Doing What Must Be Done…

This is a creative account of the arrest of Jesus.  It is an amalgamation of events described in Matthew 27:47-56, Luke 22:47-53, Mark 14:43-51, and John 18:1-11.

“They are headed out of the city. Now is your chance to get him while he is away from the crowd! I can take you to them. But hurry, we’ve got to move fast!”

I came breathless to the entrance of the Temple. I knew if I was going to do this I needed to act fast.  The guards standing watch drew their weapons. I couldn’t really blame them for being nervous.  Things get a little crazy this time of year in Jerusalem with all these extra people here for the Passover festival. And then here I come running toward them like a crazed Zealot.

After what seemed like an eternity, the man leading the soldiers ordered them to stand down.  My heart raced and my insides churned within me as I caught my breath.

Malchus, attendant to High Priest Caiaphas, had been expecting me. You see, this wasn’t my first visit to the Temple. I had come here a few nights earlier and had a secret meeting with the ruling Council to put this plan in motion. I was convinced that Jesus had to be stopped, but now that it was actually happening I wondered if I would have the stomach to see it through.  

Do what must be done.

Malchus turned to one of the Temple guards, “Go to the High Priest’s house.  Inform the Council that Iscariot is here. We should have Jesus in custody soon.” 

As the soldier scurried off following orders, the others shifted nervously while they waited for their “friend” to return.  Soldier wasn’t really the right word to describe them.  They weren’t seasoned military men like the Roman Centurions, some of whom were stationed in Jerusalem.  No, these were more like mercenaries, local conscripts hired by the Temple authorities for crowd control.  Their job was to “keep the peace”—which would in turn keep the Romans from interfering in the day-to-day operation of the Temple.  Frankly, as nervous as they looked, I wondered if some of them had ever actually seen combat before.

Malchus looked at me and smiled.  “You were right to come to us Iscariot. You and I both know that your teacher is stirring up trouble and must be stopped.  The High Priest and I commend you for your action.”

“If I’m so right, then why do I feel like the dirtiest garbage in Gehenna tonight?!”

Betrayed.  For 30 pieces of silver...

“This should make you feel better.” Malchus tossed me a pouch; I heard coins jangling.  “Per our agreement, thirty pieces of silver… and the knowledge that you are helping protect the peace of the city.”  I caught it and attached it to my belt.

“Peace!” I spat, “My friends think I am buying supplies for the Passover Meal or giving alms to the poor right now!   If they had any idea…”

Do what must be done…  I closed my eyes tightly.  “Look! Let’s just get on with this.”

Malchus shrugged.  “Fine with me. Oh, just one more question. How will I know which one to arrest?” 

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll greet him the way we normally do—I’ll give him a kiss.”

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****

I led the detachment of mercenary–soldiers, priests, and Pharisees away from the walls of Jerusalem.  A winding narrow way led from the city across the rugged Kidron Valley.  We ascended in elevation until we reached the Mount of Olives.  Jesus would bring us out here often when he wanted to escape the crowds in the city or withdraw for quiet contemplation. One of Jesus’ followers owned an olive grove and press that served as a “safehouse” for us.  It was the kind of place that you probably wouldn’t find easily—unless of course you had a “guide” who knew exactly where it was located.

On the night before Passover so the full moon should have been shining brightly.  However, on this night even the heavens themselves seemed obscured.   The only light came was from the flickering torches that some in our group carried.

I was reasonably sure where we would find them in the grove.  There was a small clearing near the olive press where we often made camp. We wanted to keep the element of surprise, so we extinguished our torches and inched our way over the final few hundred feet of our journey in the darkness.  We stood right on the edge of the clearing and could see light emanating from a charcoal fire ahead of us.   Several shadowy silhouettes sat around the fire. We stood close enough that I could even recognize the individual voices of my friends. I was supposed to be with them right now, but instead I was sneaking up on them like a thief in the night.

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****

The plan was that I would approach Jesus first and identify him, then Malchus and the others could move in for the arrest.  As we stood there in the dark, my heart pounded like a drum. There now seemed to be an inevitability about it all however.  The voice that had led me to this point now propelled me forward into my ultimate act of betrayal. Do what must be done!

“Greetings friends.”

Peter looked up from the fire as I stepped into the clearing.  “What took you so long, Judas?” He turned back to the fire, and resumed his conversation with John and James. 

Betrayed. With a kiss.

Jesus rose to greet me the way we had so many times before.  Only this time my kiss might as well have been laced with the venom of an asp.

As we embraced, Jesus pulled me close to him: “Friend, do what you came for.” 

Our eyes met and his gaze seemed to sear my soul.  If I had any doubt back in the Upper Room, it was completely erased now.  Jesus knew—everything…

Just a few seconds later, Malchus and the others stepped out from the encroaching shadows of the olive trees into the clearing.  “Jesus of Nazareth, by order of High Priest Caiaphas, I am here to place you under arrest.”

As Jesus turned to face Malchus he let me go.  “So it comes to this… the Son of Man betrayed with a kiss.”  He sighed. “I suppose this is how Scripture said it would be.”

A couple of the soldiers started to move toward Jesus. 

“Not so fast Judas!”  A couple of the disciples had realized what was going on, and weren’t going to sit idly and watch their Teacher and friend betrayed.  Of course, Peter was leading the charge. Is that a sword he has!?  I hadn’t expected armed resistance at all so it caught the Temple guards flatfooted.  Before they could react, Peter swung wildly at Malchus and through some miracle, the big fishermen from Galilee actually connected, chopping off a piece of the lieutenant’s ear.

Sometimes it seemed even Jesus couldn’t predict what Peter would do.  “Peter! Where did you get a weapon?! No more of this nonsense! Don’t you understand after all this time together that we’re not about war and violent conquest?  No, I have to drink the cup that the Father has given me to drink. I could say the word and my Father would strike them down—but then we would be just like everyone else.”

Jesus walked over to where Malchus was standing, blood pouring from the place where his ear had been cut. He stooped over and picked something up off the ground and touched it to the side of Malchus’ head, and in an instant the bleeding stopped, and he seemed to be healed.”

Malchus stood in stunned amazement feeling where his injury had been. The very man sent to arrest Jesus now fell to his knees. “Th… thank you.  Praise God!” Several of the local soldiers fell to their knees at this sight.  Others seemed less impressed.

"Am I leading a rebellion, that you felt the need to 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.” 

Despite the miracle healing of Malchus, he still had a job to do.  The Temple authorities moved in to arrest Jesus.  Surprisingly, he put up no resistance.  One by one all of his friends fled into the night, leaving Jesus alone to face his fate.  One follower even fled away naked, having run so fast he lost his cloak along the way.   

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****

Isaiah 53:7

I stood there in the company of the Temple authorities and watched this whole scene unfold. Jesus was like a sheep before the shearer, standing silent and stoic as the hired soldiers moved in, bound his wrists as if he were some brutally violent criminal. 

I once again heard the all too familiar voice in my head: You did what must be done.

I had become so convinced that this was the only way, that this was what must be done, that I hadn’t stopped to consider the human cost.  Now, as I watched what I had set in motion unfold it began to dawn on me just what I had done.  I saw the Temple authorities take pleasure in roughing up my friend.  They slapped him, spat on him, and called him vulgar names.  And not only had my betrayal made it possible—I added insult to injury by doing nothing to stop it.

Suddenly the 30 pieces of silver in my belt pouch felt like a millstone around my waist dragging me down into an abyss of my own making.

Discipleship: A Lifetime Journey of Transformation

Discipleship is more than turning over a new leaf.  It is more fitful and disorderly than gradual moral formation.  Nothing less than daily, often painful, lifelong death will do.  —William Willimon

Laurie and I sometimes watch the show Extreme Weight Loss with Chris Powell.  Each week Chris Powell invites someone to embark on the “transformation of a lifetime”.  As the name of the show implies, the surface goal is weight loss, but most of the time, the weight doesn't really come off—and stay off—until the participant deals with a “deeper” issue.  He or she has to face an “old wound” in their lives that is still holding power over the individual, which they compensate for with compulsive overeating. 

 

Extreme Weight Loss participants are offered
the "transformation of a lifetime".

Chris has to bring the participants to the breaking point (usually via a very difficult workout, particularly for individuals that are so badly out of shape).  It’s a moment of choosing between fight or flight.  This is an important part of the process of transformation because it forces the participant to face up to the fundamental question: Do you really want to change or are you just playing at this?  

Occasionally the participant answers, “No”, and Chris has to accept that.  He can’t force a person to transform if they aren’t ready to do so.  Not every weight loss story ends happily.  For every happy ending we see on TV I’m sure there are many more that fail.  Honestly, the average person would probably choose flight when pushed to the breaking point. (I sometimes wonder what I would do if pushed to that point.)  This level of change is more than most of us are willing to bear.

It’s the rare individual that can reach down and say, “Yes.  I want this!  I want this so much I will push past all my excuse-making and commit to doing whatever it takes to change—not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually as well.  I will push on toward total transformation of my life.” 

The final scenes of a typical Extreme Weight Loss episode are a celebration as the participant reveals their “new look” to astonished friends and family.  There is a level of joy that comes not just from shedding a significant amount of weight but also from shedding the “weight” of old habits and old wounds we have been carrying and replacing them with something better.

This is the kind of change we’re aiming for as individual followers of Jesus and as worshipping communities. Like Chris Powell, Jesus is all about total transformation of our lives. Our life in Christ will be a lifetime journey of transformation.

Jesus comes to us and says come follow me—100%.  Take up your cross—in other words, expect it to be demanding.  Leave behind the ways you once knew and I will show you a new Way that offers the potential to usher in a new world. 

Body and mind are usually the first things we change. The Extreme Weight Loss participants usually begin losing weight before they are ready to confront the “deeper” issues.  Ultimately, however, changing our body and even our mind is not enough.  These changes are external; change that endures (total transformation) comes only as we change internally—as we “renovate” our heart. Our heart is the control center of all that we are—Proverbs 4:23. Heart change is deep and fundamental—and worthy of our best effort.  If the heart changes, our mind and body generally follow suite.  

On the whole, change is hard for human beings.  Sometimes our motivation to “want to change” only comes when circumstances in our life conspire to make not changing more uncomfortable than changing. 

Sometimes it takes being desperate to see things with clarity.  We finally glimpse a vision of a “better” life that is compelling enough to (at least temporarily) overcome the strong inertia of excuse-making.  We are now willing to do whatever it takes to make our vision a reality—pursuing whatever means are necessary to make it so. 

Participants in Extreme Weight Loss often find themselves in such a place.  They reach out for help from Chris Powell because they have, frankly, run out of options.  They realize that if they don’t make a radical change—and soon—there are likely to be severe consequences to their health. 

Just as Extreme Weight Loss is about more than just shedding physical weight, spiritual transformation is about much more than “giving up something for Lent”. 

“What are you giving up for Lent?” It’s a question a lot of people will get these next few days. If you want to change your body, perhaps alcohol and candy is the way to go. But if you want to change your heart, a harder fast is needed. This narrow road is gritty, but it isn’t sterile. It will make room in ourselves to experience a love that can make us whole and set us free.  —Time Magazine Article

A word cloud image for Lent and Holy Week
Image credit: Where the Wild Rose Grows.

This is not to say we shouldn't do the time-honored Lenten practice of self-denial as much as to suggest that the true work of Lent goes far deeper.  If we merely “give something up for Lent” (say, chocolate, soda, or social media) but then rush to pick it up again as soon as the season is done, we are kind of missing the point.  We are like the people on Extreme Weight Loss who lose the weight initially but never confront the deeper issues that they used food to cover up and caused them to gain weight in the first place—and thus struggle to keep the pounds off over the long haul.  Without a commitment to total transformation, the “old habit” we gave up is likely to come right back afterwards—maybe worse than before.

For the follower of Jesus, discipleship is not just a six-week exercise in self-denial but rather a commitment to a lifetime journey of transformation, following a spiraling path that leads ever closer to the heart of God.

If we sense God revealing an area that “weighs us down” and holds us back from taking the “next step” toward the deeper relationship with God we desire, Lent is certainly a good opportunity to begin to make a change.  We would be in the company of many saints that have walked the ancient Threefold Way of illumination, purgation, and contemplation (union) during this season.

If we are doing it right we make progress on our spiritual journey not just during Lent but at all times.  John Wesley would say we are always “moving on toward perfection”.  During Lent, however, we  intentionally focus on drawing closer to God in the days leading up to Holy Week.  The idea is that we arrive at Palm Sunday and "enter Jerusalem" with our soul less encumbered by the ”weight” of our “stuff”—our sin.  This should allow us to enter more fully into Jesus’ suffering and death during Holy Week—and then, precisely because of the 40-day intentional journey we took to the Cross before arriving at the Empty Tomb, our experience of the Resurrection should be all the more meaningful.

May it be so for all of us...

Transfiguration: A Tease of How the Story Ends

Laurie and I sometimes watch the show Extreme Weight Loss with Chris Powell.  Each week Chris Powell invites someone to embark on the “transformation of a lifetime”.  In the middle of every two-hour episode there is a “tease” that advertises the final “reveal” that will come at the end of the show.  This is when the “transformed” participant reveals their new look to astonished friends and family.  The “tease” comes as the participant is smack-dab in the middle of his or her yearlong journey of transformation.  The TV audience does not yet know how the story will end but the “tease” is enough to makes us want to keep watching to see how it turns out. 

A participant on Extreme Weight Loss undergoes
the "transformation of a lifetime"

 The Transfiguration seemed like that kind of event for Jesus’ disciples.  It comes, if you will, in the middle of their “journey of transformation” with Jesus and was, in a sense, a “tease” of the final “episodes” of Jesus’ earthly life—the Resurrection and Ascension.  We see Jesus exalted and recognized for who he truly is, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God.

The story is kind of mysterious—and often overlooked in the Western Protestant Church.  The Catholic theology of the Rosary refers to the Transfiguration as one of the five luminous mysteries[1]. The bottom line is we don’t know exactly what happened up on that mountain but it was clearly significant enough that, even though Jesus clearly asked for what happened on that mountain to stay on that mountain, it eventually got talked about—and was later written down.  All three synoptic Gospels (Mark 9:2-8, Matthew 17:1-9, and Luke 9:28-36) record their own version of this event.  In addition, 2 Peter 1:16-18 refers to it.  Interestingly John (who was alleged to have been an eyewitness) doesn’t include the story of the Transfiguration in his Gospel, although John 1:14 may be an allusion to it. 

What seems evident is that on this night Peter, James, and John got a clearer vision of who Jesus was.  They may have suspected his identity before this night, but after this experience they know for sure that this is no ordinary Rabbi they are following. This doesn’t mean they won’t falter in their belief—clearly they do!  But in the end, after they are restored, they have this vision of Jesus in their memory and it helps them live out their call as Apostles, who were responsible for starting the Church and spreading the message of Jesus around the ancient world.

Mark, which most scholars consider to be the oldest account of the life of Jesus, places this event it right in the middle of his telling of the story—and I think that placement is intentional.  It serves as the “turning point” of Mark’s narrative.  Until now, Jesus and his followers have been in ministry in Galilee.  Just before this scene (Mark 8:31-34) Jesus gives the first of three warnings to the disciples about what lies ahead of them in Jerusalem. Peter, however, wants no part of it and Jesus rebukes him for his comments.  The same Peter who Jesus had just called “the Rock” on which he would build his church is now referred to as “Satan”, an impediment to Jesus fulfilling his calling.   Peter must have felt emotional whiplash after these conversations.  All of the disciples are no doubt confused at this moment about what is going on—about who this guy is they have invested so much in following.  After this event, Jesus and his followers will set their face toward Jerusalem and the mood will continue to darken as the rag-tad band moves ever closer to Jerusalem.

According to Mark, the Transfiguration takes place somewhere up in the mountains above Caesarea–Philippi.  (At least that is where the previous scene in Mark 8 occurs. Scholars actually debate which mountain this was.)  All the Gospels agree that the other nine disciples stayed behind wile Jesus took his three closest friends on this “camping trip”.  While they are there, Peter, James, and John are permitted a glimpse of Jesus that they had never seen before and they hear a voice say “This is my son the beloved.  Listen to him.”  Jesus is revealed in all his glory; the disciples see the fullness of who he was, is, and will always be standing before them. According to the story, Moses and Elijah, two great heroes of the Jewish faith, were also present for this event.   Peter, James, and John don’t really understand all that they see that night but the event clearly sticks with them for the rest of their lives.

I think the Church Fathers got it right when they placed this glimpse of the glory of God right before we head into Lent and Holy Week. The Sunday before Ash Wednesday is Transfiguration Sunday (in most Western Protestant churches) and we usually hear the story of Peter, James, and John’s magnificent “vision” of Jesus on the mountaintop.  The next time we gather the mood is much more somber.  The liturgical colors have shifted from white to gray/black and soaring visions of Jesus are replaced with warnings from the Old Testament prophet Joel that tell us to rend our hearts and not our clothes.  We have the imposition of the ashes as an outward sign of our desire for God to strip away layers of falsehood and bring to light and purge away those things that impede our relationship with God. This can be challenging work but the vision glimpsed on Transfiguration Sunday reminds us of the goal toward which we strive.  It inspires us to persevere toward the goal of total transformationinto our true self—revealing our glory, the fullness of who God has created us to be, to the world.

Perhaps Jesus’ message to Peter, James, and John—and to us during our Lenten journey—is “stay with me to the end”.  I know there are some dark and difficult days ahead but believe me, you want to see how this “episode” ends. 

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[1] The others are the baptism of the Lord, the wedding at Cana, the proclamation of the kingdom, and the institution of the Eucharist.  The Rosary also includes five joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries.