Synoptics Section 330 Gethsemane

Okay, here we go. Let's see. One, two, three.

Uh -huh. Uh -huh. Yes, no, maybe.

Well, we know what we need to do. It was behind that door right there.

All right, we are in section 330, the arrest, crucifixion, burial.

Okay, now how do we count that? It is, that makes seven, yeah.

I think it's more like 6 .25 or something like that, but you can't vote, you know.

We have been working toward this for a very long time. If you actually look at the number of pages left, and remember, some of this stuff is repeated.

We're at 297, and it's only 338, so you're talking 40 pages.

Not a lot there, but some of the toughest questions in regards to how to handle synoptic issues.

Now, it's been so long that maybe I would need to remind everyone that, or just approximate a decade.

We have been, well, so long that remember, the blue books you have should be that color, okay?

And how much lighter that is, that's from sitting in the light and fading for 10 years.

Somebody has one that's like almost completely white now. I'm not sure whose that is, but they've left it in their car a lot, and it's almost completely white.

It's pretty cool. Anyway, during that entire time,

I have been looking forward to, but also dreading, this section, because there is no question that once we start here, the issues and questions that will arise as we compare the

Gospels will be amongst the toughest questions that Christian scholarship and ministers and so on and so forth have faced through the centuries.

And the easy answer, I'll give you a point in history, and then the nature of, as we look at the arrest, crucifixion, and burial.

It's interesting, on the one hand, we are often perceiving portions of the

Bible because, well, you know, Mark goes first, and Matthew and Luke are just editing

Mark. Jewish audience,

Mark to a Gentile audience, Luke as well to a Gentile audience, but on a different level, was all meant to come to this as the heart of the message, what

Christ does in Calvary, in the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

And so, once we get here, it seems that each of the authors is now looking to emphasize that which fulfills what they've laid the foundation for up to this point.

We begin with the story of Gethsemane, which is section 330.

You'll notice, if you just sort of scan over the material, that Matthew and Mark give the fullest discussion.

Luke is significantly less full at this point.

And you may recall that, we'll see things that we've already looked at before, and we'll have to keep those briefs for later.

Anyway, we had noted, in fact, what prompted our discussion of the text of Gethsemane.

The sweating of blood, and the angels' ministrations, and so on and so forth. I spent a whole class on that, and everybody looked at me like, what in the world are you talking about?

And so that's why we took a number of weeks to lay the foundation to know that.

But that's part of the reason that Luke isn't quite as full. But Matthew and Mark look pretty much the same, so we'll go with Mark as we read through this section, and then notice some of the other items.

Reading the small print of 1426, and when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the

Mount of Olives. Singing a hymn would have been, obviously, from the

Psalter, and this was a part of the Passover celebration.

I think we should probably remember that we as the people of God, when we sing, are doing what

God's people have done for a very, very long time. And sometimes we,

I think, take it for granted, the freedom that we have to sing. Certainly a couple of the amens, when we finish it, sound like the hymn is dying, rather than being said it is true.

Some of you don't remember Brother Metwyer. How many of you remember

Brother Metwyer? Look at that, look at that, wow. But y 'all remember what

Brother Metwyer told us about the amen? I think that's where I got it from. I think he's the one who said sometimes it sounds like instead of the hymn is ending by saying it is true, it just sounds like it's slowly dying.

And Brother Metwyer told us that we needed to sing that amen with some passion. I think one of the reasons we generally don't is we're not exactly sure which notes we're supposed to be doing for that amen anyways.

But anyway, they sung a hymn and went out to the

Mount of Olives. And they went to a place which was called Gethsemane.

And he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And he took with him

Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death, remain here and watch.

And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. And he said,

Abba, Father, all things are possible. Thee remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what

Thou wilt. And he came and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep?

Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy.

They did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, are you still sleeping and taking your rest?

It is enough. The hour has come. The Son of Man has been betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going.

See, my betrayer is at hand. Now, there are some expansions in Matthew, a great deal, instead of James and John being specifically mentioned in Mark.

The two sons of Zebedee passed from him, but the apostles passed from him.

Again, for the second time he went away and prayed, Father, if this cannot pass until I drink it, thy will be done. And so he, instead of just simply saying he said the same words, there is specificity provided.

Third time, and then finally, in both, the

Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going.

See, my betrayer is at hand. And so you have pretty much everything there.

Luke very much telescopes this and summarizes this, does not really focus upon especially the repetition.

He just simply summarizes and gives a summary at that point. Now, we should,

I think, know one thing, and that is if we bring John in, because John does talk about going to a garden and entering into the garden, and the trouble of his soul, and says to the disciples, then in prayer, now is my soul troubled, what shall

I say, Father, save from this hour? Know of this purpose, I have come to this hour. And then you have

Judas coming immediately at that point in time. John does not focus upon what

Jesus does and the splitting up of the disciples and so on and so forth. A couple things that are crossing my mind immediately here.

There is a theory out there, and I guess it's part of my job to let you know some of the theories that are out there.

Not that a few moments on Google would not bring these things to your attention.

Well, of course, on the Internet, there's a theory about everything, most of which is utterly ridiculous.

But anyway, there is a theory out there, propounded by some, that the division of the disciples was a defensive...

that the first group of disciples are the initial line of defense, and then the three are sort of the inner guard, and that Jesus is afraid of the

Jews, and so on and so forth. I don't know how you can read this and come up with that.

There are some people who try to present the idea that Jesus was a renegade zealot.

Well, of course, we have certain news personalities that likewise have recently propounded the theory that Jesus was crucified because he interrupted the tax flow of the

Roman Empire. And those particular individuals make lots of money off of these silly things.

But anyway, some of my Muslim friends likewise promote this idea that Jesus was engaged in military activity here, in essence.

The very, very famous Ahmed Didat presented the idea that Jesus certainly did not give himself up freely.

It was not his desire that he was engaging in a defense here.

They talk about the swords, and this supposedly is an indication that Jesus was, in fact, involved in some kind of military action.

I'm not sure if that number of swords amongst that many people would be considered military action.

So it might make you go, didn't know much about military action. But anyway, there are those who view it.

It's painfully obvious that if Jesus was trying to set his soldiers up here, that he had one lousy group of soldiers.

They fall asleep. They're obviously not concerned about much of anything. They don't know what's coming.

Jesus hasn't told them what's coming, at least as far as they know the military thing. And they haven't really understood what he's meant otherwise.

They aren't going to figure that out until it actually starts happening. And even when the betrayer comes,

Jesus isn't informed of that by some kind of clash with the other disciples.

He has to inform his alleged inner guard what's going on.

And then, of course, when Jesus does speak to the disciples, what does he say? He talks about temptation, not failure at your military duties or some silly thing like that.

So there's lots of folks who come to these texts. They have basically a desire to come up with something new so as to get published.

I saw a clip yesterday. It's frustrating.

But anyway, people will come to these texts, and like I said, they're looking for a way of getting published.

And so they'll read almost anything into it. Now, theologically, we do need to note a couple of things.

The big theory that is thrown around out there, that you would be presented in most of your philosophy or religion classes or history or religion classes or whatever classes at a university or community college or whatever, would be to contrast and to attempt to create a wide spectrum of divergence across that one page, page 297 that's sitting in front of you or whatever page it is.

Less official, but yet acceptable. Companion.

Whatever one that is. And that is to assert that what you've got in Mark is over here.

What you've got in John's over here. Matthew and Luke's in between. And in Mark, you've got an out -of -control

Jesus. I mean, he's greatly distressed and troubled, and he doesn't know what to do, and he doesn't want to die.

And Abba, Father, all things possibly, remove this cup from me. The reality is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there really isn't a substantive difference.

You go back in Mark, and Jesus is talking about when the woman annoys him. She's done this for my burial.

Very clear, he knows what's coming. He's gone to Jerusalem for a specific purpose.

I mean, it requires such an incredible misreading and mishandling of the text to get

Mark way out over there. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to establish a progression from a low

Christology to a little higher Christology to a little higher Christology to real high

Christology in John. And that's why there has to be all these decades in between for all this evolution to take place.

And la, la, la, la, la. Some of you, if you've seen, I'm not sure, I don't remember if we showed years ago.

It's been so long ago now. But when I did the debate with John Dominic Crossan on the reliability of the

Gospels, that's the framework, that's the essence of where he's coming from.

And fundamental to his perspective is this radical difference between Mark and John.

And so I asked a number of questions from Mark. And you could just tell that what he found odd was that I wasn't allowing him to just chop

Mark up into pieces. Mark said this, and he said this, and he said this. Should we take them all together? And from their perspective, it's like, no, if we take them all together, how can we get published?

You know, I mean, that's just the world that he lives in and has always lived in.

And so it just seems almost simplistic or out of place for someone to go, yeah, but what you're trying to say

Mark's doing, he's not really doing. But the big thing you'll hear is,

Mark, Jesus doesn't want to die. John, the

Jesus of John, is just striding through these things. He knows exactly what he's going to do.

And it's just like a big game because it just doesn't matter. John doesn't have anything about Jesus praying that the cup be removed and so on and so forth.

Actually, now is my soul troubled?

What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. So you have specifically the assertion that Jesus, his soul is troubled.

And a recognition of God's purpose in this hour, what you have in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is likewise, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.

He knows what's coming. And the real question becomes, why is there this great disturbance in the soul of the

Lord Jesus? Well, my Muslim friends, the less reflective and respectful of them,

I've actually had some, and this is not reflective of the vast majority. In fact,

I would be surprised if ISIS fighters would say this, to be honest with you. But I've had at least one man, a man by the name of Osama Abdullah, say that Jesus was a coward and that there have been many men who have faced their death with significantly more bravery than the

Jesus of the Bible did. Like I said, I don't even think most ISIS fighters would say that.

All conservative Sunni Muslims are taught to say the blessings of peace be upon Jesus when they say his name and are a little more respectful than that, to be perfectly honest with you, even if they remain

Muslim in denying the crucifixion and so on and so forth. But there has been on the part of many this assertion that, well, we can't trust the

Gospels. We certainly can't trust John, which is odd, because John's one of the only places they can go to to try to find

Muhammad in the New Testament in John 14 and 16, which are right before this.

So you can't trust John 18. I'm not sure you could trust John 14 or 16.

But anyway, the idea is, well, here's an indication of the corruption of the text, just because you have such a divergence between Mark and...

And, of course, the answer that we can give that is, I believe, very clearly appropriate answer is, from their perspective,

Jesus is merely... And while he may have supernatural knowledge of the future, it's only being passively received.

It's just as any other prophet would have knowledge of future events in that sense. And certainly there is no concept within their thinking, because they're not allowing the text to speak for itself, that Jesus has said,

I'm coming to do this. This is why I'm, you know, even here. Yet not

I will, but thou wilt know for this purpose I have come to this hour. All the statements in the

Synoptic Gospels prior to this about the purpose of the cross, all that stuff, you just...

You can't expect what we do expect. We do expect Muslims to expend the same kind of effort to allow the text to speak for itself.

Here's the problem. They don't even do that with the Quran. They don't even do that with the Quran. The Quran is not viewed, as we view the

Bible, as something that needs to be harmoniously and consistently interpreted. It's just, it's not a clear enough book to allow that, to be perfectly honest with you.

And so, for the vast majority of Muslims, the Quran is more of a magical text than it is a text to be exegeted.

And so, we really are expecting something out of the ordinary to expect them to read our text in a fair way, because doing exegesis is not something that they've ever even had modeled for them by their own imams.

And so, that's something I constantly have to keep reminding myself of.

Myself. Myself. Yes. I need to remind you. Well, I need to remind you. I keep having to remind myself of things that I've learned over the years.

You know, when I go to South Africa and I'm talking to a Muslim, it can be very frustrating, because misrepresentation is what

I believe. Defeated misrepresentation is what I believe. And then I've got to think back and go, the vast majority of the people they've ever talked to who self -identify as a

Christian were not even functionally Trinitarian. They were barely monotheists. They were primarily word faithers with a horrifically shallow theology and certainly no capacity or even willingness to express to others what the doctrine of the

Trinity is, even if they themselves understand it or believe it. So, you've got to live with the reality that this person is confused by what you're saying.

They haven't talked to someone like you before. And so you have to be patient. And you have to fight through these things.

And I have to keep reminding myself of those things. It's an important thing to do.

Anyways, what is the answer? The answer is very clear. They are assuming that Jesus is concerned about his death, his physical death, the suffering, the beating, the crucifixion.

But we know, in reality, what is causing this distress on the part of the

Lord Jesus. If we allow the Gospels to stand as a whole and read them, if we allow

Luke to tell Luke's story or Mark to tell Mark's story or Matthew to tell Matthew's story, and then especially if we allow all four of them to speak, there can be no question about what actually prompts the concern on the part of the

Lord, the disturbing of his soul. And a number of times

I have been asked, in fact I put up a video a few weeks ago that contained two clips of this.

I remember a couple of years ago I went to Dublin for just a few days. And I did two debates there, one at University College Dublin and one at Trinity College, both against Adnan Rashid.

And interestingly enough, in both Q &A segments, a Muslim raised the question, why did

Jesus say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is a real stumbling block to many

Muslims for many reasons. They don't believe that a prophet would ever say that. A prophet should never question a law.

A prophet would never say, Allah has abandoned me. It's one of the reasons they don't like the Psalter very much, when they do read it.

It's because the Psalter is very honest in the expressions of the psalmists themselves and their feelings of abandonment and so on and so forth.

But more than that, so on the one hand they think it's beneath Jesus to have ever said these things.

And secondly, that shows Jesus isn't God because God can't abandon

God. And that question was asked in both debates.

I love when that question comes up. I mean, it's just like, yes! I hope

I've got enough time to really answer this. In one I had two minutes, the other had three minutes. So ask yourselves a question.

If you had, we'll give you three minutes. We'll give you three minutes. If you had three minutes and you're on your way to the airport and your cab driver is a

Muslim, and there are a lot of Muslim cab drivers, and you've got about three minutes until you're pulling up outside of Terminal 4 and you've got to get out of this cab.

So you've got three minutes to communicate something. And he's just raised, well, why would

Jesus say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What did you say? And, of course,

I have the advantage of having been asked this many, many, many, many, many, many times over the years.

So you get to practice a little bit. But it's here as well.

There's a fundamental misunderstanding in there. Now in regards to, you know,

I normally do either Psalm 22 or Isaiah before the Lord's Supper. So, 22.

And, it's the reality that you don't understand if you think that Jesus was afraid of dying.

He said it was necessary for death.

His obedience, even to the point of death, they cross death.

And so when we, when we look at this text, we have to keep what's really going on.

And to recognize a lot of people who don't understand the open theist, what the open theist doesn't believe.

So they look at this, and they don't see that what truly troubles

Jesus' soul is great exchange. This point in time when the

Son is going to voluntarily receive in its terrible fullness the wrath of the

Father. Now, a lot of people try to say, well, the wrath that he received was not eternal.

It only lasted for a brief period of time. It would not be truly substitutionary.

It has to bear the union of ten millions of people to Christ.

One thing to think about is we need 27 ,000 people to gather.

They've been pretty bad this year. So I need the extra large sheep.

I'm going to have to hold them out there a little longer. Or on the other hand, this is a good group here, some of the holiest people in Israel.

I've got a little lamb someplace. Don't need to go big this year.

We're doing okay. It never happened. It wasn't that kind of a physical of the

Son of God. That's the ground.

So if that's the case, if the death of Christ is undoubtedly sufficient, the question has to become the intention of God, the intention of Father, Son, and Spirit.

And what is the nature of union with Christ? And what is the nature of that great exchange?

And if you have an unlimited proficiency on one side, no matter what, we only live a certain number of years.

So you do not have an infinite amount of sins. We haven't committed an infinite amount of sins on the other side.

So even if you did try to come up with some kind of physical thing, there wouldn't be any comparison there either.

What we simply are told is that what Christ did is sufficient for the justice of God to be fulfilled, for His wrath to be satisfied, and for His law to be honored, so that the righteousness that is ours is a true righteousness that honors the glory of God.

That's the important aspect. It's not like there's some tribunal sitting outside of creation, sort of observing all this, going, well, what do you think?

I don't know. I guess it's enough. For some reason, people have that idea.

There's some kind of judge over God that can sort of go, I don't know.

A couple more minutes might have helped or something along those lines. That doesn't make any sense. That's not what is being referred to in these texts.

All right, so we will pick up with the arrest of Jesus and the fascinating story of John 18.

Next, we have opportunity. I know that next week, I believe Pastor Fry has spoken with Brother Callahan about next week.

I, Lord willing, will be here if my plane lands on time. But I am debating

Mustafa Umar in Anaheim next

Saturday afternoon. And the only way they can get me out after the debate was the first thing

Sunday morning. I'm supposed to go straight from this guy over here. We hope. Assuming I've had planes pull up at the gate and they're not ready to go.

And someone comes in, spewing hydraulics all over the place. I'm not sure I want to get on that plane.

And thankfully, they canceled the flight. But it happens, you know. You never know. So we'll hopefully be here, but travel is travel.

All right, let's close the time with a word of prayer. Our great Heavenly Father, once again, we do thank you for this time you have given to us to consider your truth, and especially today as we consider our

Lord and Savior and his atoning work. We thank you for the opportunity of being reminded once again of the great price by which we have been redeemed.

May we truly live with thanksgiving in our hearts as we consider what you've done for us.