Episode 488

TODAY’S READING

While he was still speaking, a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?”

And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.

Luke 22:47-53

 

This is your hour when darkness reigns. He is speaking straight to these leaders. These are the leaders of the Jewish community here in Jerusalem, and He is calling them out for exactly what has happened. He was with them every single day this past week, preaching at the temple, and yet now when there isn’t a crowd when there is a no one to show face to when there is nothing to answer to. They decided to come and steal and arrest Jesus. And so, there was a couple of different things that we needed to highlight from the story. The first is that Jesus was betrayed, and Betrayal hurts, and it happens in real life with our friends and our family. It happens online with strangers, and it happens at work. 

 

It happens at our kids’ school, and we always face a new season of people that we come into contact with, and those people are going to let us down one way or another because no one is perfect. And so we have to remember that we are not fighting flesh and blood, but we’re fighting the enemy that lurks in temps and pokes at us and provokes us and gets us angry. And allows us to, you know, talk about other people and gossip around behind their back. And so we need to be extremely strong and walk in righteousness and understand that when something happens or hurts us, our reaction should not be to rebel. But it should mimic what Jesus did. And Jesus’ reaction was to heal, not to further provoke, so there’s always a chance to pray over the people who hurt us. There’s always a chance to ask for healing for that person, for that person to become better, for that person to recognize where they are hurting others or where they are hurting you. And that comes through communication between you and that person and communication and prayer between you and our father. And then beyond that, there is a deeper lesson here that I liked, and that was that we have to recognize the hour in which the enemy attacks and provokes and tempts people to betray their friends and family or to hurt other people in the hour of darkness. And so, online cyberbullies live in direct messages and rude bosses. They show up in emails. No one fights in front of each other’s faces. 

 

It’s more and more these days; it happens behind the text that happens behind screens that happen in a place where they can come and steal your piece. And so let us always go back to that same reaction that Jesus had which was once a heal and not to further provoke.

 

Prayer

Father God, we love you, and we recognize the pain you walked through that night. We thank you for always leaving us with the right example with the righteous example. Lord, we know that it’s so easy to hear, you know, people betraying us or hurting us. We are easy to react to provoke. And so we just look to you for your leadership, Lord, and healing him looking for ways to heal which is through prayer, through conversation through communication through the understanding that we are not fighting flesh and bones, but we are fighting an enemy who lurks in temps and provokes us, Lord through different avenues or different people. and so we hand the battle over to you. We handle the season’s over to you; we hand those people over to you. We pray this all in your mighty name. Amen.