35. Panic Attack [Matthew] - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

so I invite you to get out of Bible or turn one on and go with me to the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 26 Gospel according to Matthew and while you're doing that I'll give a small public service announcement just in case you didn't already know it's February 21st in the year is 2016 and here in our land every four years we are all participants in this amazing process I call the United States of America presidential election campaigns yes so don't freak out I'm not going to say anything stupid right now that's not what the center gathering is for but ah it's a very interesting experience that we go through and you know as the years go by and I experience more of these and so do you it's just it's fascinating a big cultural experiment and just to observe how it all goes down and here is one thing that that never happens in though my many whatever in my late thirties you don't have many of these have I ever really watched but I've never seen this happen and my hunch is it needs a review is that none of the presidential candidates and they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these campaigns to promote themselves and what none of them ever does is make as a big part of their campaign deal to highlight the ways that they've been inconsistent and the ways that they've had major failures throughout their political career up to this point have you ever met or seen that commercial before you've seen that commercial by their opponents right let's let hope right that's the joy that they have lampooning each other but like no one ever makes that well I can't vote for me I said this 10 months ago but now I'm saying a different thing vote for me yourself like that doesn't happen even if it's true it usually is right but it's not like wait and we get that it's intuitive self-promotion if you are in a place of leadership and you want people to follow you how it works in our culture is you minimize your failures and you maximize your strengths and we all get that and the presidential campaign is just a big huge huge example of that value that we have and none of us are surprised that you know people hide their weaknesses so here's something that's interesting and to me you know since Ben and I became Christians in the summer of 95 something that I still remember really standing out to me when i younger adult I'm a new Christian I'm reading the accounts of the life of Jesus and something that struck me I look down I ask you to open up the Bible to the Gospel according to what Matthews whose Matthew well we met him once in the story he actually appears in the book that has the name attached to it he was a tax collector and he was one of the people that Jesus called and recruited into his closest circle of the the twelve disciples who became called the apostles and if you go to all four of the accounts of Jesus that are in the New Testament they're in there because all four of them stemmed back to the i-witness memories and the memorized teachings of people from that circle four people from that circle mark and Luke the Gospel according to Mark and Luke they were not themselves part of that circle of the twelve they were co-workers and associates with twelve so all four of these accounts come right from the circle of Jesus as closest followers and the after Jesus's resurrection they became the leaders of movements like Matthew and Peter would go start new church communities and you would hear Peter and so on and here's what Webb stuck out to me even as a new Christian was it you when you read and think about the portrayal of these twelve in the story itself they are highlighted and emphasized in bright colors as absolute failures absolute failures at following Jesus have you ever noticed that before how would you like your name attached to a story that you as a bumbling idiot and what and you're trying to you're trying to forward a movement through these very documents that have your name on them and that portray you as an idiot that is remarkable are you with me I don't know if you've ever thought about that before but to me it's absolutely remarkable I mean in any culture leaders promote themselves maximize their strengths minimize or hide their failures as much as possible and with the history of Christianity it's exactly the opposite it's from the very beginning this is a movement that highlighted the failures of its leaders not the failure of Jesus the failure of the people who lead the movement of people trying to follow Jesus and the story that we're going to reflect on today is the pinnacle story of the failure of the leaders of the Jesus Movement and I just want you to just hold that idea because it's extremely important and I think has big implications for us as disciples of Jesus as a community of his disciples because it says something about us it says something about what we're doing right now and what this is the church but at the same time says something about Jesus and this is one of the most powerful stories for me through the years and still today what we're going to read is one of the most powerful important stories that we have about Jesus and it takes place in a garden Matthew chapter 26 verse 31 then Jesus told them they just finished the Last Supper I don't know if you've been following with us or your visitor here today welcome if your visitor but we've been going through the Gospel of Matthew we're in the last night before the cross you just had the last supper the last Passover meal then Jesus told them this very night you all are going to fall away on account of me it's kind of a downer downer but it's what he says before it's written in the scriptures I will strike the Shepherd and the Sheep of the flock will be scattered but Jesus follows up after I've risen I'm going to go ahead of you into Galilee they finished the last Passover meal where he was trying to tell them I'm going to die he's been telling them that for weeks now and they don't get it so then he used these symbols to Trank communicated of the bread and the cup at the Passover meal and then they leave that meal and they're going up to the Mount of Olives which we'll talk about a little more and he says it again like so this is going to be a bad night it's a really bad night ahead and you all are going to fail me big time and he says it's a shocking thing to say but he's not surprised by it for Jesus this actually fits in so what the script the ancient scriptures all said would happen any quotes from one of the ancient Hebrew prophets you have a little footnote telling you where he's quoting from the Shepherd striking sheep stuff where is he quoting from yeah from the praça zechariah which i'm sure you were all just reading just last night it's a bizarre collection of dreams and poems from the Prophet Zechariah it's one of the strangest books in the Bible I think and I could go on for hours it's the most amazing book if I hope to but I won't go on for hours here's what all I'm going to say right from the beginning of the story of Israel it's the story of God rescuing these people out of slavery in Egypt and he brings them to safety enters a covenant relationship with them and what is what what does it people do like days into this new covenant relationship is they betray and fail and reject the God who saved them it's called the story of the golden calf in the book of Exodus and kind of starting from that moment it just sets the tone for the whole story of Israel and their God where it continues to do things for them and provide for them and they continue to reject fail that God and so that goes on for half of millennia and it ends poorly historians poorly and so the prophets they know that what the people need is a leader who will both challenge them and lead them to become the kinds of people who actually accept their God and accept his love and what he wants to do for them and that figure comes to be called the new David or the Messiah or the messianic King but the prophets like Zechariah or similar to Zechariah like Isaiah they weren't optimistic about that King neither they not about the king but about the people and so just like the Israel had been rejecting its God so they could see that Israel would treat this King no differently that they would reject this king but paradoxically it's through the striking and the rejection of this king that this King would save his people that's all I'm going to say about the book of Zechariah go read it and be bewildered I've been trying to read it for twenty years now and I think I'm beginning to understand it anyway so Jesus alludes that whole story lines from the Hebrew Scriptures but it's not the end of the story because he says listen I'm gonna rise from the dead and I'm going to go ahead of you into Galilee and we're going to meet up again and and yuria Peter is going to reply and you realize they they're not hearing any of this look at Peter's reply Peter replied you know even if all these other guys fall away on account of you Jesus not me I never will not me he sounds like a presidential candidate that's all these other guys they're going to let you down right you can't count on them but you can count on me Jesus I'll be here for you listen jesus answered that's my paraphrase listen to the truth Peter this very night before sunrise before the rooster even crows you specifically are going to disown me three times Peter declared oh no no I'm I'm with you to the end he says even if I have to die with you I will never disown you and then all the other disciples chimed in oh me too Jesus yeah me too me too all they all said the same do you see what's happening here it's a remarkable story cuz you're just like what no no think they're gonna fail big time and not Peter you can feel him something his chest you know what I mean is just like I got you Jesus like you can count on me even if it means my life and he's easily he doesn't know it but he he's betraying himself as he says those very words where do they go from here Jesus went with his disciples to a place called what guess it's hard to say in English isn't it guests M&E guests emanates easier to say in Hebrew the distance got Xiamen a as I said in hebrew Gethsemane something about the THS anyway guess M&E this is a famous spot you've heard of this place before it's the iconic spot you guys they're defining moments in the history of Christianity in the history of the Jesus Movement Jesus execution is one of them the resurrection is one of them what happened at Pentecost is one of them and on that list is gas M&A I don't know if that's true for your understanding of the Christian faith but let's change that today what what happened this night is one of the most important moments for the history of the entire Jesus Movement if if we didn't have this story that follows our understanding of Jesus would be impoverished we would know a lot about Jesus but we wouldn't know the unique thing that this story on reveals to us about Jesus that you don't learn in any other part of this life story and I personally I'm just hearing personally I this story has been so meaningful to me over the last 20 years and it's been meaningful to me as a pastor and inviting people into this story and to find themselves with Jesus in it and you'll see what I mean but this story is worth much much more time than we can even give it in our Sunday gathering I recommend many cups of tea and quiet morning's praying and pondering the story they go to a place called Gethsemane and we're told it's near the Mount of Olives and it's an olive groves let me show you a picture of the of the area so I've shown you lots of pictures of this part of the city of Jerusalem and maps and so on over the last couple months so this is a you're standing in a valley looking south and you can see up on the right those are the walls of Jerusalem of what where the Temple Mount was as high walls the walls used to be higher and not you can't see them very well in this photo but the bottom walls of that large wallet upper riot the bottom stones of that were the stones the Jesus would have seen there that old and it goes down into a valley called Kidd drum and you can see it just sloped down from here and then off to the left you can't see it but is the Mount of Olives it slopes up like the mountain mount tabor here and back then it was covered with olive groves and even still today they're scattered all of groves so picture like this is the setting right here this is it gheh cemani it's a it's a quiet orchard full of olive trees I'm just left up on the slope of the Mount of Olives there's a church it's a Catholic Church that commemorates this story and where this took place in the next picture you'll see it you can see the building on the upper left the cool Cathedral and then what they have is about two dozen olive trees in this quiet prayer garden and you can go there any time of day and pray and read and say and it's really remarkable so olive trees that are there now you can go see them today they're about five hundred years old just incredibly old and it's a this is a really really incredible place and this is the scene for the story so they walk into this orchard Gethsemane it means olive oil press because somebody does and here's what he says to them to the twelve he says you guys sit here like by this tree and I'm going to go over here to this tree and I'm going to pray and Jesus has done this before after really intense moment we watched it multiple times yes something intense happens and he retreats usually with his closest followers and he goes to pray for a day or two so he just said you guys sit here but then he takes so long he picks out who especially Peter chest thumper thanks Peter and the two sons of Zebedee is that James and John these are the three fishermen that he recruited at the very beginning of his movement and so we and he's taken these three along on a handful of other occasions it's like he had the twelve that's his crew and then he has these three and there is boys no they're like his safe safe circle and so he takes them with him and then it all starts to unfold he took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along they'd together go to another tree and he began to be sorrowful and troubled now huh those English words sorrowful did you use that word in the last week so no no you didn't trouble you might have used troubled um some of you have a different translation what yeah we have just he began to be distressed or adjective agitated yeah there you go yes and just so my hunch is that those are words you may be used in the last week stress for sure our culture is obsessed with it and and distress agitation I think to put it at its most blunt bluntly and in light of what happens Jesus has a panic attack and I'm not joking he keep break right here he's sorrowful he's agitated he's distressed and they said to the three of them in private he says you guys my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death I just need you guys to stay right here and keep watch with me just stay awake and be here with me we have seen Jesus up to this point every story he is a rock you know he's confident and he's calm we've seen Jesus get angry we've seen Jesus full of joy we've seen Jesus full of compassion but he always had composure and this is the first moment in the story where he falls apart he just absolutely crumbles it's the middle of the night he's with his safest circle of friends and he is unglued I mean just imagine I don't know if you have a memory of the first time you saw maybe one of your parents break depending on your family story it might have been quite early you know that you saw that for me it wasn't so wow I remember I was like eight seven or eight years old and I remember you know your perception of many people's perception if your parents were there for you is that they're like the stability of the universe you know or you had someone in your life I hope who represented that and then to watch that person break and to watch them weep and be in the fetal position like that's really intense and for many of us if you're a disciple of Jesus Jesus is stability in the universe for us and he's here he is he falls to pieces and what's remarkable is that he he's actually so agitated he's so crushed under the weight of what's about to happen when he tries to verbalize what he's feeling he doesn't even use his own words I don't know if you have a footnote when he says my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death you should have a footnote because he's these aren't his words he's speaking the words of psalm 42 which we need to read because it's revealing why Jesus would speak words from this poem I say to God my rock why have you forgotten me why must I go about grieving oppressed by the enemy my bone suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me they're saying to me all day long where is your God why o my soul are you so overwhelmed with sorrow why are you so disturbed within me put your hope in God for I will yet praise Him my Savior and my god it's remarkable because you get a look at the arc of the poem itself like this movement of the poem is he's the poet son glued right he's being made fun of he's afraid for his life he has enemies and they're making fun of him and then he enters this stage of self talk you know talking to him stuff like why Oh myself my being like why are you becoming so unglued like put your hope in God but that doesn't for one second negate all of the emotions and the feelings that he has are you with me here this is like this is about the journey of working through your confusion and fear and your suffering and this is these are the words that come to jesus' mouth when he tries to verbalize what he's feeling and he doesn't want to disciples to do anything except stay awake and to be with him like he doesn't say make me dinner or something you know bring some tissue but his point is like don't go anywhere I just need you to stay awake with me and then he went a little farther verse 39 and he fell with his face to the ground I don't know if you've ever done that my hunch is that some of us here have felt like we needed to do that it's the sign of somebody whose body gives out because of the fear and the grief Jesus falls to his face and he prays my father if it's possible may this Cup be taken from me yet not as I will but as you will this is prayer he'll pray a couple different forms of it before we leave the garden do you recognize elements of this prayer my father your will be done have you heard these words before yeah yeah there's a prayer that he taught us disciples to pray every day I think and I don't know if you've said it yesterday so let's do that what sticks out right now say it with me our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name may your kingdom come may your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our debts as we forgive those are indebted to us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen he actually never said that last part but that's okay it's a beautiful part of prayer the kingdom and glory is on so what what's Jesus doing right here Jesus is it he's it as darkest moment of his life what's happening here he has a panic attack and he doesn't even know what he needs he just needs his closest friends to be with him he doesn't even know what to say so he says words that he grew up on from the songs and then when he does finally verbalize it what he verbalizes his words from the prayer that he taught us to pray and this is over this is remarkable - because what you go back and you realize like that prayer that he gave us it's not that he he was like lecturing us like here's how you pray he gave us his prayer this is the Lord's Prayer is Jesus's prayer it's the prayer that he went to in his dark moments of wondering like what's happening and Who am I and what what what am I supposed to be doing right now and this prayer became his sense of stability these are the words that he used to give him guidance as he process through his emotion listen is it news to Jesus that he's going to die no I've he's been saying it for a solid 15 pages in my Bible chapter 16 like he's been talking about it and the his closest friends have not been understanding it but this is not news to Jesus he's not learning a new fact about God's will what what he's doing he's he's a human I don't care what you believe about Jesus you know the historic confession about Jesus is that he's God become human but he's human and we're watching Jesus a human we're watching his emotions unravel and his will and his emotion are catching up to his brain right now he's not learning a new fact about God's will he's coming to term with his whole person about his strange difficult calling and vocation as the Messianic King and that somehow he's going to save and to rescue by himself not being rescued and by being killed brutally and it's a calling that he doesn't want at this moment he just sets it straight up you know hey father I know you love me you said it at my baptism and if it's possible there's me is there another way here you know for a while now I've been saying to everybody that I have to die but maybe we could figure something else out real quick and that's what he wants he says it's what I want could this happened a different way I don't want to drink this Cup he says and so here we go once again Jesus is raised on the scriptures and when he talks he speaks the language of Scripture and not this is another the cup if you know okay I could go on for a long time and I won't here's what I'll do note-takers go read Psalm 75 go read Isaiah 51 go read Jeremiah 25 and I could name five more other important passages the Hebrew prophets and poets they describe God's judgment and God's justice when he confronts and judges evil in the world they describe it watts of metaphors and one of the most significant common ones is of the cup the cup of God's justice or the cup of God's wrath even some 75 cut calls it and here's the image Psalm 75 in God's hand is a cup think a big chalice jewels and all that hit oh and it's foaming and bubbling with high alcohol content wine spices mixed I mean it's the whole point is its what its people love this it's what people love we want it you know and you might not think it's good for you you might enjoy it now and then or whatever but it's it's desirable it's a paradox it's God's judgment on human evil but it takes the form of something that we would want and then what God does in these poems is he forces people to drink it to the bottom and then they walk away like staggering and then they stumble and come to ruin because of something that they want that God gave to them and there's lots of ways of exploring the meaning of God's judgment in the scriptures they're all profound we typically think of the ones there they happen occasionally in the Bible that they're more rooted in Greek mythology of Zeus throwing lightning bolts at people because he doesn't like them and that there's something like that but very different at the same time in the Bible occasionally but way more often is this image of the cup and Paul the Apostle put words to it without the image he describes it in Romans 1 he says it's the wrath of God which he describes as God giving people over to the consequences of the things that they choose and what we choose are things that destroy us things that aren't good for us and that's the that's the image that Jesus uses right here that there's a cup of god's justice that is meant to be poured out on god's own people for their five centuries and even more of idea this time of rejection and rebellion and moral corruption and injustice and so Jesus as Israel's King it's his calling to drink the cup on behalf of his people so that they don't have to now this is all sounds abstract to us maybe and it's not abstract like think of what Jesus was doing he was offering the kingdom of God and put the way he offered it and what it meant had followed Jesus the king was all crazy upside down because what this King does with his enemies is forgive them and what this King does with his enemies is you know the Roman soldier forces you to carry his gear one mile and you're a follower of Jesus and a part of the kingdom of God then you carry it two miles and then when you've carried it and his mind's blown you put it down and you ask him if there's any prayer requests he has and you pray for that soldier and then when he thinks you're stupid and he slaps you on one cheek you say dude New York you're angry today do you need to get a little more out and you turn the other I mean it Ryan this is Jesus his most memorable teachings and they were they were so they sounded so stupid in his day but that was the nature of the kingdom that he came to offer and now here it comes down to it is Israel's leaders have rejected Jesus in his offer of the kingdom and and it's not the way of peace and so Jesus said because that's what form this cup is going to take it's going to take Israel will choose what it wants which is not the way of Jesus it's the way that most humans take which is violent which is military revolt against people that you don't like or that have killed your people and it's all going to come to a collusion as the cup of Rome's wrath is poured out on Jerusalem which Jesus predicted two pages ago that the city would be destroyed and the Israel would drink the cup of God's wrath which was the wrath of Rome but it doesn't have to happen that way and so Jesus in the garden he reckons with this he's like I don't want to drink the cup these people don't like me they've rejected me the Pharisees hate me most of them and like I don't I'm over it right now I don't want to do this for them that's how he feels and then watch he moves he's on the same journey as the poem that he quotes from but then he comes around the bend and he says yeah what I want is to not do this but then he reminds himself with the words of his own prayer that he taught us but I this is not about what I want my life is not about what I want I find myself caught up in this story of what God is doing in his will and his purpose and so here's what I want father I entrust what I want to what you want and he lays it right there and you just imagine having to go through that this is an hour he's on his face crying weeping and he gets up and he walks over to the tree and he returns to his disciples and what are they doing couldn't you guys stay awake with me for an hour he says let me ask Peter Peter sheesh man wake up you'd need to be on your face too because tonight your trials coming to like your dark night of the soul is about to happen in a few hours then you're asleep you need to be praying too so that you don't fall into temptation using the words of his prayer again the Spirit is willing Peter but the flesh is weak but even if everybody abandons you tonight Jesus not me I got you Yeah right Yeah right Peter he went away a second time back on his face and he prayed my father if it's not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it may your will be done now stop was that the same prayer look down was it the same prayer as the first prime first time different did you see the difference look at the difference really significant the first time it's all like if it's possible I don't want this please take the cup away not what I want but you want but here's what I want it's to not do this and do you see like the second time of Prayer he's moved forward it's not possible for me to avoid this is it okay may your will be done you can see this he's he's beginning to reckon with his emotions he's reckoning with his calling and he's coming to terms with it and he doesn't think that it's because the father doesn't love him he still calls him my father he's recognizing that he's being called to live out the upside down Kingdom that he's been talking about for all this time he came back again and he finds Peter and the others their eyes were heavy that's why look at that little detail why do you think they are sleeping because their eyes were heavy I mean of course they were right the flesh is weak you and I my goodness we think much too highly of ourselves disappointing so he left them and went away another time he prayed a third time I said all to all the same stuff look at this you guys this is Jesus this is the same calm confident Jesus who's the stability of the universe and it is this is his dark night of the soul he's a broken man and he's he's facing the human condition he's facing his existence as he as a whole human and he's not learning anything new his emotions are catching up to his brain and this is so profound I mean is is so profound you guys there's the Jesus who gives us life for us there's the Jesus who victoriously conquers death and sin on our behalf there's the Jesus that comes to be personally present with all of his followers and Pentecost and the spirit but then there's this Jesus and this is like weak frail Jesus who meets his greatest moment of fear and confusion and pain and some of you know these nights and I know it some of you have been through these nights before and to me that unbelievable power of the story is the Jesus like our conviction is that he's God become human and God joins us in our dark nights of the soul God joins us in this moment in Jesus in these moments were where you your world is unraveling and your prayers hit the ceiling and your Vince that nobody's listening and nobody cares and everybody in your life is asleep on you and you know some of you have been there and some of you are there right now in your life and the absolute power of this story is the G it's not even that Jesus is with you it's that when you're in those moments you are with Jesus do you hear that like Jesus is no stranger to the utter fear and pain of the human condition he knows it and I'd wager to say he actually knows it to a degree and a depth that few of us ever will and that's this is also Jesus he knows you and he knows your story and he's been there and he but he moves through it like everybody fails him but Jesus doesn't fail because look he emerges out of the garden and look at this Jesus that emerges from the prayer verse 45 he went back to his disciples you still sleeping aren't you guys verse 45 you're still sleeping and resting the hours come the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners get up you guys let's go meet the moment here comes Judas and it's calm confident resolute Jesus again which doesn't mean that he doesn't have moments of doubt and struggle it's somehow precisely through those moments that he becomes calm and confident once more while he said the words verse 47 Judas one of the twelve arrived with him with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people now the betrayer Judas had arranged a signal with the crowd and the people armed with swords the one that I kissed is the man arrest him normal middle-eastern greeting men kissing each other so on so there's the point it's dark it's not Hollywood there's no bright on the garden it up or spotlights or anything so it's dark there's just you know some torches you were coming to arrest one person in a group of 13 you know now I'm in this garden which one is it and so Judas arranges the signal right it's the greeting of welcome and hospitality and the and the poetic irony here unbelievable and look at Jesus's last words to Judas hey friend do what you've come for some of you have a different translation actually I'm guessing the multiple translations what Jesus actually says here is really dense and ambiguous he just says friend for what you've come then the man stepped forward and they seized Jesus and they arrested him now when that happened one of Jesus's companions reach for his sword who's that yeah Matthew doesn't say who it is the Gospel of John tells us is Peter Oh Peter look at the contrast he fails Jesus by doing nothing falling asleep now he's awake and he finally does something and he fails Jesus again whether he does something or does nothing he fails Jesus he pulls out his sword and he he struck the servant of a high priest where now love you've ever you know thought about that for 20 seconds but drop if you're think of the moment do you think that's what he was aiming for I really think about that do you think that's what he meant to do of course that's not what he meant to do what was he aiming for clearly more of an angle Ryan's guys going for the guy's head the head of whom the servant of the high priest so this is executive executive vice president setting is number two this is an executive assistant of the most important leader so he goes right for the representative of number one in the group and he can't even do that right he can't even kill me I write I just it's ridiculous and this this is one of the most important leaders of the early church Peter visits your city and visits your brand-new church and then this story is read about him and then he gets up to speak you know and you're just like you're an idiot like why would I listen to you you know and that is the story presented of the leaders of the early Christian movement absolute failures and it's in he doesn't fail because he didn't aim right right look at Jesus lays into him put it back Peter what do you think you're doing put your sword back in its place jesus said to him for all who draw the sword die by the sword don't you think I can defend myself if I need to don't you think I can call my father he would at once put at my disposal twelve legions of angels but how then would the story of the Prophet Zechariah and and and Isaiah like how would all of that come to the moment of the king rejected by his people so that he compared oxic Allah saves them though this is how it's supposed to happen Peter so Jesus he's living the Sermon on the Mount right now and Peter betrays him yet again by doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus has been teaching his followers to do which is to not kill your enemies and he says why he just says listen man you you chop off that guy's head you contribute and participate in the spiral right the spiral of violence that breeds more hatred and revenge and violence and it just does this and we call this human history and the kingdom of God just cuts right through it and it says it stops somewhere it stops with the kingdom of God and it stops here in this moment of the kingdom of God confronting and exposing human evil for what it is by allowing evil to defeat him I don't know if that sounds like a good idea to you but that was Jesus's plan and he says you're absolutely betraying everything that we stand for as you did you aim for that guy's head stop it and then Jesus addresses the crowd verse 55 so you guys have come out here with swords and clubs to capture me like I'm a terrorist he says I'm leading a rebellion but that's what he means like I'm like I'm a military violent threat to our city and our people I think every day of the last week I've been out in public in the temple courts teaching people love God love your neighbor yeah and you guys didn't see fit to arrest me then but you are now in this way but this has all taken place so that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled this is the last time Jesus will speak up for himself and really it's not even to defend himself it's just to expose absurdity of what's happening in this moment and look at the last line of the scene read it yourself what do all of the disciples do they desert him and they flee the story begin with all of them saying no we're with you Jesus to the end the bitter end we got you back you can count on us and the whole story culminates in all of them doing exactly the opposite they betray Jesus by their apathy in their inaction they betray Jesus by the actions they do take and they eventually just betray and abandon him altogether so they flee to save their own lives how you guys done this story is unbelievable this is unbelievable try and think of a religious movement or political movement whatever that has as a part of its foundation documents portraying the absolute failure and lack of integrity of its most important leaders it's so incredible and the point isn't just to like make you know be down on them like they're going to grow and get better at this following Jesus thing and they go on to do really incredible things but there's something about camping out and highlighting this paradox of the utter failure of Jesus's disciples contrasted with Jesus he comes out as strong and consistent and confident in CS Ben but he does it precisely through this total moment of being broken in weakness and even Jesus isn't you know he's not Ginga skon you know he's not Mohammed he's different he's a human and he knows pain and he knows grief and he's overtaken by his emotions and he doesn't want to have to do what he knows needs to be done for us but there's something driving him that we look at him and we like Jesus's stability in the universe for us it's his love it's his absolute confidence in the father's love and commitment to him but even though the horror of drinking this cup it will kill him and he trusts with all his being that death won't have the final word and that he's going to meet up again in Galilee these same failures and we're going to reboot the story and try again it is exactly what happens what does this mean for us and what does it mean for us to have a time where we pray and worship and take the bread and the cup together not two things come to mind and it's these two contrasting portraits of Jesus as the rock that shatters and then just put together again and then the leaders of the early Christian movement being highlighted as absolute failures there's a there's a comfort and a realism here like who are who are we you know there's there's hundreds of thousands of communities of Jesus followers gathering today all over the planet billions of people and what like what are we doing and who do we think that we are and we where we're setting ourselves up for huge shattered expectations if our faith and our hope is in us the local church is a sacred vital part of being a follower of Jesus I don't think it's possible to actually grow and mature as a follower of Jesus without committing yourself to a local community of his disciples and people committing themselves to you but at the same time this movement is not called churchianity is it but you're not a church Ian right you're a Christian you're a follower of Jesus and we're part of the movement of Jesus spirit and people and so there's there's something really important there to recognize like it's absolutely vital that we go to the garden together and that we be like open up our failures and allow our failures to be exposed and challenged by each other so that we can grow and we should probably see a pattern of less failure and less betrayal of Jesus as time goes on I think we should be optimistic and pray and hope for that so that Jesus spirit will do that in us but at the end of the day our hope is not my hopes not in use and your hopes not in me because I'm like Peter and so are you and I'm like Matthew and so are you like at our best Jesus followers sometimes get it right and that's not a scandal it's actually so important a part of who we are as followers of Jesus let's write that story into our foundation documents you know I'm saying this remarkable that Paul the Apostle the most successful church planter of the first decades of the church nears the end of his life and the all he can do is to say you know what at the end of the day I just can't believe that Jesus loves me because I'm like the worst person you'll ever made call himself the chief of sinners and that's near the end of the life a whole journey of being faithful to Jesus and he's like yeah I'm not that great of a guy and that's unique that's unique to the Jesus Movement and we're close to the heartbeat of the thing that this isn't about self-loathing and hating ourselves whatever but it is about recognizing we're a community of the week and that we're a community that creates space for us to fail so that we can grow together and if we don't the moment that we start idolizing each other or setting the church up as the thing that that makes my faith in Jesus stable for me I there's just a healthy sense of awareness of how frail all of this is you guys with me but Jesus is but Jesus isn't frail he's he has his dark night of the soul but he passed the test Peter didn't I usually don't but Jesus did and my hope and my faith is in Jesus and it's precisely his love and his commitment that drove him through his most lonely moment of agony and pain why did he do that because he loves me and because he knows the Father loves him and because he knows that the Father loves me and loves you and loves our world so I don't know what you need to hear from this maybe there's a failure you need to bring to Jesus when we take the bread in the cup and you need to come like Peter is going to come you don't have for all this goes down and come with repentance and humility knowing that Jesus will embrace you some of us might have other things that we need to work through some of us might just simply need to know that Jesus is kneeling along so that you are kneeling alongside Jesus as you go through your dark night of the soul this story is unbelievable and I trust that the Spirit will take it and bury it deep in our minds and hearts as we go here from today let me close in a word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

Views: 47,252

Rating: 4.8818183 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: QNG7FWewJFE

Length: 53min 56sec (3236 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017