LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #231 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #212
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3917
LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #231
THE LIFE OF MOSES #212
MOSES AT MT.SINAI#111
THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES ( Part 70)
THE TABLE OF SHOWBREAD IN THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES #24
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF KOINONIA FELLOWSHIP THAT INCLUDES THE BREAKING OF BREAD?( Part 4)
The Betrayal of Judas #1
There is no greater wound than betrayal. We understand it when enemies speak out against us and stand in opposition to the ways of righteousness. But when one of your closest friends betrays you, the wound cuts very deep.
Part of Jesus’ own identification with human pain was experiencing betrayal.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of his own disciples (Luke 22:47–48). Jesus himself identifies the language of Psalm 41 as pointing to His own betrayal. Psalm 41 says, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (v. 9).
At the Last Supper, Jesus said that His betrayal by one so close to him was to fulfill this Scripture: “He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18).
The very earliest Christian communion liturgy draws upon the profound nature of betrayal.
When Paul gives us that early language regarding the Lord’s Supper, he says, “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me’” (1 Cor. 11:23–24 ).
The very first phrase of the liturgy is remembering the “night in which he was betrayed.”
This phrase is found in communion liturgies all across the world.
It is our reminder that Jesus didn’t just suffer bodily on the cross, but he also suffered in that innermost place; the heart, which is broken and devastated by betrayal.
When Jesus declares that his body was given for us, it is a reference supremely to the cross, but also to the whole of his incarnate life, which was given over to fully experiencing the depth of our lives, including all of its joys, laughter, pain, sorrow, and even betrayal.
When we affirm the substitutionary atonement (i.e., that Jesus died in our place), we also understand that this was only possible because He had lived in our place. He has stood with the human race. That’s the good news.
The second person of the Trinity stepped into human history and became a man.
There is no compromise in that. Without sacrificing His deity, He fully embraced all that it means to be human.
To use the language of Psalm 41, this is why we can say, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen” (Ps. 42:13).
