3.7.2013 JESUS' ENEMIES: DO I RELATE THE SAME WAY TO MINE?

this morning meditating on Luke 22.52-7...
52 and Jesus said to
the chief priests and the officers of the temple and elders,
who had come against Him,
'have YOU COME OUT with swords and clubs as against a robber?
53 while I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands of Mr;
but THIS HOUR AND THE POWER OF DARKNESS ARE YOURS.

i was struck, first, by the fact that Jesus used the second person as He begins speaking.
greek, similar to spanish, has both the normal or third person as well as the second.
the third is used for talking to someone you are not familiar with, or if familiar,
not close to...used much more frequently.
the second is the familiar, you might almost say, the intimate mode of address.
you only use this with someone who you are very close with, someone you
like very much, are intimate with, are very close friends with..like that.
and here Jesus uses it with those coming under cover of darkness,
and intent on doing harm to..on doing away with Him.

this flattened me..
it 'spoke' to me of the love that Jesus has for me
even when i am or have turned away from Him.
it spoke to me of the vast distance
that separates my heart from His
when it comes to His command
to imitate Him.

the next impression was more like whiplash.
ok, Jesus is letting them know He highly esteems these men
who are coming to do Him in.
then come the thunderous impact of the next words:
'but this is to you the hour and the POWER (exUsEa) of DARKNESS.'
He's letting them know He loves them
by using the second person
by telling them, but enigmatically, that they are on the wrong side
of things. (He'll keep drawing them to Him by His total lack of
condemnation...by returning good to them with hints of who He is
ie. He had just healed the slave of the high priest's ear.
...hoping they had been listening to what He said about darkness,
what His followers already knew/believed..

john 1.5 in Him was life and the life was the light of men.
and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not (overpower) it.
3.19 and this is the judgment,
that light is come into the world,
and men loved the darkness rather than the light;
for their deeds were evil.
8.12and again Jesus spoke to them..
'I am the light of the world;
he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness,
but shall have the light of life.
12.35 Jesus...said to them,
for a little while longer the light is among you.
walk while you have the light,
that darkness may not overtake you'
he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

the exUsEa they were acting under was a false authority,
'swiped' from God, who allowed it to bring glory to Himself,
God's own authority as Creator over creation,
as Redeemer over those He bought out of slavery to sin.

acts 26.18 (the risen Jesus' commission to saul/paul..
'to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light
and from the dominion (exUsEa...stolen from God) of satan to God,
in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins
and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith
in Me.

O Lord help me to realize that i don't wrestle against people
but satan.
help me SUBMIT myself to You
RESIST and
STAND FIRM for You.