Date : Third Lenten Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Text : The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ Drawn from the Four Gospels

Title : Gethsemane

"Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"

Judas betrayed Jesus. When he led the troops to Jesus, to arrest Jesus, Judas kissed Jesus. It was an oxymoronic action. Betrayals are not sweet and friendly. A slap to the face would have been appropriate.

Judas clearly betrayed Jesus with a kiss, but didn’t Peter do the exact same thing? Only a few minutes earlier, he swore up and down that he would not fall away from Jesus. When the Lord told Peter that he would, indeed, deny Him, Peter insisted that even the threat of death couldn’t get him to do it.

But, of course, deny he did. He betrayed Jesus, the very next morning. He sold out Jesus to a little girl—not before Pontius Pilate, and not when confronted by a Roman centurion, and not even when facing the Jewish Sanhedrin, but when a young girl suggested that Peter was a friend of Jesus, that’s when Pete got squeamish.

He got scared. His oath was but dust in the wind. He spared his life for the life of His Lord. What’s the difference in what Peter did and what Judas did?

Both were Jesus’ disciples. The Lord personally recruited both. The two men spent the same amount of time with Jesus—over three years of visiting the villages of Palestine. Miracle after miracle. Sermon after sermon. Proof after proof that Jesus was whom He claimed to be: the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Good Shepherd, the Door for the Sheep, the Vine, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way and the Truth and the Life—the great I Am—Yahweh, Himself.

The One who spoke to Moses from the burning bush is the One who spoke to both Judas and Peter, in the flesh.

Should we actually find Peter’s denial of Jesus worse than Judas’ betrayal? Judas never swore his faithfulness to his Lord’s face. For all we know, Judas never pretended to be anything different than he wound up being. But, Peter . . .

Yes, it is a big deal that Judas didn’t have faith in Jesus—and, we know that he didn’t have faith in Jesus, even though he returned the money, because we are told that it would have been better if Judas had never been born, implying that, when he took his life, he went to hell. But, compared with Peter, at least Judas wasn’t a hypocrite. As people say, Judas was what he was. We can accept that. Peter, however, was not.

I’m making the point, very thoroughly, because you need to see yourself. As I said on Ash Wednesday, the purpose of Lent is twofold: to see your Savior and to see yourself.

When you look into your heart, we pray that you never find a Judas—that you never find a heart that does not grasp Jesus Christ as your Savior. What you need to find, every time you look into your heart, is a person who is just as Peter was: quick to speak up, quick to claim great faith and commitment and loyalty to Jesus, but just as quick to chicken out.

Just as quick to forget what you swore on oath to uphold, on the day of your confirmation, that you, just like Peter, would, and I quote from the confirmation rite, "Suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from this confession and faith."

Just as quick to fail at what you confessed in church, on any given Sunday or these Lenten Wednesdays. Just as quick to deny your Savior, when confronted by the temptations of the devil, the allurements of the world, the fancies of your own sinful nature.

Like Peter, we are always looking at ourselves, and what is in us, in order to make God happy so that we are worthy of heaven. Indeed, most of you, if I took you aside, right now, and asked you this question, "If you died, today, why do you believe you would go to heaven," would answer the question, incorrectly.

I know, because I’ve asked the question, of all ages groups, over and over, in my nine years, as your pastor, and the wrong answer is the one I constantly hear, even from some folks, to whom I have previously posed the question.

The standard answer, why you believe you are going to heaven, is this: "Because I believe." That sounds just like Peter: "Look at me! I have great faith, Lord! I will never deny you! I believe!"

But, you’re salvation is not based on your faith, or on anything that is in you. Your salvation is based on Jesus Christ, and on what is in Him: forgiveness, life, and salvation—and the gifts that He bestows upon you.

The correct answer to the question, "If you died, today, why do you believe you would go to heaven," is this, or something like it: "Because Jesus Christ saved me."

The season of Lent is twofold. The part concerning you is all about how sinful you are, how in need of a Savior you are—how like Peter you are in talking the talk, but never willing to walk the walk to the cross with your Savior. The part concerning you is how, through faith in Christ, you repent of your sins.

The part concerning Jesus is that He took your sins into Himself for the purpose of giving you His perfect holiness—His death and life, which He gives in His Word, His washing, His eating and drinking.

Today’s reading from our Lord’s Passion is a great teacher for how to live the faith. Even Jesus, who is the eternal God, in the same way that the Father and the Holy Spirit are the eternal God—even Jesus doesn’t look inside Himself, as Peter did, with great pronouncements that He would never fall away, even when faced with the prospect of death.

And, that’s exactly what Jesus faced: the prospect of death. Because He’s God, He knew exactly what was coming: the betrayal, the arrest, the trial, the brutal beating, more betrayal, the shame-filled walk to Golgotha, the weight of the world upon His nailed shoulders.

So, Jesus left the upper room, where He made His Last Supper to be the gift of our Lord’s Supper, and He went to a garden—the peaceful pastures of Gethsemane—to seek His Father’s face.

To pray. To plead. To humble Himself as a child of God—the Son of God in service to God the Father. To go to the only source of strength: to the righteous right arm of the Almighty.

Again, to pray. And, again, to pray. And, finally, having exhausted both His prayers and His flesh to bloody sweat, to accept His Father’s will—the good and gracious will of God, that He should drink the cup of His Father’s wrath, so that you could become children of the heavenly Father and drink the cup of Christ’s salvation.

We make these grandiose statements of faith; Jesus turns to His Father in prayer. Look at the stark difference. We find our strength in who we are, that we believe so strongly—that’s what Peter did, by insisting that he would never deny Jesus—but, Jesus finds His strength in His Father.

Jesus, pleading for you. Jesus, bleeding for you. Jesus, interceding for you.

This is what Lent is all about. It’s all about you, dear ones who belong to Jesus Christ, fixing your eyes upon the Son of God, who fixed His eyes upon His Father and received the strength that He required to die as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

How is it that you have confidence that you will, indeed, go to heaven, whichever is your last day? Because Jesus saved you. Amen.