Keion Henderson - Caring in a Crisis

Let 's give God some praise in this place today for His goodness and His mercy toward us. We offer praise as we take this journey over the next few weeks, ultimately ending up in Holy Week, as we discuss the trials, tribulations, and crucifixions of the Almighty. I think it’s important, as we go through this, that we not just get to the grave thinking that He got up, but recognize that there is a process of burial. The truth is that you’re being buried while you’re walking. A man born of a woman is of a few days, and those days are filled with trouble. We start dying the day we are born; that’s the way it works. And nobody wants to talk about dying, and that’s because we don’t view it from the perspective that God inscribed in Scripture: for death, for the Christian, is the reward. I’m not trying to be morbid; I want to discuss Jesus’s journey before we get to the tomb. I want to spend the next few weeks doing that. And I’m going to do it from the various perspectives of different synoptic writers; perhaps John will be included- he has to be. I’ll reference that today, but I want you to go with me to Mark chapter 14 today-Mark chapter 14, verse 44. Also, when I tell you I have a word, that doesn’t always mean that you’re going to shout, so I don’t want that to be your anticipation of the Lord. We may do that, but I saw something in this text that I’ve never seen before-so much so that it almost makes me want to change the name of the sermon right while I’m up here.

Go to Mark chapter 14, verse 44. I’m going to read these verses; we’ll cover a couple, but it says in verse 44: «And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, 'Whosoever I shall kiss, that same is he. Take him and lead him away safely.'» Look at how he tried to betray him but didn’t try to clean it up. I’m pointing him out, but y’all take care of him. Oh, I would have been safe if you wouldn’t have turned me over. You can’t turn me over and then procure my safety; you got to be one or the other. But jealous people are conflicted people. Be careful with people who try to get two birds with one stone. You have to be careful with people who try to get two purposes out of one act. I’m going to turn you over, but don’t hurt him. Well, verse 45: «And as soon as he was come, he goes straightway to him and said, 'Master, Master, ' and he kissed him.» I don’t want to read the rest of it, because you’ll know why I’m going to call it what I’m going to call it, but I want to talk about caring in a crisis-caring in a crisis. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Everybody say caring in a crisis. It’ll make sense in a minute. I bet you that 90% of this room does not have an accurate definition for the word betrayal, and I know why, because I looked it up in the dictionary, Pastor Hammond, and it does something that I hate. I hate when the dictionary defines a word with the same word. I looked up the word betrayal, and they said, «the act of betraying.» I’m like, «Well, how does that help me?» Look it up right now; go to dictionary.com. I promise you it’ll say right now, «the act of betrayal of betraying someone.» How am I going to get a further understanding of what the word betrayal means when I look it up, and when I ask you what it means, you use the same word that I’m confused about to explain to me what I need clarity about? So I had to do a little more studying, and here was the actual definition of betrayal: the revelation of something hidden. Let 's talk about betrayal, denotatively, which means the revelation of that which has been hidden. This means nobody who has ever been betrayed was betrayed by somebody that they didn’t see coming. If you have been betrayed, it either means one of two things: it either means that the person pretended to be somebody they were not, or it means that you knew who they were but ignored it. Remember, by definition, betrayal is the revelation of that which has been hidden. This means that every person who has ever been betrayed by somebody was betrayed by them before you felt the betrayal. That 's proven before Judas ever betrayed Jesus. Scripture lets us know that he had already had a meeting with the Sanhedrin Council, and he already told them, «I’m going to kiss him, and when I kiss him, you will know that it is him.»

Now, why does he have to kiss him? Because Jesus has a routine. His routine is to retreat to the Garden of Gethsemane, according to John chapter 18, to pray. But here’s the routine: whenever he would go away, he would take somebody with him-Peter, James, and John. You have to be careful with that, because now I see why Judas betrayed him: Jesus had a routine, and Judas wasn’t a part of it. Jesus had a routine: every time he would go, he would take Peter, James, and John. Can 't you see Judas asking, «Why can’t I go?» So what he does is use his relationship to get close enough to Jesus, and the reason why he can get close enough to Jesus is that he knows the routine of Jesus.