The Plans of Heaven and Hell

Series on Luke

VI The Invincibility of the Kingdom

A Traitor

Text:22:1-6

Introduction

We now enter the last phase of Luke’s gospel. It is the tearful tale of the trials and triumph of our Savior, but always before us is the invincibility of his kingdom. This is true even with regard to the opening verses in 22:1-6 which focus on the traitor, Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present. Let us peruse the scene. The crowds have gathered at Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They are enormous because every Jew within fifteen miles is required to attend, and it is the ambition of Jews in every part of the world to come at least once to Jerusalem for the passover. In Nero’s day Josephus reports that the number of lambs sacrificed was over a quarter of a million. Some have estimated that this means over two million pilgrims had come. Surely the multitude that came to hear Jesus teach at the end of Chapter 21 was in the thousands. No wonder the Sanhedrin was afraid to stir up a revolt. According to Matthew 26 they had already agreed to kill Him but to avoid a riot they had decided to do nothing until the feast was over, but there was a danger he would then escape. Judas proposal came as a pleasant surprise. They delighted over the devilish development. The text says they wanted to get rid of him. It is the Greek expression for assassination. They wanted to rub him out, eliminate him. What we have in the account of the traitor is a contrast between the plans of heaven and hell. The invincibility of Jesus’ kingdom is demonstrated in the folly of Satan’s scheme.

I The Wicked Communion

We are told that they discussed how Judas might betray Jesus in verse 4. They hatched their plan. The King Jams Versions with the grandeur of poetic irony, says they communed. The fellowship of hell is no fellowship at all. In hell there is no communion. God also had a plan. God’s purpose in sending his son was to save lost sinners. Their plan to stop Christ was exactly what God had ordained. Ironically the high priest later summed up their sentiments when he said It is expedient that one man die for the people. In other words, get rid of the troublemaker. But, there was what theologians call the inter-Trinitarian counsel of salvation. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had communed, and their plan was that Jesus should die as the sacrifice for our sins and not as a miserable victim. He is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The lesson we learn is that man proposes but God disposes. We come to the communion table regularly because their plan not only failed, it became the instrument of fulfilling god’s plan. Proverbs 19:21 declares, Many are the plans in a man’s heart but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

II The Worthless Covenant

Our New International translation says that they made an agreement, but according to the King James Translation they made a covenant. Again the old translation contains an irony because it contrasts this worthless covenant with the covenant of God. The agreement of Judas and the Sanhedrin is just another of the endless self-serving human manipulations. It maintained the power of the Sanhedrin and satisfied Judas’ greed. When we celebrate God’s covenant of grace in the Lord’s Supper it is not self-serving but sacrificial. This was a cheap agreement for the Sanhedrin, a cheap price set on the head of God. There is nothing cheap about God’s agreement to save us. It cost him the death of his only Son. There is a passage in Matthew 27 in which we read that Judas later came and confessed that he had betrayed innocent blood and threw the money down at the feet of the chief priests and elders. Then he hanged himself. The chief priests in their prim little way said to themselves we can’t put this money into the treasury, it’s blood money so they bought a field to bury strangers. It was called forever after, Acheldema, the field of blood. Neither the blood of Judas nor the blood of his employers would make any difference. All the blood of bulls and goats shed in the Old Testament could not wash away our sin, it was animal blood. All the blood of righteous men shed from the dawn of creation could not wash away one sin, it was sinners’ blood. But the blood of Jesus was without blemish and without spot because He never sinned. The blood of Jesus cleanses because it is the worthy atonement which which propitiates God’s wrath and justifies us forever. Here is a plan fulfilled. Here is a covenant sealed with the blood of God’s only son.

III The Woeful Consent

Judas’ consent was a choice. It is true that it was planned from eternity, and it was prophesied in the Old Testament, but all our actions are part of the plan. That does not mean we are not choosing and it does not mean we are not responsible for our choices. As Jesus was choosing to suffer, Judas was choosing to escape suffering. As Jesus faced the punishment we deserve, Judas calculated a way to avoid it. It is a lifestyle choice, and an ultimate choice. One choice leads to eternal life and the other to everlasting death. The communion table is a table of choice. It is God’s choice to love, to forgive, to save. We need do no more than partake in faith, but in so doing we are making a choice, our choice. Having chosen to eat we have also chosen something else. Moishe Rosen put it this way in a recent article entitled “The Comfortable Cross.” He pictured a store selling crosses, called Moe’s Emporium for new and improved crosses. The crosses are no longer made of wood, so there are no splinters, They are lacquered to stay shiny.They are no longer rigid, but made of flexible plastic. They bend to your lifestyle.They can also be shaped like a crescent and star if you are with Muslims or a Star of David if you are with Jewish people. They come with a pillow because you will need it. You see you don’t carry this cross, it carries you. it’s motorized. So if you have to carry a cross, make sure you get one of the new and improved ones. The point is, dear friends, there is no such thing as a comfortable cross. The cross we take up in committing to Jesus is the kind on which Jesus died. It is a choice isn’t it? Jesus said so in Luke 9:23-25, Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?