The Good News of Jesus
03/07/2010 - We Got Him!
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him!" I'll never forget where I was when I heard those words on the radio for the very first time. I was in my car driving to the Audubon YMCA to get ready for our worship gatherings early on Sunday morning, December 14, 2003. The words were spoken at a press conference given by L. Paul Bremer III, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, and "the him" that they got was Saddam Hussein.
Hussein was actually taken into custody at 8:30 on Saturday night when he was found hiding at the bottom of a hole in a village near his hometown of Tikrit. After it was discovered that he was in that area about 600 coalition forces launched Operation Red Dawn to find him and if necessary kill him. But it wasn't necessary. Instead, Hussein offered no resistance and not a shot was fired. He was taken out of that hole to an undisclosed location, eventually given a trial in Baghdad, and executed for his crimes against humanity shortly before dawn on December 30, 2006.
Getting Saddam Hussein was a big thing. There was a $25 million bounty on his head. Bringing him to justice was one of the stated goals of the Iraqi war. But it wasn't the only goal. Along with Hussein a whole of list of others was compiled and their faces were printed up on a deck of playing cards to help our troops identify who they were.
These are the four aces, but there were 55 cards in the deck, all most wanted members of Saddam's regime. His face was on the ace of spades and his first cousin, "Chemical Ali," was on the king of spades and there were cards for the Minister of Defense and the Director of Intelligence and scientists and commanders and advisors, all the way down from greatest to least.
You see it wasn't enough to capture and execute Saddam Hussein. He was the ring leader, but all his cronies needed to be rounded up as well if the evil regime was going to be stopped.
This morning, the religious leaders in Jerusalem are going to hold a press conference and say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him!" Only "the him" this time is going to be Jesus Christ. He's the target of Operation Red Dawn and a group of coalition forces are going to come together and capture him. But they're not only interested in him. They want to seize his cronies too and stop this movement that has become so threatening to them all.
If you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 14:43 as we look at the arrest of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
Remember this is Passion Week, Holy Week, and we've been counting down the days until Jesus' crucifixion. It all started with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and then the cleansing of the Temple on Monday, and then an exhausting day of questions and interrogation on Tuesday along with his Olivet Discourse on the destruction of the Temple and the end of the world at least as the Jewish people knew it, his anointing by Mary at Bethany on Wednesday, and his observance of the Passover and the Last Supper with his disciples on Thursday night.
We've been counting down the days to his crucifixion and now we're counting down the hours. The Passover meal is finished. Judas has gone out to do his evil deed and Jesus has taken his friends to a garden called Gethsemane, the "olive press," where he's feeling the press and the weight of the world heavy on his shoulders. He's collapsed on the ground, rolling around in the dirt, wrestling alone with God over the cup that he must drink. Three times he cries out to his Daddy, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done."
And while Jesus is crying out, sweating great drops of blood, his friends are snoring, fast asleep. So he goes through his agony alone in the garden, except for an angel that Luke tells us is sent by God to strengthen him.
"And now the hour has come," he says. "Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"
And right on cue Judas enters the garden leading Operation Red Dawn. Look at Mark 14:43, Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. Judas arrives with his armed posse, but unlike Saddam Hussein Jesus doesn't crawl in a hole to hide somewhere he boldly goes out to meet his accusers.
Look at verse 44, Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard." 45Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Rabbi!" and kissed him.
Now in our culture kissing Jesus sounds like a weird signal to give, but not back then. It was common for men to greet one another with a kiss on the cheek as it still is today in some European cultures. And kissing a rabbi on the cheek was a sign of respect and affection, which makes it that much more sinister and diabolical. In fact, Luke adds that just before Judas plants the kiss Jesus looks him in the eye and says, "Judas, are you going to betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" Are you really going to do it this way? How about a simple, "There he is or get that one?"
No, Jesus isn't going to hide in a hole or take off running up the Mount Olives or disappear down into the Black Valley, instead he's going to step forward, right up front, and shield his friends. He knows that if he doesn't protect his disciples their faces could end up on a deck of playing cards too because after they get Jesus they're going to go after his companions. And the future of the whole movement relies on them. "Kill me if you want, but don't kill them!"
John adds this interesting detail to the encounter in his gospel when he writes these words in John 18:4-9, Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?" 5"Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, "Who is it you want?" 7"Jesus of Nazareth," they said. 8Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go." 9This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: "I have not lost one of those you gave me."
Once again, we see Jesus in total control of the chaos that's going on all around him. He knows what's going to happen and asks them who they want. And when they say, "Jesus of Nazareth," he says, "I am." There is no "he" in the Greek text. He simply says, "Ego eimi," "I am," which was the Jewish name for God and takes us all the way back to Exodus 3 when Moses asks God his name and Jehovah says, "I am who I am." And so when Jesus reveals his deity they all fall back to the ground. They have no power over him unless he willingly gives it to them. It's pretty clear who's running the show! He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords even in his arrest and execution.
And so he waits for them to get up and dust themselves off and asks them again, "Who is it you want?" "Jesus of Nazareth," they say. I told you, "I am. And if you're looking for me let these men go." You can take me, but don't take them. So we have Jesus, the good shepherd, protecting his sheep right up until the end.
Look at verse 46, The men seized Jesus and arrested him. 47Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
Mark doesn't tell us who that person was, but John does. So we read further in John 18:10-11, Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus, which by the way means "My King.") 11Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
Leave it to Peter to pull out a sword and whack the guy's ear off. But I don't think he was aiming at his ear, I think he was aiming at his head. Peter didn't want to take his ear off. He wanted to take his head off. But before we get on Peter's case I think he might have thought, "This is it. This is the show down. This is our time to step up and protect Jesus. I'm ready to lay my life down for him. Who wants to join me?"
After all, before they left the upper room that night Luke tells us that Jesus told them to take swords. He said to them in Luke 22:35-38, Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?" "Nothing," they answered. 36He 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. 37It is written, 'And he was numbered with the transgressors' and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment." 38The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords." "That is enough," he replied.
Jesus had said "bring swords" and Peter thought those swords were what they needed to protect Jesus. So he was ready to use his. But after he does Jesus says, "Put it away. What are you doing?"
And then he adds in Matthew 26:53-54, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
The Scriptures. The Scriptures. The Scriptures. Fulfilling the Scriptures is what this is all about. It's not about what Peter wants or even what Jesus wants. It's about fulfilling the will of God as written in the Scriptures. That's what's most important to Jesus and so as we move towards the cross we find him quoting more and more of the Scriptures from Zechariah and Isaiah and the Psalms. This is God's plan for salvation devised before the foundation of the world and Jesus is out to fulfill it.
He could have called twelve legions of angels, 72,000 of them, to come to his defense if that's what he wanted. But coming to his defense isn't what this is about. This is all about Jesus fulfilling his mission to save and reconcile and redeem the world, you and me included, and none of that could have happened if he chose to save himself. The stakes are really high here and Jesus has to be laser focused and on top of his game. And so his mind is always going to the Scriptures.
"No more of this!" Jesus said. And he touched the man's ear and healed him, Luke 22:51. How amazing is that? In the midst of his arrest and all this chaos in the darkness Jesus is still healing people, healing his enemy, Malchus, the servant of the high priest who I can only imagine must have come to faith after this miracle. "He put my ear back on!" Imagine what would have happened if Peter had taken his head off. "He put my head back on!" Jesus could do that if he wanted too.
Look at verse 48, "Am I leading a rebellion," said Jesus, "that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? 49Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled."
There it is again. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. What does that do for you? I know what that does for me. It gives me confidence in this book. I believe the Scriptures both the Old and New Testament are the inspired Word of God. I believe that they are true in everything they affirm.
We value the Scriptures around here because Jesus valued the Scriptures. We prioritize the Scriptures because Jesus prioritized the Scriptures. We teach them week in and week out. We sing them back to God like we did today with Psalm 121. We read them on our own. Some we choose to memorize. We reflect on them and discuss them with others. But most of all, like Jesus, we want to fulfill them. We want to live them out. We want to do them. We want to "be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving ourselves," as James says. And Jesus is the model of that. He is doing the Word right up to the end.
Look at verse 50,Then everyone deserted him and fled. Again, just as the Scriptures said, "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." Jesus is left alone with this angry mob and taken to the house of the high priest for the first of six mock trials that will keep him up all night. But he did his job in the garden. He accomplished his two-fold mission there. He wrestled with God and submitted his will to his Daddy's will and he protected his friends, kept them safe as they stole away into the night.
Luke ends his account of this episode with these haunting words of Jesus in Luke 22:53, "Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—the hour when darkness reigns." And darkness did reign that night, but it would get even worse before it gets better.
Mark ends his garden account with an odd picture. Look at verse 51, A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, 52he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.
What's that about? I'm not exactly sure, but many commentators believe the young man described here is Mark, the writer of this gospel. Remember Mark was not one of the twelve apostles. Instead, he got his material from Peter. But he may have been watching these events unfold in the garden.
In his comments on this passage William Barclay writes, "We know from the book of Acts that the early church in Jerusalem met in the house of Mary, the mother of Mark. And so it's at least probable that the upper room where Jesus ate his Last Supper was in that same house. It may be that Mark was actually present at the Last Supper. He was young boy at the time and maybe no one really noticed him. But he was fascinated with Jesus and when the company when out into the dark, he slipped out after them when he ought to have been in bed, with only the linen sheet over his naked body.
"It may be that all the time Mark was there in the shadows listening and watching. That would explain where the Gethsemane narrative came from. If the disciples were all asleep how did anyone know about the struggle of soul that Jesus had there? It may be that the one witness was Mark as he stood silent in the shadows, watching with a boy's reverence the greatest hero he had ever known.
"Mark may have inserted these two verses because they were about himself. He could never forget that night. He was too humble to put his own name in but in this way he wrote his signature, and said, to all who could read between the lines, 'I, too, when I was a boy, was there.'"
We don't know for sure if the young man was Mark, but we do know that Mark bears witness in his gospel to the truth of all these events. And that's what we get to do now as a faith community. We get to bear witness to the truth of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.
And we do it through the way he instructed us, through the Lord's Table. If you are a follower of Jesus this morning, if you believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, then you are welcome to the table. You are invited to proclaim through the bread and the cup that his death was not in vain, but he has rescued you from the penalty and the power and one day from the very presence of sin.