John 18:1-27
Good morning! Today we continue our series on the Book of John, taking up
the first part of Chapter 18. Over the past several weeks we have gone through
Jesus’ lengthy discourse to the disciples, preparing them for what was to come
– He would be leaving them, He would be returning, the Holy Spirit would come –
and He also spent time encouraging them, challenging them, and praying for
them. At the beginning of Jesus’ discourse, Jesus had sent Judas away, who
during this time was betraying Jesus, informing the Jewish authorities where
Jesus would be. With today’s passage, we move beyond this discourse to the
rapid unfolding of events that would lead in a short amount of time to Jesus’
death on a cross.
When
He had finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley
I’ve got so much I want to share with you – I could
literally spend the entire message on this verse. I’m going to cover as much as
I can, but I am going to move quickly, so hold onto your hats.
Keep this verse in mind, but also consider a sequence of
events that begins in 2 Samuel 15. This chapter involves the rebellion and
conspiracy by Absalom, one of David’s sons. I don’t have time to go through the
details of these chapters, but here is the essence: David was king in Jerusalem Jerusalem Kidron Valley and went up the other side to the Mount of Olives . David, too, was in anguish here.
A little later, in 2 Samuel 16, David was cursed by a man
from Saul’s family, filled with hatred, even pelting him with stones. One of
David’s men suggested they immediately kill this man, but David held back his
men, allowing the cursing of David to continue. David said, “Let him curse, for
the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and
restore to me His covenant blessing instead of His curse today.”
Jumping ahead to 2 Samuel 18, Absalom is killed – you may
remember this part of the story, he ends up being stuck in a tree by his long
hair. And then, when David is told of this, you get this perhaps surprising
reaction – rather than being glad or even just relieved, David’s response is
one of terrible grief. He weeps and says, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
I believe there are elements of this story that foreshadow
the events of our passage today. Just as David is betrayed by one of his
closest companions, so is Jesus. Just as another “leader,” one of David’s sons,
plots to overthrow and kill David, so do the Jewish leaders (who you could say
are some of Jesus’ “sons”) plot to kill Jesus. Just as David’s other companions
are shocked and grieved when told of this, so are Jesus’ companions shocked and
grieved when told that Jesus is going to die. Just as David and his companions
leave Jerusalem , going down into the Kidron
valley and then up the other side to the Mount of Olives ,
so do Jesus and His disciples go to the same place. Just as the crowds sided
with Absalom and turned against David, even though formerly they had loved
David, so, as we will see as we continue through John’s gospel, did the people
turn against Jesus and side with the Jewish leaders, the “sons” of Jesus.
Just as David was personally in anguish over these events
here in the garden on the Mount of Olives , so
was Jesus (although for different reasons). Actually John’s gospel does not
include the night in the garden where Jesus tells His disciples to stay awake
and pray but they fail and fall asleep, and where Jesus prays so intently that
He sweats great drops of blood. But they are part of the overall story of these
last hours of Jesus, and they are another parallel between the two sets of
events. As for the reasons – yes, they were different: David was anguished over
learning of his son’s treachery and the crowd’s decision to follow him. Jesus,
on the other hand, knew of Judas’ betrayal and the eventual betrayal of the
crowds; His anguish was over staying in His Father’s will despite the
unimaginable difficulty of doing so.
Just as David was in a powerful position to put an
immediate end to the cursing by the man from Saul’s family and yet restrained
from taking any action, so, even more so, was Jesus had infinitely more power
than needed to stop what was to come – the insults, the beatings, and
ultimately the crucifixion, yet He too stayed His hand and allowed them to
continue. Even as David acknowledged that “the Lord has told him to,” even more
so Jesus knew that it was God the Father’s will that these events happen, and
because of this He did not stop them.
But this is where the stories part ways. To me this is very
similar to how the foreshadowing of Abraham and Isaac to that of God the Father
and Jesus is similar – but only to a point. God did not allow Abraham to
sacrifice Isaac, for as it says in Genesis, “God will provide the offering.” As
for David, when Absalom dies David mourns, wishing that he could have died in
his place, but God does not allow this. David, although a “type” or
“foreshadowing” of Christ, is not the Messiah. It is not for David to die for
the sins of his “sons,” his people. That role is solely reserved for Jesus.
I don’t know about you, but I find these parallels very
powerful, especially since they take place in the same exact location!
Now I have a few more things to tell you about the Kidron Valley Temple and the garden
– also called the garden of Gethsemane – part way up the Mount
of Olives . I have some pictures of the Kidron
Valley and you can see the corner of
the Temple Temple
Also recall that one of the main things that happened at
the Temple Temple Temple , (Solomon’s Temple Kidron
Valley Temple Temple
We could also talk about the “water mixed with blood” when
Jesus prays in the garden, but we will never get past verse one!
But I have to say a little more – let me just say a little
about the name of the garden, not mentioned in John here but mentioned in other
gospels: Gethsemane. Gethsemane is a compound
word based on the two Hebrew words Gat and Shmanim, which taken together mean
the place where olive oil is pressed. At an olive press, olives in rough sacks
were stacked and a heavy beam was lowered onto the stack, causing so much
pressure that the oil would be pressed from the olives. The olives were
basically smeared together, and the oil would come from the smearing. This is
highly symbolic because even the word Messiah, in Hebrew Moshiach, literally
means “smeared with oil.” We tend to have the picture of anointing a king,
pouring from a bottle some high quality oil, and this is an entirely valid and
accurate picture as well, but Moshiach at its root means to do exactly what an
olive press does. And this is a perfect picture for Jesus, the Moshiach, the
anointed one, the one who was smeared like an olive. And all the way back in Gen.
28:16-18, olive oil is a picture of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And just
as you cannot have olive oil unless you press and smear the olive, so, as we
have seen Jesus explain these last few weeks to His disciples, if it were not
for Jesus becoming the one pressed like an olive, we would not be able to have
the continual presence of the Holy Spirit.
OK – moving on to verse 2!
Now Judas, who
betrayed Him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His
disciples. So
Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials
from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns
and weapons. – John 18:2-3
You understand there are no accidents here. I have to tell
you a short story about trapping a mouse. At the house we lived in before our
current house, we discovered we had a mouse in the house. Due to the certain
small things mice leave behind, we realized that the mouse was climbing into
our kitchen wastebasket at night. I used this fact to trap the mouse. For
another night or two I even purposely made sure there was a little food near
the wastebasket. Each following morning, the food was gone. Then the next night
I put down a trap with food, and sure enough, we caught the mouse. If that
mouse had had the ability to reason, I am sure it would have thought boy, those
people keep leaving food out at the same place! How clever I am to discover
this and exploit it to get food every night!
Do you realize that Judas thinks he is trapping Jesus, but
in reality, Jesus is the one in control? Remember John 10:17:-18 “The reason My
Father loves Me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again. No one
takes it from Me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” Judas is the mouse. He thinks he is so
clever, noticing that Jesus brings the disciples out to the same place on many
nights, but in reality, Jesus has done this so that at the place and time of
His choosing He would be arrested! I find this fascinating to think about.
Now this “detachment” of soldiers that had come with the
Jewish officials in Greek is speira,
a military term that possibly referred at this time to a 30th of a
legion which would be 200 men but more likely refers to a tenth of legion, or
about 600 men. Either way this was not a small group! They were well aware of
the popularity of Jesus and probably one reason they brought so many men is
that they wanted to be ready for any kind of mob action as they arrested Jesus.
Now they probably expected Jesus to hide in a dark place, and that would be one
reason for the many torches and lanterns (also simply to travel at night) but
as we will see, when they come to the group, Jesus will do nothing of the sort.
Jesus, knowing all
that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am He,” Jesus said. (And Judas the
traitor was standing there with them.) When
Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew
back and fell to the ground. – John 18:4-6
Now, the “He” isn’t actually there in the Greek. What Jesus literally said
was “I AM.” The name of God. The Name God tells Moses in the wilderness at the
burning bush. Jesus is the great “I AM.” Now you tell me how a trained Roman speira falls down when someone simply
speaks a word. Some extremely liberal commentators have suggested that they all
tripped and fell down like dominoes! I don’t think so.
Now why did this happen? I think it was for the Jews to know and the Roman
military to know and for Jesus’ disciples to know and for us to know that, even
in this moment, Jesus was absolutely in control of the situation. He had the
power to vaporize them, not just make them fall down. This event makes me think of Psalm 36:12:
“See how the evildoers lie fallen – thrown down, not able to rise!” But they
did rise, untangling themselves, no doubt bewildered by what happened. And
then…
Again He asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they
said. Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He. If you are looking for Me, then let these men
go.” This
happened so that the words He had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those You gave Me.
So part of the reason they all fell down was so that they would let the
disciples go. The Roman military, completely bewildered, remember that Jesus is
the one they are supposed to get anyway, and not sure what is going on, don’t
have a problem with this request. Jesus protects His own; they are not
arrested, flogged, or anything else. It is Jesus’ time, but it is not theirs;
they still have the world to spread the gospel to! The words quoted were given
just a little time earlier in John 17:12. And they were fulfilled physically
here but they were also fulfilled in a deeper sense spiritually in that the 11
disciples all did go on to love and worship God and share the good news. And I
believe the prophecy is also fulfilled in a deeper sense in that all that God
saves, all that repent and believe the gospel, will be with Christ in heaven.
He does not lose even one that God gives Him.
Then Simon Peter, who
had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his
right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I
not drink the cup the Father has given me?” – John 18:10-11
Oops. Peter seemingly almost got the disciples all arrested with that little
act! Yes, it was brave, but it was completely misguided. Peter doesn’t
understand at all that Jesus is in control and means to be arrested at this
place and at this point in time. Peter, also it seems, was either not a very
good aim, or Malchus just had good reflexes. But why attack Malchus at all?
He’s just the high priest’s servant. Did he mean to get the high priest? Or did
he just swing wildly at the whole group of them? For Peter’s sake, I’m kind of
glad they didn’t have cell phones that could take short videos back then. Talk
about a video that would have gone viral!
We know from the other gospels that Jesus restores Malchus’ ear. I guess
it’s ironic, or just sad, but it is true that even Peter is unable mess up Jesus’ plan at this moment. And before
you are too hard on Peter, ask yourself if you have ever had a Peter moment
like this. You may not be able to recall any such moment, when you “almost”
thwarted a moment when God was doing something, perhaps distracting someone
else when they were getting into a spiritual conversation with someone, or
something else, but isn’t it good to know that even as we go through our Peter
moments, God is in control and His will will
be done.
Then the detachment
of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They
bound Him and
brought Him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high
priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the
Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people. – John
18:12-14
So this large force of soldiers with accompanying officials binds Jesus. Do
you think those cords held Jesus? Certainly not! Yet Jesus allowed it to
happen. It was finally time for Jesus to fulfill the reason He came – to become
the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
This picture of Jesus willingly allowing Himself to be bound reminds me of
how in Genesis 22 Isaac allowed himself to be bound while Abraham prepared to
sacrifice him. I also think of the Messianic Psalm 118, which includes the
verse “the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” as well as
“the Lord is God, and He has made His light shine on us; with boughs in hand,
join in the festal procession (more literally, bind the festal sacrifice with
ropes) and take it to the horns of the altar.”
Jesus is brought to Annas. This was the first of three parts of Jesus’
religious trial. (Next week we will look at Jesus’ Roman trial.) Now who was
high priest – Annas or Caiaphas? According to the Law, there could be only one,
but the system had become horribly corrupted. From other documents it appears
that Annas was high priest during Jesus’ childhood but was then pressured to
step down by the Romans apparently because he caused some trouble for Rome Rome
wanted someone else, so the very rich and very powerful Annas gave money to one
of his relations who would bribe Rome Russia
Why was Annas so rich and powerful? Because his family basically ran the
entire sacrifice racket! His family was behind the exorbitant prices for
sacrificial animals and for money changing. You definitely had a conflict of
interest when the very people who declared an animal blemished or unblemished
profited from declaring them blemished, forcing people to buy animals outside
the temple! And as for the money changing, some estimates are that they charged
five times what was appropriate. Given the hundreds of thousands of sacrifices
that happened each year, you can see how rich they became. And given how Jesus
had overturned the tables where they ripped off the people, you can see how Annas
and his family had come to have a special hatred of Jesus.
Simon Peter and
another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the
high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait
outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came
back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. – John
18:15-16
So Peter had followed Jesus. Jesus had protected His
disciples back in the garden, but Peter had nearly undone everything and now
was following Jesus. Remember that Peter had promised to follow Jesus anywhere,
and Jesus had told him he would deny Christ three times before the rooster
crowed. I can imagine Peter thinking he was going to prove Jesus wrong, and really
follow Him, and so he went all the way to the courtyard, and then with the help
of the unnamed disciple, went all the way in.
“You aren’t one of
this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.”
It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had
made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself. – John
18:17-18
I’m not sure what Peter was expecting – to be questioned by the high priest
too? To defend Christ to the end? But what actually did Peter in was no such
grandiose encounter; it was a simple question by a lowly servant girl! Peter,
in momentary fear, was tested by the last person he might have suspected, and
he wasn’t ready. We never are, when we try to do things in our own strength!
And now Peter was stuck! He had made a lie, and now, if asked further, would
be forced to either continue to lie or reveal that he was a liar. He was
trapped. In a sense, he had lost the war before the battle had begun.
Meanwhile, the high
priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching. “I have spoken openly to the
world,” Jesus
replied. “I
always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together.
I said nothing in secret. Why question Me? Ask those who heard Me.
So much about this was corrupt, was illegal according to
Jewish Law! It was against Jewish Law to try anyone at night, yet here they
were. It was against Jewish Law to make a person testify against himself – kind
of similar to how we can “plead the fifth” yet that is exactly what they were
doing. It was against Jewish Law for the prosecutor to display emotion before
the judge; he was only to present facts – yet this was happening too. And it
was against Jewish Law to physically hurt the prisoner in any way – and yet
they slapped Him (and far more).
When Jesus said “Why question Me” and told them to talk to
witnesses, He was simply telling them to obey the Law. And yet they respond by
breaking the Law even further, showing emotion and striking Him. As for why
they broke the Law and questioned Jesus, it is because they didn’t really have
a valid case. They hoped they could trap Jesus, proving Him a true heretic or a
dangerous insurrectionist, the latter the best of all because then Rome
“If I said something
wrong,” Jesus
replied, “testify
as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike Me?” Then Annas sent Him bound
to Caiaphas the high priest. – John 18:23-24
Why did Annas pass Him along? In part because Caiaphas was the official high
priest, and so Annas was dependent on him for action. But I think also in part
because Jesus didn’t give Annas anything to hang Him with, and Annas was
essentially outmaneuvered by Jesus.
Meanwhile, Simon
Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one
of His disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.” One of the
high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off,
challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and
at that moment a rooster began to crow. – John 18:25-27
Peter, already having failed the little test by the servant
girl, continues to fail with the officials and servants there. Even a relative
of the man Peter had hacked menacingly suggested he had been there, and Peter
denied his relationship with Jesus a second and third time – and exactly as
Jesus had told him, it was before the rooster crowed. Immediately before! Peter
heard that rooster and knew he had failed to follow Jesus. He had denied Him
three times! His own strength, His own will was utterly useless for following
Christ.
Like a common device in modern books and movies, we have been flashing back
and forth between two scenes – the scene with Jesus in this farce of a trial,
and the scene with Peter in what unfortunately has turned out to be a farce of
loyalty to Christ. In Luke’s gospel we see the two scenes tied together – in
Luke 22:60, as Peter denies Christ the final time, it says that the Lord turned
and looked straight at Peter. Verse 61 says that Peter then remembered what
Jesus had told him, and in verse 62, it says that Peter went outside and wept
bitterly.
At this point in John we leave Peter behind – the focus is on Christ, His
mockeries of trials, His beatings and scourgings, His crucifixion, His death,
and then of course His resurrection. We will look at all of this in the coming
weeks.
Finally, after all this, John tells us the rest of the story about Peter. We
will look at this on the last week of this series, but I don’t want to leave
you with Peter weeping today. One of the very first things Jesus told His
disciples upon just meeting them was “Come, follow Me!” And as the resurrected
Jesus talks with a still broken Peter, broken over his triple denial of Jesus,
over his utter failure to literally follow Christ in his own strength, Jesus
again calls Peter and in John 21:19 tells him, “Follow Me!”
Learning to follow Christ is a bumpy road, not unlike the trek from Jerusalem through the Kidron valley on to the Mount of Olives . There are times we will fail, like
Peter, because we try to do it from a position of pride and through our own
strength. But Jesus is eager to restore us – He is only a prayer away. He is
eager to wipe away every tear, to remind us that He loves us, and even to
remind us that we still love Him. And then he calls us again, “Follow Me!” And
if you truly have put your faith and trust in Christ, you will follow Him;
ultimately He won’t allow any other outcome. As John records of the events of
Jesus in Gethsemane , Jesus fulfilled the words
I have not lost one of
those You gave Me. Jesus won’t lose me, and He won’t lose you. And we will
follow Him into an unimaginably beautiful future, forever.
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