Luke 22.47-53 — Arrest

The reversals and ironies flash out of the text like a beam from a lighthouse. The innocent one is arrested as guilty. The despicable one approaches his master with the kiss of shalom. The Prince of Peace is engulfed in violence. Jesus plans to die, and the disciples ask if this is the time for them to kill (49). In the middle of all the harm, a healing takes place (51). For the one who gives himself willingly, a cadre has come to take him by force (52). Darkness reigns in the place where the Light is shining (53). The hour of capture is on the cusp of the hour of freedom. The day of disaster is more accurately the day of fulfillment.

What’s the point?

The Great Reversal is at hand.
The Fall is about to Stand.
Innocence will be vindicated
as the prophecies indicated.
The grabbing of Light
in the eye of the night
to close it tight
with intent to indict
will merely incite
its preemptive right
to SHINE.

The Great Reversal is at hand
with deity in the form of man.
The miscalculation
of God’s incarnation
will bear a duration
of masked accusation
and depraved defamation
in wild fabrication
of SIN.

“Am I leading a rebellion?
Do I need to be grabbed?
Is this kiss of my friend
My heart just to stab?”
The violence and killing
The blood of my spilling
The cross for the willing
Prophetic word filling
Jeers and the thrilling
Will be but a tilling
of TRUTH.

“Fear not, my child,” said the Man.
The Great Reversal is at Hand.
Death and life
will turn on a knife
And mercy will hide
in the shadows of strife.
All of the darkness
will spill down the slope
and bitter despair
will give way to hope
and LOVE.