1. "A series of seemingly unconnected actions with a startling result, a bizarre chain of events leading to a surprising conclusion. This is the way everything from real history to fictional detective novels are."

2. "Great doors swing on small hinges."

3. "Christ was preparing to take the punishment that would prevent the apostles or Polycarp or later Christians from ever tasting it. So Jesus knew completely in a way no one else facing death ever had or would, he knew that he was facing a more harrowing experience than at least any Christian ever has reason to fear, because Christ has taken that cup of God's wrath so that we don't have to."

4. "Neither then nor now will the kingdom of Christ be brought in by worldly means."

5. "How terrible is it when the chief priests of God's people, the officers of the Lord's temple, the elders of Israel are in fact the emissaries of darkness and not of light? You could tell that even by the time of day when they chosen to act. Irregularly, illegally, in secret, under the cloak of literal darkness."

6. "May God make us as willing to suffer with Jesus as we are sometimes to fight for Him."

7. "The clarity of physical suffering was a price they would be willing to pay. The sting of social shame was too sharp for their souls."

8. "It seems like those whom God uses greatly, like Peter, or like Paul, are those who have the sharpest sense of their own desert of God's justice, and therefore the sharpest sense of God's grace."

9. "Never has one so innocent been treated as one so guilty. All the injustices in our own lives, or that we've read of, or that have happened to people that we know, or have learned through history, have altogether not been equal to the injustice being done here this night."

10. "The first Adam in the Garden of Eden had chosen his will above God's, thus bringing death. Now the second Adam in the Garden of Gethsemane chose to follow God's will, thus bringing life."

Observation Questions

1. According to Luke 22:39-41, where did Jesus go after the Passover meal, and what specific instruction did He give His disciples before withdrawing to pray?

2. In Luke 22:42, what did Jesus ask the Father in His prayer, and what was His concluding statement about whose will should be done?

3. According to Luke 22:47-48, how did Judas identify Jesus to the crowd, and what question did Jesus ask him in response?

4. In Luke 22:54-60, how many times did Peter deny knowing Jesus, and what happened "immediately" while Peter was still speaking his third denial (verse 60)?

5. What did Jesus do after the rooster crowed, according to Luke 22:61, and what was Peter's response when he remembered Jesus' prediction?

6. According to Luke 22:63-65, what specific actions did the men holding Jesus in custody take against Him?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why might Jesus' agony in prayer (Luke 22:44) be more intense than the fear of death experienced by later Christian martyrs who faced execution with joy and courage? What was uniquely different about what Jesus was about to face?

2. In Luke 22:53, Jesus tells the religious leaders, "This is your hour and the power of darkness." What does this statement reveal about the spiritual nature of what was happening that night, and how does it relate to the chief priests and officers being mentioned alongside Satan in Luke 22:3-4?

3. How does the contrast between Jesus' prayer in verse 42 ("not my will, but yours be done") and the first Adam's choice in the Garden of Eden help us understand the significance of what Jesus accomplished that night?

4. Why do you think all four Gospel writers include the detail that the rooster crowed "immediately" while Peter was still speaking (Luke 22:60)? What does this suggest about the impact of this moment on Peter's life and ministry?

5. The sermon described Jesus as drinking "the cup of God's wrath" so that "none is left for us to drink." How does understanding "the cup" in verse 42 as God's wrath against sin change our understanding of why Jesus experienced such agony in Gethsemane?

Application Questions

1. Jesus instructed His disciples to "pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Luke 22:40, 46), yet they slept instead. What circumstances in your life tend to make you spiritually drowsy or cause you to neglect prayer when you need it most? What practical steps could you take this week to stay spiritually alert?

2. Peter was willing to fight with a sword (verse 50) but unwilling to endure social shame by being publicly associated with Jesus (verses 56-60). In what situations are you tempted to be bold in ways that feel heroic but shrink back when faithfulness to Christ might cost you socially or professionally?

3. The sermon noted that Peter's deep awareness of his own failure shaped his lifelong understanding of grace. How has a past failure or sin that you've been forgiven of affected your appreciation for God's grace? How might remembering your own need for mercy change how you treat others who fail?

4. Jesus continued to care for and instruct His disciples even while preparing to face God's wrath for them (verses 40, 46). Who in your life might need your care and attention even when you are going through your own difficult season? What would it look like to follow Jesus' example this week?

5. The religious leaders acted "under the cloak of literal darkness" (verse 53) rather than openly. Are there areas of your life where you prefer to keep certain thoughts, habits, or actions hidden rather than bringing them into the light? What would it look like to live more transparently before God and trusted believers?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Isaiah 51:17-23 — This passage describes "the cup of God's wrath" that Jerusalem drank and prophesies that God will take it from His people and give it to their tormentors, illuminating what Jesus meant by "this cup" in Luke 22:42.

2. John 18:1-11 — John's parallel account of Jesus' arrest provides additional details, including Jesus' declaration that His kingdom is not of this world and His willingness to drink the cup the Father has given Him.

3. 1 Peter 2:21-25 — Peter reflects on Jesus' sufferings as an example for believers, describing how Jesus "did not revile in return" and "continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly," directly shaped by Peter's eyewitness experience that night.

4. Romans 5:12-21 — Paul explains how the first Adam's disobedience brought death while the second Adam's obedience brought life, providing the theological framework for understanding Jesus' prayer "not my will, but yours be done."

5. Hebrews 5:7-10 — This passage describes Jesus offering prayers "with loud cries and tears" and learning obedience through suffering, connecting directly to the agony Jesus experienced in Gethsemane.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Introduction: Small Actions with Outsized Consequences

II. Jesus' Disciples Ignored Him (Luke 22:39-46)

III. Jesus' Treasurer Judas Betrayed Him (Luke 22:47-53)

IV. Jesus' Best Friend Peter Denied Him (Luke 22:54-62)

V. The Authorities Mocked and Beat Him (Luke 22:63-65)

VI. The Saving Purpose of God Accomplished Through This Dark Night

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Detailed Sermon Outline

less complicated than monopoly or risk, but a step above Candyland, was one of the joys of growing up in the 1960s, the board game Mousetrap. Released by Ideal in 1963, back before mail was electronic or phones were cordless or TV was in color, this game provided five to 10 minutes of unbridled glee for five, six, and seven-year-olds. Basically, a series of unrelated motions became related through switches and levers, till an action on one side of the board put your opponent's piece through switches and levers, always moving into a trap, as a jail physically came down on their piece from above, with seuss-like whimsy, a ball like rolled out of a bathtub and fell down onto a seesaw, and there was a man like a diver on the other side, and he was propelled up. To a pool next to him. That went down.

Anyway, I can keep going, but it's just a long series of actions. You get the idea. It all happened, if it all happened right, like a slow falling dominoes, the kids gathered around and watched with mounting glee as the fate of prison and loss quite literally befell one of the players on the board.

A series of seemingly unconnected actions with a startling result, a bizarre chain of events leading to a surprising conclusion. This is the way everything from real history to fictional detective novels are. In history many are well known. Interlocking treaties and alliances combined with railroad timetables to compel decisions to mobilize troops and cause the assassination of an heir to a Southeastern European throne to create the maelstrom of World War I in just a few days. A.G. Gardner writing about the way everyone in Europe was surprised by the beginning of World War I says that it was as though with a careless remark about the weather.

We stumble upon the day of judgment. That's a pretty well-known example. Perhaps a less well-known example of this kind of small, mousetrap-like action having outsized importance in the real world is how one German bomber's decision to release his bombs over London decisively changed the war from a war which Germany may have won into a war which Germany would certainly lose. A few German Heinkels, bombers that had been ordered to bomb military installations as they had been doing for weeks at that point in southeast England became lost one night of August 23rd into the 24th in 1940. Before returning home, they wondered what they should do with the bombs they hadn't used.

One of them made a decision to release the bombs. So they all did. That was a fateful decision. Suddenly two areas of London, Bethnal Green and East Ham went up in flames. And this was of no military significance, but it changed the war forever.

Hitler had forbidden any such actions until he would command them, because he was still hoping to get Churchill to the negotiating table. Just like he had done in Poland, in Belgium, in France, he was hoping he could do the same with England. And in order to do that, you don't bomb the capital city. This made it obvious to all, though once these bombs fell, that an agreed England would not capitulate. Furthermore, within a few days, the German Luftwaffe had almost entirely then switched their motion from attacking the RAF, which they were within a week of wiping out, to attacking London, which they would never extinguish.

That fateful decision then allowed the English cover to start bombing Berlin, to rattle the German people's confidence as it had not been rattled for two years since the war had begun. So this distracted German decision now to move from the Battle of Britain, which they were just about to win through killing the RAF warfields, to attacking London, this indiscriminate bombings of this vast metropolis was a battle which they did not and could not win. Londoners taking it allowed Britain some breathing room to rebuild their air force and signaled to the world that Britain would not voluntarily yield in order to save their capital city as other nations had done.

One bomber's seemingly small decision changed the war. Great doors swing on small hinges. In our passage in Luke's gospel, we're at the period of crucial change. If you're not very familiar with Jesus, or if you don't know the story that's coming, you can be forgiven for being surprised, very surprised by the verses that we have to look at today. Because what begins with a simple prayer meeting, a religious retreat after the great celebration of Passover, ends in the story of Jesus being publicly captured and beaten.

What happened? What went on that after three years of this public movement seeming to come to a successful climax, as just days before Jesus had come in in the triumphal entry to Jerusalem, the national capital, why now all of a sudden was Jesus at night arrested? What happened? Four things. You can follow along just in the text of the Bible, Luke 22.

Beginning at verse 39. If you're using the Bibles provided, you can find this on page 882. If you're not using the Bibles provided, looking at a Bible, the larger numbers are the chapter numbers, the smaller numbers are the verse numbers. In our last study we saw Jesus instituted a supper which explained the new covenant between God and man that was about to be established by His death. This, along with His preaching, His betrayal by one of them was clearly changing the mood of the disciples from the upbeat joy of the approaching Kingdom than they clearly had when they were walking to Jerusalem, which is why to now rather a growing sense of trouble and conflict nearing.

Which is why Peter said up in verse 33, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Jesus had just quoted an Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah being numbered with the transgressors, that is being treated like a criminal. So they went back out of the city where they had been staying on the Mount of Olives to pray. And the disciples now seemed heavy-hearted. That's the setting in which we see this first of four circumstances we note.

We'll simply walk through the four sections of our passage here. First, notice Jesus' disciples ignored Him. They separated from Him. They disobeyed Him.

Verse 39, He came and went out, as was His custom to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. And when He came to the place, He said to them, 'Pray that you may not enter into temptation.' and He withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if youf're willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done. ' and there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.

And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The disciples seemed to have understood that Jesus was about to leave them.

They were grieved. Luke gives us this detail in verse 45. I wonder if you noticed it. So Jesus brings the disciples to this remote place and then he goes off from them a little bit further to kneel in prayer, literally agonizing. And that's part of what it meant for the Son of God to take on a human nature and become incarnate, to be truly human, and to do so specifically as a substitutionary suffering servant.

Dread settled as a thick and heavy agony over his soul.

One question about verse 44. What about Jesus being in agony? Does that sound strange to your ear as He approaches surely in history you've heard of other people approaching death with a kind of equanimity. Socrates, the hemlock, or the Stoics, Marcus Aurelius. Surely even the disciples themselves are told later of having joy like Stephen when he was to be martyred, or later Christians, Polycarp, his courage, or the fearlessness of Huss or Tyndale in the face of death.

Where are all of those here? And the very one who taught, Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. When the apostles in Acts 5 were flogged, in order to be silent, we read the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing, because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. So what's going on here with Jesus' agony?

Is this an example of the disciples outstripping their master? Is that what this is? I don't think so. Now, friends, which of us can imagine not the ignorant fear of approaching death unknown that you and I experience as fear of death, or even the most knowledgeable Christian can see our future hope that we have because of Jesus' death. But even that great glowing hope we see only most dimly.

But when we compare that experience with Christ, with Christ Himself, who had a knowing apprehension of the approaching known events in his own death as he prepared uniquely to drink the cup of God's wrath against man's sin. Christ was preparing to take the punishment that would prevent the apostles or Polycarp or later Christians from ever tasting it. So Jesus knew completely in a way no one else facing death ever had or would, he knew that he was facing a more harrowing experience than at least any Christian ever has reason to fear, because Christ has taken that cup of God's wrath so that we don't have to. And what's amazing is that Jesus resolves to go ahead and take that cup. So Jesus is in agony, and yet the disciples Ignore His instructions to keep awake and to pray.

I mean, even the disciples had perceived enough to understand that something bad was about to happen, some kind of betrayal by one of them, something that might make Peter think that he, an unskilled fisherman, would soon be needing to take up a sword and even face becoming a criminal himself, being imprisoned. This is all a far cry from dreams they had entertained just days, just hours before. Of a new Messianic Kingdom that was about to begin with them ruling and reigning with Jesus. So much so they had argued with each other about who was the greatest, who was going to have the best positions. But now all that seemed to be gone.

The disciples picked up on Jesus' mood and yet even their much smaller portion of grief was overwhelming to them. They couldn't stay and pray.

Their grief sapped their energy. They slept to avoid it out of exhaustion. So though Jesus repeatedly exhorted them to not sleep, but instead to pray, they slept.

Friend, if you're not a Christian, consider even Jesus' fear at the thought of soon facing what you must surely face if you don't find forgiveness in Christ. The fear of facing the wrath of God that you have deserved because of your sins. See what it caused in Christ himself. Consider why he would be so fearful.

Having said all of this, Jesus continued to care for them, thinking of them. Advising, exhorting them, even while He prepared to drink the cup of God's wrath for sinners like them and like us.

But then something else happened, something more specific and worse. The second circumstance noted here, Jesus' own treasurer, Judas, betrayed Him. Look at verse 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.

But Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, 'Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, 'No more of this.' and He touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come out against Him, 'Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs?

When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me. But this is your hour and the power of darkness. '

And that dark night, imagine it would have been by then one or two in the morning, from how far away could they have seen this party coming out of the city with flickering torches down and then up again, the winding pathway toward the garden. This was to be a spiritual battle. When Peter there in verse 50 strikes off the servant's ear, Jesus rebukes him and heals the injured man. He quickly waves off any misunderstanding of what he had He said up in verses 36 and 38 about taking swords with them now. There in those verses, Jesus was simply saying that they were coming into a time of opposition and persecution as his followers.

They would need to draw on all their resources to faithfully fulfill the mission. He was not endorsing any idea that his was a kingdom of this world or of this age. He taught elsewhere explicitly, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.

So he tells Peter here in verse 51, no more of this.

My military and political and legal friends, that's just about all of you.

Neither then nor now will the kingdom of Christ be brought in by worldly means.

Praise God for the stewardship that you exercise. Your stewardships in these areas are important.

By themselves and of themselves they are never decisive. You'll note in the other series we're in right now, Bobby leading us through the book of Revelation, the decisive action is not by man, it's by Jesus Christ.

Who sovereignly directs and protects His churches and cares for all His people. It's not that there's no conflict, no warfare going on in this world, but it is fundamentally spiritual in nature. Here in our passage, Jesus confronts them with their hypocrisy, shaming them really with His questions there in verses 52 and 53. He also interprets the time as being your hour. That's in the plural.

He's not just referring to Judas. He's referring to Judas and the others, the chief priests and the officers of the temple, the elders who'd come out with him. He lumps them all together as being the ones who are specially associated with this hour. This is your hour. This, as opposed to other hours, he speaks as if this time is certain.

Unchangeably ordained from of old. And yet, as if their apparent possession of this hour makes it distinct from all the others. As if their plots and plans will be limited only to this particular time, that something more, something different, will succeed it, that even this hour will be limited and end. Jesus openly associates them in verse 53 with the power of darkness. How terrible is it when the chief priests of God's people, the officers of the Lord's temple, the elders of Israel are in fact the emissaries of darkness and not of light?

You could tell that even by the time of day when they chosen to act.

Irregularly, illegally, in secret, under the cloak of literal darkness. This phrase, chief priests and officers, occurs only one other time in Scripture. It's earlier in this chapter, up in verse 3. Look up there in chapter 22, verse 3.

Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve, he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers, how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Even people who are publicly respectful of Christ Religious leaders can really be greedy agents of darkness, can't they?

May God make us as willing to suffer with Jesus as we are sometimes to fight for Him.

Jesus' prayer meeting turned bad when His treasurer betrayed Him.

And there was yet more tragedy to happen that dark night, this third incident. Number three, his best friend, Peter, was ashamed of him. I'm not sure Peter was his best friend, but it's a way of conveying that he had a special relationship. He again and again seems to be the one that Jesus called on to go with him uniquely. Peter seemed to understand Jesus.

At least to be intending to be loyal to him to the very end. He's the one we see in this story as the leader. But then look in verse 54, Then they seized him, that's Jesus, and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house. And you shouldn't think house there like one of our houses these days, but house like a large public building with a big courtyard in front of it where hundreds of people can gather. And Peter was following at a distance.

Verse 55, and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, 'This man also was with him.' But he denied it, saying, 'Woman, I do not know him.' and a little later someone else saw him and said, 'You also are one of them.' But Peter said, 'Man, I am not.' and after an interval of about an hour, still another insisted, 'Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.' But Peter said, 'Man, I do not know what you're talking about.' and immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, 'Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.' and he went out and wept bitterly. Friends, this passage is as poignant as it is simple.

Judas may have been a more resolute and decisive tool of Satan that night, but Peter and the other ten disciples who melted away into the darkness showed that their price had been found. They might be willing to duel swords with a slave, but they weren't willing to be ashamed and despised publicly.

The clarity of physical suffering was a price they would pay.

The sting of social shame was too sharp for their souls.

Verse 56 comes, and perhaps Peter was surprised. He falters, and he lies about knowing Jesus. But maybe he would be prepared for the challenge when it comes a second time. And it does come there in verse 58. But Peter again quickly dismisses it.

Maybe his head was still swirling from that first charge. Maybe he was still smarting from his first lie. Who knows what all was... he was witnessing around him that night, what all he could see. Was Jesus in His mistreatment clearly in His view the whole time?

We see in verse 59 now that Peter had, had an hour to steady himself, to sort through his thoughts, to reestablish his position.

Plenty of time to review his failures. A good time to renew his closer following of Christ.

But then when the man in verse 59 identifies Peter, presumably by his distinctively Galilean accent, Now, a third time in verse 60, Peter dodges the association. He lies. He just straight up lies. Man, I do not know what you're talking about.

I wonder with this third bite of the apple, was it becoming easier for Peter to lie or harder? Not told. Either way, we see here in verse 60, and immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord how He had said to him, 'Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.' and he went out and wept bitterly.

That little detail that this sound came immediately upon Peter's denial is in all four Gospels.

All four. This was a detail, no doubt, permanently seared in Peter's mind. It's interesting up in verse 50. Look up in verse 50. Luke just says, the one who cut off the ear of the chief priests' servants.

He doesn't name him. In fact, he isn't named in Mark or Matthew either. We only know this was Peter because John, writing his gospel probably a couple of decades after Peter's death, John names Peter. John, another eyewitness that night who was there who maybe remembers that clearly. We find out it was Peter.

We're not surprised. I mean, it sounds like Peter. If John hadn't named it, we would guess that's Peter. It sounds like his impetuous, active self, sincere, all-in, but we wouldn't know. But John tells us.

John tells us that that was Peter. But how different Peter's denial is. Yes, John lets us know of it. It's in John's Gospel too. But so too does Luke and Matthew and Mark, which I take to be It would be Peter's testimony.

And I assume that's because this was a central part of Peter's own understanding of himself forever after that night. This is what Peter knew most about himself. I think of Paul writing to the Corinthians when he writes 1 Corinthians 15, I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.

Because I persecuted the church of God. So too Peter must have had graven in his soul his own treachery to Jesus. And out of all times when he was taken and when his sufferings began.

I was so struck by this the other day I woke up at like 2:00 in the morning and read 1st and 2nd Peter through a couple of times, just to note all the mentions of the suffering. How much Peter talks about Jesus' suffering. It's like it's always on his mind. And I don't think he's thinking like a theologian later, like the humiliation, that's all of his incarnate experience, that is Christ's suffering, it's certainly true, we can appreciate that and think about it. I think he's thinking about one night.

I think he's thinking about one time. I think he's thinking about what we see here, this through the cross. That's what he's thinking of, and it is emblazoned on his soul because it is seared in his memory. Last Sunday I had the joy of preaching installation for Jonathan Kiesling at KasoUth Street, and that church sent us a very warm letter of thanks and co-laboring in the gospel. But what I preached is this passage.

But when I preached it, I focused on other things, but I thought of it when I read it, that 1 Peter 5, where Peter writes, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. When he's trying to present who he is, he's an elder, and the other main qualification he has is where he was that one time, that one night out of his whole life. I was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. And what a witness he was.

He could remember Jesus being reviled and mocked and blasphemed. Peter wrote of Jesus that night in 1 Peter 2, When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

You know, certain sounds and sights, or even memories of them, can recreate with astounding vividness a particular situation. That's what I think is Peter's experience in life. Immediately here in verse 60, while Peter was still speaking, is in every gospel, because I'm guessing Peter couldn't speak of this very center of his faith, Christ's sufferings, without remembering his own craven betrayal of Jesus, his denial of him that same evening. Look again at verse 60. But Peter said, 'Man, I do not know what you're talking about.' and immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

He hears it, and the Lord turned. He somehow was within sight of Jesus. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, 'Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.' and he went out and wept bitterly. As I reflected on this this week, I thought it seems like those whom God uses greatly, like Peter, or like Paul, are those who have the sharpest sense of their own desert of God's justice, and therefore the sharpest sense of God's grace.

Like the fullness in John Newton's heart that caused it to swell over in those immortal words, Amazing grace, that is, grace that is so unexpected, so undeserved, It confuses, it confounds, it astounds, it amazes me, amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. While Jesus was entering His sufferings for His own, even the closest of His own, His friends, perhaps His best friend, was ashamed of Him and denied Him repeatedly. Throughout the night, the eclipse of God's goodness and light comes on as Jesus was entering more fully into the depths of His baptism. His full identification with convicted sinners and all that we deserve. Jesus suffers agony He does not deserve, while even His own disciples steal asleep that was not theirs.

Then Judas betrays Jesus and so divides him from his followers. Some follow at a distance, but then Jesus is led like a captive, and then even his friends desert and deny him.

In fact, earlier in the evening, Jesus had said to them, Behold, the hour is coming, and indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. And finally, we're left just with the last few verses of our passage for this morning, where Jesus is alone before those who should have reverence and served him. Instead, they mocked and beat him. This is the fourth in the series of events the authorities mocked him. Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody, I mean, friends, those words alone, you could just wait and meditate on this afternoon.

Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him as they beat Him.

They also blindfolded Him and kept asking Him, 'Prophesy, who is it that struck you?' and they said, 'Many. Other things against Him, blaspheming Him.

Never has one so innocent be treated as one so guilty. All the injustices in our own lives, or that we've read of, or that have happened to people that we know, or have learned through history, have altogether not been equal to the injustice being done here this night in these few verses. The one who chooses to stay being held in custody. The one who should have been extolled in praise being mocked in derision. The one who should have been loved and served being stricken and beaten.

The one who knows all all being blindfolded, the truth himself being questioned, mockingly calling on the one to prophesy whose word did in fact make the world and sustain it, the Lord over every breath, even every breath his captors breathed that night.

As he would soon say to Pilate, the Roman governor, you would have no authority over me at all. Unless it had been given to you from above. They jeered at him that he was ignorant of who struck him when they were ignorant of who they were striking.

They said many things against him when all their words should have been used for him, listing his goodnesses and his mercies, his acts of justice and of love, which even Psalm 119 does not begin to sufficiently cover. They blasphemed him whom they should have worshiped. But you see, you see what Jesus is doing even here. Jesus is assuming our nature. In his incarnation, which we celebrate at Christmas, the Son of God was born not to lead a charmed life of miracles, rainbows, and butterflies.

He was identifying with the chosen people from among the fallen sons of Adam, assuming their nature, our nature fully in order to redeem us. This suffering here is the suffering we have deserved for our sins against God.

Jesus didn't deserve this in himself. But in His supernatural union with us, He takes on our sin and receives the punishment we've deserved and gives us His righteousness, His life of perfect love and trust in His heavenly Father. And that's always been the plan.

In some ways, the sharpest verses in our passage are these final ones.

As Jesus sinks into our punishment, as the authorities mocked Him. So Jesus' disciples ignored Him. His treasurer, Judas, betrayed Him. His good friend Peter denied Him. The authorities mocked Him.

Has this passage, just reading it and rereading it this morning, helped you to understand more of Jesus, who He is, of what He's come to do?

To me this week, one of the most striking verses is that verse 61 where the Lord turned and looked at Peter. What must that gaze have been like?

I could say something like caught red-handedly. But that's too comical. We think of children with a hand in a cookie jar. Friends, this is a million times worse than that.

What will we realize that he knows when our eyes finally meet his own on that day? Because the day is coming when that gaze will fall on each one of us.

Can you imagine in his looking at you His gaze conveying even more than conviction, love. Even more than shame of your sin, His acceptance of you.

Even more than sorrow at your disobedience, joy at the renewed fellowship. Even more than fear of punishment deserved, hope of punishment taken, even more than regret of what's been done, anticipation of what's to come.

Christian, we can only dimly conceive of all the goodness that God has for us in Christ.

Theologically, the sharpest verse in our passage is verse 42. If you've not been led out of thinking of this night only as a tragedy, it is this verse that has to change your understanding. Here the veil covering the relation in God Himself between the Father and the Son is momentarily drawn back enough to let us wonder at the love that planned and the love that brought about our own salvation. It was the Father's will for Jesus to drink this cup of suffering. This cup, Jesus refers to in verse 42, is the cup of God's wrath, which the nations drink in judgment later in the book of Revelation we'll see.

It's the cup of God's wrath which He prepared for His wayward people. We read of in Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is the cup which you and I have prepared by our own sins. And it's this very cup that Jesus has drunk to the very dregs. So that there is none left for us to drink.

Can you conceive of that? None left for us to drink.

Are you seeing this night as awful and violent and fearful as it was in other hues now? Can you see something of the goodness and greatness of the plan which God was bringing about, a plan for our good, yes, and also for His own glory as His character of both holiness mercy and grace is about to be supremely displayed for all creation to see.

Here we see just how fully human Jesus was. Verse 42, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done. You see, as a man, He preferred not accepting this coming punishment. Just the tip of the iceberg of which would be the suffering that we could imagine seeing with our eyes.

The depths of it would be in his soul knowing spiritual condemnation for spiritual crimes against God and those made in his image. The countless mistrusts and cruel supposings against a God who is only an ever good toward his own. Giving us life and new life now in Christ, all of this is perfectly loving and trusting human nature drew back from, as naturally as the hand pulls back from the flame. But His considered response in that self-same second is for God's will, the one will of the Father and the Spirit and Himself the Son to be done. That is the greater good that Jesus Christ fully God and fully man freely chooses to participate in.

As he had earlier taught, I am the good shepherd, I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father.

The first Adam in the Garden of Eden had chosen his will above God's, thus bringing death. Now the second Adam in the Garden of Gethsemane chose to follow God's will, thus bringing life. Not my will, but yours be done.

Mysteriously, as we observed earlier this year, in Job's life, so here in Jesus, God's sovereign plan includes almost unbelievable misfortunes and unbearable injustices. And yet, even this text ending in those made in his very image blaspheming him is not beyond the limits of God's plans. None of this would we ever know if Christ had merely mutely gone through this evening and if God's Spirit had never inspired his written word through which we read of what happened and of what these happenings meant. This is why we give ourselves to sitting here the beginning of every week with the Bible open and somebody teaching us from it for an hour. Because life is not self-interpreting.

Its meaning is not obvious. You are not the great authority on what even your own experience means. That would be found in God who made you and in his word, which is why we so consistently submit ourselves to trying to understand the truth of it.

What is being said. He is the one who has made us and will judge us. It is his will we want to know and understand and do. And so his word about who he is and who we are and what he has done for us supremely in Christ is essential for us. So, friend, repent of your sins and trust in in God, what he has done for us in Christ, in his suffering and dying in the place of sinners like you and like me, and God raising him from the dead so that we can believe in him and so be counted as good, okay, righteous, accepted with God, forgiven of our sins, adopted as his sons and daughters forever.

That's what God is about doing in Christ here. This is the saving pleasure of God being worked out this terrible night all those years ago in a night of pain when the prayer retreat became a trap and the trap set in motion the exposure of human sin like never before brought our sinful rebellion against God to its high water mark.

And finally resulted in our eternal salvation as we live in love with God, forgiven and renewed forever and ever.

That's the larger story that this dark night is an essential part of.

Let's pray.

Lord God, you know how each one of us in our souls should be addressed by what yout have done in Christ.

We pray that yout Holy Spirit would now take youe truth and would apply it to our hearts. That you would turn us in conviction and in trust, in saving faith to the Lord Jesus. Free us from our sins. Draw us to Yourself. We pray in Christ's name, amen.