The episode in the garden before where our Lord was arrested is a memorable glimpse of the enduring love of God.  It is a love for one that he declared to be lost. He calls the lost one, from among the chosen twelve, friend.  With this display, we are seeing an aspect of God’s majestic love that we shrink from, and our Bibles caution us against friendships of this type.  The potter having his way with the clay, his familiar friend, his shalom (Psalm 41:9) is a picture that ought to wake us out of our apathy, our disapproval of people not like us, and ought to shake our idolatrous worship of our ability to choose. How amazing indeed is God’s love.

Bread in the disciples’ prayer includes drink, and so is synonymous with food.

The purpose for living is to do God’s bidding and our sustenance supports it like nothing else can.

They were having dinner with their most highly esteemed friend and he looks at them and says “One of you will betray”. Naturally, in the mode of Adam, each of them peppers him with “Not me, right?” The one among who knew that he had hatched a betrayal plot also presses his innocence. The kindness of the highly esteemed friend does not allow him to cover up the facts, so he tags the traitor. He even tells him its time to go to it. It is clear that his affection for the traitor is unshaken, and this comes to light like a supernova in the garden where the traitor’s mannerism betrays his deep affection for the highly esteemed friend: a kiss to remember.

The agreed upon sign was a kiss.

Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” (Matt 26:48) [I will kiss, fileso, from fileo, fee-LAY-o, I kiss, I am fond of]

In the garden, however, the traitor does not merely kiss the highly esteemed friend, he throws himself into the sign. It is not a peck on the cheek, nor even a smack on the lips. Matthew describes it with katafileo, an all-out display of affection. He got his hands into it with a hug, tightly clasping the highly esteemed friend. He may have had his hands on the cheeks of his friend’s face. It was a kiss full of gusto.

And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” 
And he kissed him. ( Matt 26:49)

Two surprises leap at me from Hebrews 13:16, one marvelously comforting and the other shocking and disturbing.

The first is the layered excuse – deliberate omission – that people were making. They kept skipping their roles as do-gooders and sharers. They covered this up with “I forgot”.
The second is that they/we are not allowed to keep this practice of not doing the sacrificial things, the priestly service.

To these two shortcomings Paul offered:

• you must not keep forgetting to do well and share your gifts
• doing good and sharing are God-pleasing (living) sacrifices

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Living sacrifices from a living priesthood.

Get on with doing good and sharing

Might our right to speak our minds in public be under threat? How is today’s world different from the world into which Moses, Isaiah, or John (the writer of the book of Revelation) were thrust. There is always pressure to recant and the believer must be certain of his stand so as not to be swayed by spurious theories or death threats.

A fully formed mental attitude is in the works for each believer and an easy compliance with standards – whether many or few – will fall short. We love standing on the shore and expect to be called mature fishers. Conversely, we pick extreme fruit from the tree of popular theories and invite all kinds of attention, but when the critics and the paparazzi show up we play the persecuted victim card.

There will be massive deflections from the faith when the pressure to join the popular and approved religion takes over. Many who can’t get enough of church and the business generates will deny Christ.

• They told us a man cannot be God.
• They said a man cannot forgive sin

The incredibly virulent violence that shakes our world in the 21st century, ravaging people in their worship places is familiar to every religious group. We cannot spin this fact. Our refuge is the truth and our commitment to it.

Christ is Lord and the only Saviour and we had better be aware that pressure to deny Christian doctrine has been the practice of both Christians and Jews.

Changing our minds about Christ in favour of a common message which will include law-abiding pride amounts to recanting in absence of a threat.

There is an extreme expectation that can arise from sayings like this, not to mention the anguish of betrayed confidences, the sheer wall of insensitivity, cold hearts and a lack of humility and empathy. Some people in the crowd lose their interest in our welfare when our weaknesses and errors come to light. Be careful to whom you “confess”.

One to another

If people think that God’s pardon is a loan imagine in what esteem they hold their own readiness to forgive. However well-intentioned a mutual confession might be, in a group or one-to-one, the chances of gossip and apathy are high.

Confess only to significant others, only to people whose likeness to Christ you have confirmed.

Do not give dogs what is holy [special to you], and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Matthew 7:6