Luke 22:39-23:56
Jesus
spoke to those who arrested Him, “But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”
(Luke 22:53b) There have been many a
dark day in the history of our world.
Adam and Eve didn’t know what spiritual darkness was until they ate from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The birth of darkness began to crest over the horizon of the Middle East. This is where the world’s first murder
occurred. Cain killed his brother. The blood of injustice screamed in the ears
of the Lord. “What have you done?” God
asked Cain. “Listen! Your brother’s
blood cries out to Me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10). Later, during Noah’s days, “The LORD saw how
great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5) We read in Exodus how the people of Israel
were enslaved for 400 years, being mistreated.
The nations around Israel practiced human sacrifice, even sacrificing
their own children. They turned their
backs on the one true God and worshipped false idols. Even some of the kings of Israel embraced
these ways of the nations. We read in
the Scripture about nations going to war with nations. It wasn’t just the soldiers who were
dying. Unborn babies were being ripped
from their mother’s womb. At this point
in history, it seems as if darkness was the norm. When someone like Hezekiah and David walked
righteously, it was a light that was too bright for the world to look at. The same was true for the prophets that were
killed. If you think cancel culture
today is bad, it’s nothing compared to what was happening in the Old Testament
days. If they didn’t like what a prophet
said, then they canceled their life. The
apostles were martyred because of what they said they witnessed. The church has been horribly persecuted. Since the day of Jesus’ resurrection, evil
has fed upon evil. Unjust wars have been
fought. Even God’s name had been used as
a banner for cleansing wars between religions.
Slavery became commonplace among many cultures. Our country was divided because of it. Hollywood tends to glorify the Civil War, but
it robbed children of their dads and robbed husbands from their wives. The death toll has been calculated as upwards
of 750,000. Darkness began to emanate
from more intellectual sources.
Evolution was fully embraced.
Racism existed before the time of Charles Darwin, but evolution provided
scientific justification. Mao Zedong,
Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler embraced evolution. It drove them in their quest for social
purity. Millions upon millions of people
have been killed because of them (2) (3).
In America, I believe darkness became more civilized, respectable and
invisible. In the privacy of a procedure
room, approximately 63 million babies have been aborted in America since 1973.
(4) The sexual revolution came and so
did pornography. This has been a very
hidden type of darkness even to this very day.
In our news, in recent years, we have seen riots, racism, injustice,
mass killings, and the list goes on and on.
I’ve talked with people who aren’t Christians and haven’t read the Bible,
and even they say that our nation is getting darker and darker. Our society is becoming more desperate. Evil has been happening in various forms
since the time that the fruit of trees looked delicious.
Darkness
doesn’t mean that God has no plan. It
doesn’t mean that it will stay dark forever.
The depressing feeling of darkness will not remain forever. The One who is light entered into our
darkness. So, our story starts with
Jesus praying. He was getting ready for
the weight of darkness to be placed on Him.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount
of Olives, and His disciples followed Him. On reaching the place, He said to
them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a
stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing,
take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” An angel from
heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. And being in anguish, He prayed
more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
When He rose from prayer and went
back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are
you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into
temptation.” – Luke 22:39-46
Jesus
knew what kind of darkness He had to face.
He was about to pay for everyone’s sins.
All the evils of the history of this world were about to be placed upon
Him. The disciples didn’t have a clue
what kind of dark hour they were about to enter. While there had been much darkness since the
beginning of our world, the world had no clue as to what kind of darkness would
happen in the next figurative hour.
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, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying
the Son of Man with a kiss?”
When Jesus’ followers saw what was
going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one
of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
But Jesus answered, “No more of
this!” And He touched the man’s ear and healed him.
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? 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.” – Luke 22:47-53
Even
though our world has had a history of darkness, there was something especially
dark about that day. There would be a
moment in which it would seem that darkness had won. It would appear that evil had triumphed. But it would only be for a moment. In Geneses 3:15, God would condemn the
serpent, “He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” An offspring of Eve would be struck, but only
for a moment. There would be someone
coming who would crush the head of the serpent.
Then seizing Him, they led Him away
and took Him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But
when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down
together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the
firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with Him.”
But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t
know Him,” he said.
A little later someone else saw him
and said, “You also are one of them.”
“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.
About an hour later another asserted,
“Certainly this fellow was with Him, for he is a Galilean.”
Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know
what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The
Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the
Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown Me
three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. – Luke 22:54-62
Darkness
is a magnet for more darkness. It was a
dark hour in which Peter’s Lord is taken away to be tried and crucified. In a moment of weakness, he gave into
fear. That happens to us. When we go through dark times, we do dark
things. But Jesus even paid for our
sinful, faithless responses that we had to the dark times. This past week, if we didn’t do what God has
told us to do, we need to remember that He paid for that act of disobedience as
well. Sunlight is a good thing. But when you first wake up in the morning,
you don’t want to go to the light. You
might not want to fling the curtains open and face the sun rising out of the
east. It’s more comfortable to sit in
the darkness for a little while. But,
the more you sit in the darkness, the more you will avoid going to something
that is good for you. Peter was in deep
darkness at this point. He made a
promise to Jesus, “‘Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will.’”
(Matthew 26:33) Then he ended up denying
Him anyway.
The men who were guarding Jesus began
mocking and beating Him. They blindfolded Him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit
You?” And they said many other insulting things to Him.
At daybreak the council of the elders
of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and
Jesus was led before them. “If You are the Christ,” they said, “tell us.”
Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you
will not believe Me, and if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on,
the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”
They all asked, “Are You then the Son
of God?”
He replied, “You are right in saying
I am.”
Then they said, “Why do we need any
more testimony? We have heard it from His own lips.”
Then the whole assembly rose and led
Him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We have found this
man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to
be Christ, a king.”
So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the
king of the Jews?”
“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus
replied.
Then Pilate announced to the chief
priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”
But they insisted, “He stirs up the
people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all
the way here.”
On hearing this, Pilate asked if the
man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction,
he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly
pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see Him. From what he
had heard about Him, he hoped to see Him perform some miracle. He plied Him
with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers
of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing Him. Then Herod and his
soldiers ridiculed and mocked Him. Dressing Him in an elegant robe, they sent
Him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they
had been enemies. – Luke 22:63–23:12
Jesus
doesn’t answer all of our questions. He
doesn’t have to. Herod had many
questions but Jesus gave no answer. I’ve
talked with countless people who have questions about God. Some have questions because they’re seeking
the truth. Other have questions because
they want to find fault with God. The
second kind of person is never satisfied with any answer. Jesus told Nicodemus, “This is the verdict:
Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because
their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
Pilate called together the chief
priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man
as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined Him in your
presence and have found no basis for your charges against Him. Neither has
Herod, for he sent Him back to us; as you can see, He has done nothing to
deserve death. Therefore, I will punish Him and then release Him.”
With one voice they cried out, “Away
with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” (Barabbas had been thrown into prison
for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate
appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
For the third time he spoke to them: “Why?
What crime has this man committed? I have found in Him no grounds for the death
penalty. Therefore I will have Him punished and then release Him.”
But with loud shouts they insistently
demanded that He be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to
grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for
insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their
will. – Luke 23:13-25
Paul
said that Jesus became sin for us and that we became the righteousness of God
in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). An exchange
happened. Jesus was exchanged for Barabbas. An innocent man was sent to be punished. A guilty man was set free. In a person’s moment of decision to accept
God’s forgiveness, I will share a scenario something like this: “Imagine that you’re standing before a judge,
and he declares you guilty of murder.
All the evidence is against you.
But he tells you something shocking, ‘Someone you don’t know or care
anything about came to us earlier. The
law allows for someone to die in place of a murderer. You didn’t ask for him to die for you but he
already did. You have a choice. You can reject his offer, then you will
receive the death penalty. Or you can
accept what he did for you, sign this document, and walk out of here a free man
today.’” As I continue with the person
I’m sharing with, “Because of your sin you deserve God’s judgment. You’re going to face the death penalty. But, Jesus, someone you didn’t know or even
care about died in your place. He didn’t
ask for your permission. He did it
anyway. Can you think of any good reason
why you wouldn’t want to receive the payment He made for you? Can you think of any good reason why you
wouldn’t want to walk away from here a free man today?”
As they led Him away, they seized
Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on
him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed Him,
including women who mourned and wailed for Him. Jesus turned and said to them,
“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me; weep for yourselves and for your
children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren
women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then
“ ‘they will say to the
mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’
For if men do these things when the
tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Two other men, both criminals, were
also led out with Him to be executed. When they came to the place called the
Skull, there they crucified Him, along with the criminals—one on His right, the
other on His left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what
they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the
rulers even sneered at Him. They said, “He saved others; let Him save Himself
if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked
Him. They offered Him wine vinegar and said, “If You are the king of the Jews,
save Yourself.”
There was a written notice above Him,
which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
One of the criminals who hung there
hurled insults at Him: “Aren’t You the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him.
“Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are
punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has
done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me
when You come into Your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the
truth, today you will be with Me in paradise.” – Luke 23:26-43
When
I get into a bad place I will look out for number one…me. But even when Jesus was in such a dark place,
He was thinking of other peoples’ interests as more important than His
own. “God is light”, as the apostle John
said, “and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) Even in the darkest hour, His light couldn’t
be snuffed out. He is the same today as
He was when He was on the cross. If you
light a match and shine a flashlight on it, then you’ll see the shadow of the
match, but the flame has no shadow.
It was now about the sixth hour, and
darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped
shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a
loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” When He had said
this, He breathed His last.
The centurion, seeing what had
happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the
people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their
breasts and went away. But all those who knew Him, including the women who had
followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Now there was a man named Joseph, a
member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their
decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting
for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took
it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one
in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was
about to begin.
The women who had come with Jesus
from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His body was laid in it. Then
they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath
in obedience to the commandment. – Luke 23:44-56
I’m
not a patient person. If I was one of
the disciples I would have wanted resolution.
I don’t like being in limbo. They
had to wait. At that moment, Jesus was
doing what they could not. They could
not defeat the darkness. They could not
crush the serpent’s head. They could not
take the weight of world’s sins upon their shoulders. Max loves to read, but he sometimes doesn’t
have the patience to wait until the end to see what happens. He will sometimes read the end of the book
first, then he’ll go back to the beginning.
The disciples didn’t have that luxury.
We don’t have that luxury as we go through dark times as well. We want the pain to be over. We want the relationship issue to be
resolved. We want our loved one to be
healed. But we have to wait. One of the darkest times I’ve gone through
was when Sarah was in the hospital for a month because of MRSA pneumonia. I feared that we would lose her. And we could have, even at the young age of
15 months. We had to wait. God, and the doctors, had to do what only
they could do. It was torture. I remember feeling like I wish I could have
taken her place. I would have taken the
sickness for her. But that was beyond
what I could do. But this wasn’t true
for Jesus. Not only did He see the sin
that we were suffering with, He also could do something about it. Since He was God, He could take our
place. If He was just a man, He could
not.
As
we look through the history of how God has interacted with man, we see that
darkness will not go on forever. Where
there is hatred, He brings love. Where
there is division, He brings peace.
Where there is depression, He brings joy. Where there is death, He brings life. These are the ways of God.
When
God saw the darkness of man in the story of Noah, what was the first thing He
felt? It would be normal to think that
it was anger. It wasn’t. It was grief.
The Bible says that, “The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the
earth, and His heart was filled with pain.” (Genesis 6:6) When we sin, we need to remember this. If we’ve been in the darkness, it’s easier to
stay in the darkness. We don’t want to
approach the light. If we understand
that God’s first reaction to our sin is pain and not anger, then it helps. As
the author of Hebrews said, to “approach the throne of grace with confidence,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
(Hebrews 4:16)
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