Mari Ikeda
(Luke 22:35-38, 47-53)
Video Youtube
Audio
Death and Defeat facing God
35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. 36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 37 It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’[b]; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.” 38 The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That’s enough!” he replied.
47 While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” 49 When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. 51 But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? 53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour―when darkness reigns.”
1. Disciples’ misunderstanding
2. Jesus’ true intent
a. Parting was near
b. He will not be able to protect His disciples
3. Cross: The event in which God was defeated by Satan and died
Summary
God came to the state of absolute powerlessness in the event of the Cross. He allowed Satan to use his power, while He never used His own power until He was killed by the force of sin. Although everything happened according to God’s plan, in which His defeat would turn into victory, death into eternal life through Jesus’ resurrection, it remains the fact that God was powerless during the Cross. Knowing this, Jesus gave His disciples very practical orders in the time of their parting. They were for the disciples to live through those three days of God’s death, from Jesus’ death on the cross to His resurrection.
For Discussion
1) What does “But now” refer in v.36? What makes this “now” special?
2) How do you relate yourself with God becoming powerless at the Cross?