22:1 Passover, traditionally a celebration of God's protection of His children, was near. Multitudes of people were preparing to celebrate because Jesus' message resonated with them.
22:2 Knowing that the holiday would enliven Jesus' following, the chief priests and scribes (the leaders of the the church and community) tried to plan a way to kill Jesus. Before Jesus, they had complete control over all of these people who found safety in Jesus. They were not kind leaders and therefore nobody remained obedient to them once offered the strength Jesus taught them. The chief priests and the scribes wanted their control back and were willing to kill Jesus to get it.
22:3-6 We can understand from this post that Judas, one of the 12 disciples, was overcome with some of the qualities Satan represents: greed, deceit. We can also analyze this in a deeper way: the good, kind people of the world are followers of Jesus (whether they realize it or not, their actions qualify them as His family) and the evil, deceitful people of the world are followers of Satan (whether they realize it or not, their actions qualify them as Satan's family). The scribes and chief priests are representative of Satan and when Jesus gets in their way, like Satan, they desire to have His power. So, whether Satan physically entered Judas or not, the works of Satan were done through him.
Important to keep in mind: Judas later "weeps bitterly" over his betrayal of Jesus. He throws the money he received from the deal to the ground. Our God is a forgiving God and when we are sincere in being apologetic for our mistakes, He accepts us.
22:7-13 Jesus knows every detail of the next (and last) hours of His life. God prepared Jesus well, to the last, tiniest detail. Jesus knows this meal will be His last and in these versus He makes it very clear that all along, He was omniscient. Where they will have the last meal is established with ease.
22:14 Jesus sits down to the last supper with the disciples.
22:15 Jesus is so passionate in His love for His students. It's beautiful to Him to spend the time with them before the world's history and future is changed forever. There's nowhere else He would rather be than right there with them, teaching and supporting them.
22:16 Jesus informs them of how soon His death will be... He's entirely aware that this is His last meal but He is not nervous. He is not afraid. He's dining with the people He loves and He's so focused on God's home that He does not fear leaving this one.
22:17 A metaphorical verse: Jesus takes the sustenance from God, gives His gratitude to God, and then spreads it to His students so that they will understand God's love.
22:18 Such a moment will not present itself again for a long time, Jesus is informing them. He'll return to heaven and humanity will continue through its journey on earth.
22:19 Another metaphorical verse: Everything that Jesus is and offers to humanity is a gift from God and He is thankful for it. Jesus wishes for us to also receive gifts from God and to be thankful and importantly, to spread them to others.
22:20 The metaphor Jesus creates is that His message is to become the blood which sustains our life. Indeed it does.
22:21 Jesus is also aware of which disciple will betray Him... but He isn't angry or confrontational, or even scared. Jesus understands that God's will must unfold on the world. God offers us complete freedom to be who we want to be and to do the things we want to do. He's a just God... allowing for His children to reject Him if they want to. Jesus also knows that a strong, eternal message will come from His death on earth and will spread throughout the world for generations. After His death and transfiguration, He will have exemplified that there is no death for those loved by God. His spent His entire life spreading love and wisdom and even in His "death" He continued to do so.
22:22 Jesus goes as it has been determined. We give our trust to God's will because He loves us so much; His plan is the perfect path for us to become wonderful students of His.
22:23 The disciples are flummoxed, and truly the events about to unfold around them were extraordinary.
22:24 The disciples still have lessons to learn and luckily for them (and us) Jesus was still around to teach to them. They wonder, of the 12, who will be the greatest disciple. This argument is contradictory to everything Jesus had taught them. God's children are humble and do not seek reward. God's children do things out of the compassion of their heart, not for gain, but because it's the right thing to do and they love their responsibility to do it!
The disciples take extra long to learn and I believe this is for our benefit. Their struggles teach us that it's okay to take a journey of learning the bible. You study it, you put time and effort into it and you don't have to be perfect on your first read! Their difficulty understanding concepts helps us because it leads Jesus to reiterate principles we might have missed otherwise.
Jesus is going to explain the way God organizes and the way humanity does.
22:25 Humanity creates systems of authority, where the ruler has control over the population (and frequently abuses their power). The people in positions of authority reap (greedily) the rewards of having control over everything and everyone.
22:26 God's organization is equal for all: Jesus, the manifestation of humility and compassion, even Himself serves. God does not rule over people... He creates a spiritual world in which all souls work and live together (all with the same privileges).
The same organization can be applied to our hearts while we are here on Earth. God equips us with the compassion to help others, to "serve" Him is to work WITH Him and it's a blessed privileged. God allows us to accomplish things with Him. He's humble, He loves to share blessings and spread blessings through your actions.
22:27 Jesus explains that He came to earth also as a servant. He sits with the disciples expecting nothing of them that He Himself does not do. Jesus is fair... He exemplifies entirely the life He wishes and teaches us to live. He doesn't use His position to control people... no, He shares everything He has and He works so hard every moment of His life to do God's will. Beautiful things are accomplished when we do this.
22:28-30 All souls who live and work as Jesus did are welcome to the gifts and promises given by God. God knows that you will defend, protect, inspire, create moments of compassion for others and He is so delighted by that. So proud of you.
22:31 Simon-Peter, as we reach in previous chapters, will deny Jesus out of fear. His fear will temporarily dismantle his faith.
"Satan" and even that which he stands for, constantly tempt God's children away from Him. Greed takes pleasure in corrupting good hearts. God has faith that His children will be strong and when they need support, He's right there to help them through.
22:32 Simon-Peter however, has Jesus' prayer and therefore cannot be lost. Jesus will pray for you too if you speak with Him, work with Him to be a kind, productive soul. Jesus is leading us, supporting us and in return He hopes that we will take what we have learned and use it to support others.
22:33 Not having Jesus' perfect foresight, Simon-Peter cannot believe or understand that his faith will fail him when he is under pressure. This is why we should trust and love God, He understands our past, present and future, knows our shortcomings and loves and helps us through them.
22:34 This will be a lesson for Simon-Peter but also one for us. As our faith develops, we can expect more and more from it. Our experiences on earth teach us ways to be stronger and more brave. We aren't usually perfect on our first try, but if we realize that this time on earth is the perfect opportunity to work hard to get it right...we eventually do.
22:35 Jesus is wrapping up the package of His teaching to ensure the disciples (and we) got the message. If you are on Earth and all you have is God's love... you have everything you need to be happy, purposeful and successful. Jesus reminds the disciples that they went out teaching without any provisions and yet they were entirely successful and never lacked for a single thing.
As you develop your faith, this truth will become more and more obvious to you. God truly does take care of His children. God knows what you need and you mean everything to Him; He's told you that it's His great pleasure to ensure you are well taken care of. Luke 12:32 By developing your faith in Him, you give Him permission guide and enhance your life. Truly, He is all we need.
22:36-38 Jesus was teaching them to metaphorically suit up for the events which would soon take place: His crucifixion. Jesus wanted them to be informed, prepared and courageous in their faith in order to handle the betrayal which would lead to Jesus' exit from earth for a long time. Courage in your faith is always enough.
22:39-40 The disciples continue to follow Jesus and Jesus reminds them to continue to follow Him, even when His presence is no longer immediately apparent. Never succumb to the temptation or pressure to go against your work ethic or compassion.
22:41 Jesus always prays to God... Their communication is constant... and ours should be as well. Jesus begins an extremely important, expressive, passionate prayer. This prayer is often misunderstood so let's take a look at in in order to extract all of the true depth and meaning.
22:42 Jesus is not afraid of facing His "death." Throughout Jesus' life, He has remained faithful and courageous in and through God. Jesus knew of His death before coming and during each moment of His life and He never feared or doubted. What Jesus is asking God for in this prayer is for any other possible way to filter the good souls from the bad. Jesus' foresight informs Him of all that will take place in Humanity's time here (right up to now, what the world is currently facing and beyond) and Jesus saw that humanity would go through a lot of suffering. Jesus prayed for another fair way to give all humans the freedom they deserved but at the end of His prayer: Jesus gives His faith to God's will. God has allowed for this world to provide us the opportunities to become our true, authentic selves with complete freedom. Unfortunately, some of God's children use their freedom to do evil. In this way, the good souls from the bad are filtered. Jesus loves us, He wishes for us to never experience any pain or sadness, but He understands that God always lays out the best plan for us.
Trust God. His will, not ours, will lead us.
22:43 Jesus was experience acute anxiety, His abundant love for humanity filled Him and He wanted so to remain with us... He knew that God's plan was best, but it was so hard for Him to prepare to leave us (in physical form). He loves us so much... He knows that He is always with us, but He also knows that we forget that. God sends Jesus a comforter, and God will send you the same if you need it. John 14:16.
22:44 Jesus' devotion to humanity was pouring from Him. Understand how passionately you are loved. We are Jesus' every ounce of life, everything He is made of is meant to support and inspire our compassion.
22:45-46 This is a metaphor. Jesus steps aside to pray to God, essentially to be with Him for a time, and while He is away, the disciples fall asleep. This was a symbol because Jesus was preparing to do just that...to go away with God for awhile... and He knew that much of humanity would "go to sleep" or fall away from Him and His love and message.
22:47 The symbol continues, Jesus teaches us to be prepared but because so many do not listen, they find themselves caught off guard in the moments they needed to be ready. Jesus is about the be captured by the chief priests and the scribes because of their deal with Judas. Remember that God allowed for the chief priests and the scribes freedom to make this decision... if God wanted to, He could strip all of us of our freedom... but He's fair, He would not do that.
22:48 Jesus is always aware of the events happening and about to happen.
22:49-50 The disciples react with anger -- they begin to fight the adversaries. However, Jesus reminds them that they must allow God's will to unfold.
22:51 Even until the end, Jesus always heals and gives compassion. He heals the ear of His enemy because He represents a God of love and forgiveness. God's will is defended by love and justice but never violence. Jesus walks the walk... everything He stands for He exemplifies. He is not violent or aggressive.
22:52 Jesus asks His adversaries why they arrived with so many weapons -- and truly they were ridiculous for at least two reasons: 1) no weapon can defeat or even hinder God's will and 2) Jesus was entirely peaceful His entire life! There is no need to use a weapon on a peace-maker (and yet corrupt humans do it all the time).
22:53 Their plan continues to be ridiculous. Jesus tells them that they had the opportunity to capture Him at anytime... He never hid... and yet arrive secretly and with weapons to try and trap Him.
22:54 They capture Jesus (remember, God allows their freedom to do so). Simon-Peter follows after Jesus. Without realizing, Simon-Peter is about to deny Jesus, just as Jesus foretold him.
22:55-56 Peter is recognized as a disciple who stood with Jesus.
22:57 Out of fear for his life (clearly Peter's faith still needed development) he denied that he was a disciple of Jesus.
22:58 Again Peter is recognized but denies his identity.
22:59-60 A third time, Peter's faith is tested and he fails. Peter's lesson is not yet over (will resurface in The Book of Acts) where God will truly solidify Peter's faith and life's work as a teacher of God's word.
22:61-62 Peter then remembers Jesus' warning. Peter was not vigilant, he allowed himself to be tempted by fear. It's okay, Peter learned a great lesson from this (and we can too) and he deeply regretted his denial of Jesus and the God he so loves. God wants us to understand that faith is constantly testing during our time on earth (the actions of other humans ensure that) and so we must make our faith strong and brave. Experience gives us the opportunity to learn many lessons. Now that he has made the mistake, Peter can strengthen his faith to never make the mistake again.
22:63-65 Jesus is brutally mocked. These are some very disturbed, corrupt men... but they are also fools! They have no power... they have nothing except the freedom God allows them to reveal their ugly nature. God has all of the power and could have muted them without any effort. God wants us to be strong when our enemies mock us, knowing that He is always with us and our enemies have no power over our strong spirits.
22:66-67 The chief priests and scribes accuse Jesus of that which they refuse to even believe. Jesus does not have to prove anything to corrupt people. If they will not listen, they are not worth the effort.
22:68 They will not communicate logically... and Jesus will not engage in a wasteful, one-sided conversation in which only one person is contributing. Jesus teaches us how to deal with our enemies. We do not have to plead out intelligence or our truth when our lives exuded intelligence in truth. Our truth is plain as day, bright as light.
22:69 Indeed Jesus takes His place beside God, who He so loves and is loved by.
22:70-71 For speaking the truth and being kind, the chief priests and scribes find enough reason to kill Jesus. In today's world we have the same kind of fools -- who defend evil without any logic, who oppress innocent people just to retain their power and control. Be strong in the face of them, protect others from their terror because God will return and those who were terrible will perish. Be strong in the face of adversaries and in protecting others because your compassionate heart knows it's the right, the blessed, the most wonderful opportunity.
