Lesson 69L The Betrayal of Jesus in the Garden, Luke 22:39- 53

The Agony of the Immediate 22:39- 46

English Standard Version Chapter 22

39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “

The other gospels take care to include this event. A great burden is laid upon the writers to include the most needful things and this is one of them. We see that it was the Lord’s custom to go out and pray in the Mount of Olives, or to go out and pray where ever His steps have trodden. Of course, this evening is different or perhaps they followed Him every evening to pray. It was His habit to pray like this. In verse 40 it says when “He came to the place.” Probably means He had a a favorite spot to pray. When He got to that sweet spot, He asked the disciples to pray that they enter not into temptation. Interesting assignment. Apparently this was a vulnerable time for these guys!

As He went to pray by Himself, he withdrew far enough that they could not hear him. He was a stones throw away from them. It was adequate to make this prayer as confidential and meaningful as possible. The phrase of His willingness still challenges us today:

English Standard Version Chapter 22

“

Some people go so far as to say that when we pray this type of prayer, we avoid making good quick spiritual decisions. It is likened to invoking God to put up with your indecisiveness: “not my will, but yours be done.” I say, if Jesus prayed it, then don’t hesitate to pray it unless you are about to sin. If that is so, then just don’t do the deed. No need to pray about that. It’s not that the Father would not come to the aid of His Son, but the truth is the plan from before the foundation of the world was for this very thing to occur. Jesus must die on a cross. It was foreordained that it would happen in this manner. God the Father could have intervened but then Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac centuries before would have been useless. Because Jesus, as God’s only Son, would not have died so that we would see His death prefigured in Isaac. Jesus was bound to follow through and He willingly did.

A prayer to remove a bitter cup from your life, so that you do not have to drink of the dregs, is very understandable for you to react this way. In so doing, as Jesus prayed, an angel came down from heaven to minister grace to our Lord. It was strengthening to Him. Heavens answer was perfectly delivered. The Lord had emptied Himself in prayer to the point of sweating great drops of blood falling to the ground. Of course, this is not the point of His blood being shed for sin, but it did happen in a like fashion. His laboring bloody prayer, angel attended, and agony of the moment had all been missed by the disciples who had fallen asleep. The scene was like an irritation to see them sleeping, just a stone’s throw away. The Lord rebuked them saying they should be praying that they enter not into temptation. This was a point of spiritual warfare for them all.

The Betrayal and Arrest of the Savior 22:47- 52

English Standard Version Chapter 22

47 While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus said to him, “

This lengthy chapter holds some tremendous drama and excitement. There were crowds, soldiers, disciples, the Satan filled traitor, representatives of the High priest and temple officers all figuring in to the outcome of what was going on. All the while, Jesus kept His presence of mind and went straight to the betrayer. As Judas drew near to Jesus with a kiss, the Savior says, “Judas would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” Jesus does not pull any punches, He goes straight to the source of trouble, the demonic Judas and He exposes his greedy sin. At that moment, one of the disciple, Peter, struck the High Priests servant and cut the servants right ear off. Frustrated with their callousness of the situation Jesus touches the ear and heals the servant of the high priest.

The chief priests and temple officers in attendance to this betrayal were all culpable to this dastardly deed. The ridiculousness of what has just happened prompted the Son of God to say, in effect, “Am I not more to you than a criminal? Why didn’t you take me when I was with you day after day in the temple. Jesus is saying that this is God’s business and you did not have the guts to take care of this where it should have happened. He then points out that this is definitely darkness. man is having his day. Satan is having his day. But, the Lord Jesus is finishing up on the fine details of His sacrifice for man’s sin. This is simply amazing as to how it all unfolds.

Peter’s Denial 22:54- 62

English Standard Version Chapter 22

54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house, and Peter was following at a distance. 55 And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” 58 And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” 59 And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “

Peter’s Passion in following Jesus had been waylaid by a rooster. The crowing was a bitter reminder of a not-so-solemn vow to never betray Jesus, and even go to the death for him. But oh no, here Peter slips to the temptation to deny Jesus and he does. But the three fold denial swiftly becomes bitter tears. Don’t you hate it when things don’t happen as we proclaim they will? Man can make big plans and boast wonderful sounding acts of faith. The real key to success is whether or not we follow through on what was said by us. Proclamations and vows should be carefully and purposefully spoken. To be sure and true, count on Jesus to hold you to your word. The question is: do we want to be an unsung truth teller or a well known denier? I think we know the answer so we chose our words carefully with wisdom and boldness, not with pride and weakness.