the Temple and threw out those doing business, who had no place there. At the temple Jesus healed those who came to Him. During the week Jesus taught and the people hung on every word. He even caught the leaders in a conundrum: How could David have called his descendent ‘Lord’?

Jesus continued His calling to trust His heavenly Father. He challenged others to do the same. Meanwhile the stage was set for a dramatic, cosmic encounter: God’s good versus Satan’s evil. The future of humanity would be in the balance.

Chapter Twenty-six

The week of July 15


The Hour of Darkness

Jesus had faced the powers of darkness head-on before, in the wilderness temptations, with the demoniacs and when Peter was trying to prevent Jesus from dying an untimely death. Now the Prince of Darkness and the Prince of Light would have a final conflict surrounding Jesus’ death.

Pp 367-9  Having spent the week in the foothills of Jerusalem and commuting to the Temple template each day, Jesus mentally prepared for Passover, and to give His life as a Passover for sins. In the same unique way the disciples found the foal of a donkey for Palm Sunday, they were instructed to find an upper room, a little secluded place to celebrate Passover.

As the twelve were surrounding Him in that room, Jesus began washing His disciples feet. A servant should be doing this and no one stepped forward to offer this cleansing courtesy. Peter protested and then realized Jesus was serious and that He was symbolically cleansing the disciples. Jesus knew where He had come from and where He was going; His washing of feet was a loving-to-the-end gesture to His own people. He used it as a lesson to the disciples: Do to each other what I have just demonstrated. How may we wash people’s feet in our day? Also, Jesus tipped His hand to identify the betrayer. Judas dipped bread at the same time as Jesus. Then Judas left to betray Him.

Pp 369-71  Jesus portrayed the first Lord’s Table by eating bread and drinking the cup with His men, demonstrating His intentional death for them. What difference does it make knowing that the Lord’s Supper took place in the midst of a meal? He provided security to them by telling He was preparing a place for them. Jesus was the Way to the Father, the Truth of the Father, and the Life of the Father. He was the visible expression of the invisible Father.

Relationship between the Father, Son, Spirit and the followers were described in John 13-17. Jesus had a bitter-sweet time, allaying their sorrow and giving last words for future hope. What would your last words be like at a time like this? Jesus ended this time praying for His disciples and for those who would be future disciples. He wanted them to know the only true God and Jesus, Whom He had sent. And Jesus wanted future disciples to know God loved us, even as He had loved Jesus (John 17:23). Can you absorb the depth of that statement?

Pp 371-3  Leaving the upper room, Jesus led the disciples to the Mount of Olives. Jesus again predicted that they would fall away. Peter was adamant that even if the others did, he would not. Jesus told Peter he would indeed deny Jesus three times. How demoralizing to Peter.

Peter and the Zebedee brothers accompanied Jesus and Peter to Gethsemane. They were to pray for Jesus while He went apart to pray, but the three could not stay awake. This happened three times. Jesus was strengthened by an angel as He prayed with the intensity of sweating blood. Alas, they were again asleep. God was indeed answering Jesus’ prayer: There was no rescue from this situation and He must go on and die for these followers. They needed saving.

Judas led a gang of guards to arrest Jesus. When He identified Himself as Jesus of Nazareth, they fell to the ground. Jesus appealed for them to let the others go but Peter almost was arrested for cutting off a servant’s ear. Jesus brought things to a close as he healed the ear. He had again displayed His authority and the disciples ran for their lives. Jesus did not fight but gave Himself over to the guards.

Pp 374-5  A first trial was held before Caiaphas the high priest and the Sanhedrin. Only when two false witnesses testified that Jesus would destroy the temple (surface info as Jesus meant his own body) was there ‘evidence’ for a capital crime. Jesus claimed His Messiahship, His Sonship at the Father’s right hand, and the fact that He would return. Enough! He was judged as blasphemous, beaten and sentenced to death. 

Peter fulfilled the Lord’s prophecy about denying Him three times and ran away. Judas had a remorse that led to death, throwing the blood money into the temple before he hung himself.

Pp 375-7  The Roman Governor Pontius Pilate was the next judicial stop. Pilate personally questioned the claim that Jesus was the King of the Jews. Pilate saw Jesus as not a political threat and tried to have him released, as customarily happens with a given prisoner. The people chose Barabbas instead, a known insurrectionist and murderer. Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, the recognized king and then Jesus was returned to Pilate. He again tried to release Jesus but only heard a rising chorus of ‘Crucify him’. Jesus calm answering made Pilate squeamish but Pilate could not be seen as a weak governor. So he acquiesced to have Jesus crucified.

Pp 378-80  The one to be crucified bore His own cross. When this became too much (sleepless Jesus had been maligned and beaten over several unauthorized trials) Simon from Cyrene was drafted to carry the cross.

While on the cross, Jesus was taunted and abused. ‘Come down off the cross’ was a challenge given to Him. Little did they know that He actually could have done so but that was not His Father’s will. Jesus asked forgiveness for those who were killing Him. Would we have been so generous?

Jesus was crucified with common criminals. Both verbally abused Jesus, but one relented and asked Jesus to remember him. Jesus said he would. 

Jesus would ultimately succumb to asphyxiation. The real cause of His death was the wrath of God coming down on Him, not for His own sins (He had none) but for the sins of the world. Jesus cried out: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?, both an Old Testament quote and the feeling of abandonment. For the first time ever, the Father turned His back on the Son, only to salvage mankind. Then Jesus gave up His Spirit to the Father.

Remarkable events followed: the thick curtain of the temple tore top to bottom, the earth quaked and dead people were released alive from tombs. It was a memorable day. But it seemed like the end of a hopeful era, not the beginning of one.