And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
Jesus said just hours before this in John 13:13, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.” Rabbi means teacher. If you search through all the times people call him Rabbi, it is usually in the first few chapters of the gospels, before the disciples knew who he was, or near the end, when his enemies called him that, denying his Lordship. Here we see Judas calling him Rabbi just before handing him over to the authorities. To Judas, he was just a good teacher but not the Son of God. Jesus obviously was not going to overthrow Rome so Rome would have to overthrow Jesus.
There is one small problem with it that Judas missed and Peter caught. Rome had no power over the King of kings. They had a temporary victory. Judas and Peter made similar mistakes. Judas thought Rome could stop the Savior, and Peter thought he could save the Savior.
Come to Cape Community Church tomorrow to learn another lesson from Peter as a warning to others. Come and celebrate the fact that man cannot stop Jesus or save him, or themselves. We need a Savior and nothing we do will help us need him less or more. We know that because we have…
A Great Teacher.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church