Three Days before Christmas!

As Jesus was entering into the last days of His life on earth, He began to reveal the purpose of His coming which was to die for our sins. Can you imagine what it was like for Jesus to endure the last hours of His life? How about the disciples hearing Jesus speak of His death?

In today’s passage we read about the plot to kill Jesus (Luke 22:1-13); Jesus identifying the betrayer during the institution of the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:14-23), His discourse during the disciples’ argument concerning greatness in the Kingdom of God (Luke 22:24-30) and His prediction of Peter’s denial (Luke 22:31-34).

In His farewell discourses Jesus not only prophesied of the stumbling of the disciples (mainly that of Peter), He spoke directly to Peter regarding his denial of Christ, warning him of the coming temptation. Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned today is that Jesus was in total control even at the last hours of His life. His concerned was for the welfare of the disciples for He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40).

Jesus before the Sanhedrin

67 “If You are the Christ, tell us.”
But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will by no means believe. 68 And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go.69 Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.”
70 Then they all said, “Are You then the Son of God?”
So He said to them, “You rightly say that I am.”
71 And they said, “What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”

Amid the intense drama of His trial, in the midst of the interrogation by the Jewish authorities, Jesus speaks of His future and His victorious ascent into glory (Luke 22:69). He not only answered their question about His nature but He categorically affirmed that He is the “Christ”. This Christmas will you be the one who betrays Him, deny Him or will you confess Him as the “Christ, the Savior of the world?”