Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 66
54
IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
22:39-62
Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went
as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, “Pray that you will
not give in to temptation.”
He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.
Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such
agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.
At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them
asleep, exhausted from grief. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get
up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”
But even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached, led by Judas, one of the
twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss. But
Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”
When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed,
“Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!” And one of them struck
at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear.
But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and
healed him.
Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple
guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?
Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is
your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.”
So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter
followed at a distance. The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard
and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. A servant girl noticed him
in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, “This man was
one of Jesus’ followers!”
But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!”
After a while someone else looked at him and said, “You must be one
of them!”
“No, man, I’m not!” Peter retorted.
About an hour later someone else insisted, “This must be one of them,
because he is a Galilean, too.”
But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And
immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.
At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the
Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And
Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.
