The kingdom, power and glory are God’s

Luke 22:1-6

¹ Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, ² and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. ³ Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. ⁴ And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. ⁵ They were delighted and agreed to give him money. ⁶ He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

The first thing that strikes me about this passage is the timing. The Passover – a special feast celebrating and remembering God’s rescue of Israel – is about to happen. That means that many Jewish people who lived outside of Jerusalem were in town. Jerusalem would have been buzzing! With the benefit of hindsight, we know that Jesus was the real Passover sacrifice – so the timing of these events wasn’t accidental.

Lord, thank you that your timing is perfect. Help me to trust your timing and not try to control things myself.

The second thing that strikes me is the power of the ‘fear of man (people)’. The chief priests and teachers of religious law had no qualms about killing another person. Planning to kill the Son of God wasn’t a problem. It was fear of the people that was the problem. These leaders were overjoyed with Judas’ offer so that they could arrest him without people seeing. It is easy for me to be critical of the chief priests and scribes in this situation, but I know that I suffer from ‘fear of man’ too.

Father, please help me to get my priorities right. Help me to acknowledge and honour you before others, even when I’m scared to do so.

The third thing that jumps out is Satan’s deception. He not only deceived Judas, he also deceived himself! The scriptures clearly state that ‘the Satan’ would strike the heel of the saviour, but that his (Satan’s) head would be crushed in the process! The cross was Jesus’ victory and Satan’s defeat – yet Satan helped to instigate it.

Father, please don’t lead me into temptation, but protect me from the evil one.

Father God, thank you that the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever! Amen

Written by Megan Cornell