Going Out Into the Night

[i][ii]

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!”  The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he could mean.  The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table.  Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, “Who’s he talking about?”  So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”  Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.”  And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.  When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him.  Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.”  None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant.  Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor.  So Judas left at once, going out into the night.  As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him.  And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once.  John 13:21-32

I always worried about that exchange of bread; Jesus dipped the bread into the bowl, gave it to Judas intentionally, and then John (an eyewitness) records Satan entered into him.  My mind goes to possibilities such as whether Jesus caused Judas’ fall.  Did Judas know what he was doing?  Was he somehow duped into betraying Jesus?  Was Judas just a pawn in God’s game? 

But all these questions work against free will.  At the moment Jesus held forth the piece of bread to Judas it was still an offer of friendship; one man holding forth the gift of sustenance to another.  On a deeper level, the bread was the symbol Jesus had used earlier…the bread of life, which was being offered; Jesus was saying, my life is in your hands, brother.  This makes receiving the bread truly, as Jesus’ friend, or falsely, as traitor, a ball that was still in Judas’ court.  When Judas took the bread with betrayal still in his heart, it opened the path to his soul for Satan to take charge.  Inviting that, Judas went out into the night.

The epilogue to Judas’ treachery could’ve been written differently had his heart been bathed in repentance for even thinking of selling Jesus to the religious leaders for 30 pieces of silver.  Later Apostle Paul would write about this moment taking place in the hearts of would-be followers of Jesus:

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.  For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.  That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.  1 Corinthians 11:27-30

It gives a whole new perspective on the importance of communion to think in these ways about the possibility of our own connection with Judas when we treat God’s loaf and cup lightly. 

The opportunities are only two:

           ·      Life in the light of Christ

           ·      Death going out into the night.

For You Today

Sometimes “holy week” can turn our attention to details that miss the weighty center of what God is doing.  We can scurry around getting ready for the Easter parade, bonnets, colored eggs, and such, when the real target is eternal life.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[i] Title Image:   Judas being paid - Capella dei Scrovegni - Padua (Public Domain - via Wikimedia Commons)

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Learning to Be Out of Your Mind

[1]

One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again.  Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat.  When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away.  “He’s out of his mind,” they said.  But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by Satan, the prince of demons.  That’s where he gets the power to cast out demons.”   Mark 3:20-22^(NLT)

It’s not hard to imagine the aloneness Jesus experienced.  The Pharisees thought he had a demon, and his family thought he was daft…out of his mind.  The family wanted to take him home for rest…the Pharisees wanted a more permanent solution.

And what was Jesus’ crime?  Doing the work of the Father with all his heart!

There are several motives here that are all related and tied together that caused both the religious leaders and Jesus’ family to want to get him to chill-out.  There is fear, apathy, complacency…all of which are crippling to ministry. 

While fear may not be the kind of evil we normally associate with the Pharisees, it is still the opposite of faith in God, and therefore just as damaging to our spirit.  It all says Jesus was wrong…and that is blasphemy.

As we learned last week, there is a pathway connected with sin (the opposite of faith).  It starts with a decision against God’s will – like Jesus’ family figuring Jesus was out of His mind – or the Pharisees diagnosing Him with a demon.  The decision is disobedience to God’s will and results in deeds which you shouldn’t do…but also the lack of deeds that you should do.  Whether it is complacency, apathy or fear, the pathway ends in the same place…death.  It is spiritual death…the disconnect between you and God.

Your spiritual life can stand a lot of assault; God has promised much strength through His Word, Prayer and the support of fellow believers.  One thing the Christian’s individual spiritual health cannot live with is our own apathy, fear, or complacency.  Here’s how the medical community describes a person steeped in apathy, they have the:  lack of will to go on and the inability to care about the consequences[2]

Apathy’s spiritual death looks like giving up, and not caring about it at all!

Now for the hard part – churches can grow apathetic as well.  The excuses are so many it just wouldn’t do to list them all…I’ve used them, and so have you.  The point is, if you can’t imagine why anyone would give up on Jesus when he was deep into His Father’s work, just look around and tell me about the people who have given up on Jesus’ church.  And then tell me how that apathy, fear, and complacency has crippled the church you love.

There were two apathetic churches in the final chapters of Holy Scripture to which Jesus spoke a particularly harsh word of condemnation; the first was the church at Sardis:

“I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead.  Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead.  I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.  Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly.  Repent and turn to me again.   If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief. 

Revelation 3:1b-3^(NLT)

That was a dead church…they had lived on their reputation for so long they couldn’t even tell they were as lifeless as an empty sea shell.  Then there was Laodicea:

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish that you were one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!  Revelation 3:15-16^(NLT)

This group of believers had grown so cold and indifferent, their complacent apathy was sickening to Jesus.

I have found in my own life that discouragement, tiredness and having plenty of excuses at my fingertips will lead to apathy and giving up. 

But that is not the way of Christ.  Rather than being complacent, living on yesterday’s memories, chewing on today’s excuses, we ought to be out of our minds in the same way Jesus was; we should be about the Father’s business, stop complaining and give everything we’ve got for the work of the Kingdom, no matter what anyone else is doing.

Out of our minds?  Yes, exactly…out of ours, and into the mind of the One who died for us.  Paul put it this way:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 2:5^(NLT)

Let the church say “Amen”!

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] What is the Example of Apathy ^©Answers.com