Monday, March 22, 2010

Midweek Lenten Service 3-17-2010

Mark 14:43-52
Pastor Waldschmidt

Portrait of the Savior-Submitting To Arrest
I. An Arrest By A Mob.
II. An Arrest Arranged By A Friend.
III. An Arrest That Left Him Alone.
In the name of Jesus, our Savior, dear fellow redeemed children of God,
Have you ever glanced at the face of someone who has been pulled over by the police? To say the least their face is usually downcast. You see very few people who are smiling in that situation. Or think of the mug shots we see on the TV news of those who have been arrested. IT usually is not a great hair day. It would seem to be one of life’s most embarrassing moments for most people. So, in our sin twisted society, what do we decide to do with these moments that are so painful for people? We make a TV show out of it. “Bad boys, bad boys whatch you gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” Tonight in the portrait of the Savior Scripture paints for us we see an arrest- the arrest of the complete innocent one, Jesus. As we look at what He did when they came for Him, we see a picture of love and sacrifice as Jesus submits to arrest. I. An Arrest By A Mob. II. An Arrest Arranged By A Friend. III. An Arrest That Left Him Alone.
Normally when a person is going to be arrested the police do not send out an invitation or a time and date for their arrival. But Jesus knew when Judas and the mob would be there. In the verse just before our text Jesus is talking with His disciples and He says, “The hour has come! Look the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hand of sinners. Rise! Let us go. Here comes my betrayer.”
The Garden of Gethsemane was quiet enough that night that Peter, James and John could fall asleep several times as Jesus was praying a little distance away. Now that quiet is broken by the sound of soldiers’ boots, the clanking of swords and angry shouts as the mob approaches Jesus. “Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.” Jesus enemies had seen him slip through their clutches several times before and so they thought that they should be extra sure that he wasn’t getting away this time. This time they sent soldiers along with some representatives of the religious leaders. Like a snowball it seems this mob picked up people along the way because some of them are armed with clubs rather than with swords.
Jesus even asked them, “Am I leading a rebellion," said Jesus, "that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled." Amid the chaos here was a reminder that these things were happening in accordance with God’s careful plan to sacrifice the Savior which he talked about in the Scriptures.
Peter saw himself as the defender of the Lord and pulled out his sword. “Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.” In the midst of all of the hate and chaos, what does Jesus do? He doesn’t stomp on Malchus’ ear. Instead he tells Peter to put his sword away and gently touches the man’s ear and heals it with a miracle.
How well do we react to chaos or opposition? Do we lose our temper? Do we lash out with our tongues chopping off someone’s ears with sharp words? How often don’t we say and do things brashly and end up looking foolish. Sometimes we act that way when we are threatened and sometimes we act that way when everything is calm around us. How we react in those situations shows us indicate how badly we need a Savior. We have a Savior who submitted himself to arrest by this scary mob.
This was an arrest arranged by a friend. It seems a little strange for us to call Judas, “Jesus’ enemy.” Though by betraying Jesus, Judas made himself an enemy of Jesus, still Jesus thought of Judas as a friend. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus doesn’t call Judas a “rotten snake” or a “no good so and so.” Instead Jesus says, “Friend, do what you came for.” There is a Psalm that prophecies, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” So what happened to bring Judas from being a close friend of Jesus to being the betrayer of Jesus and to the events of that Good Friday morning? There we hear, “Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse...” What happened? Sin happened! I’m not a big fan of bats. They say that bats can slip their way through even a tiny little hole in the attic. They just sort of work their way in. Satan too had sort of worked his way Judas and Jesus and little by little was able to convince Judas that money was more important than Jesus. He was able to convince Judas that having those 30 pieces of silver would bring more happiness, more comfort and more peace than Jesus could.
That brings us to the first thing we can learn from Judas. Sin never delivers on what it promises. It offers everything but delivers nothing but disappointment and death. Think of the Garden of Eden. The devil said that sinning against God offered the opportunity to be like God but sinning against God brought only separation from God. Think of getting drunk. The devil says that it offers relief from the problems of this world. But what it delivers is a hangover and a whole host of physically and spiritually deadly consequences. Think of sex outside of marriage. Satan says that sex outside of marriage offers fun and happiness but it delivers only shame and guilt and again a whole bunch of awful consequences. If Satan is dangling a sin in front of you in your life right now, promising all kinds of happiness and fun, beware! Satan is betraying you.
The Bible says that when Jesus saw that Jesus was condemned he was seized with remorse. The procession now begins to form around Jesus the condemned man and the chief priests and elders march off to Pontius Pilate’s house. You see legally they needed the approval of the Romans to carry out the death sentence and the religious leaders of Jesus days would be all too eager to pin the guilt for Jesus’ death on someone else. Judas now sees what his actions did. Jesus was condemned to die.
When we hear the name Judas, we think of Betrayal. Perhaps we might say that the easiest lesson we can learn from Judas is “Don’t betray your friends.” Yet haven’t there been times when we have betrayed someone who has trusted us? Maybe there have been times when things that someone told us in confidence burned a hole in our lips and we passed on that secret. Maybe there have been times when we have only pretended to be a friend. I’m sure that there have been times when we have not acted very much like a friend to our friends much less treating our enemies with love like Jesus asks. Just before Leonardo da Vinci commenced work on his “Last Supper” he had a violent quarrel with a friend. Leonardo was so enraged and bitter that he decided to paint the face of his friend as the face of Judas,getting his revenge and venting his spleen. The face of Judas was therefore one of the first that he finished, and everyone could easily recognize it as the face of the painter with whom he had quarreled. Then it came time to paint the face of Jesus, he had trouble doing that. Finally he came to the conclusion that the thing which was checking and frustrating him was the fact that he had painted his enemy into the face of Judas. He therefore painted out the face of Judas and commenced anew on the face of Jesus, and the result was the painting we are all so familiar with. Have we sent a confusing message as followers of Jesus but yet holding onto grudges and betraying friends because we were angry with them? Yes, I’m afraid that God could have painted my face and your face onto Judas in Leonardo’s painting because we’ve betrayed our friend Jesus many times.
Usually the producers of “Cops” are hoping that the person arrested will do something outrageous for the camera- something that they can show on the commercials to get everyone’s attention. Jesus did something amazing-something extraordinary. It wasn’t recorded on film. It was recorded in God’s Word. In His great love., Jesus submitted to arrest. That arrest lead to his death on a cross because of his great love for you. Amen.

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