Jesus gif Come Unto Christ: What Are the Beatitudes?
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Come Follow Me Insights Resource Guide with Taylor and Tyler | Luke 22; John 18 | Scripture Central

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Speaker 2
I’m Taylor.

Speaker 1
And I’m Tyler.

Speaker 2
This is Scripture Central’s Come Follow Me Insights. This week, Luke 22 and John 18.

Speaker 1
If you look at all of Luke chapter 22, it begins back with the last supper. And we’ve already covered that from Matthew and Mark’s perspective. So we’re going to jump forward to the very end of that experience in the upper room with a statement that Jesus makes to Peter that is unique to the Gospel of Luke. So we’re going to pick this up in verse 31, And the Lord said unto Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. Joseph Smith adjusted that verse to say, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired you, that he may sift the children of the kingdom as wheat. It’s not just you that he’s after, Peter. He’s after you so that he can sift the children of the kingdom as wheat. That’s a powerfully prophetic addition to this idea that if Satan could have taken down Peter, he would have had much more power over those early members of the Church following the teachings of Peter after the ascension of Christ.

Speaker 2
It also just reminds me that all of us need to be on the lookout that, first of all, we will all be challenged, tried, tempted. That’s part of the process of learning and getting the opportunity to choose God in the face of challenge. But also that none of us should take life and our spirituality so lightly that we think, oh, well, I have a testimony all is well in Zion, that we may also find ourselves sifted. And if we’re not careful to continue to grow ourselves in the strength of the Lord, we can be sifted out.

Speaker 1
So now watch what the Lord does to help Peter in this effort. Verse 32, But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Isn’t that amazing? Once again, the contrast on the scripture page. Satan is desiring to have you so that he can destroy you and in the process destroy as many other people as possible. And Jesus is saying, But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Both beings, Jesus and the devil are seeking after Peter, one with the intent to drag him down and destroy, the other with the intent to lift him up and strengthen him and fill him with faith. It’s obvious. I get it. It’s obvious. But it’s fun to see repeatedly on the scripture page that contrast. And honestly, it should strengthen us in moments of temptation to just pause for a moment and throw some thoughts heavenward and just analyze who it is that’s actually tempting you and what his intent is, what his purpose is. To me, it’s empowering against the power of the devil.

Speaker 2
It’s interesting, the underlying Greek word, ec lepo here, has the sense of to be left out or to die out, or to come to an end. When Jesus says, so that you fail not, you could say, so you don’t come to an end, so you don’t die. Now, we all die, but we’re talking about death that’s permanent, the spiritual death, those monsters that we hear about in the Book of Mormon. So even the underlying Greek word conveys a sense you’re talking about, Tyler.

Speaker 1
That’s beautiful. Now, the second half, verse 32, listen to these words, And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Once again, the contrast here between verse 31 and 32, the devil is wanting to sift you and many others as wheat, and Christ is trying to strengthen you and strengthen your brethren through your conversion. Now, do any of you find it odd that here we are, three years into the Savior’s ministry. You know the miracles that Peter has witnessed firsthand. He’s been there for many of them. He’s listened to the teachings. He’s watched the interactions. He’s heard the sermons.

Speaker 2
He’s given up his business. He has spent three years with an itinerant preacher. It’s not a way to make a living. And so you would think that Peter has already converted to God, and yet there seems to be more that Jesus is asking.

Speaker 1
From him. So here he is in that last supper event saying to Peter, when you’re converted, strengthen your brotherhood, implying there’s still room to grow. Fascinating when you tie it into teachings from the Gospel of John, his discourse about the comforter and the Holy Spirit that would be sent, and his promise that after his ascension, he would send the Holy Ghost, this gift of the Holy Ghost being poured out. If you look at Peter the Apostle before Acts 2, and then you look at Peter the Apostle after Acts 2, there really seems to be a strengthening, a deepening of his power as the chief apostle after the day of the Pentecost, that outpouring of the Spirit, which seems to by many measures be that he’s fully converted by that point after having witnessed the Resurrected Christ, spent 40 days with him, and then maybe roughly a week later, having that Pentecost experience. The Peter the Apostle moving forward from that point on seems fearless and powerful, and he is constantly strengthening his brotherhood. Which, if you stop and think about it, I could be wrong here, but I don’t know of anybody in the New Testament who receives more corrective feedback, more what could be called gentle discipline than Peter from Jesus.

Speaker 1
Jesus seems to always be shaping him and correcting him, and yet Peter took it so well and he adapted so well that Jesus kept giving it. And we get an example in the opposite side of Julius, who was corrected once when he complains about Mary breaking the spike nerd ointment and putting it on the Savior’s feet. Jesus corrects him once, and in the synoptics, the next thing he does is he goes to the chief priests to conspire about how he’s going to betray Jesus. I wonder if there’s an element buried deep in these two contrasting stories of whom the Lord loveth, the Lord chasteneth. He does that. He corrects, not because he likes punishing, but because he loves refining. He loves discipling. In the best senses of that word. Turning you into a true follower of him, means that he’s not always going to pat you on the back. In fact, it’s fascinating to me how our very bodies were created. The Lord made it very difficult for us to pat ourselves on the back or to kick ourselves in the pants. Consequently, I think we shouldn’t do too much of either one of those two things.

Speaker 1
But when we turn to the Lord and say, what lack I yet? Correct me, help me, then he will give us those at times chastening. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He’ll give us those corrective moments to shape us and help us move forward.

Speaker 2
You draw one of your perfect circles. It doesn’t have to be super big. I love watching Tyler draw these circles.

Speaker 1
These circles are fun. I can’t even get squares right. I try to stay in shape this way.

Speaker 2
It’s not okay. From a teaching and learning standpoint, learning is a cycle. And in learning, you have moments of input where maybe you have some content that’s given to you. You read something, you see something, or you have some experience. But it’s interesting that a lot of learning that happens in our world is just a lot of inputs. It’s just the teacher says something, or you read something, or you see something, or maybe you have some experience, and that’s great. But the learning loop is closed when you add two crucial things which we see here in the text. It’s feedback and reflection. So in your own life, either for yourself or if you’re a teacher or a parent or somebody who loves other people, and you’re in a stewardship role where you’re helping people to learn, remember, we are on this earth to learn to be like God, to learn to choose him and learn many things. If you want to be a great learner, you need feedback and reflection. Otherwise, you only have half the circle. What we see Jesus giving his disciples is feedback and an opportunity to reflect on that feedback so they can act and get new experience.

Speaker 2
Again, the experience draws you further up in the learning loop for more feedback and more reflection.

Speaker 1
So as we look at that situation as far as he got the feedback, now he gets to reflect on that, the fascinating thing is when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren, if you look at that word in the Greek, it opens up a new perspective for us.

Speaker 2
Actually, I’m going to start with the Latin, which we get into English is convert. The con here can mean is an intensifier. V ert comes from our word that you are aware of. You’ve already seen the word verse. And we read verses. And a long time ago in the ancient past, people would read the scriptures, they’d read this way, and then they would turn and read back this way, and they’d keep turning at the end of every line. And they’re called verses because you would turn at the end of every line. It’s all about turning. So the word vert literally means to turn. So let’s write that up. So it means to turn and the con means it’s intensifier. So it’s a very intense or very complete and full turning. So you could be inverted, you could be turned, or you’d be converted, which is fully turned, not just part way, but all the way. But then, significantly, in Greek, we have this word, it’s called Epistrephos. And it’s related to a word that you’re also familiar with in English.

Speaker 1
The word trophy.

Speaker 2
So trophies, we’re familiar with, these are items we give people to congratulate them on a job well done. You’ve won something. You’re the champion. Where this word comes from, anciently, is in warfare, when two armies would come together, eventually one army would begin to prevail. The second army, sensing they’re going to lose, those soldiers would drop all of their weapons and their shields and run the other way. They would turn and run. And they didn’t want to be encumpered or held back with any heavy equipment. You want to be able to outrun the other army that’s got the heavy equipment that’s trying to now kill you. So you would drop your equipment and turn and run. The winning army now gets to collect these object lessons of their victory, the trophies that are evidence that the other army has turned and run. The question then is, what are the trophies of our conversion? What are we willing to drop at the feet of the Savior or drop behind us and turn fully to the Savior? So when we are seeking to be converted, the full turning happens as we are willing to drop those things that keep us from being focused on God.

Speaker 2
And we all can think of things that we can let go in our lives. And the Book of Mormon has got some great examples of Lamanites who buried their weapons of war because it was keeping them from fully turning to God. They wanted to walk away from anger and the lust of hurting other people. We also have another Lamanite king who says, Lord, I will give away all my sins. I will hand over my trophies so that I might know thee. I love this verse that Peter can represent all of us, that Jesus invites us to be fully converted. When we’ve experienced the fullness of his love and atonement, the invitation is, help others to also turn. Love them, encourage them, be patient as they work through that long process. Jesus was patient with Peter. It took him some time to learn how to be fully converted. Jesus did not place final judgment on Peter when Peter denied him three times. Jesus allowed Peter the opportunity to become his best self. And we, too, when we are fully converted, can also learn to live in patience and love for those who are also in process.

Speaker 1
So now we jump to verse 39. In Luke’s account, we go into the guest’s seven days garden. He never mentions it by name. Verse 39 says, And he came out and went as he was want to the Mount of Olives. That word, Wont, is an old English way of saying as he was accustomed, often did. So they must have slept at the base of the Mount of Olives there, probably in the grotto of Gethsemane or in that region, many times. This is a common occurrence for them. And his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, so we have to go to Matthew and Mark and to John to get the location being Gethsemane. When he was at the place, he said unto them, pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was with drawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down and prayed. So he doesn’t give you any of the details of 8 being left behind and Peter, James, and John going a little further as you got back in Matthew’s account. And now here’s his prayer. Verse 42, He kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.

Speaker 1
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And now we see what the father’s will was. After this prayer, please remove this cup. We know what Jesus’s will was, but he swallows his will up into the will of the father. And let’s see what the Father is going to do is the point here. Verse 43 says, And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. Joseph Smith’s translation says, And he sweat as it were great drops of blood. So it wasn’t he’s sweating and it looks like blood falling down. Joseph’s translation lines up beautifully with what we learn in the Book of Mormon as well as the doctrine and covenants. This is triangulated that he is bleeding from every pore.

Speaker 2
I remember some years ago I was talking to a friend, Don Perry. He’s a Hebrew scholar at Brigham Young University, and he shared this interesting insight with me that in the Old Testament law, if you were bleeding, you were technically ritually impure and could not participate in temple services until you had gone through the appropriate rituals to be ritually cleansed. Well, Jesus, at this point, is the most ritually impure person on the face of the earth. It’s another way that he has descended below all things to suffer even more than any one of us ever suffered. So he might know how to succor us. So there’s so many beautiful things in this, but that’s one take away I get of his willingness to experience far beyond what any one of us would ever experience.

Speaker 1
Now, there’s a little caveat here in verse 43 and 44. If you look at biblehub. Com and you look at multiple English translation versions of the Bible, you will see that in some of them, verse 43 and 44 are missing. They don’t show up in many of these English translations of the Bible. And the reason is, if you go back to our earliest manuscripts, those two verses are only in about half of those earliest copies of the New Testament in Greek. So in some of them, it goes straight from verse 42 down to verse 45, completely skipping 43 and 44. So it depends on which manuscript family you are looking at, whether or not you’re going to translate those two verses. Our friend and colleague there at BYU, Lincoln Bloomel, wrote an incredible article a few years ago because in academic circles, the conclusion, up to that time, was that these verses were added later on by people in the early Christian Church to push back against the dosetist doctrine. There were actually Sunday school classes in that early Christian Church where you had members of your congregation sitting there as Christians saying, Yeah, we’re dosetists.

Speaker 1
And some of you are thinking, What is a dosetist? A dosetist is one who believes that Jesus never fully was embodied, that he never actually had a body of flesh and bone because he’s God, and he couldn’t have become that defileded by living in a body of flesh because flesh is unclean and we can’t have God being unclean. And Taylor just got through talking about that moment being the most ritually impure possible if he’s bleeding from every pore. And so the dosetist doctrine was such that they would say it just looked like Jesus had a body, but he didn’t really defile himself by taking upon him flesh.

Speaker 2
You could see how people get to that without further light and knowledge, if all you have is a few words on the page and you get people debate long enough without having the Spirit, interesting things can happen.

Speaker 1
Yeah. So the philosophy in in scholarly circles was, yeah, Luke would never have written verse 43 and 44. Somebody later on added it to try to show, no, see, Jesus really did have a body and an angel really did come and help him because he needed it. And to push back against that, what they saw as heretic, dosetist doctrine.

Speaker 2
Yeah. So the claim that it’s a late addition. And it’s interesting what Lincoln was able to discover through his studies.

Speaker 1
Of this. Which was beautiful because he came at this from the perspective of the Book of Mormon and the doctrine and covenant saying, No, Jesus bled from every pore. This is good doctrine with the assumption that Luke, the physician, would pay attention to that more so than Matthew and Mark and John.

Speaker 2
On that note, it has been medically documented where people have sweat blood when they’re under extreme duress and pressure. It’s rare, but in the medical literature, it’s happened. So it’s interesting that you have Luke, who we know to be a physician, he would care about this. He would understand, like, this is such significant suffering. I got to explain to you how bad the suffering was. This is what happened. He would understand the medical diagnosis.

Speaker 1
So the contribution that Lincoln Blue Mel made to this set of verses is that instead of assuming that it was just added later on by somebody to try to push back the dosatists, what if it had actually been removed? What if Luke actually originally wrote it? Because that would line up with our restoration scripture, and later on, certain people removed it out of their copies of the Bible as they were making them.

Speaker 2
To meet their own view.

Speaker 1
Their own view and quite frankly, to make their missionary efforts perhaps a little easier. Because think about early Christian missionaries going through the Greco Roman world preaching these scriptures and think of the Greco Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses. Is there a God in the Roman or the Greek pantheon that could ever suffer agony, agonia, this intense suffering? Any of them?

Speaker 2
Even think of the legendary Hercules. Ultimately, he just overcomes all these challenges to show that he is more than your typical human. As Tyler is pointing out, what good Greco Roman citizen is going to be enticed to worship a God who seems to be so earthy and so capable of suffering? What did Paul say? It’s foolishness to the wise or to the Greeks, and it’s the stumbling block to the Jews. It just really got people tripped up anciently. This is not the guy that I would want to spend time paying attention to. So you could imagine that potentially you might have some well meaning missionaries or other copyists who are trying to entice people to understand Jesus without sharing some perspectives on Jesus that might be hard or dis taken faithful for people to understand.

Speaker 1
Yes. So you basically have three things in those two verses. Number one, an angel came and strengthened him. Do you see why a first century missionary might have a difficulty teaching that to Greco Roman audiences, that an angel had to come and strengthen our God? Number two, that he was in an agony, in an agonia. Number three, that he bled. His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. This isn’t intended to be this huge philosophical or scholarly discussion. It’s to show the complexity of when you get into biblical studies, there are all these differing opinions. And can I just say what a blessing it is to have the Book of Mormon and the doctrine and covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and more importantly, perhaps, is living prophets who can help us understand and interpret the words that come to us in the scriptures so that we can have a firm foundation for our faith. That Jesus Christ went into Gethsemane, and he actually did suffer infinite agonies. And the angel did come to strengthen him. He did bleed from every pore. Why? He was partaking of the bitter cup, to use his wording of symbolism, because we put all of our bitterness into that cup.

Speaker 1
He’s taking it into him, and he’s experiencing everything that we talked about in that previous couple of weeks ago, the lesson from Matthew and Mark in Gethsemane. Those infinite, deep, impossible to comprehend pains. And it doesn’t bother us to see an angel coming to strengthen him and to see him enduring this infinite agony. So it’s beautiful when you can not just take what used to be the scholarly consensus and just say, Well, I guess that must be true, but add to it what we understand from Restoration Scripture and figure out what we really understand in the latter days moving forward. Now, let’s pick up Luke’s account of the arrest. Verse 45, When he rose up from prayer and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, why sleepy, rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. And then verse 47 tells you, While he yet spake, behold, a multitude, and he that was called Judis, one of the 12, went before them and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. So in Luke’s account, he only wakes them up once. In Matthew’s account, he goes out and finds Peter, James, and John sleeping three different times and wakes them up each time and then goes back into the garden.

Speaker 1
And now, Judis comes into Gethsemane. You’ll remember that earlier in this year, we talked about this concept of Christology, which is a study of the person, the man, the mission of Jesus Christ. Who was he? And a high Christology emphasizes the divine, the godly, the miraculous attributes of Jesus Christ. A low Christology emphasizes the human, the mortal, the earthly aspects of Christ’s life and his ministry. John’s gospel, as we’ve mentioned clear back in January, is the highest Christology perspective, Christological perspective of the four gospel writers. If you were to read all of John’s 21 chapters in one sitting and ask yourself, where is John portraying the divinity of Christ and where is he showing more of the humanity? You’re going to find elements of both, but it’s much more emphasized on this high Christology. In verse 1, it says, When Jesus had spoken these words, which is the intercessory prayer from John 17, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kedron, where was a garden into the which he entered, and his disciples. So we combine the word garden here with Gethsemane for Matthew’s account, and we often refer to it all as the Garden of Gethsemane.

Speaker 1
And he’s got his disciples with him. And look at verse 2, And Jesus also, which betrayed him, knew the place for Jesus oft times resorted thither with his disciples. In other words, Jesus has spent many a night in Gethsemane with the Apostles and with Jesus, and he knows where to find him when he brings this band of men with him. Verse 3 says, Judis, then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and pharisees, and they came thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Fascinating. I believe it was Elder Maxwell who once said they’re so spiritually blind that they need lanterns and torches in order to see the light of the world on that dark night. And Jesus, verse 4, Therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, whom seek ye?

Speaker 2
He’s not afraid. He’s not cowering back. He knows what’s going to go on. He just shows up. I even think about the way John does this, that he’s focusing on these core attributes, these divine qualities of Jesus. And we shouldn’t feel like, Gosh, John, you should have also told us what Matthew and Mark told us. Instead, what we get is a fuller view. It’s just like if a friend told another friend about you versus maybe a child or a parent said something about you, you’re still the same person, but the emphasis may be different and people might get a different perspective. For example, my kids have a certain view of who I am and people at work see me in a different way. And people who meet me out in public, it’s different. I feel the glory that we have someone like John, who’s so motivated in his testimony to witness the divinity of Jesus, that he would shine the spotlight on the light of the world. And yet we also have Luke and Matthew and Mark, who are willing to talk more about the humanity that we get the fuller picture because of these four good, and what I would say, faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1
It’s fascinating from John’s perspective, the crowd standing there. And the implication from the synoptics account is that Julius has already given the sign, and the band of men with their lantern and torches and weapons are standing there and nobody’s moving. And Jesus steps forward and says, Whom seek ye? And look at their response. This is beautiful. Verse 5, They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus sayeth unto them, I am he. Can I suggest to you that once again, this is one of those places where the King James translators italicized words, but they’re adding of their own accord, that they’re not translating those words. This word he is italicized because it’s not in any of the Greek manuscripts that they’re using to make their translation. What he said in the Greek was, Ego, ame. Now, he’s not speaking Greek. He would be speaking Aramaic. But in this context, the ego, ame in Greek implies that he just used the unspeakable name of God from the Old Testament, from the burning bush speaking to Moses. Who should I tell them sent me? I am. Ego, ame. It’s the great I am or the YAWA of the Old Testament.

Speaker 2
Well, because he’s speaking in Aramaic, he likely is using a variant of what Moses would have heard from God in Exodus chapter 3, verse 14, which is, Ehi ye, Asher, Ehi ye. And so Aramaic is not that different. So he would have been saying something like this. And that’s what gets some of the Jewish leaders so mad.

Speaker 1
Did you catch the significance here? His question was, Whom seek ye? They said, We seek Jesus of Nazareth. And his answer isn’t, Oh, I am he. I am Jesus of Nazareth. He said, what comes to us in the Greek, Ego, E me, which is YAOE, Jehovah, the great I am. You’re seeking Jesus of Nazareth, Ego, E me. Jesus of Nazareth is Jehovah of the Old Testament is this implication here. Now, keep in mind, which group in this garden that night with the moon somewhere, the full moon overhead somewhere, middle of the night here, which group is armed? It says, verse 6, As soon as he had said unto them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground.

Speaker 2
Again, the sign of his power and divinity. And these humans have really nothing that they can do against him. We even consider that he knows everything. He doesn’t even need to wait for Judaism to betray him. He already knows it’s happened. He doesn’t need to wait for that kiss.

Speaker 1
If you picture this geographically speaking, the Mount of Olives would be going up behind us here as you picture this to the top and Gethsemane down here at the base of the Mount of Olives. Then you get the Kidron Brook, and then you get a steep slope up to Temple Mount to the west. These people came from Jerusalem, so they would have come either down or up the Kidron Valley here. Now they’re coming up into the garden to arrest Jesus. So they’re looking up at him and he says, Ego, E me, or, YAWA. They fall backwards to the ground looking at him and so Jesus has to step forward again. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And now they’re on the ground. We seek Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus answered, I have told you that I am. And once again, the word he is, I tell this, you can cross it out, and it makes more sense, doctrineally. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way. Now, can you picture this moment? It’s dark. I mean, you’ve got a full moon overhead, but it’s night. They’re on the ground. They’re looking at him.

Speaker 1
They’ve got the torches. You can almost hear the flickering of the flames in your imagination as they’re looking at him. Have you ever wondered why they fell backwards to the ground? Is it just because of what he said, or is it because of how he said it? Can I suggest to you that this world has never known the Majesty and power that exuded from Jesus on that occasion in that garden on that night. He just completed the first phase of the infinite agonies of his atonement in our behalf, and he’s now risen from the ground in that now come to meet them, having bled from every pore. I’m suggesting to you that the people when they come, they thought they were coming to arrest a man named Jesus of Nazareth. And now they’ve seen the sign given by Julius, if you use the synoptic accounts, the kiss, and they didn’t do anything. Jesus has come forward and asked them, and they feel a Majesty that they can’t describe. He sent them backward to the ground, and now he’s asked them again, and they’re still not moving. Can you picture this moment of stillness, of quietness on that night?

Speaker 1
Peter is standing there thinking, AHA, this is my moment. Because earlier in one of the synopsis optic accounts were told that they brought two swords with them to the garden that night. So Peter, shing, pulls out the sword.

Speaker 2
And he… By the way, it’s actually a short sword. It’s like a stabbing knife. It might be about this big. Not particularly big. He’s a fisherman.

Speaker 1
So Peter rushes forward and we’re told, verse 10, then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and smote the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malk us. Now, this is fascinating because all four gospel writers refer to somebody getting their ear cut off that night in Gethsemane. Only John gives you his name, Malk us, and tells you it’s Malk us’s right ear that got cut off by Peter. There’s only one gospel writer who’s going to mention that the ear actually ended up getting healed by Jesus. Can any of you guess which gospel writer, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, would talk about the healing of Malk us’s ear? If you guessed Luke the Physician, you’re right. It’s only in Luke’s gospel where the ear gets healed, and it’s only in John’s gospel here where we get his name. Again, we’ve talked about this in previous episodes. I think it’s significant that we know this man’s name. It’s not just a soldier or a random guy in this band of men. It’s, And his name was Malkis. To me, implies that when John’s writing his gospel, whenever that is, John knows exactly who it is, and he gives us his name, and none of the other gospel writers do.

Speaker 1
So John and his audience seem to know the name Malkis. I’ll tell you what I’m holding out hope for. I’m holding out hope that Jesus healed more than Malchus’ ear that night. I’m holding out hope that when Jesus touched that ear and put it back on his head, that he felt something deep in his heart, that this becomes a converting, turning, fully turning point for Malkis. Can you imagine this moment, though? You’ve got a whole band of men armed and they’re backwards on the ground and Peter pulls this sword and cuts one of your comrades ears off, what would you expect from any one of that group of men that are armed to do? You would expect the next verse to say, And they all ganged up on Peter and killed him for attacking their buddy in arms, their brother there. Do any of you find it interesting that there’s only one person who comes to Malchus’s defense that night in Gethsemane? Only one. And it’s none of his, quote unquote, friends or comrades. It just so happens to be the person that Malkis came to arrest and to haul off to be judged and condemned.

Speaker 1
It’s Jesus who steps forward and stops Peter and he says, Put up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my father has given me, shall I not drink it? And he submits. And so now what happens is the soldiers eventually get up the courage, apparently, to arrest him, and the Apostles all flee. They abandon him. And it says, verse 3, that they led him away to Annas first, for he was father in law to Cephas, which was the high priest that same year. So he’s taken first to Annas, the father in law of the actual high priest that year, Cephas. And while the apostles have scattered and run away in fear, which Jesus told them would happen, it says, verse 15, Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. That disciple was known unto the high priest and went in with Jesus into the palace of the high priest. Implication is that this is John the beloved, the author of this book, that he’s known that he gets in somehow. Don’t know for sure, but he’s now going to be telling the story from the inside. And Peter is standing at the door without.

Speaker 1
And then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. So Peter is now brought in to this inner court of Caiaphas’s palace where Jesus is being tried. Verse 17, Then sayeth the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man’s disciples? And he sayeth, I am not. So at that point in your mind, you would think, okay, strike one. Jesus told me I was going to deny knowing him three times before the cock crows.

Speaker 2
Remember we did in just a prior lesson that the circle of learning is closed with feedback and reflection. Now, Peter has received feedback in advance, but apparently he hasn’t reflected, and so he’s going to keep repeating this mistake until he reflects enough and realizes I need to make a change and be fully converted, fully turned.

Speaker 1
To the Lord. Yeah. So this is a difficult passage. Years ago at BYU, President Spencer W. Kimball gave a talk called Peter My Brother, a great talk where he had read recently some articles where people were making fun of Peter for this experience and dragging his name through the mud. And here’s President Kimball standing up for this chief apostle, saying…

Speaker 2
And in a very similar position. Peter eventually had all the keys and President Kimball is now standing in Peter’s position as the chief apostle. So he has an affinity towards this man.

Speaker 1
Absolutely. He’s basically saying, Don’t point fingers of scorn at Peter, my brother. He talked about the significance of Peter’s role in the pre mortal councils and at the creation and his role as the chief apostle through three years. And then if there was any wrongdoing here, Jesus completely forgiving him, and he is the chief apostle up until his death at the hands of Nero. So we’re not pointing fingers of scorn or accusation of Peter. We’re trying to learn principles that are applicable in our life from Peter’s story here. Look at verse 18, And the servants and the officers stood there who had made a fire of coals, for it was cold.

Speaker 2
Yes, it’s like what? Late March.

Speaker 1
Early April? It’s late March, early April, and it was in the middle of the night. When those dews come down and it can get very chilly. We can’t picture all of the agonies that Jesus endured for us. But have you ever thought about the fact that we do know a couple of details? It was a cold night. When Jesus was out in the garden, bleeding from every pore, it’s cold to add to all of the infinite agonies and all of the eternal prices that are being paid. There’s also that physical element that Jesus is enduring for us. It’s such a small detail. It was cold. But for me, it becomes one of these significant additions to the story because I can at least wrap my head around that part. I can at least understand him enduring that part of the bitter cup for us, even though it’s infinite testamentary. seemingly small compared to all of the agonies that he’s enduring. And so here’s Peter warming himself, standing with them. And then verse 19, The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine. And Jesus answered him and said, I speak openly to the world.

Speaker 1
I ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort, and in secret have I said nothing? So in verse 21, he says, Why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them. Behold, they know what I said. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by, struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answersest thou the high priest so? Oh, the irony is thick. Jesus is the high priest of all high priests, and he just got struck on the face by this servant of the high priest. That face that minutes ago, half hour ago, was on the ground in Gethsemane, suffering intense agony. And now Jesus says, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why smitest thou me? Now, Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest, and Simon Peter stood and warned himself. And they said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it and said, I am not. There’s number two, more pressure. And one of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman, whose ear Peter cut off, sayeth, Did not I see thee in the garden with him?

Speaker 1
And Peter then denied again, and immediately the cock crew. I love something that I learned many, many years ago from Michael Wilcox when he was teaching this section. He said, if you’re Peter and you want to make sure you’re not going to be tempted to deny knowing Jesus, you probably want to avoid Cephas’s palace that night, rather than going to the very place where it’s most likely that you’re going to be tempted to deny him. Again, we’re not accusing Peter. We’re trying to take this story from Peter’s context and figure out what lessons Peter might be able to teach us today if he were standing here today. I think it’s possible that Peter might say to you and me, don’t go to a place where you know you have a propensity or a weakness to perhaps give in to that weakness. Avoid that place. Go somewhere else. Don’t think that we’re stronger than the temptations in certain settings. And isn’t it interesting that the animal that Jesus used, again, not applying to Peter, but to Tyler in this context, the animal, as we apply this story, is the rooster, the cock was going to Crow.

Speaker 1
Immediately, the cock crew. Isn’t that interesting how nature has an alarm clock, a wake up call, if you will? It’s the rooster’s Crow. And isn’t it an interesting how often I go into situations thinking, I got this. I’m going to be strong. And I go in cocky, if you will, and then in the moment of temptation, sometimes turns out I’ve recognized that I’m chicken and I give in and I fall. I love the fact that for the rest of Peter’s life, he’s not holding himself hostage to these three denials. But every morning moving forward that Peter wakes up and here’s a cock crowing, it’s once again a reminder, a wake up call for him that when he was fully converted, he would strengthen his brotherhood. And that’s what we see. This to me is not a let’s make fun of Peter for a moment of denial. This is a moment of glorying in the fact that Jesus is willing to work with us through moments of weakness and give us those wake up calls and to help us be strong and faithful and more powerful than ever before. I love this story and this perspective of Caiaphas’s palace.

Speaker 1
And to acknowledge the fact that I know certain places, certain things, I can’t trust myself. So it’s best I just stay away from those Cepheis’ palace in my life.

Speaker 2
Then they move on and they lead in verse 28, Then led they Jesus from Cepheis unto the hall of judgment. And it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defileded, but that they might eat.

Speaker 1
The Passover. And isn’t it ironic that these leaders of the Jews are unwilling to go into that Praetorium, into that judgment seat area, because that would defile them for partaking of the Passover that night without acknowledging the fact that they’re turning, they’ve condemned and are turning over the Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb of all Passover Labs for judgment and to be crucified. We will cover more of these experiences in the next episode when we give you Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s perspective of the trial experience. But let’s pick up John’s here. So, Pilate went out unto them, and he said, What accusation bring you against this man? And they answered and said unto him, If he were not a mal factor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. It’s the ultimate argument of, look, don’t worry, trust us. If we weren’t guilty, we wouldn’t have woken you up early in the morning and brought him to you. You’ve just got to trust us. He’s a bad guy.

Speaker 2
It’s an interesting word here. The word charge or accusation comes from the Greek word category, and you might hear the word category. And the word agorah in Greek means public space and cat means to go down. You would go into the public place, the agorah, you would go down, catagorah, into the public place to make a claim about somebody. And so they’re trying to categorize Jesus or accuse him, put him in a box of being a mal factor, somebody who does evil. And even though we like to pile criticism on pilot, he wasn’t the most moral of men. He does seem to try to do a little bit of figuring out whether there’s a reason to be listening to the Jews or not.

Speaker 1
Yeah. Look at verse 31, it says, Then said pilot unto them, take he him and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. Well, that’s not going to stop them later on, right? With Stephen and other apostles down the road, because the way they put people to death is by stoning. Look at verse 32, That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. He’s told his apostles on at least three occasions in the synoptic Gospels that when they go to Jerusalem, he will be turned over to the Romans and be lifted up and slain by crucifixion. And so Pilate entered into the judgment hall, this Praetorium again, and he called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it of thee, of me? And Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What has thou done? What did you do wrong? Why are you here, Jesus?

Speaker 1
Help me understand.

Speaker 2
And this powerful response.

Speaker 1
I love verse 36 and 37. These are some of the most powerful words in all of scripture at this critical moment of judgment when Jesus has full power to stop all of this abuse from proceeding, he doesn’t. Verse 36, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence?

Speaker 2
Pilot is not going to understand this.

Speaker 1
He is so confused. He says unto Jesus, Art thou a king then? If you have a kingdom, that means you must be a king, right? And Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. And for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareths my voice. That is so profound. If you bear witness unto the truth, you’re going to hear my voice.

Speaker 2
But then this question from Pilate that he asks and just lets it hang in the air without a response.

Speaker 1
What is truth? That is probably one of the most profound questions ever asked in the history of the world, especially considering that moment in the audience of that question, Jesus standing there condemned by his own people’s chief priests, turned over to the Gentile governor of the land, what is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews and sayeth unto them, I find no fault in him. And the King James translators added the words, At all. So now comes the second rejection in John’s account. But you have a custom that I should release unto you one at the Passover. Will he therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews? And they cried all again, saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. We will tell you his story in greater detail next week in Matthew’s account of this story because you get a lot more detail from Matthew.

Speaker 2
There are a couple of interesting things here. You get the word of where in 38, Pilate says, I find no fault in him. The underlying Greek word is, I don’t see the guilt. I don’t see the cause for why you guys should be angry with him. And then we have this word of release. And Pilate is like, Who should I release unto you? The underlying Greek word there, which is, ophaloosso, is actually used when Jesus announces his ministry and his mission in the synagogue in Nazareth. He uses the same word, but his purpose is to loose those who are bound. And here’s the one who is spending his life unloosing people who are bound, is willing to be bound and delivered to death.

Speaker 1
Now we go to finish this chapter of John 18 today. I want to finish with 1 Nephi chapter 19, actually. The words here in the Book of Mormon, verse 9, And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of not, worthless. The world judges him as dross, as cast him out. Wherefore, they scourge him, and he suffereth it, and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Ye they spit upon him, and he suffereth it. Because of his loving kindness and his long suffering towards the children of men. And we’ll talk a lot more about this next week as well. But at any stage along this process, Jesus could have stopped it. But he didn’t. He suffereth it. He allowed it to happen, which meant suffering pain and anguish and agony for him. What a great example for us to follow because we’re not promised a pain free life in our own sphere and domain of mortality. What a beautiful example to move forward on that covenant path in that connection with Christ and suffer any and all persecution that may come upon us because we have our eyes firmly set on he who taught us how to endure perfectly in infinite proportions so that we can endure in our infinite, testamentally small proportions in comparison to him.

Speaker 1
And we leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Know that you’re loved.

Speaker 2
And spread light and goodness. you..

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