ResurrectionSample

Many people have a favorite place. A place of comfort, a place of peace, a place of rest. Maybe it’s a place of prayer or deep thought. The garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives was such a place for Jesus and his disciples. It was the sort of place one could return after 30 years, and it would feel like yesterday, like an old college haunt. But something unfolded there that would forever change how they felt about Gethsemane. 

As they are finishing the Last Supper, Jesus tells Judas Iscariot to go do what he needs to. None of the other disciples understand what he means. [John 13:21–30] Judas had arranged with the leaders of the people, who despised Jesus and what he was doing, to lead them to Jesus when there were no crowds around. [Luke 22:1–6] What better place than the one where the disciples always went with Jesus to get away from the crowds?

After they finish the feast, they go to the usual place. [Luke 22:39–48] Jesus knows what is about to happen in the next twenty-four hours. He prays for strength and asks his disciples to do the same. Then, just as expected, Judas leads the temple guards right to Jesus. Why, again, was this betrayal so important? 

At every turn, Jesus is reliving the history of Israel. He faces all her tests, and he responds the right way. For instance, Jesus is in the wilderness for forty days. The devil tempts him to take a shortcut to get to his destination, the redemption of humanity. Similarly, the people of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years before they reached their goal, the land that was promised to them. But each time Israel was tested, she chose the wrong path. Jesus took up the story of Israel, and he lived it in a fitting way, the way God called Israel to live. So Jesus is the true Israel, fulfilling the promises to Abraham to bring blessing to all nations.

The details of how Judas betrays Jesus show up at two points in Israel’s story. We see the intimacy of their friendship [Psalm 41:9], and we see Judas’s negotiation with the leaders [Zechariah 11:12–13]. We even see the final outcome where the money paid to Judas to betray Jesus is used to buy the field where Judas was buried. 

Judas really did play a key role in the arrest of Jesus. The leaders were afraid of the crowds who loved Jesus, and they couldn’t arrest him in the temple. They didn’t know exactly where Jesus went with his disciples. They would have had a hard time identifying Jesus in the flickering torch light at night in the garden. So Judas betrayed the deep intimacy and trust the disciples shared. He violated the place of prayer and rest. Aside from betraying Jesus, these other details led to his deep remorse and his decision to end his own life.