The Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servants name was Malchus.) John 18:18 (Matthew 26:36-56, Mark 14:32-89, Luke 22:40-53, John 18:1-12)
Judas betrays Jesus in the presence of all the important Jewish authorities and Jesus’ closest and dearest friends. His expectations must have been great for staging himself to be the big hero of the day. Things took a drastic turn as he soon realized he played a major role in the doom of an innocent man.
Jesus took his friends to an olive grove called the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. Here, Heaven and earth come very close together. The men He had been given fell asleep, exhausted from their sorrow, leaving Jesus completely alone to face His dread and anguish, but as Jesus prayed and asked for this cup to be taken away, an angel appeared and gave Him strength. As He prayed the Temple guards, led by Judos came to arrest Him. Impulsive, loyal Peter, in the act of defending Jesus, cut off the ear of Malchus the servant. Jesus responded by stating that all of Heaven’s angel are at His command if He chose to call them. He chose not to.
On this night, everyone in the world wanted their own way……..except Jesus. He only wanted the will of the Father…….and death was defeated once and for all!
Love,
Gretchen
Good morning Gretchen!
Thanks for your post today. Keep up the good work the Lord has called you to. It always generates deep thinking in me. Many times I have pondered about the effects of Jesus statement to Peter and what a hard pill that was for Peter to swallow. Peter was so used to just jumping in and taking matters into his own hands that when Jesus told him to put his sword away, he did so, but I think it caused a crisis of belief in him. He knew that Jesus was right, but it took away his only means of rescuing his Lord from the events that were happening. A few hours earlier, Peter told Jesus that he would never deny him. But maybe resulting from being stripped of his only means of protecting Jesus, it threw him into possibilities he had never seen coming. I think it forced him to see just what Jesus had meant when Jesus spoke about loving your enemies. I wonder sometimes if (put into the same situation), I would be able to love to the point of death. Maybe this would be a healthy thing to pray about and consider in our day to day activities. Thanks Phil
Very good thoughts. I have not connected these events in exactly this manner, but they are very provoking in examining the security we hold on to rather than trust God’s direction completely.