Gods Great Love Breaks Bread With Us - Part 5 of 6

We are approaching April 3rd, the day that Jesus envisioned 3-1/2 years earlier when He stepped out of the wood shop, that He would be nailed to the cross as the perfect sacrifice for mankind's sin once and for all! What is commonly referred to as the passion week is now upon the Son of God, and all of us today as a reminder of Gods Great Love for Us.

(5) The New Covenant between God and man begins.

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Please note that some of the content contained within the Reflection Moments depicted here is not recorded in the scriptures. They are merely human attempts to relate and ask some questions of certain aspects of the Son of God, which may help you see the Savior’s human side of His divine life on earth.

~ Jesus the man predicts His Death and Resurrection 3 times! ~

1) Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again. (Matt 20:17-19)

2) Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it. For He taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.” But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him. (Mark 9:30-32)

3) Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.” But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken. (Luke 18:31-33)

Jesus tells His disciples, to be His, they must align themselves with His will. But do they get it that it may mean death looms in their journey to Jerusalem?

"If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." (John 8:31)

This video lesson shines some light on what the 12 disciples may have encountered as they followed Jesus all the way to Jerusalem, and beyond. And it has application for us today in our discipleship also. The writer Luke says you can’t have Jesus without the cross, but people today will tell you that you can. It doesn’t have to be as radical or extreme as Jesus describes. Logical discipleship says, we want Jesus to have – a place. Not necessarily, first place. Logical discipleship finds a way to give Jesus “A” place, and we find that reasonable. Somewhere along the way in recent history, the requirements for discipleship have changed. Jesus tells us all over the New Testament He wants us to follow Him. But popular and logical discipleship tells us, we just have to accept Him. Find me a place in the bible where it says to “accept Jesus.”

"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-24)


How bumpy and difficult is the road to your Jerusalem? (Matt 7:13-14) At the end of every day are we walking in the steps of Jesus as His disciples? Are you, am I, counting and experiencing the cost of walking in the light? (1 John 1:7) Do we really know what it means to put God first in every decision we make whether its a simple one not to swear curses or dishonor God in our speech? Can we with a committed and trusting faith in God face very difficult life situations that bring hardship and or difficulty in Jesus name? There are many ways to serve Him but are we doing them, even the small ones, on Jesus terms? The disciples are about to see what it means to really follow and trust Jesus the God-man up close and personal. And I can only imagine what they are about to witness and touch must have been fearful, dreadful, emotion searing and penetrating to the core of their souls. Maybe we will see the life changing events before them utterly stripping them of all their previous self-protecting survival modes or any form of normalcy for the remainder of their lives!

Jesus friend, Lazarus

“Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:1-4)

A curious statement by Jesus to His disciples as they are waiting 2 days before walking to Bethany where Lazarus lays and the Jews on a prior occasion tried to stone Him to death (John 11:8). He says, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” (John 11:11).

Reflection Moments

The lesson here I believe is, death does not break the bond of friendship between Christ and the believing disciple for He calls them friends (Luke 12:4, John 15:14). On the other hand, can you sense the fear and trembling of the disciples as Jesus commits to walking back towards danger? Not only for Him, but for themselves! They are associated with the Master and His ministry. This road back to Bethany will have to be undertaken on Jesus terms.

Unbeknownst to the disciples, they thought Lazarus would get well of his sickness with rest. Then Jesus says, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.” (John 11:14-15)

An important point not to miss of Jesus doing the will of the Father – He first prays to Him in front of the disciples and onlookers so that they will know the Father sent Him. That He indeed came from heaven and that God is among them. Though they aren’t fully grasping Gods presence, some of them being completely perplexed, the seed is divinely planted within them by Christ’s prayer before the subsequent raising of the dead.

“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” (John 11:41-42)

Lazarus is returned to Life!

The most profound of all the miracles Jesus performed during His earthly ministry are those in which He resurrected someone. The New Testament records three of these resurrection miracles, including the raising of a widow's son, of Jairus' daughter, and of Lazarus. Luke the physician is the only one to record the raising of a widow's son (Luke 7:11-17). It is interesting that each of the three resurrection miracles reports the dead person in a different stage of death from the other instances. When Christ raises Jairus' daughter to life, she is still in the bed where she had died only a few hours earlier. The widow's son lies in an open coffin on his way to his grave when Jesus performs the miracle. Finally, Lazarus is already in the grave and has been dead for four days by the time Christ arrives and raises him from the dead (John 11:39).

The varying length of times they had been dead shows that Christ can raise the dead no matter what. His miraculous power to resurrect is not dependent upon whether a person has just died, has been dead for days, or is already decomposing. The same principle holds true regarding spiritual salvation: God and Christ can save any sinner no matter how old he is, how long he has been a sinner, or how badly he has sinned.

A sobering thought for Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter and the widows son is, they are going to have to go through death again! Better yet, another resurrection - Halleluiah…

Some Jews believe, Most do not and are outraged!

“Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” (John 11:45-48)

As a Sadducee, Caiaphas did not believe in the resurrection. It must have been a shock to him when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. He preferred to destroy this challenge to his beliefs instead of supporting it. Caiaphas led the Jewish people in their worship of God. He performed his religious duties in strict obedience to Mosaic law. He would enter the Holy of Holy's in the temple to offer sacrifices to Yahweh as high priest of the Jews, AD 27 to 36. He was a Sadducee, and a bitter enemy of Christ. At his palace the priests, etc., met after the resurrection of Lazarus, to plot the death of the Savior, lest all the people should believe on him. On one of these occasions, (John 11:47-54), he counseled the death of Christ for the political salvation of the nation. These plots against Christ, (Matt 26:1-5 Mark 14:1 Luke 22:2), will lead to Jesus seizure. He will be brought first before Annas, formerly high priest, who sent him to Caiaphas his son-in-law. Caiaphas will examine Christ before the assembling of the Sanhedrin, after which the trial will go on, and Christ will be condemned, mocked, and transferred to Pilate for sentence and execution, (Matthew 26:57-68 Mark 14:53-72 Luke 22:54-71 John 18:13-27). Not content with procuring the death of the Savior, Caiaphas and his friends violently persecuted his followers, (Acts 4:1-6 5:17,33)

But the Sanhedrin, or high council, of which Caiaphas was president, did not have the authority to execute people. So Caiaphas turned to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who could carry out a death sentence. Caiaphas tried to convince Pilate that Jesus was a threat to Roman stability and had to die to prevent a rebellion.

It was inevitable... One of the 12 betrays his creator!

"Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. (Matt 26:14-16)

We cannot be absolutely certain why Judas betrayed Jesus, but some things are evident. First, although Judas was chosen to be one of the Twelve (John 6:64), all scriptural evidence points to the fact that he never believed Jesus to be God. He even may not have been convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. Unlike the other disciples that called Jesus “Lord,” Judas never used this title for Jesus and instead called him “Rabbi,” which acknowledged Jesus as nothing more than a teacher. While other disciples at times made great professions of faith and loyalty (John 6:68; 11:16), Judas never did so and appears to have remained silent. Judas was consumed with greed to the point of betraying the trust of not only Jesus, but also his fellow disciples, as we see in John 12:5-6. Judas may have desired to follow Jesus simply because he saw the great following and believed he could profit from collections taken for the group.

The same holds true for us. If we fail to recognize Jesus as God in the flesh, we will be subject to numerous other problems that stem from an incomplete view of God. Part 6 of this series will bear out more truth of the God-man’s flesh and blood as we come upon April 3^rd

^{~ The Teacher says, "My time is at hand" ~}

<sup>Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." (Matt 26:1-2)

And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.'" (Matt 26:18)</sup>


Reflection Moment

I have to be honest, this is difficult to write knowing what we know. Christians worldwide have benefited immensely for what Jesus did for us, the young man from Galilee who took that very first step out of the wood shop toward Jerusalem to finally face His earthly doom on the cross. Yes the cruel cross of Calvary that would shortly be stained and puddled at the bottom with His divine blood, for us!. We may marvel in wonderment of Jesus dual natures as a man and God in the flesh. We may drink of the marvelous miracles the Son of God who so compassionately worked for the betterment of those who in the Jews eyes didn't deserve it. We hopefully if you are reading this major milestone in Jesus life on earth are so thankful and indebted to the Son of God, the Savior for His willingness to see the Fathers plan all the way through just for us. But with all that said, it still comes down to facing the fact that Jesus said to His disciples - "My time is at hand, I must be crucified, for you!"

 Literally, like a lamb going to the slaughter! (Isaiah 53:7, John 1:29)

Have you ever witnessed an animal being slaughtered for food in front of your very eyes with its blood letting out all over? I have. If you have did you feel helpless to save the animal? I did. Or maybe you were one that witnessed wartime atrocities of the enemy, and or even seen you buddies killed while in battle side by side? I haven't and I thank God I didn't. I thank our veterans so much for putting themselves out there for our freedoms. My dad was in the Korean war and it wasn't until he was in his late 70's did he begin to share the atrocities he saw of soldiers in his platoon being killed right in front of him! I will keep the details but I think we all know how that effects people, its just not a normal thing to witness in the modern age of civilized societies.

This crucifixion Jesus is about to go through was a perfected practice by the Romans when they procured justice upon criminals. Jesus though is innocent of any wrongdoing and is about to go through six hours of suffering at the hands of the Jews, and to please His Father in heaven. Can we truly fathom and appreciate this voluntary sacrifice He is about to undergo? I think one could say, "I am sorrowful but I am sure glad He did."

Passover of Passover's

While growing up in Mary and Joseph's house Jesus attended many Passover's and Feast of Weeks celebrations. This was established by God's covenant given to Moses and the children of Israel in Exodus 14:14-19, 34:22. However the Passover Jesus is about to attend will be His final one until He is risen and drinks of it in His Father's Kingdom (Matt 26:29). He has already predicted His death and resurrection which boggles the mind of the disciples and us. We and they are unable to comprehend this state of mind and spirit of Jesus the man. As related earlier, He is clearly aware of His divinity and His human nature simultaneously. So, this next and final Passover meal is a milestone of His ministry akin to Him taking that first step out of the wood shop towards Jerusalem. It marks the next step in the process of redeeming mankind back to God, and He is very desirous about eating it, before he suffers! (Luke 22:15). He could have said, "No, I'm done suffering, I'm done with all the life threats and ridicule, the rejection and being all the talk in the Jewish world. I've had it, just leave me alone so I can live my life the way I want to."

This would have been the time to walk away but the Fathers will had to be fulfilled because of His Great Love for us! Oh how mankind is so blessed this particular Passover meal was fulfilled.

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

Jesus the Victim for us

God had said that through the new covenant He would "forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." And Jesus knew that the words, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities:...for He shall bear their iniquities" (Isa. 53:5,11) prophesied of Himself and were written for His instruction as well as for the instruction of all who have faith. He was to be the victim by which the new covenant would be firm. That covenant would be dedicated, inaugurated, ratified, put into effect as a result of His sacrifice (Heb 9:16-18). The blessing of sonship and fellowship with God was about to reach others. Jesus would have all believers acknowledge and remember His sacrifice, its purpose, and the new arrangement through which their new life and spiritual relationship with God becomes a reality.

Not more than a few hours later, the Savior of mankind, God in the flesh. would be in the Garden of Gethsemane just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem where He frequently brought His disciples, and prayed to His Father (John 18:2). This night He would pray all night to the point of sweating blood! (Luke 22:44) The agony was tremendous. Twice, Jesus had to wake Peter, James and John and remind them to pray so that they would not fall into temptation. This was especially poignant because Peter did indeed fall into temptation later that very night when three times he denied even knowing Jesus. The third time with cursing and swearing! (Mark 14:71)

Jesus moved a little way from the three men to pray, and twice He asked His Father to remove the cup of wrath He was about to drink, but each time He submitted to the Father’s will. He was “exceedingly sorrowful unto death,” but God sent an angel from heaven to strengthen Him (Luke 22:43).

"Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done."

The disciple who betrayed Him would know this place well making it easy for him to lead the multitude of people including the chief Jewish priests and elders to arrest Jesus. They would be armed with swords and clubs a riotous bunch. (Matt 26:47) Judas identified Him by the prearranged signal of a kiss which he gave to Jesus. Trying to protect Jesus, Peter took a sword and attacked a man named Malchus, the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Jesus rebuked Peter and miraculously healed the man’s ear. It’s surprising that witnessing this amazing miracle of healing had no effect on the multitude. Neither were they shaken by His awesome display of power as described in John 18:5-6, where either at the majesty of His looks, or at the power of His words, or both, they became like dead men, falling to the ground! Nevertheless, they arrested Him and took Him to Pontius Pilate, while the disciples scattered in fear for their lives.

Dirck van Baburen, The Arrest of Christ, c. 1619

Reflection Moment

Jesus Christ was completely innocent of any civil crime or wrongdoing. But according to the priests His claim to be God and the only way to the Father, He had to be arrested for fear His following would greatly increase, and His blasphemous claims had to be quenched out of existence (Mark 14:64). As you read through the book of John, you will notice eight different conversations in which Jesus makes very specific statements about himself. Jesus does not just claim to know these things, or explain these things. He claims that He is these things. The impact is tremendous. The implications reach deep into our everyday real lives. The impact involves life-changing transformation with everlasting consequence! 

John 6: 35, 48, I am the bread of life

John 8: 12, 9:5,  I am the light of the world

John 8: 58,  Before Abraham was, I am

John 10:9,  I am the door

John 10:11,  I am the good shepherd

John 11:25,  I am the resurrection and the life

John 14:6,  I am the way, the truth, and the life

John 15:1,  I am the true vine

We have come to the morning of April 3, 33 AD. The day the world is about to change forever because of one solitary life that loved us so much. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Teacher and Savior, the God-man of Mary and Joseph, and of the Spirit of God.

Next week we explore the, Humanity of God in the flesh,

1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6

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