Rebellion

 “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?’”              Mark 14:48 (NLT)

At times all Scripture needs to be wrestled with. The passage for this week needed a lot of wrestling. Let me outline the lead up to Jesus’ arrest. He had entered Jerusalem like a rock star. Then HE cleared the temple courts. He had a final meal with His crew (cause HE knew the time was coming). At dinner He identified Judas as His betrayer and told him to get on with it. He asked His best friends to watch and pray as he begged His Father to take the cup from Him, only to find them sleeping. He told Peter, who swore he would go to his death with Jesus, that he would that night deny even knowing Him. Then Judas shows up and kisses “his friend” Jesus to signal this is the one that should be arrested. Jesus makes the soldier fall down when He responds “I AM He” in response to who they were looking for. Just like that Jesus went from rock star to criminal and He had only ever done things that were good. Even as He’s being arrested, Jesus called for calm and healed a man after Peter cut his ear off. And Jesus asked this week’s question.

Basically, I feel like Jesus was saying, isn't this a bit much? Have you ever seen Me with a deadly weapon? Did you really expect me to put up a fight? But is there more going on here? Jesus was definitely not leading a political rebellion, but does that mean there wasn’t a kind of rebellion happening? Jesus’ mother often is portrayed and this really serene woman – yet Her song (see Luke 1:46-55) used the language of revolution, so much so that a number of countries would later ban it for fear it would lead to rebellion. So was rebellion part of His human DNA?

Jesus peacefully pushed back against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of His time. I don’t know that he cared too much about the Roman occupation of Israel, but He did care about those who were meant to be bringing people to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and failing to do so. He also cared about the plan to restore creation to a right relationship with the Creator.

Jesus was innocent, in our modern view his arrest and death would be considered unjust. As He hung on that Roman cross, His Father placed the full weight of a sin broken world on Him and turned away for just a moment. In that moment the veil that separated humanity from God was torn apart, opening a path for us straight to the heart of God. A rebellion was waged against the power of sin and darkness and a few days’ later death was defeated and the darkness was pushed back. The transformation of the human heart and the world had begun. Every time someone decides to follow Jesus and to care for those around them, the darkness gets shoved a little further back and His light fills the void. In the face of a world filled with injustice – choose Jesus and follow after Him with your whole heart.

Let me know your thoughts. Know someone who might be encouraged by this – please share. I will be praying for you. Until next week – join the rebellion of heart transforming surrender to the Lord of Lords.