If you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's
Word this evening? I'll be reading from two
different accounts in the Gospels, Matthew and then John
of the same event, Betrayal and the arrest of Jesus Christ.
First Gospel of Matthew chapter 26, beginning with verse 47.
While Jesus was still speaking, Judas came one of the 12, and
with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief
priests and the elders of the people.
Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will
kiss is the man sees him. And he came up to Jesus at once
and said, greetings Rabbi, and he kissed him.
Jesus said him, Friend, do what you came to do.
They came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.
And behold, one of those who are with Jesus stretched out his
hand and drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high
priest, and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said him, put your
sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will
perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot
appeal to my Father, and He will at once send me more than 12
legions of angels? But how then should the
Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?
At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out
against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me?
Day after day? I set the temple teaching.
You did not seize me. But all this has taken place,
that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all disciples left him and fled.
Now the Gospel of John, chapter 18, verse 10.
Then Simon Peter having a sword, drew it and struck the high
priest servant and cut off his right ear.
The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, put your
sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup the
Father has given me? This is the word of the Lord.
You may be seated. Sometime around the year 20 AD,
just over a decade before Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross, a
young Jewish man named Yehohanan was crucified by the Roman
authorities in Jerusalem. While it's not known what he did
to deserve death, whatever crimes that he committed against
Rome was severe enough to warrant crucifixion.
In 1968, archaeologists discovered the skeletal remains
of this young man in a bone box in Jerusalem, including a heel
bone with a 7 inch iron nail pushed through the heel, a nail
driven right through it. The end of this nail was vent.
A theory is that it hit a knot in the wood because it was bent.
The relatives of this young man, when he's taken down off of the
cross, couldn't remove the nail. So much so that fragments and
pieces of all of wood we're still there attached to the nail
and fused the bone, this heel. At the time, this was a
monumental archaeological discovery because while there
are countless accounts of crucifixion throughout
antiquity, this was the first physical evidence that the
Romans executed criminals by nailing them to a wooden cross.
Now, the Romans did not invent crucifixion, but it's often said
by historians that they perfected it.
You can trace crucifixion back to the Assyrians, who are known
to impale their enemies on a stake and put them on display, a
picture of their power, their dominance, that no one should
miss with them. And then we know that
crucifixion was later developed by the Persians who crucified
their enemies as early as the 6th century BC.
Crucifixion was then developed by the Roman Empire become one
of the standard ways that criminals and slaves and rebels
and foreigners were executed. The accused would be publicly
flogged and stripped naked, hung on a wooden cross with nails
through their wrists and through their ankles so that as they
were hanging there exposed, they would struggle to breathe and
eventually they would suffocate. As a death, it was horrific.
It was shameful, reserved for the worst of humanity.
And so for centuries, people have asked, why was a Carpenter
from Nazareth named Jesus crucified?
Why was Jesus crucified? That's our question that we're
going to ask together this evening.
Why was Jesus crucified? There are three ways to answer
that question. The first is historical.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a conspiracy involving the
worst of human depravity coalesced together for one
common sinful cause to put Jesus to death.
The plotting of chief priests and the elders.
The greed and the betrayal of Judas, one of Jesus's own 12
disciples. The brutality of the Roman
Empire and perfecting crucifixion.
The cold indifference of Pontius Pilate, The rejection of the
Jewish people, the conspiracy, all working together to put
Jesus to death. But the second way we could
answer the question, why was Jesus crucified is theological.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was because of God's sovereign
plan, a divine conspiracy. Apostle Paul put it this way in
the book of Ephesians chapter one, verse 7.
Paul writes in him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses, according of to the
riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom
and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will.
Listen to this according to His purpose, which He set forth in
Christ, and the fullness of time to unite all things in Him,
things in heaven and things on earth.
In other words, from before the foundation of the world, God had
a plan, a plan to rescue His people, to draw you and me to
Himself by sending His Son to be born, to take on our flesh, and
to die on a cross in our place that all who believe in him
would have life. Why did Jesus die on the cross?
Why was Jesus of Nazareth crucified?
Because God sent him there for our salvation.
But the third way we could answer that question, What I
want us to see tonight is deeply personal.
This Holy Week, we're looking at the events, death and
resurrection of Jesus through the eyes.
Who were there eyewitness accounts of those who were with
him? Who saw him in those last days?
And, and tonight we're going to focus on the crucifixion of
Jesus through the unlikely witness of a servant of the high
priest named Malchus. Through his eyes and through his
ear, we will see the answer underneath every answer to the
question, why was Jesus crucified?
Ultimately, is love love? Why was Jesus crucified?
Because of love? Because the love of God for the
foundation of the world, for his people, because of the love of
the Son, for his Father to be obedient to His will to the
point of death. Love of Jesus for his enemies,
enemies like you, enemies like me.
So first answer the question, why was Jesus crucified?
Jesus was crucified because of a conspiracy.
I want you to look with me. Matthew 26, verse 47.
You can find it there in your bulletin.
You can turn there in your Bible.
You can use the Blue Pew Bible in front of you.
Matthew tells us that while Jesus was still speaking to his
disciples, the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas came one of
the 12. And with him a great crowd with
swords and clubs from the chief priests, the elders of his
people. What you need to know as we pick
up in this part of the story, the Gospel of Matthew, is that
Jesus is in the garden, Gethsemane with his disciples.
He's been praying with 11 of them.
That is all of them except for Judas.
He's asked them to keep watch. They keep falling asleep and
admit sentence while he's still speaking to them.
All of a sudden, here comes Judas.
Where has he been? And he comes with a band,
soldiers. Can you imagine the scene, what
it must have been like for one of Jesus's disciples?
There they had been, gathered together with Jesus in the upper
room, sharing the Passover meal. There they had been with Jesus,
the guard of Gethsemane, praying.
You wonder, did they notice that Judas was missing?
Surely they did. And all of a sudden, while Jesus
is still speaking, there's Judas.
He doesn't have a smile on his face.
He wasn't saying, hey, wait up, guys want to pray with you?
No, he is leading a band of soldiers carrying weapons,
swords and clubs. And here they are coming to
Jesus. Here he is with this mob of
people sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees.
You see, they had been plotting to put Jesus to death.
Matthew tells us earlier in chapter 26 that under the
leadership of Caiaphas, they were plotting together.
Now is the time. They had been waiting for the
right moment, and now is their opportunity.
Jesus must die, we're told as the the story unfolds in Matthew
26 that Judas, one of Jesus's own disciples, comes to them and
he conspires against Jesus. He agrees to betray Jesus for 30
pieces of silver. And here in verse 48, Matthew
tells us this conspiracy even included a signal.
Look with me, we're told now the betrayer had given them a sign
saying the one I will kiss is the man.
The signal was a kiss of all things, verse 49, and he came up
to Jesus at once and said, greetings, Rabbi, and he kissed
him. Comes up to Jesus 2 faced a
liar, a betrayer. He says greetings, it's agreed
to give joy, literally means rejoice.
He calls him rabbi, which you need to know.
And I think it's noteworthy than the Gospel of Matthew at least
none of the disciples call Jesus rabbi.
They always call him Lord, except for Judas, which means
teacher. Could it be that he had a thin
view of Jesus and then that wasn't enough?
He kisses him, then just point him out.
Then just say, hey, over here sees this guy.
No, he uses a sign of affection and intimacy, a symbol of the
years that Judas spent with Jesus, walking with him,
listening to him, hearing him teach, seeing him perform
miracles. And yet in this moment, greed
consumed him and he betrayed him with a kiss.
Before in your heart and mind you condemn Judas.
We must ask ourselves, are we any different?
So many of us, years spent with Jesus, following him, listening
to him, reading about him, walking with him, and yet how
often do we betray him to verse 50?
Jesus's response to Judas should stop all of us in our tracks.
Jesus says to Judas, friend, friend, do what you came to do.
In other words, Jesus knows what Judas has come to do.
Jesus has always known what Judas was coming to do.
Jesus knew when he chose Judas to be one of his 12 disciples
what he would eventually do. He knew that he would betray
him. Why?
Because Jesus was willing to be betrayed.
He was willing to be betrayed. He was willing to be arrested.
He was willing to be beaten and tried.
He was willing to go to the cross.
We see this and what Jesus prayed right before this in the
Gospel of Matthew. He said, my father, if you'd be
possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
Jesus was willing to be crucified because he knew that
that was the Father's will. That's the second reason.
Answer the question, why was Jesus crucified?
Well, the second answer was Jesus was crucified because of
the will of God. It wasn't just a human
conspiracy, Caiaphas in the high priests in Judas.
It was a divine conspiracy, the sovereign plan of God.
Verse 51, we're told that behold, one of those who with
Jesus stretched out his hand and drew a sword, and he struck the
servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
Now I want you to put yourself in the shoes of disciples once
more. Again, you've just been with
Jesus in the upper room. You had your feet washed by him.
You've celebrated the Passover meal with him.
You took the bread and the wine that Jesus said.
This is my body and my blood given for you.
You were just praying with him in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Now, out of nowhere, here comes Judas.
You see him kiss Jesus, and now all of a sudden he is surrounded
by this mob. They're seizing Jesus.
What would you do? How would you have responded?
The disciples must have been confused, bewildered, looking at
Judas and then looking at Jesus, and they must have been afraid
and so very angry. And so we see, according to
Matthew, that one of them draws a sword and he swings it at the
head of the servant of the high priest.
We don't know whether he had great aim or terribly, but he
hits the servant's ear and Matthew tells us that it's cut
off. Can you imagine the scene, the
shouts, the sounds, and now the sight of blood?
Here is the servant holding his head and where the Gospel of
Matthew gives us great detail about everything that is
unfolding here. The Gospel of John that gives us
names. Once you look with me, John 18,
verse 10, you'll find it there in your bulletin.
John tells us that. Then Simon Peter, having a
sword, drew it and struck the high priest servant and cut off
his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
The Gospel of John tells us the name of the servant whose ear
was cut off was Malchus. And the specificity of this name
is important, especially because of what's about to happen to
Malchus. So when a name is listed, people
could go back and they could ask him about it, they could find
him another eyewitness, somebody who was there who saw Jesus, saw
his disciples, saw his betrayal and his arrest first hand, and
lived to tell about it. But not only were you told that
the servant's name was Malchus, we're we're told which disciple
it was that drew the sword and cut off his ear, it was Simon
Peter. And if you're familiar with the
New Testament, if you're familiar at all with Peter, this
should not be surprising to you at all.
You see, Peter's the passionate one, filled with zeal, always
acting 1st and thinking second. He doesn't want Jesus to be
arrested. He thinks he's doing something
noble. Protecting Jesus from this mob.
And so he draws a sword. He is ready to go to war.
Peter's always been doing this, always been acting this way.
Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 16, Peter
has a stunning interaction with Jesus.
In the beginning, Peter is confessing that Jesus is the
Christ. That means Messiah.
Jesus says I believe or Peter says I believe Jesus, that you
are the Christ, you are the Son of the living God, You are the
long-awaited Savior, King, the Messiah who's come for us.
And Jesus looks at Peter and he says bless it are you Peter?
Bless it are you? He blesses him.
And then Jesus begins to tell his disciples that he must be
arrested, that he must be put on trial by the high priests and
the scribes, that he must be beaten and suffer many things,
that he must die. On the third day, he must rise
again. And on hearing all of this,
Peter pulls Jesus aside and he rebukes him.
He says, don't do it, Lord. This isn't what the Messiah
should do. The Messiah shouldn't come to
die. Messiah should come to lead us
to victory. And Jesus, in response, rebukes
Peter. And this is what he says.
Get behind me, Satan. You're a hindrance to me.
For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but
on the things of man. And so here is Peter again, now
in the Garden of Gethsemane, and once again he's setting his mind
on the things of men. He doesn't understand what Jesus
has truly come to do. In his heart of hearts, he knows
he's the Christ. He knows he's the Messiah, the
Son of living God. But in his mind, the Son of the
living God would never be arrested.
He doesn't want Jesus to suffer. He doesn't want Jesus to die.
And so Jesus tells him once again, verse 52, look with me,
put your sword back in its place.
For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
In other words, the Kingdom of God, according to Jesus, will
not be established by the sword, will not be taken by human
strength or might or power. No, the Kingdom of God will be
established through the cross. And so Jesus says, Peter, put
away your sword. I think so many of us need to
hear those words, especially our current cultural moment once
again, as it has been so many generations before we see Jesus,
his identity, what he's come to do, put on trial.
And just like Peter, we want to take up the sword, use our own
human intellect and power and cunning and strength, when all
the while Christ has called us to put away the sword and take
up the cross. It is through the cross that
Jesus established the Kingdom. So he tells Peter to put away
the sword. But he didn't stop there.
Verse 53 he says, do you think that I cannot appeal to my
Father, that He will at once send me more than 12 legions of
angels? In other words, Peter, do you
really think the Son of God needs your help?
Do you really think I need your sword?
Don't you realize, Peter, that everything that is happening to
me is happening because I am willing it to happen?
That everything is going according to plan.
He goes on verse 54 about how then should the scriptures be
fulfilled. That it must be so.
So that it was very much the sinful conspiracy of Judas and
Caiaphas and the high priest. The Lord and his sovereignty
worked all of this together and one divine conspiracy to send
Jesus to the cross. Jesus put it this way, The
Gospel of John, he said no one takes it from me, but I lay my
life down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down
and I have authority to take it up again.
This charge I have received from my Father, Jesus, from the
beginning of his ministry knew that he had received a calling,
a calling to lay down his life for his people.
And now, according to the will of God, he's being arrested
because of the betrayal of Judas in the guard of Gethsemane so
that he could go to the cross to die for you and for me.
That brings us to the third and final reason.
Why was Jesus Christ crucified? Jesus was crucified because of
love. This is the answer underneath
every other answer. Because of love.
That is why Jesus died. The story of Peter cutting off
the ear of Malchus is recorded in three of the four gospels,
and Matthew, Luke and John. And while all three accounts are
similar in a way, they also are all different.
They give a different vantage point.
And some of you might be asking, well, why is that?
Which one must be correct? Well, the answer is all of them.
And this is the beauty of the four gospels.
Each one of them is an eyewitness, like different
witnesses to the same event. Taken together, they give a
fuller picture of what actually happened and a much clearer
portrait of who Jesus is and what he has come to do for you
and for me. So Matthew, Luke and John all
looking at the same event, Jesus's betrayal and arrest in
the Garden of Gethsemane. They're telling one story, but
each of them including different details.
And though Matthew describes what happened after Peter pulled
the sword, Luke and John include two key details that show us the
love of Jesus Christ. The 1st is found the Gospel of
Luke. And Luke begins as gospel,
making it clear that he's writing it to be an orderly
account and eyewitness testimony.
Everything that he's writing we know is true.
And in his orderly account of Jesus arrest, every detail
matches Matthews except for one key point.
This is Luke 22 verse 50. You don't have to turn there,
just listen. Luke tells us that one of them
struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right
ear. But Jesus said no more of this
and then he touched his ear and healed him.
Did you hear it? Luke goes on to tell us that not
only did he tell Peter to put a stop to what he was doing, but
then he walked over to Malchus, he put his hand on his right
ear, and he healed him. Now, this is significant for at
least two reasons. The first is because of what's
just happened, the chaos that Jesus in this moment is being
arrested. Can you imagine?
Everybody is about, I mean, if a sword is drawn, you better
believe other swords are drawn too.
Things could have gotten much, much worse.
And yet, out of love, Jesus puts a stop to it, not just with his
words, but by his actions. And he heals Malchus.
But it's also significant because throughout the Gospels,
the people that Jesus healed are so often those who believe in
him, those who want to follow him, those who are beginning to
trust in him. That's why they're going to him.
And that here is this man Malchus.
We don't know anything about his spiritual condition.
All we do know is that he's been with the mob.
He's shown up to arrest Jesus. That would tell us that Malchus
is an enemy of Jesus. And yet here is Jesus healing
him, a display of God's love for his enemies.
And this is good news for you and for me tonight, because that
is exactly who we are. You and I are Malchus.
Because of our sin, because of our betrayal, because of our
rebellion against God, We are God's enemies.
We have committed treason against the king and His
Kingdom, yet God loved us anyways.
Apostle Paul put it this way, Romans 5 verse 8.
God shows His love for us and that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. He goes on and says, But if
while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled to be saved by
His life. We are Malchus, We are enemies
of God, enemies of Jesus. And yet while we were still
sinners, God shows his love for us.
In this Christ died for us, He died for his enemies, and here
he is healing his enemy, all because of love.
Love for his enemies, but also love for you and love for me.
Because in healing Malchus's ear, he's saying it is my desire
to be arrested. It is my desire to be put on
trial, it is my desire to go to the cross.
In addition to Luke's account, John also gives us one other key
detail. Along with Matthew and Luke
telling us what Jesus said, John includes one other statement,
John 18 verse 11. Look with me, it's there in your
bulletin. So Jesus said to Peter, put your
sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that
the Father has given me, the cup that Jesus is talking about here
as the cup the Old Testament describes as the cup of God's
wrath. Psalm 75, verse 8.
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine
well mixed, and he pours out from it.
And all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the
dregs. The Bible says that every single
one of us, all people, all of humanity have gone astray.
Every one of us is a rebel. Every one of us is a betrayer,
just like Judas. Every one of us is an enemy just
like Malchus, an enemy of God. And God and his sovereign power
and justice must execute his righteous judgment.
Every one of us tonight is a Sinner, and every one of us
deserves the wrath of God tonight.
If you say that sounds harsh, I want you to consider the act of
treason that each of us truly commit when we turn our back on
God and go our own way. And yet it is this cup, the cup
of wrath, that you and I deserve, that in this moment
Jesus says, shall I not drink the cup that the Father has
given me? This is the cup, the cup that
Jesus knows he must drink on the cross, the cup of God's wrath
that was reserved for you and for me and for everyone who has
sinned. And Jesus knows that he must now
go to the cross in order to drink the cup down to the dregs.
Why? Why would Jesus do that for you
and for me? Why would he do that for his
enemies? Why would he do that for a bunch
of betrayers like us? Because of love.
Because he loves you out of love.
Jesus chose Judas to be one of the 12 disciples.
Out of love, Jesus went with his disciples into the upper room.
He celebrated the Passover with them.
Out of love, Jesus took the bread and he blessed it and he
said, this is my body given for you.
Out of love, Jesus took a cup. And when he given thanks, he
said, This is my blood, the blood of the covenant given for
you. Out of love, Jesus went to the
guard of Gethsemane to pray, knowing that he would be
arrested. Out of love, Jesus told Peter to
put away his sword. Out of love, he healed the ear
of Malchus. And he said, shall I not drink
the cup that the Father has given me?
And out of love, Jesus drank the cup of wrath so that in its
place you and I could drink the cup of salvation with him.
And tonight that is the very cup that we've invited to now come
and to drink. Receive the love of Jesus
Christ, love of Jesus Christ for sinners.
Out of love, Christ died on the cross for you and for me.
He died in our place for our sin.
He bore God's wrath that everyone who believes in him
would be saved. Believe on Him tonight and
receive his love and come to this feast and drink the cup of
salvation, because out of love Christ drank the cup of wrath
for you and for me. Let's pray.
Father in Heaven, may we now respond to your great love for
us as we come now to this table. We pray that you prepare our
hearts to receive this love, love that is unfathomable to us.
O Lord, help us to see it more clearly in the crucifixion of
your Son Jesus. And O Lord, may we see that our
sin has been nailed to his body in the tree, that He's drunk the
cup of wrath for us, so that now in love we might respond and
drink this cup of salvation. Looking forward to the day when
we drink the final cup with Him. When he returns we ask this in
Jesus name, Amen.