The moment Jesus gave himself up

Big Ideas

• Grace is free, and entirely from God’s initiative
• Jesus is bold in front of his accusers. He is forcing their hand.
• Jesus is giving himself up
• This phrase in Greek is “paradidomi”
• This word occurs 7 times in Chapter 14, translated there as “betrayed”
• Same word for what the priests and Pilate do. Handed over.
• In Mark, Jesus was “handed over”
• God hands Jesus over
• Jesus hands himself over. He is active in this process, not passive.
• THIS IS WHO GOD IS
• God is the one who hands himself over.
• He is the self-giving God.
• He’s not all powerful because of strength and violence, but because of self-giving love.
• The second coming will not be different from this one, it won’t be Jesus coming back with violence to conquer death.
• God has always, and will always, conquer by being conquered, defeat death with love.
• Redemptive violence does not exist.

Questions

• How does all of this strike you?
• In your mind, is the cross a “different” event than the way God will finally conquer sin and death?
• What do you think about this emphasis on “giving over,” on “paradidomi”?
• How does it change your view of God if he is consistently, always, the God who gives himself over?
• Can you conquer by being conquered?
• How would you change yourself if you really bought into this being true?