TGBC: what do you think?

The Good Book Club Week 7

Sunday March 25 Luke 22:47-71

 While he was still speaking, suddenly a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, is it with a kiss that  you are betraying the Son of Man?"

When those who were around him saw what was coming, they asked, ‘Lord, should we strike with the sword?’ Then one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders who had come for him, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness!’

 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance. When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, ‘This man also was with him.’ But he denied it, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him.’ A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, ‘You also are one of them.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I am not!’ Then about an hour later yet another kept insisting, ‘Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about!’ At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.

 Now the men who were holding Jesus began to mock him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and kept asking him, ‘Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?’ They kept heaping many other insults on him.

 When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they brought him to their council. 

They said, ‘If you are the Messiah, tell us.’ He replied, ‘If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I question you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.’ All of them asked, ‘Are you, then, the Son of God?’ He said to them, ‘You say that I am.’ Then they said, ‘What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!’

Comments. Remember, the Jewish observance of days goes from sunset one day to sunset the next day (not midnight to midnight as we have it). So, in Luke’s story, this, we call it the passion narrative, happens after sunset on Passover; and the Last Supper from which Jesus and disciples have just come was the Passover meal; and all that happens from now until Jesus dies on the cross is the Day of Passover. As I’ve said earlier, the synoptics are different, for many including agenda reasons, from the timing and the meal and the passion narrative in the Gospel according to John.

Don’t be troubled if you notice that the words and actions at various scenarios differ, vary, from one evangelist (gospel writer) to the next. If you ask and wonder what actually happened and what truly was said, my answer is always “It depends on whose story you are reading.” Don’t be so literal, just enjoy and participate in the story. Indeed, if you and I had been there, as indeed is one idea of my comments as the story develops, and were called upon later to write a verbatim, our accounts would differ. John’s gospel, with his long discourses, stretches credence; but one joy of being Anglican, an Episcopalian, is that we love uncertainty and incompatibilities and riddles, puzzles, things that can be discussed but not necessarily resolved. Americans like an answer to every question, but there is not always a final answer.

Judas. Again, some scholars have suggested that the name Judas symbolizes the Judean or Jewish people rejecting Jesus. I don’t agree, thinking such a view somewhat makes the entire passion narrative a metaphor. What do you think?

The arrest takes place on the Mount of Olives (in the garden?). In Mark’s gospel only, a young man dressed only in a linen cloth bolts, a soldier tries to grab him but only rips off his cloth, and the youth escapes, runs away naked. That has interesting discussion possibilities if not implications regarding “Secret Mark,” which I don’t expect to mention again until the women come to the tomb on Easter morning. Some traditions give the runaway man in Mark's gospel the name Mark, or John Mark, and assert that he’s John Mark who traveled with Paul. That tradition is significant as a possible answer to the question of who wrote Mark’s gospel, which like all four canonical gospels is anonymous. 

The high priest’s slave has his ear cut off, and Jesus immediately heals, saves: can you imagine looking back on some saving, healing, event in your own life and realizing that the stranger who touched you, healed you, saved you, was Jesus himself? Would that bring you down the aisle while we sing “Just as I am without one plea”? Luke doesn’t name the slave, John tells us his name is Malchus (from Hebrew מֶ֫לֶךְ Melek, Melech, a Benjaminite). Why do you suppose naming the slave is significant to John (it’s not to Mark, Matthew or Luke)? Writing maybe three generations later, how does GospelJohn know the slave’s name? Was it in the oral or written tradition that was GospelJohn’s source, or is it artist’s license? If you don't care, say so. 

Peter’s denial, again, details vary from gospel to gospel. If this bothers you, visualize that you and I wrote about it, you 40 years later and I 60 years later, from stories that were passed down to us. And oh, how do you suppose it was that Peter, a Galilean outsider, was allowed into the courtyard of the high priest’s house where he could witness Jesus’ interrogation that night? Luke doesn’t say. GospelJohn says Peter went inside with a disciple who was known to the high priest. Who might that have been? I think it was Lazarus, a wealthy local who would have been known to the temple authorities. My own view is that this is a piece of the puzzle about who was the Beloved Disciple and who authored ΚΑΤΑ ΙΩΑΝΝΗΝ, which we call The Gospel according to John. Come to my Sunday School class and face the questions with us.

Jesus’ torment begins here, being hit, slapped, insulted by the men who are holding him. One of my annual tasks for Holy Week is to watch The Passion of the Christ. I saw it at a theatre here in PC when it first came out years ago, and after it was over I went home and sat outside on my back porch, slumped into a chair, stunned, unable to speak or even think for several hours. A vivid film, it’s too brutal and bloody, and it conglomerates the events of all four gospels, which is acceptable except that it’s the same thing we do every year with Matthew’s and Luke’s nativity narratives at Christmas; somewhat creating yet another gospel. 

In Luke’s account, Jesus is not silent before the temple authorities. Identifies himself as messiah, son of man, and, when asked if he’s the Son of God, answers using (in Luke’s NT Greek) the words ἐγώ εἰμ, I AM. This invocation of the Divine Name given to Moses at the Burning Bush may have been the blasphemy that so enraged his inquisitors. IDK, it would be significant in John’s gospel, it may or may not be so here. What do you think?