You Must Choose (Matthew 26:31-56)

The future of the Christ’s Kingdom belongs to those who have consciously made the decision that they will lose everything to remain faithful to Jesus.

31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

‘I will strike the Shepherd,

And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”

34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

And so said all the disciples.

36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.

44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

47 And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people.

48 Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him.” 49 Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.

50 But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come?”

Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took Him. 51 And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.

52 But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? 54 How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”

55 In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me. 56 But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”

Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

Introduction

The story of Matthew’s Gospel is about to reach its climax. Jesus is being betrayed, and between Jesus and His disciples, we see two reactions that could not be more different—Christ is going to His death and His disciples abandon Him. 

The Shepherd Prophesies His Being Struck (v. 31-35)

Jesus tells His disciples as they are journeying to the Mount of Olives what is about to happen. All of you will stumble (literally be scandalized) because of Me. And He tells them an Old Testament prophesy from Zechariah, given hundreds of years earlier was about this exact moment. And He goes even further, telling them exactly what was going to take place. He tells them that He is going to be raised from the dead. And after I am raised, I will go before you to Galilee.

That phrase “go before you” is one that should catch your attention, if you know the Old Testament. Yahweh tells Israel that He will go before them in the Wilderness and as they conquer the land. Jesus is drawing upon that here. After His resurrection a new conquest will begin. But before there is resurrection, there must first be death, and the disciples are unwilling to go with Jesus to the death.

But they say they will. Peter tells Him that even if everyone else abandons Him, he was never going to leave Jesus. Jesus responds, and tells Peter that He will not only abandon Him, but deny Him three times before the dawn of the next day is announced by a rooster crowing. But Peter will not accept this, He says He will die with Jesus before denying Him. And the rest of the disciples join with him. 

Watching and Praying (v. 36-46)

Jesus leads them to the Gethsemane, and tells them to sit while He goes to pray privately. Just like the Transfiguration, Jesus takes with Him Peter, James, and John, and His countenance changed. He was sad and distressed. He tells them that His soul is so wracked with agony that it could kill Him. As an aside, this is far from the Jesus we imagine, whose emotional state is always calm, cool, and collected. We think “well, He’s God, He should know in His heart everything is going to be okay. Nothing should ever trouble Him, or cause Him to feel pressure, and stress, and turmoil. He should never be depressed!” But here in Gethsemane, He is. He is suffering inwardly just like one of us. He is being perfected by obedience, as the writer to the Hebrews points out.

In this agony, Jesus fell down on His face to pray, to ask The Father to let the cup pass if He would will it. God the Father’s only answer is silence. After this first prayer, Jesus finds the disciples asleep. He rebukes them, these men who claim they will go with Him to death won’t even stay awake in the night to keep watch.

Jesus then goes to pray again. Again He asks that the cup be passed away from Him, but says He will drink it if He must. Again there is no answer. And again he found the disciples asleep.

Then Jesus leaves a third time to go pray. He asks to have the cup taken from Him for the final time, and for the third and final time, His Father’s only response is silence. Jesus returns to the disciples, and yet again, finds them asleep, and rebukes them once more. Then He tells them His betrayer is near.

The event, Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane, has much in common with the Transfiguration, where Jesus took James, John, and Peter to the high mountain to see His glory. It might not seem like it. We don’t see the glory cloud appear, nor a voice from heaven. We only see a Jesus in agony (the other Gospels show Him sweating blood), not a Jesus that shines like the sun. When Jesus prays, there is no booming voice out of the cloud like a trumpet blast, there is only silence. But despite these differences, this is yet another moment where the glory of Jesus Christ is revealed. Here we see in explicit detail Jesus Christ denying Himself and taking up His cross. He does not want to do this, He would love nothing more than to avoid it somehow, but He must obey His Father. There is a glory here that is just as profound as Him shining like the sun.

The King is Seized (v. 47-56)

As Jesus spoke to them, Judas came with a multitude bearing swords and clubs. We see the opposite of what Jesus preached on the Mount of Olives. Jesus was going to lead an army against a faithless Jerusalem. Instead, Judas is at the head of an army of the apostate Chief Priests and elders who are set to strike Jesus. And Judas gives them the sign, he greets Jesus with a kiss.

All Jesus does is ask Judas, “Friend, why have you come?” Just like His three earlier prayers, silence is the only answer to Jesus’ question. Judas’ army begins to take hold of Jesus, and a disciple (identified by John’s Gospel as Peter) strikes the servant of the high priest with a sword, cutting off the man’s ear.

Jesus tells Peter to put His sword away, saying the well-known saying, those who take up the sword will perish by the sword. The meaning of which is that these rebellious men, who have taken up arms against their God, will die by the sword in a generation, unless they repent. In His rebuke to Peter, we are given insight into the power and authority Jesus had at His fingertips this whole time: He could ask the Father for His army, and twelve legions of angels would appear. But if He did that, if He refused to obey, if He grasped for what was not His like Adam, the scriptures would not be fulfilled and the things that have to happen would not happen.

One thing we miss in all of this is that despite His agony over what was about to happen, Jesus is defiant until the end. As this murderous mob seizes Him, He mocks and rebukes them. “Why did you come out here with swords and clubs to take me like a cheap thug? I sat in the temple every day and you could have taken me then at any time. But this was done to fulfill the scriptures.”

And it was at this point, after Jesus mentions Scripture being fulfilled, that His disciples flee. The opportunity to take up their crosses with Jesus had come, and rather than denying themselves, they denied Him.

Conclusion

There is quite a bit to take away from this passage. To begin with, we see the contrast between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus was prepared to be obedient to the point of death. Whatever His Father required of Him, no matter how excruciating, no matter how hard, no matter what it might cost, He was ready to do. Not my will be done, O Lord, but Your will.

The disciples, despite all their big talk, immediately abandon Jesus when the heat comes. A friend made the interesting point to me the other day, how many Christians, who go to church on Sunday and sing wimpy love ballads to their girlfriend Jesus “Oh Jesus I would do anything for you, I would give it all to you” won’t give a second more of their lives to Jesus than an hour a week. They will talk big, “Oh Jesus, you mean everything to me!” But when the going gets tough, when faithfulness to Jesus requires hard decisions, and denying yourself the comfortable existence you are used to, that you think you have earned and deserve, it becomes very difficult to be faithful to Jesus.

It might explain why rank godlessness has so rapidly taken over our culture. Fighting wickedness comes at a cost, it requires faithfulness very few are willing to do. There is a direct line between “if I voice my disapproval at this sin being celebrated, it will affect my career badly” and a country where surgically removing the genitals of children is something that is freely done. “I can’t be too vocal about my faith in Jesus, that would affect my social standing.”

And there is no shortage of Christian leaders who work very hard to find detail theological justifications for what amounts to denial of Jesus. “Actually, Jesus is against “power,” Christians are not meant to wield political, economic, or cultural power, we are just supposed to suffer.” It is nonsense. Publicly taking a stand for righteousness, whether it is opposing the murder of millions of babies (and opposing the cultural, economic, and political forces that require this human sacrifice) or absurd sexual insanity that is being imposed upon the country, for example, is something faith in Jesus Christ requires. It is difficult now, because we live in a world where sincere Christian faith is viewed as a net negative. It requires denial of self to publicly be a Christian and denounce the works of Satan. You may lose your job. You may lose your home. You may lose your bank account. It is not hard at all to envision this in today’s world. But what does Jesus want you to do? Sing him some wimpy song about how “you surrender all to Him” while living the rest of your life as if He never existed? Or does He want you to demonstrate an actual willingness to have everything taken from you for His sake?

The future of the Christ’s Kingdom belongs to those Christians who consciously have made the decision, right now, that they will lose everything if they have to to remain faithful to Jesus. To Christians who reject any hint of compromise. Who see the example of Jesus in Gethsemane, who wanted anything but to go to the cross, but for the joy set before Him, obeyed, and endured it for you. Your God willingly allowed Himself to be tortured and murdered for you. You can and must deny yourself for Him. Whatever career you give up, whatever 401k gets taken from you, whatever toys you don’t get to have, you will receive tenfold and one hundredfold in the life to come. All these things are a death. Suffering for Jesus sake, even by First World standards, is indeed a death. And, as one theologian comments on this passage:

Jesus is delivered from death… only after going through death. He does not sidestep the grave, but is taken to it. He learns that the way to life is not a straight line; the way to life deviates through death. The way of life is always a crooked way.

Jesus Christ wants you to follow Him along this path to the way of life. There is no avoiding death along the way, especially in the age in which we live. The way to life is denying ourselves and taking up our crosses. Right now, Jesus is calling you to think through what that looks like for you, and to prepare yourself to do it. Our King invites us to reject the way of the disciples, vainly clinging to a life they can not keep, and to freely give that away for true life that can never be taken from us. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!