On The Night He Was Betrayed
Sermon
The Victory of the Cross
Sermons for Lent and Holy Week
We are gathered here in the evening, after the sun is down, so perhaps we can use the darkness around us to better imagine the events which took place on this sacred night so long ago.
The story actually begins earlier in the day, when Jesus sends two disciples into Jerusalem to make preparations for the Passover meal. You may remember a sermon from a few weeks ago ("The Boy Who Ran Away") in which I mentioned that Jesus has to use an "underground" organization and secret signals to get safely around Jerusalem in these last days. In this case, the signal is a man carrying a jug of water - he is a secret sympathizer who will lead the disciples to the Upper Room. With spies and informers around every corner, Jesus and His friends can't be too careful as they prepare to enter Jerusalem on Maundy Thursday night.
Once the two disciples find this man and follow him to the Upper Room, it remains for Jesus and the twelve to come into the city. They wait until it is dark, and then they begin the twenty-minute walk down the Mount of Olives. They follow the winding road into the shadows of the Kidron valley and up the hill to Jerusalem, until they pass through the gate and enter the city.
The Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane lie to the east of the city, while the house which contained the Upper Room is on the southwestern side. This means that Jesus and His disciples had to walk all the way through the city along its twisting, narrow streets. He probably took a longer route than necessary in order to avoid passing near Pilate's temple guards.
If you've ever walked those streets in the old city of Jerusalem (particularly on a dark night), you know that they are a labyrinth, a complete mystery to all but the native born. It takes just a few minutes to get hopelessly lost in their maze. I'm sure, however, that Jesus walked briskly and knew exactly where He was going on that final, fateful night.
The city streets are no more than ten feet wide, bounded to the left and right by the walls of the houses, which border right on the edge of the street. As you come near the location of the Upper Room, you climb a number of steps which are built into the street. Jesus and the twelve kept walking up these steps until they reached the particular house which held the Upper Room.
They did not eat the Last Supper sitting at a table, as Leonardo da Vinci has painted it - that was a European custom. Instead, they followed Middle Eastern practice and lay on the floor before a three-sided table which sat low to the ground.
At some point during the meal, Jesus said that one of His disciples would betray Him. You can imagine the uproar and confusion which ensued, as the disciples all clamored to find out who it was: "Is it I, Lord?" They heard His chilling words: "[Concerning the one who is to betray Me], It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."
It might be useful on some other occasion to speculate on why Judas did it. For now, let me just say that Christ is most often betrayed not by outsiders who are enemies of the faith, but by Christians themselves. More harm is done to the cause of Christ by Christians who don't practice their faith or are tragically confused about its content, than is ever done by non-Christians bent on destroying the church from the outside. This pattern of "insider" betrayal began with Judas and continues to this day. That is why all of us must ask the question tonight: "Is it I, Lord; is it I?"
Jesus also took time on this Maundy Thursday night to wash His disciples' feet - a ritual which many churches are also performing tonight. Jesus gave His disciples a vivid reminder, a living parable for the servant life He was calling them to. Maundy Thursday is a good time to remember that we get it all wrong if we come to faith or come to the church asking what we can get out of it. The better question is: what can we give? By washing His disciples' feet, Jesus is telling us that to be His disciple, we should worry more about serving than being served.
Then Jesus came to that part of the meal which has become our sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In taking the Passover bread as He did, He hearkened back to the early days of Israel - back to the ancient law as given in Deuteronomy, where the unleavened bread is called the "bread of affliction" (16:3). Surely this was in Jesus' mind as He said the words which have become so familiar to us today: "Take this bread and eat, for this is My body which is broken for you ..."
Pay attention to those words when you hear them said tonight, because they contain an important lesson for faith. Tonight, Jesus is telling us to "take" what He is giving us. On other occasions and elsewhere in the gospels, He has told us to "follow" Him, and surely the Christian life involves our effort to imitate Him and follow in His ways as best we can.
But before we can do that, we first have to receive. We have to receive His love and His mercy as a gift - not as something we earn. The message is there in our communion words:
"Take this bread and eat ... Take this cup and drink ..." Take this faith which Jesus Christ is freely giving you tonight.
One more aspect of this Maundy Thursday night stands out, as Mark's gospel has presented it in our text this evening. It is that Jesus gave thanks - twice - and that He sang a hymn with the disciples before they left for the Mount of Olives.
Think about that for a moment. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus gave thanks. He sang a hymn. It shows that the faithful heart is never defeated. It shows that the world can take your body, your money, your health and whatever else; but only you can give it your spirit. Jesus kept His spirit until the end.
Someone has said that death was waiting outside the door as Jesus broke bread and shared the cup, but God was inside the door. Jesus knew that He could rely on God completely, not just to get Him through the ease of the day, but also through the terrors of the night. Trust in God for everything, and you will always have reason to be thankful. You will always have reason to rejoice, just as Jesus did on the night He was betrayed. Amen.
The story actually begins earlier in the day, when Jesus sends two disciples into Jerusalem to make preparations for the Passover meal. You may remember a sermon from a few weeks ago ("The Boy Who Ran Away") in which I mentioned that Jesus has to use an "underground" organization and secret signals to get safely around Jerusalem in these last days. In this case, the signal is a man carrying a jug of water - he is a secret sympathizer who will lead the disciples to the Upper Room. With spies and informers around every corner, Jesus and His friends can't be too careful as they prepare to enter Jerusalem on Maundy Thursday night.
Once the two disciples find this man and follow him to the Upper Room, it remains for Jesus and the twelve to come into the city. They wait until it is dark, and then they begin the twenty-minute walk down the Mount of Olives. They follow the winding road into the shadows of the Kidron valley and up the hill to Jerusalem, until they pass through the gate and enter the city.
The Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane lie to the east of the city, while the house which contained the Upper Room is on the southwestern side. This means that Jesus and His disciples had to walk all the way through the city along its twisting, narrow streets. He probably took a longer route than necessary in order to avoid passing near Pilate's temple guards.
If you've ever walked those streets in the old city of Jerusalem (particularly on a dark night), you know that they are a labyrinth, a complete mystery to all but the native born. It takes just a few minutes to get hopelessly lost in their maze. I'm sure, however, that Jesus walked briskly and knew exactly where He was going on that final, fateful night.
The city streets are no more than ten feet wide, bounded to the left and right by the walls of the houses, which border right on the edge of the street. As you come near the location of the Upper Room, you climb a number of steps which are built into the street. Jesus and the twelve kept walking up these steps until they reached the particular house which held the Upper Room.
They did not eat the Last Supper sitting at a table, as Leonardo da Vinci has painted it - that was a European custom. Instead, they followed Middle Eastern practice and lay on the floor before a three-sided table which sat low to the ground.
At some point during the meal, Jesus said that one of His disciples would betray Him. You can imagine the uproar and confusion which ensued, as the disciples all clamored to find out who it was: "Is it I, Lord?" They heard His chilling words: "[Concerning the one who is to betray Me], It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."
It might be useful on some other occasion to speculate on why Judas did it. For now, let me just say that Christ is most often betrayed not by outsiders who are enemies of the faith, but by Christians themselves. More harm is done to the cause of Christ by Christians who don't practice their faith or are tragically confused about its content, than is ever done by non-Christians bent on destroying the church from the outside. This pattern of "insider" betrayal began with Judas and continues to this day. That is why all of us must ask the question tonight: "Is it I, Lord; is it I?"
Jesus also took time on this Maundy Thursday night to wash His disciples' feet - a ritual which many churches are also performing tonight. Jesus gave His disciples a vivid reminder, a living parable for the servant life He was calling them to. Maundy Thursday is a good time to remember that we get it all wrong if we come to faith or come to the church asking what we can get out of it. The better question is: what can we give? By washing His disciples' feet, Jesus is telling us that to be His disciple, we should worry more about serving than being served.
Then Jesus came to that part of the meal which has become our sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In taking the Passover bread as He did, He hearkened back to the early days of Israel - back to the ancient law as given in Deuteronomy, where the unleavened bread is called the "bread of affliction" (16:3). Surely this was in Jesus' mind as He said the words which have become so familiar to us today: "Take this bread and eat, for this is My body which is broken for you ..."
Pay attention to those words when you hear them said tonight, because they contain an important lesson for faith. Tonight, Jesus is telling us to "take" what He is giving us. On other occasions and elsewhere in the gospels, He has told us to "follow" Him, and surely the Christian life involves our effort to imitate Him and follow in His ways as best we can.
But before we can do that, we first have to receive. We have to receive His love and His mercy as a gift - not as something we earn. The message is there in our communion words:
"Take this bread and eat ... Take this cup and drink ..." Take this faith which Jesus Christ is freely giving you tonight.
One more aspect of this Maundy Thursday night stands out, as Mark's gospel has presented it in our text this evening. It is that Jesus gave thanks - twice - and that He sang a hymn with the disciples before they left for the Mount of Olives.
Think about that for a moment. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus gave thanks. He sang a hymn. It shows that the faithful heart is never defeated. It shows that the world can take your body, your money, your health and whatever else; but only you can give it your spirit. Jesus kept His spirit until the end.
Someone has said that death was waiting outside the door as Jesus broke bread and shared the cup, but God was inside the door. Jesus knew that He could rely on God completely, not just to get Him through the ease of the day, but also through the terrors of the night. Trust in God for everything, and you will always have reason to be thankful. You will always have reason to rejoice, just as Jesus did on the night He was betrayed. Amen.
