55 At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
We discover in the Gospel of Luke the validity of our Lord’s Words here in our verses for today. He daily went to the temple to teach and the crowds were constantly being awestruck in amazement, overwhelmed at His teaching – as One Who had authority (go figure!). He taught as a Spokesman from God (go figure – again!). His teaching was not like the Pharisees or the teachers of the law who lacked life in their words. The contrast between the two was most pronounced. Jesus had quite the following and the religious elite knew it and were jealous of it. Indeed, they greatly resented His popularity. When the turncoat afforded them the opportunity to turn Him over into their grasp, where no crowd would be present, they jumped at the chance. They dared not take Him in front of the throngs as they feared their acknowledgement of Him.
“There’s no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.” Tom Peters
Jesus was inching in on the terrain of the religious elite and they did not like it one little bit. Luke writes of our Lord’s daily habit:
37 Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38 and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple. Luke 21:37-38 (NIV)
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew we find similar words:
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. Matt 7:28-29 (NIV)
In our verses for today, Jesus did not resist His enemies rather sought to patiently reason with them. They appeared with rage and enmity against Him – weapons in hand – as if He were an enemy to public safety and deservedly suffered this sort of treatment. They approached Him as if He were the worst of thieves though purely innocent. Our Lord then reminds His adversaries of His prior behavior toward them. He had given them no occasion to look upon Him as a thief as He had taught in the temple day after day. Such gracious and kind words did not sound like a thief or one that was demonically possessed.
“They might find him every day in the temple, and there they might do as they pleased with him; for the chief priests had the custody of the temple. To come upon him this clandestinely, in the place of his retirement, was wicked and cowardly. Thus the greatest hero may be villainously assassinated in a corner, by one who in open field would tremble to look him in the face.” Matthew Henry
8 “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Rev 21:8 (NIV)
Who could not find something in the above verse that stings their heart? Apart from the redemptive blood of Jesus go us all. In our walks with the Lord, daily repentance is invaluable - keeping our accounts short - turning from the sin that so easily entangles – cleanses us when we fall and keeps us from a broken relationship with the Master because what has Light to do with darkness? That’s the difference here between the Pharisees and the disciples. The Pharisees had not repentance over their cowardly, dishonest actions yet the disciples – who all fled by the way – humbly turned back after their disgrace of shamefully deserting the Master in His time of greatest need. Their actions were both unkind and unfaithful as they had solemnly promised to follow Him and never to forsake Him. Indeed, this had to have been part of Jesus’ suffering, adding affliction to His bonds. He stood abandoned.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:3-6 (NIV)
“The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they ‘all...forsook Him and fled’ (Matthew 26:56).” Oswald Chambers
“Follow Jesus into the wilderness: bear the cross with Him when the heat of persecution grows hot. He owned thee, O my soul, in thy poverty and shame – never be so treacherous as to be ashamed of Him.” Charles H. Spurgeon