Episode 84 Matthew 26:36-75 Jesus’s Arrest and Interrogation

Dan: (00:00)
Hi, everyone. And welcome to training for life redeemed. I’m your host, Dan today as always, I’m here with my father, David Jackson. We are continuing our series through the book of Matthew. At the moment we are halfway through chapter six, dad with Matthew, we’ve done the Lord supper type institution process. That was in our last episode. And today we’re going to be looking at the garden of Gethsemane Jesus getting arrested and having his trials essentially. Well, get one trial in, I guess today, I think, so let’s cut to the garden of Gethsemane what’s happening in Gethsemane like they’ve left the room where they had well, a meal that’s kind of like Passover, that’s become the Lord supper. And then they’ve gone outside, back over to the mount of olives to this garden. Why do they keep going back to the garden? Let’s start there. because the garden comes up a lot, I think throughout yeah. stories.

David: (00:56)
Yeah. This is the, when, when you, when you bring 50,000 men into Jerusalem for Passover Pentecost or whatever, you can pretty much stay where you like in the vicinity, but during the actual festival, you have to be within a Sabbath, day’s walk and a Sabbath day’s walk stops at the top of the Mount of olives. So if you haven’t found a house in town yep. Where you can stay and you probably won’t cause it’s a tiny little town, then you’re camping out. So Gethsemane, is described as a, not, not as a field, but as a property. So they somehow they’ve got permission to be on this property. and it looks like that’s their standard campsite during the, the planned festival. So as far as Judas is concerned, you know, we’re going to move from having dinner down in this, in Jerusalem.

David: (01:51)
And we’re going to go back to the campsite because this is, after sunset on, which makes it the 14th of nisan which makes it now festival time, which means we can’t go to the other side of the Mount of olives. Yeah. So it’s all very predictable. And if that’s their campsite, then you can pretty sure there’s going to be hundreds of other people up there. not necessarily on that property, which is a property Gethsemane means, oil press. So this is olive olive vineyard, and not vineyard olive orchard and my mind on the wine olive orchard. And there’s your wine press in their camp. That’s their little campsite.

Dan: (02:39)
Okay. And so you can kind of imagine the whole hill really covered with people camping there for the whole feast that’s happening in Jerusalem. Yep. And so Judas is going to lead people to the garden. Jesus has been praying with his disciples or praying by himself and his disciples falling asleep, which kind of makes more sense now that they’re falling asleep. Cause they’re not just sitting in a field they’re kind of at their tents.

David: (03:01)
Yeah. And they’ve been up since probably five o’clock in the morning. Jesus goes to the temple to teach at six at sunrise. So, you know, they’ve had a pretty full day it’s after midnight. I,

Dan: (03:16)
Yeah, you can forgive them for falling

David: (03:18)
Sleep. I think it’s reasonable and he only takes three disciples with him. The rest are just left to go to sleep.going to

Dan: (03:27)
Okay. So Judas is going to come up, you know, call him rabbi, give him a kiss. Yep. They’re going to arrest Jesus. It’s a bit of a scuffle that happens where in Matthew don’t tell us who it is, but other synoptic gospels tell us it’s Peter. Yeah, who’s going to cut off. one of the servants ears, Matthew then doesn’t mention anything about being healed either, but the other one does talk about it being healed. can you maybe like, as you talk about that and Jesus’s arrest and that whole process and what’s happening and you also talk about the fact that why are there’s so many different versions, essentially? Like it’s the same story you can really clearly see it’s the same story, but all these different details are in all the different stories. Yeah.

David: (04:06)
Yeah. So we, we, you, we were just talking you, we used to run a thing in class where we’d show a two minute clip of a movie and we’d asked all the kids in the class silently to write down dot points of what they saw. Then we’d put ’em in groups, we’d get ’em to put their little report together. And then four people would get up and put their dot points on the whiteboard and you sit back and you just watch, they saw two minutes and this one saw the umbrella and that one, you know, didn’t didn’t or reported somebody else in the scene. And it was like, you’ve got bits and pieces, in different reports and a very brilliant man by the name of Richard, Bauckam wrote a book called the eyewitnesses. and he says, it’s one of the marks of the, the veracity, the truthfulness that you’ve got eye witnesses is that each one is going to see something different.

David: (05:08)
if they all told exactly the same story, it’s a, it’s a con you know, we’ve, it’s like the police, you know, if all the reports are word for word the same, you you’ve put this little plot together. Yeah. But when you read the gospels, I, I just love in Mark’s. I was in Mark’s gospel. So you gotta imagine all these people camping, and Jesus has taken three guys to go aside and pray. And then in the middle of their sleep, you know, 600 blokes arrive with clubs and torches and swords to arrest Jesus. Some poor fella jumps outta bed, loses his wrap around the middle and does a streak right across the scene, mark notices, or actually it’s Peter, Mark’s writing up Peter’s memoirs. Peter remembers it and the other guys are focused somewhere else and they missed it. And you go, this is the reality of, you know, getting a bunch of guys who were there writing their account. And they all, some saw this and some saw that. So when you put it together, it’s at it’s three dimensional. which is really exciting. But I just, I really like the way Peter stars in this whole movie. cause, yeah, I I’m so glad he’s one of the disciples

Dan: (06:30)
Let’s continue to work through, Jesus’s a bit arrested. He’s going to then be taken to Caiaphas’s house. Now Caiaphas from what you have been talking about with me earlier, Caiaphas is the high priest, according to the Romans yep. And Annas is the high priest. That’s the actual high priest is according to the Jewish process, cuz you’re high priest for life. And so Jesus gets taken to Caiaphas for this trial. But also I know in other accounts that talk about Annas and halfway through this story, when it talks about high priest tearing robes, it’s more likely to be Annas cuz that’s what happens to the other stories. Yep. than what’s happening in this one, we just don’t get Annas mentioned in this one. So why is, why is Jesus getting taken to Caiaphas and not just straight to the like the council, like there’s, there’s a meant to be a proper trial right. Of the whole Sanhedrin isn’t

David: (07:17)
It? Yeah. This, this in lots of, lots of Bibles and sermons you’ll hear, this is, you know, how many trials Jesus had. This isn’t a trial. So all that’s happening here is that the Sanhedrin guys have made up their mind that they’re going to kill Jesus problem is we’ve gotta find out how we’re going to do that because we can get him convicted for blasphemy. But the Romans couldn’t care a hoot about bless for me. Okay. That’s no threat to Rome. The only thing that’s going to get only Rome can issue the edict to the order to kill him. We know from the later part of the story that there’s three guys scheduled to be crucified on Passover morning. And you know that that’s timed because the Roman governor is saying, there’s 50,000 extra men in town. I’ve got 3000 Garrison troops.going to You guys wanna start any trouble?

David: (08:09)
Check these guys out on the way in okay. They’re up there. Naked, nailed to a bit of wood screaming. That’s what’s going to happen to you. Yeah. if you want to cause any riots. So they’re scheduled, these guys are sitting, coming together and saying, if we work quickly, we can get Jesus nailed up with them. But what are we going to charge him with? The is a threat to Rome and blasphemy, won’t cut it. That’s all they’ve got is blasphemy. So in the midst of this interrogation, they’re trying to get Jesus to say something that they can then take to the Roman governor and say, this here is a threat to Rome and God bless him. The big question is,

Dan: (08:54)
Are you the Christ?

David: (08:56)
Are you the Christ? The king of the Jews? So if you are a king, there’s actually a Roman law that says, I think it was issued by Claudius No, not Claudius issued earlier. that said, if you claim to be king, you are claiming that Caesar isn’t. So nobody’s allowed to call themselves king like that. and so this is a charge against Jesus. We heard him say, you know, I’m going to sit on a throne. So that makes him a king. But the throne is in heaven. not in Jerusalem. Yeah. So now they’ve got him.

Dan: (09:41)
Yeah. And I think it’s funny that they get the quote here from the old Testament is from Daniel seven, which is talking about his, you know, enthronement going up in clouds to being thrown next to the father. And just like,

David: (09:54)
He’s not even going to be in town.

Dan: (09:56)
No bit ridiculous, but that’s right. It’s,

David: (10:00)
We’ve Got the words,

Dan: (10:00)
that’s what they needed. Right. And they were the ones who said it you’re the Christ. He’s like, well, you said that, but you said that you said that, but you’re going to see now let me add to it. Yeah. You’re going to see me explain that.

David: (10:11)
Jump on a cloud and go to heaven and be enthroned. Yeah.

Dan: (10:14)
Yeah. On the real Christ. Not the,

David: (10:16)
Not all these make believe terrorists you’re talking about

Dan: (10:19)
Now why Jesus is being interrogated. Let’s say this is really an interrogation rather more than a trial. Yep. Peter is outside in the courtyard. Ah, yes. warming himself up by fires and denying Jesus three times. Yeah. Before says of rooster crows or cock crows or this

David: (10:37)
Is, I think Peter gets a bit of a bad rap. you remember Jesus said, you know, you guys are all going to run away. Jesus actually wants them to run away. He says to the arresting mob, it’s me. You want, let these guys go.going to He wants his disciples to survive because they’re going to do the gospel mission. So when they run away, they’re not being cowards and they’re not being, you know, abandoning in Jesus and denying Jesus or anything like that. They’re doing what Jesus planned. You guys rack off. I’m going to meet you in Galilee. After the resurrection, don’t hang around here and get dead. Peter says to him, you know, I would never deny you. I will die for you. And we think, oh, you know, Peter, you’re a rat bag because you went on and you denied him three times.

Dan: (11:27)
Yeah. But he is one of the two that actually go to the interrogation area. Yeah.

David: (11:31)
But before that there’s six. It says actually in one of the other accounts, this is a cohort of the of the temple police that have come to arrest Jesus. That’s 600 men.going to 500 men, 600 men. They’ve got swords and clubs. Peter pulls out a sword and takes a whole lot on, on his own. And we know that the guy that he attacked is the servant of the high priest. The servant of the high priest is probably the commander of all of this stuff. So Peter has taken out 18 inch sword, done a mighty swing at this guy’s neck, the guy’s ducked sideways and he’s taken his ear off. He came that close to doing him. And there’s, you know, if he did him, there’s 400 other guys are going to take Peter out. He’s not a coward. Jesus says, hang on, stop. You know, put the ear back, put the sword away.

David: (12:29)
You get outta here, you know, just take me, leave him alone. And then where does that leave Peter, what am I supposed to do? I’ve gotta just go along with Jesus, getting arrested and killed. So he, he and John follow Jesus down to the high priest’s house. John gets to go in Peter, cuz he knows the high priest , Peter’s stuck sort of with the servants. And then you go through this process of them recognizing that he was with Jesus. Well, you couldn’t miss him. He was the guy that’s did the swipe. Right? He’s at risk of getting arrested too. That’s not Jesus’s plan. So you just see Peter, take one, step back, one step back and then leave mm-hmm and each time he’s in the confusion, you know, I’m I, I’m not part of this. And then you just se him collapse. he’s just confused and overwhelmed, but he’s the guy that’s going to go back to Jesus. He’s the guy that will be there, at the resurrection. And he’s the guy that’ll be up there in Galilee, jumping off the fishing boat, swimming to Jesus, you know, and having the relationship reestablished. I mean he hasn’t quit Jesus. what this, yeah, if he can get, go through that, there’s hope for the rest of us.

Dan: (14:01)
Well, that’s the end of this episode, everyone. Thank you so much for coming and joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, we would love for you to leave us a review. If you, want to grab this study notes for this episode, you can head over to trainingforliferedeemed.com/84, and then make sure that you hit the subscribe button so that you come back and join us again. Next week, when we look at Matthew chapter 27.