LENT 2011, Day 39

I slept really well for about 6 hours last night. Jesus, in 33 A D, on the night we are commemorating, got no sleep at all.

His final meal with His disciples at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, beginning Passover, ended with a hymn. Loving music as I do, I would love to know what they sang. After they sang, Mark tells us they went out to the Mount of Olives.

In reading the history of the events of that night, I actually find it interesting that when we talk about denying Jesus, Peter is the one who comes to mind. They all denied Him. However, Peter was the first one to declare his allegiance, even unto death, with a bravado that claimed, "Even if all of the rest of them fall away, I won't. Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you." But Mark lets us know that they all said the same.

Jesus led his disciples to the area called Gethsemane and asked most of the disciples to stay where they first stopped on the Mount of Olives, but took Peter, James and John with him and went further. He was greatly distressed and troubled, and told them clearly, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death." He was crying out to his very closest friends, letting them know He needed their loving support. He asked them to remain there and He went a little further, fell to the ground and prayed a prayer we model - but not with the same consequences: "Abba (Papa), Father, all things are possible for you. If you can, remove this cup from me. Yet, not my will but yours be done."

Jesus was fully God and fully human - and the human part didn't want to go through with the plan.

He could have aborted the plan. But He didn't.

When Jesus came back to Peter, James and John, his question was addressed to Peter: "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Again Jesus went away to pray. Again He returned and they were sleeping. And a third time He went away and prayed - and this time, He told them they'd slept enough, the hour had come for Him to be betrayed.

Immediately, just after he spoke, Judas came up to him, called him Master, and kissed Him on the cheek - the signal for the guards to seize Him.

Valiant Peter's impetuous response was to cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. In Mark's gospel there is no mention that Jesus healed the servant - but He did. His arrest was dramatic. Swords and clubs. Judas the betrayer's kiss. One young disciple running off into the night naked, as the linen cloth he was wrapped in was torn from him in an effort to detain him. But they all fled.

The captors led Jesus to the High Priest, with Peter following safely at a distance, and Mark says that all the chief priests, elders and scribes came together. These were the very people Jesus had called a Viper's Brood. I can imagine the 'righteous' indignation they exuded, and the surreptitious way they they were gathered. Clandestine, in the middle of the night. Summoned with hushed whispers from their beds. What they were about to do was illegal, and their actions escalated with unparalleled momentum as they positioned themselves to do what Herod the Great had failed to do at Yeshua's birth in Bethlehem 33 years earlier. They were intent on destroying The King of the Jews. It was political for them, just as it was for Herod. Jesus rocked the political boat.

They viewed Him as a dissident who compromised the safety of their status quo. They had to maintain balance. They had to keep peace with Rome. Jesus and His followers made that tenuous at best. They just didn't know He really was the Messiah. Yet, interestingly, during questioning, they asked Him that very question, "Are you the Messiah?"

He answered, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." Instead of falling down in worship, they called it blasphemy, and used the words of His truth to condemn Him as deserving death.

What He experienced that night was too horrible for words. By midnight He was arrested, and in those early morning hours of Friday, April 3, 33 A D, He was spit on, hit, slugged, beaten with a whip that tore chunks of flesh out every time it struck, mocked, ridiculed, denigrated in every possible way. All of God's justified wrath against mankind for the punishment of every sin that had ever been or ever would be committed - including my sin - was poured out on the Lord of Glory, incarnate. Righteousness demanded that sin required punishment. Jesus bore all of that sin in His body, and all the loneliness of betrayal, all the suffering, all the sorrow, all the agony and humiliation so I could have LIFE, and have it to the full.

As horrible as 'The Passion of the Christ' is to watch, it barely touches the surface of the reality of the intense horror of that night. All hell broke loose. Satan had a brief moment when he thought he had won.

Jesus was tossed back and forth between authorities on earth, authorities who had no clue what they were doing. There is no room for blame. The Jews didn't kill Jesus. Sin killed Jesus. He came to seek and save that which was lost. What was lost was a right relationship with God - and God's only way to redeem what was lost was to pay the price. He did it all to mend the severed relationship created by Adam and Eve's sin. Through the first Adam sin came into the world. The second Adam (Yeshua ha Meshiach; Jesus the Messiah) brought the opportunity for restoration. After the horrible, horrible night, as soon as it was light, he was taken to Pilate, who was the authority for the Romans. Pilate gave in to the mob and gave the final edict condemning 'The King of the Jews' to death.

From 9 am to 3 p m Jesus hung on the cross, impaled with 3 nails to hold Him there. His last living acts were forgiveness and love. His dying brought forgiveness and love.

Year after year, we read the last words He said; we read about the agony He suffered. The Old Testament prophesied it. The New Testament records it. What really matters is: do we receive it?

He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Surely He bore our sorrows, and by His stripes we are healed. But we have to choose whether or not to accept the gift.

But for His disciples and followers that day, what they saw was the One they believed in hanging between heaven and earth, being mocked and humiliated by passers-by. They were broken, confused, questioning. Their spirits were crushed. Awful doesn't begin to portray what they felt. Their feelings were real. Their faith was destroyed. They were without hope.

The disciples certainly experienced the darkness that came over all the earth from noon to 3 p m. It mirrored the darkness of their hearts. But they didn't have all of the details written for us in the Gospel accounts. At that point, they didn't know the Centurion who stood next to him as He died on the cross proclaimed at the moment of His death, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

Truly, He is.

Mark's edition of Fridays' events is recorded in Mark 14:26 - Mark 15 (all).