Here begins the so called ‘Passion of Christ’, that is, the final stretch of the resolute march of Jesus towards his own self-sacrifice. Jesus absorbs evil after evil, from betrayal to humiliation to cruel death. In the passion narratives we see, at the same time, the greatest expression of the sin of humanity and the greatest expression of the love and grace of God. He is let down, betrayed and denied even by his own disciples. The offenses committed against him in this one day are enough to warrant a shower of burning sulphur many times more severe than came upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah and Jeremiah pictured the offenses of the world being stored up in a great cup of judgement that would one day reach its tipping point and rain hell upon the earth (Isaiah 51; Jeremiah 25; Cf. Revelation 16). You would expect this disturbing display of human enmity toward God to finally tip that cup. And, in fact, it did. That day the cup of God’s wrath tipped out upon the world. But Jesus directed it all onto himself. That’s why Peter could be forgiven for denying Christ. Even Judas, if he had repented, could have been forgiven. Peter and Judas stand at the headwaters of this age representing the only two kinds of people there are in the world: repentant sinners and unrepentant sinners. We are all complicit in the human rebellion expressed in the passion narratives. But because of what Jesus did we can be forgiven, if we are willing to repent and entrust our lives to him.
Thank Jesus for what he has done for you.
Read Luke 22:39-65
