WORDS

Never react with violence and wickedness

Even being abandoned by many, God never let us alone

08/01/2017

By: Bishop Jorge Pinheiro

Article by: Victor Correa

In Matthew 26.45, Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane and was about to be put in the hands of sinners, evil men who would practice violence against Him and curse Him even if He hadn`t done anything wrong. While He was praying for His life, the disciples slept. Unfortunately, many people also sleep, not the sleep of taking a nap, but the sleep of not to vigil because we live in a moment of remaining alert in prayers due to these evil days.

Those people arrested Jesus who was not violent. They used swords and batons and were in large scale because they were bad, evil, and violent. Jesus is love, mercy, compassion, helped so many people, but they evaluate wrongly the ones who preach God`s Word. Judas was at the head. The signal for them to know whom to arrest was a kiss, which symbolizes love and cherishing. Devil tries to distort everything and used the kiss as a signal of betraying.

Judas was false indeed. He greeted Jesus when his heart was evil, after receiving thirty coins, paid to deliver the Lord, approached as if he was His servant. Even knowing, Jesus called Judas as a friend. Men approached and beat the Lord, while Peter got the sword and cut off the ear of one of the aggressors. Jesus underwent an attitude of violence; they beat Him even being innocent. When Peter saw that, he reacted with violence alike. We can`t react violently against anyone. We may call the police to arrest the aggressor and he should face the consequences for his crime. We may not be vengeful and take the sword of justice in our own hands The one who does evil things against others, face the same condition himself. The world outside is different from us, who are not from the world but from God. Jesus reprimanded Peter and told him that his prison and punishment should take place. The Bible says that many people who talk about the Word would be put in the authorities’ hands and evil men`s hands to die. Jesus teaches love, cherishing, not evil and violence. After the prison of Jesus, the disciples ran away and Jesus became totally alone, taking men into account. It was necessary for Him to go through those moments of tribulations. The escape of those disciples testifies that we should count just on God in rough moments. Our confidence and hope must be in the Lord. Even if everyone abandons us, God never let us alone. We have to give good testimonial of this lesson, have a different reaction, not take the sword of justice ourselves, but behave as God`s children. We have to have the love of God in our heart to react as Jesus before evil.