Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Today is 2-for-1 Friday!
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The Questions
1) Jesus is God, yet He asks multiple times if there is another way and if this cup could be taken from him. Why?
2) Why is Jesus bothered by Peter, James and John’s inability to stay awake and pray?
3) Jesus had been preaching and teaching every day and seemingly everyone knew who He was. Why was it necessary for Judas to identify Him/betray Him with a kiss?
Matthew 26:36-56
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And he came again and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. After leaving them, he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”
While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, suddenly arrived. A large mob with swords and clubs was with him from the chief priests and elders of the people. His betrayer had given them a sign: “The one I kiss, he’s the one; arrest him.” So immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. “Friend,” Jesus asked him, “why have you come?” Then they came up, took hold of Jesus, and arrested him. At that moment one of those with Jesus reached out his hand and drew his sword. He struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear. Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels? How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” At that time Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs, as if I were a criminal, to capture me? Every day I used to sit, teaching in the temple, and you didn’t arrest me. But all this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and ran away.
Original Intent
1) Jesus is God, yet He asks multiple times if there is another way and if this cup could be taken from Him. Why?
While it is hard for our human minds to fully comprehend, Jesus was fully human and fully God. In Philippians 2:7-8 we read, “Instead He emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when He had come as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.” These verses remind us Jesus was fully human while here on earth, but was also fully God. By asking His Father if there was another way to pay for the sins of humanity other than going to the cross (verse 39), He displays the heaviness of the burden He carried for humanity and decision weighing on His heart. Free will to make our own decisions is something each of us have, and since we are made in the image of God, Jesus also had free will. He could have chosen another way. He could have walked away from the cross entirely. In fact, we see this just a few verses later in Matthew 26:53-54 when He says, “Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels? How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”. Jesus, as God the Son, knew the immense suffering that lay ahead, and as a human man, He desired to avoid that suffering if there was another way.
2) Why is Jesus bothered by Peter, James and John’s ability to stay awake and pray?
To get a little more context and understanding, we need to read all of Matthew 26. By doing so, we learn that Jesus and His disciples had just come from the traditional Passover meal celebrated by all Jews. This is where Jesus told them He would be betrayed and quoted Zechariah 13:7, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” Jesus was always teaching. He pointed His disciples to what would have been a very familiar Old Testament Scripture, but they failed to understand the connection of Christ being that very prophesied about shepherd. They were used to life the way it was with Jesus and assumed nothing would change. Peter, the boldest of the disciples, is recorded as saying how even if everyone else fell away, he would not. Fast forward to the Garden of Gethsemane just a short time later and Jesus tells three of His closest disciples, including Peter, that He is “deeply grieved to the point of death”. (verse 38) Jesus makes a simple request of His disciples to stay awake and pray. The second time Jesus asks them, He clarifies by saying “pray so that you won’t fall into temptation”. Jesus has been praying hard! He knows what these men are about to face and knows they will not be able to stand on their own. He is asking them to follow His lead in seeking help from their Father.
3) Jesus had been preaching and teaching every day and seemingly everyone knew who He was. Why was it necessary for Judas to identify Him/betray Him with a kiss?
There are a few assumptions we can make here if we read between the lines and look at the other gospels to fill in some blanks. The gospel of John tells us “they came with lanterns and torches”. (John 18:3) We also know the disciples were having trouble staying awake. It is a fair assumption that it was nighttime and therefore dark. Judas, as one of the twelve, would have been able to easily pick Jesus out of a crowd, even at night. Greeting each other with a kiss on the check was a customary greeting among friends at this time. If it weren’t for Judas setting this up as a pre-arranged signal for the soldiers who accompanied him, the action would have been completely benign.
Everyday Application
1)Jesus is God, yet he asks multiple times if there is another way and if this cup could be taken from Him. Why?
God can handle our questions. Scripture does not say questions are bad. On the contrary, it tells us in numerous places to bring our burdens boldly to the Father, just like Jesus did. Ultimately, it is a question of submission to God’s will over our own when we face difficulty, just as it was for Jesus. We all will be faced with troubling circumstances we don’t understand and, honestly, don’t want to walk through. We do however, have a choice in how we respond. We can either submit to God’s will and trust His plan and purpose, or we can choose our own way and fight against our Heavenly Father. The choice is not easy, and often needs to be made more than once in a particular set of circumstances. Terminal illness, serious injury, the death of a loved one, job loss, betrayal, and more. When we walk through these difficult times, it’s okay to admit our confusion and need for help. We can follow Jesus’ example and confidently go to our Father and tell him we are troubled. Jesus’ willingness to submit to His Father’s will is what purchased our salvation. A perfect sacrifice was needed to pay for sin, Jesus knew He was the only possible sacrifice, and there was no other way to pay the penalty we owed for our sin. He questioned, but still submitted. When we choose to submit, we can do so with the truth that God is at work, doing something we cannot understand.
2)Why is Jesus bothered by Peter, James and John’s ability to stay awake and pray?
We are invited to go on a journey with Jesus. Just like these three men we have a choice to make. Will we “stay awake”, watch and pray, or will we succumb to the temptation to sleep. Staying awake is both a literal request and a metaphor. The literal part of staying awake during prayer is somewhat easier to understand. Prayer is an important aspect of every Christian’s life. We all need to find a time and space in which we can be fully awake and fully engaged in prayer. The metaphorical part can be a bit more difficult. It can be so easy for us to walk through life on auto-pilot, not fully aware of or engaged in what is happening around us. We go to church, yet fail to engage with the people around us in deep ways. We listen to the preacher, but don’t really pay attention, or apply what we learn after we walk out of the doors. We go to work, simply going through the motions of our day without truly seeing or engaging with our coworkers and friends as people who are hurting or far from God and in need of the hope we carry because of Christ. We allow ourselves to become too busy or distracted to notice or understand. As Christians, each of us are invited to go to our Father each day, deeply grieved by the fact that so many around us don’t know Him! Jesus will take us deeper and deeper if we will only stay awake, watch, and pray. Let’s not forget how temptation fits into this equation. We must remember Jesus’ words “so that you won’t fall into temptation”. We are all faced with some form of temptation every single day. We cannot stand alone, we were designed to need our Father. We must admit our weakness and ask our Father for help in the midst of our everyday lives.
3) Jesus had been preaching and teaching every day and seemingly everyone knew who He was. Why was it necessary for Judas to identify Him/betray Him with a kiss?
Judas was one of the twelve, one of Jesus’ closest friends. He made a choice to betray his friend for thirty pieces of silver. Most of us can identify at some level what it feels like to be betrayed by a friend. While we may not be asked to betray Jesus in the same way as Judas, we are often confronted with choices that could lead to betrayal. When we choose money, fame, status, success, sports, or any number of other “lesser loves” over our Savior, it is an act of betrayal. Those times when we are too embarrassed or afraid to speak up for our Savior are acts of betrayal. Can any of us honestly say we have never ever betrayed Jesus? It’s like saying we have never sinned, which we all know is false. I’ll be honest and say I still struggle with fully understanding why it had to be a close friend who betrayed Christ. Why did it have to be one of His disciples? Why would one of His own choose money over friendship? Perhaps some of the answer lies in the reality of this being played out every day in our broken and fallen world, even in our own lives! Sin destroys, but Jesus came to free us from that sin, and save us from its punishment, so we could be in a sweet relationship with Him!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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