How Jesus Processed Suffering, Part 1 | How to Process Suffering

Luke 22:21-23

Like to start by reading in Luke 22:14 and following. You can follow along as I read. “When the hour had come, Jesus reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.’ And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the Kingdom of God comes.’ When he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And in the same way he took the cup after they’d eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’”

Luke covers the Passover meal and the institution of the Lord’s Supper in this section right here. He’s not precisely following a chronological account as he moves onward from here, verses 21-38, which is the rest of what is covered in the Upper Room Discourse. In fact, he doesn’t cover everything in the Upper Room Discourse. We can compare John 13-17 and see that there’s a whole lot more that Jesus taught and said on this occasion, and this evening. But Luke has a particular purpose in mind.

He wants to start with this intimate fellowship meal, the one shared by the eleven and the Lord Jesus himself; this intimate fellowship meal, this Communion meal, the Lord’s Supper, because it shows the theological basis for their fellowship. And from there, Luke goes on in verses 21-38 to cover what Jesus wants to instruct his men. These men of his fellowship, these men who share his table, this is what he wants them to know. This is Luke’s purpose in writing, is to explain this to us, and unpack this for us.

Matthew, Mark, each have their purposes in writing and how they deal with the details and the facts of everything that happened on this night. And John also has his purpose in writing, and his intention. But this is Luke’s. He covers first the Passover meal and the institution of the Lord’s Supper as the theological basis for this new fellowship called the Church. The apostles at this point don’t perceive it, but everything is about to change for them; radically change, practically change how they live their lives socially, politically, literally everything for them is going to change. Radically, politically, superficially, deeply, everything is gonna change. I mean, if the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at the midpoint of all human history is going to reset the calendar to BC and AD, it’s bound to cause some disruption for them as well in practical life.

This is why Jesus earnestly desired to eat this Passover with his disciples, and to do it before he suffered. He wanted to prepare them for his crucifixion. He wanted to do that so that he could show how that would bring a radical change, and introduce a brand new society, a new institution called The Church of Jesus Christ. This is something new.

This is New Covenant participation, and it’s creating a whole new covenant community. Members of this church, according to this ordinance of fellowship, would be joined together in partakers of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, partakers of his body and his blood, as Jesus gives the symbology for that in Luke 22:19-20. Members of this church would follow the Lord, enduring some measure of the suffering that he endured at the hands of sinners under the sovereign design of God, as we’re gonna see in Luke 22:21-23.

Members of this church would follow the Lord’s pattern of self-sacrifice modeled first by its leaders in verses 24-27, the greatest of the leaders becoming as the youngest and becoming the servants of all. Members of this church, as we see in verses 28-30, are destined for greatness and honor in the Kingdom of God, but not because they’ve earned or merited, merited that for themselves, as we see from their failures in verses 31-34. Members of this church are gonna live out the faith, showing how to live a New Covenant life with holy wisdom in the midst of a hostile world, as we kinda see indicated in verses 35-38. That’s just a survey of the things that we’re gonna cover, the things that Jesus wants to teach us in this section, starting in verse 21, all the way through verse 38.

Added to these lessons that our Lord wanted to teach his men are those that are recorded for us in John’s Gospel, what’s known as the Upper Room Discourse, John 13-17. All of this is to get his apostles ready for the church that they would be part of building; that, they were the foundation stones of, being guiding off of the chief cornerstone himself, Jesus Christ. He’s preparing them for the suffering that they’re gonna endure at the hands of sinners. He’s preparing them for the glory to follow for all those who endure, faithful to the end. And this is why Jesus says, “When the hour had come,” verse 14, as he’s reclining at the table with his apostles and getting ready to eat, he says, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you men before I suffer.”

It’s before the suffering that he wanted to help his men interpret the suffering. He wanted to help them to understand how to process suffering so that they could understand God’s goodness in suffering, so they could learn how to endure it, so they could walk faithfully to the end. Because there is nothing like suffering that upsets and brings anxiety and confusion and bewilderment.

Pain is its own kind of trial. Suffering is its own kinda trial, whether it’s financial, whether it’s physical, whether it’s chronic pain, whether it’s disease, illness. But it’s particularly here, what Jesus is referring to in verses 21-23, it’s relational suffering. And sometimes there is no deeper suffering than a relational suffering. The break of a friendship, the coolness or the coldness in a family member; even for some, the death of a family member, losing someone who’s very dear to them, there is no coming back from that. There’s no way to repair what’s been broken.

Beloved, I don’t know what you have suffered in your life as a Christian, what kind of pains, disappointments, sorrows you’ve endured for the sake of Christ, may still be enduring for the sake of Christ or for the sake of righteousness, for a stand that you take that’s unpopular. Maybe you’ve chosen to stand for the truth in a place where that is not rewarded at all, but punished. You’ve decided to keep a clear conscience before the Lord, knowing you’re gonna answer to him, and render your life an account in stewardship to him.

And although I may not know, and others around you may not be able to relate; even though your most intimate friends, even your spouse and your family does not understand the suffering that you’ve experienced. Proverbs 14:10 says, “The heart knows its own bitterness,” and the implication is there that others don’t, but God knows it. Christ knows that suffering, that pain. He stands ready to minister to our sorrows by his Spirit and by his Word. And that is what we’re gonna see in this text: How Jesus processed suffering, how he processed his own grief, how he thought through the very deep pain that he felt in drinking the bitter cup. We want to learn from him. For after all, it was Jesus who endured the deepest pain. And it’s the pain of betrayal, disloyalty, and deceit, and treachery that comes not from a known enemy, no, but it gets underneath the armor. It’s a knife stab from a close friend, the bitterest taste in the cup of sorrows that he drank for our sake.

Now we’re gonna cover just three verses, verses 21-23, and turn each of those verses into a point. Okay, so 21, 22, 23 each one its own point. First of all, the pain of betrayal. The pain of betrayal in verse 21. What we covered last time in Luke 22:14 and 20, as I just said, it ended with the institution of the Lord’s Supper, what we know as the fellowship ordinance of the church. This is an ordinance that’s shared by all those who know and love Christ Jesus.

I’d like to say, “All those and only those who know and love Christ Jesus,” but we know that’s not true. There are people who enter into our fellowship and partake of the Lord’s table and may not be Christians at all. There can be church members who don’t really know the Lord Jesus Christ, and it’s not gonna be known until they stand before God one day and say, Lord, Lord, did I not take Communion at Grace Church in Greeley? And he’ll say, And your name again? “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity.”

That is, that, for a pastor, for us elders, that’s the deepest concern we have, is to make sure that we are clear enough Sunday by Sunday, week after week after week with the Gospel and the truth, that those who don’t know him will come to see that they don’t know him, and either walk away, or they’ll embrace the truth and bow before Jesus Christ to receive his mercy and salvation.

There are people in faithful churches all over the country, all over the world, who really do not know God, who really have not been converted, who really have not been regenerated by his grace, born again by the Spirit, joined to Christ, to love and worship and obey him and repent of their sins and walk in newness of life. And yet they take of the Communion table every single Sunday, or every single month, when it’s offered.

On this occasion, this fellowship ordinance that Jesus institutes is shared by Jesus and the eleven; Judas having departed. It’s shared by those who know and love Christ. They’re partakers of his life because they’ve been joined to him in his death. And right after Jesus introduced the symbol of the cup in verse 20, “This cup which is poured out for you,” that is, the cup of suffering that Jesus is going to drink down to the dregs for the sake of his people, “Luke connects that then to verse 21, as Jesus identifies the deepest pain of his suffering, which is the betrayal of a friend.

Remember, Jesus is the host of this gathering. He’s officiating, as it were, the Passover meal. He’s done all the preparations and you have an indication of that in verses 7 and following, Jesus sends Peter and John to go and get the Passover ready. So, go purchase the lamb, get the lamb butchered and prepared and its blood let out, and the blessings at the Temple. He sends them to do all that work. But we know that prior to that he had made arrangements with this house owner, this homeowner, to use his upper room. He is the host of this Passover celebration, officiating the meal. Even though it’s in another man’s home, he is the host, and he leads these men through the elements of the meal.

And as we saw last time, the, the apostles are acting in typical fashion. They’re seemingly oblivious to the significance of this particular Passover meal on this night and this hour, just right before he’s betrayed. They came to the meal that night, found their places around the table, gettin’ ready to eat. No one took up the task, it seems, of providing the most basic hospitality at a meal like this, which is to make sure everyone’s feet are washed.

They ate a meal like this, as we’ve said, in a reclined position. They’re lying on dining couches on their left side, with their upper bodies toward the table, toward the food. Seems to make good sense to me. Right hand free to pick up the food and feed their mouths, lower bodies and feet extended behind them, away from the table. Still, their feet ought to be washed. The smell of unwashed feet could spoil a meal like this or any meal, distract from the pleasantness of the occasion. All about commemorating God’s faithfulness at the Passover, and then that kinda waft of, like the processing plant comes through the town, and you smell that, and you’re like, what in the world?

These men walking around in the dirty streets of Jerusalem, same kinda thing. No one took up the task of providing the most basic hospitality, taking up the role of a servant to serve their fellow disciples, to serve the Lord himself. No, it’s the host that has to do that. What’s up with that?

Jesus uses the oversight, not as taking personal offense; he uses the oversight as an opportunity to teach his men. I love that about him, don’t you? That he uses even their sins and their failures and their weaknesses and their stupidity and their pride, not as an occasion to feel personally offended, but just to set it aside and say, okay, let me teach ‘em through this. Let me teach ‘em through this.

Parents put a pin in that one for later use, that your kids, whatever age they are, all different ages and stages, for them to show weakness and stupidity and pride and, and sin, but just use this as an opportunity to teach. Don’t become personally offended, don’t take it personally, just move through the moment. Use it as an opportunity to teach. That’s what Jesus did, and we find that recorded in the beginning of John 13 verses 1-20, as he loved his men, John says, “to the uttermost.”

And John tells us that Jesus knew during supper, he knew right then, that the devil had put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him. He also knew not only his betrayer, not how he was gonna be handed over, and how he’s gonna go out. He knew that at the end of this, the father has given all things into his hands, and that he’d come forth from God, and was going back to God. So he gets it. He is not worried about the betrayer. He’s not even worried ultimately about the cross. He’s come forth from God. He’s going back to God. This has a good and glorious end.

Full awareness of his deity, of his humanity, of the successful completion of his messianic mission which is nearly accomplished. And intending to love His men to the uttermost, “Jesus got up from supper,” John 13 says, “laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he tied it around himself. Then he poured water into the wash basin, began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he had tied around himself.” He’s preparing them all, including Judas Iscariot at this point, he’s preparing them to partake of the meal that he’s prepared for them.

As we’ve said, four cups were shared of the Passover meal, patterned after the four blessings that’re outlined in Exodus 6:6-7: the Cup of Sanctification, Cup of Deliverance, Cup of Redemption, Cup of Praise. And in this meal, he recasts the remembrance of Passover, as we see in verses 17-18, he recasts it as an expectation of hope for the future. He essentially takes a Nazarite vow, says “I’m not gonna drink of the fruit of the vine until we do this again together in my Father’s Kingdom.” So he’s got hope. He knows what’s coming. He knows the glory to follow. He knows the Kingdom is coming, that God’s will is going to descend and be done on earth just as it is in heaven.

 His love for his friends, his hope for the future, all this secured the fellowship that has been symbolized in the bread and the cup. Bread of Remembrance, of his body given for them, and cup of the suffering poured out for them. This cup of suffering poured out, that’s ratified by his blood, the ultimate indication and symbol of his suffering as he dies for them. That’s the blood that ratified the New Covenant and secured its promises.

And so now, as we come to verse 21, we see that Luke interrupts the flow of this narrative, of this fellowship, of this joy of Jesus with his men, with his true disciples. Luke, you don’t see it as well in the English; you just see it kind of run, the paragraph just runs together here, but it’s loud and clear in the original Greek, Luke puts a sharp break after Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper. And using Jesus’ own words, he puts a sharp break there, using a, a strong adversitive conjunction followed by an exclamatory particle. So it reads, “But behold,” and I’m saying it loudly like that because you need to hear three or four exclamation marks and surprise emojis, or however you put emphasis in your texts or emails or whatever you wanna do, you need to put that right there after those words in verse 21, “But behold”.

If you look back to verse 19, get a running start, we see Jesus’ emphasis on union and communion, and on the closeness, the intimacy of fellowship. He breaks one bread, and then passes that around so that each one of them can have, can break a piece off of it; one bread that they share. He lifts up one cup, and then passes that around so that each one can drink from the single cup. All this indicating a unity and union and communion and oneness. Fellowship. In each explanation, first of the bread, then of the cup, Jesus says, “This bread is my body,” verse 19, “which is given for you.” And then, it so, “For you” being “on your behalf,” huper humon, “on your behalf.” Then in verse 20, “This cup is poured out for you,” again, “on your behalf,” for your sake.

Then in verse 21, “But behold,” that is to say, “There’s one for whom my body is not this bread. There is one for whom my cup was not poured out. That is the hand of the one betraying me.” That verb there, “the one betraying me,” it’s a present tense participle. And the present tense there, by that present tense, Jesus is indicating this is an ongoing action here. It’s, this is currently happening. He is currently betraying me. As we go back to chapter 22 verses 1-6, we see he’s already plotted it before he even comes into the upper room. He’s just trying to think about, when do I spring the trap? How do I get out of here and go inform my guys and bring ‘em back? This betrayal is ongoing. It’s in Judas’s mind. It’s an ongoing action; he is betraying me, even though the betraying hand has shared our table.

Jesus is saying, even though he’s feigned fellowship with us, even though he’s faked friendship with me, as it turns out, he’s not a friend. He’s a false friend. He’s the very worst of enemies. And so, as one commentator puts it, we go from the meaning of Jesus’ death in verses 19-20, and he passes into the manner of it in verses 21 and following. We go from the meaning of it to the manner of it. Luke takes us to the most immediate, pressing matter that’s troubling these men at this point, namely, What? Betrayal? Hand of the one betraying you? Whuh, whuh, whuh, whuh, what did, what did he just say? Adding insult here, as I’ve already alluded to, it’s William Hendriksen, the commentator who says, “Jesus himself here is the host. All the others were eating his food.” He goes on and says this, “That very fact, especially in the Near East, a region where accepting someone’s hospitality and then injuring him was considered most reprehensible. And that should have tied the hands of all.”

In an interview with Sean Langan, who’s a British journalist and documentary filmmaker, Sean Langan was captured by the Taliban and taken into the Peshawar province of Pakistan, and held in a dark room for months, and wondering if he would live or die. They kept threatening him with a gun to his head, shooting AK rounds in the room that he was in. They threatened to cut off his head. He has children, two boys back home in Britain, a wife.

Mr. Langan was wondering every single day if he’d live or die. He said he made a human connection, though, with the Pashtun owner of the home that the Taliban used to hold him. In fact, one of his two sons is named Gabriel; Gabriel being the one who revealed the Quran in, in Muslim, you know, false religion, that’s what they believe. And so this homeowner paused. “Your son’s named Gabriel.” All of a sudden there’s a human connection. This man isn’t just an enemy. He’s a human being. He’s a father. He’s got children like I do.

This brought Mr. Langan under the hospitality of that man, who was not Taliban. Because of hospitality customs, known as Pashtunwali, I’m probably pronouncing that incorrectly, but because of Pashtunwali, though he was a prisoner, he came under that man’s protection. Even the Taliban knew, because of hospitality customs, they were duty-bound, according to this law and custom, not to touch this man.

He was eventually released, so that I could watch the interview. I just want to make sure you knew that part of it, so I don’t leave you hanging. Judas has violated a rather long-standing tradition of hospitality custom, wouldn’t you say? One that even the Taliban, evil as they are, but even the Taliban respects hospitality customs to this very day; those customs that have been in the Middle East for millennia. And Judas doesn’t have the good sense, or the care, or the love, in fact, what he has in his heart toward Jesus, though he’s been with him for three years, what he has in his heart toward Jesus, is resentment and hatred and bitterness, he’s faked friendship on the face. He’s been anything but.

Hendriksen goes on to say, “It should have made it impossible for any of the Twelve,” this hospitality custom, “should have made it impossible for any of the Twelve to take action against their host. And in addition to what Jesus did for the Twelve this night, and how many, in fact very many other favors had not the Lord bestowed on them, including Judas, during all these months of their association with Him?” End Quote.

So how is it that this man, Judas Iscariot, one of the most respected and trusted of the apostles, he sat at Jesus’ left at this meal, in the place of honor, in the seat of honor at the Passover in the upper room. Judas was entrusted with the money bag for the, all the apostles. He’s trusted as their treasurer. In fact, in verse 23, you can see that they begin to argue among themselves which one of them it might be who was gonna do this thing. They’re confused. What? Judas? They could not entertain Judas.

Mark 14:18 we read that, “as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me, the one who is eating with me.’ And they began to be grieved.” Matthew says they were “deeply grieved.” They began to say to him, one by one, “Surely not I, surely not I.” Listen to their sensitive consciences. “Lord, me? Is it, is it me?” In other words, the rest of the apostles are incredulous. They’re totally caught off guard by this revelation. They cannot for the life of them figure out who could do such a thing, especially as he is one of their small number. I mean one of the inner circle, the intimate company of the twelve apostles.

And Jesus told them in Matthew 26:24, “Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for,” him, “that man if he had not been born.” Remarkably, right after hearing that warning, which is really a gracious word spoken in the presence of his betrayer, Judas. It’s a warning; knowing his betrayer is sitting before him. It’s a warning to him, like, snap out of it, Judas. But Matthew 26:25 says, “Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, ‘Oh, surely it is not I, Rabbi.’” He plays like all the others play around him. He parrots their conscience, though he doesn’t share their conscience. Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself.”

Gives insight, doesn’t it, into the dark soul of Judas Iscariot? He looks straight into the Savior’s eyes, lies to his face. Never underestimate the capacity of the sinful heart to commit such terrible, terrible sin, to excuse and minimize sin, to tell a bold-faced lie about it straight to your face and then justify himself or herself, and then to find a way to blame and condemn the righteous. Never underestimate the power of sin in a sinner’s heart.