Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.

“Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied.

“I AM he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) As Jesus said “I AM he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

“I told you that I AM he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”

Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.

Wait what?

did you just tell him to put away his sword

the John text reports that you actually healed this

man?

are you serious?

don’t you know they came to torture you?

The hate you

Can you imagine what's going through Peter's head?

It doesn't make any sense. ]

Why would Jesus heal the enemy?

This man served the high priest who blasphemed the King of Glory, how could he heal him?

/They hated everything about Jesus. They hated his way of life. They hated the way he took care of people. They hated what he said. They hated Jesus, his disciples, and everybody around them.

and they hated him less than the blaspheming emperor who was oppressing them.

I know you understand that they crucified people during Passover to make examples of them.

This is not a minor threat. This was putting the survival of the whole Jesus movement in jeopardy.

And Jesus heals the enemy.

I have come to talk about the broken place of hatred, but I can't talk about it in a safe space.

I want to talk about it when you're facing someone who hates everything you stand for.

I want to talk about hatred when your flight or flight has kicked in.\

Because it's during that time that you have to quickly identify the real enemy.

So here is the essential question.

How do you Love when hatred is the only thing that makes sense?

The answer is simple.

You need to quickly identify the real enemy.

Remember, Hatred is the enemy

1 John 3:15 NLT

Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

1 John 2:9–11 MSG

Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.

GOD IS LOVE, hatred inherently separates us from Him.

But Peter could not see that. Peter reacted out of an existential threat.

He moved to protect what little he had.

We live in a world where we are constantly taught that there is someone who is an existential threat to our way of life.

And I am definitely not going to describe that person, because you know who they are for you.

And if I describe who they are, you'll miss the real enemy.

But how do you not hate when everything feels so existential?

You gotta know how to think.

Philippians 2:5–9 NLT

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Though he was God,

he did not think of equality with God

as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

he took the humble position of a slave

and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,

he humbled himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

and gave him the name above all other names,

  This passage of Scripture is called the Christ Hymn.’

4It's kind of like Jesus's elevator speech.

It describes the whole demeanor and purpose of Christ in about 30 seconds, but it also gives us a window on how to fight hatred.

It teaches us how to think

This passage of scripture explains Jesus' mindset.

Paul tells us that Jesus chose to come save the earth even though he was God and had no reason to.

Paul says, "Essentially, we are like that Malcus. We were God's enemy. We weren’t thinking about pleasing God.

But Jesus came down and was willing to die on a cross for us.

1So in the very moment where Peter was hating against those that hate him, Jesus was focused on His love for us.

Think like Jesus when you feel like Peter.

The reason why it is hard to love when there is an existential threat is

\I think we often misunderstand love.

We think love is something soft or weak or maybe meek or gentle.

But

Love is not powerless.

Philippians 2:6 NLT

Though he was God,

he did not think of equality with God

as something to cling to.

Jesus didn't come to earth because he forgot who he was.

Hatred is a way of protecting oneself.

its easier to avoid people

and to think the worse of them

because if we hate them we think they can’t hurt us

But hatred needs protection from those that hate us.

Hatred doesn't generate people that love us, it generates enemies.

Whereas

Love needs no protection.

Jesus didn't need any protection. The Bible says He was equal with God.

He had all the power in the world.

Matthew 26:52–54 NLT

“Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”

Did I say I don't need protection, I got more protection than you could even imagine.

And who was Peter protecting Jesus from? Malchus, really, the slave?

• Do we even know if Malchus wanted to be there?

• For all we know, Malchus was being mistreated too.

• But Peter was so consumed with hate that he could not see that.

• He could not put himself in Malchus's shoes.

• and many of us are fighting with people who are hurting just like us but because we have no empathy, we don't understand that they're in pain too.

Empathy is the way of Jesus

Hebrews 4:15 NLT

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

Hebrews 4:15 KJV 1900

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

The King James tells us we don't have an untouchable High Priest.

Jesus came in the lowliest of forms so he would get it.

He understands what we're going through.

And a lot of us are suffering from the broken place of hatred because we refuse to try to understand somebody else's position.

How dare I not be empathetic with you when God was empathetic with me?

I am guessing for many of you I just hit a nerve.

Because you are too worried about your survival to worry about anybody else.

Peter didn't even know who Malcus was I'm guessing. All Peter knew was he was about to lose something.

But let's look at what Peter missed in the text.

Jesus does not put up any resistance.

And he could've.

Jesus had what is written in the King James Version twelve legions of angels at his beck and call, that is, 60,000 angels.

But Jesus wanted to go with them

Jesus had just prepared himself to go with them.

Peter tried to save Jesus from what Jesus wanted to do.

John 10:18 NLT

No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”

Jesus was going to die on purpose. because

Love can afford to lose

many you are holding on to hate because you don’t want to lose

• You don't want to give that person any more power.\

• You don't want someone different to hurt you or take advantage of you.

• You just became successful and you don't want to go back into poverty.

What is the thing you are afraid to lose?

Because you're holding onto your hate because you think your hate is gonna protect you from losing, but love can't afford to lose.

There is no salvation until Jesus loses.

But Jesus understood that he could lose and still when

he could let go of his life and still win

but some of us our holding on to hate

But the truth is Hate is what’s hurting us.

It's separating us from God, the source of our healing.

It's making us think evil thoughts.

Hatred doesn't make you feel good. It'll leave you depressed. It'll make your stomach hurt. H will kill you. It will eat you alive.

Look at this picture. (see attached)

The very thing the hand is holding onto is what's hurting the hand.

If someone in this house is hanging onto hatred and it's killing you and you think you're protecting yourself but the very thing you hold onto is the very thing that is attacking you from the inside out.

You got to always love - Love harder when danger comes

How?

Love has to become second nature.

Philippians 2:5–8 NLT

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Though he was God,

he did not think of equality with God

as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;

he took the humble position of a slave

and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,

he humbled himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal’s death on a cross.