Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

Series on Luke

VI The Invincibility of the Kingdom

D The Taken

Text: 22:47-53

Introduction

Once in the peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown said to Lucy, “Someone has said we should live every day as if it were the last day of our lives.” To this Lucy replied, “Aargh. This is the last day! I have only 24 hours to live!” And she screamed, “Help me! This is the last day! Help me! Aargh. Charlie Brown silently mused, “Some philosophies aren’t for everybody.” How would you live the last day of your life? We know how Jesus lived His. it is described in part in our text. How would you feel if on your last day all the outward indicators were stacked against you, betrayed, arrested, forsaken, Jesus describes this as the hour of His enemies and of the power of darkness. And how does our Savior react to this hour of darkness? With deliverance and with dedication.

I The Hour of Darkness

Consider first what Jesus means by the hour of darkness. It is first of all, an hour determined. It is the opportunity for evil to triumph. God has reserved this hour for Satan. He has shaped the history of peoples to give birth to this hour. He has not permitted them to tamper with the clock of history. He directed the battles of the Caesars, the conflicts of kings, the migrations of peoples, the world wars, the courses of stars and sun and moon, the change of epochs, and the the complex movements of all things in the world so that this hour would come. Satan must have this hour to unleash the full force of his evil intentions against the Savior. The Scripture must be fulfilled. The Savior has entered the strong man’s house to completely disarm him. This is secondly, an hour of darkness because it is the hour of devils. All of the angels are held back so that the devils can move upon Gethsamane and Golgotha. It is at this point that Matthew informs us that Jesus said to his disciples, Do you think i cannot call on my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels?12,000 angels! When David sinned in numbering the people the Lord sent a single angel. In three days 70,000 people died, and the angel stood with his sword extended over Jerusalem before David, truly repentant, sacrificed to God and the execution was stayed. In the days of Hezekiah God sent one angel and the boasting Assyrian, Sennacharib, lost 185,000 men in one night. And here is this ridiculous little band come to arrest the Savior. 12,000 angels and not one little finger moves. The hour of darkness must come. They will succeed in killing him, but he is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The power of darkness will only fulfill his plan to die for the sins of his people and deliver them forever. this is true because it is His love that sweats in the garden, that walks alone, that bleeds on the cross. So consider with me that this is an hour not only of darkness but of deliverance.

II The Hour of Deliverance

Here occurs the very last miraculous sign that Jesus performed, seemingly insignificant, apparently trivial but not so. This man is a slave, Malchus, servant of the high priest. All of Jesus’ miracles are intended to teach us a lesson. This one no less than the others. In those days in Israel the winds of change were blowing. The sect of the Essenes anticipating the kingdom of God had already outlawed slavery. Then Jesus came in fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isaiah, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God. The year of favor is the fiftieth, the Jubilee year in Israel in which the slaves are set free. And yet here comes the highest official in Judaism with his slave to arrest the Savior. Entirely apart from preventing an armed conflict Jesus has another reason for healing the ear of the slave. The slave has come to take captive the emancipator. But today he will hear with his ear. It is not enough to stop the swords. Jesus cannot say he is only a slave and it is only an ear. Of all the mountains He moved this may be the greatest. Jesus last miracle is due. There are no fireworks. There is no multitude to watch, but there is a slave and slaves He knows. He has come to free them. And so the compassion flows out. There are the slave drivers of Rome and Babylon and of the 20th century. His mission is to end slavery and all slavery in the end is service to sin and all sin is slavery. In this he teaches us that the little ones count, they must not be offended, and as if it were the very last day not only God’s mercy but God’s justice is served. This is the Jubilee, an hour of darkness, an hour of deliverance but also an hour of dedication.

III The Hour of Dedication

Here we see Jesus reacting to Judas’ betrayal. Behind these words is an abyss of disappointment. Judas is one of the twelve He has chosen. Jesus himself prayed in John 17, And of those you have given me i have lost none except the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The Son of God is the essence of harmony and perfection. As there were 12 tribes of Israel so their are 12 Apostles in the new Israel. Three is the number of God and four is the number of the world. His kingdom in the world is a kingdom of 12. The 12 patriarchs names are written upon the earthly house of Zion and the 12 Apostles’ names shall be written in the foundations of the new Jerusalem. Listen to the apostle John in Revelation 14 as he describes the people of God as 144,000 12 times 12 times a thousand, or listen to his description of the holy city 12,000 furlongs 12 gates,12 pearls,12 names 2 times 12 thrones, 2 times 12 elders, 12 times 12 cubits. Satan’s greatest temptation for Christ is breaking the circle. This is why the Bible says he entered into Judas. But remember when Jesus prayed in John 17 and said, None have i lost but the son of perdition, He also said, So that the Scripture would be fulfilled. In this hour He must dedicate himself anew to preserving the circle, and He knows that the circle will be unbroken only if he goes to the cross. Only then will there come a replacement, a new Apostle. It was not intended, it was not designed, it was not written that the circle would be unbroken without his atoning death. He knows he cannot have all 12 apart from His redeeming death. So what does this mean to us? The circle only includes us or our loved ones because he was faithful unto death. The question to Judas is a question to us. Do you choose not to be part of me Judas? Do you choose to break the circle. You cannot! But you can choose to be lost forever. This too is a fulfillment of the scripture and of God’s providential design.