Year 2, Day 266: John 18

Jesus Is In Control

I’m going to begin my reflections on John 18 by talking about the note that John gives us about the familiarity of Jesus, His disciples, and the Kidron valley.  Jesus is to be arrested.  Yet, He goes someplace familiar.

I’ve got two thoughts about this today.  First, how many of us would have the courage to go somewhere familiar when we know trouble is coming?  Jesus knows Judas is looking to hand Him over.  In fact, remember that in John 13 Jesus tells Judas to go and do what he has to do quickly.  The fact that Jesus goes to a place that He is familiar tells us that He wants to make Judas’ plan easy to accomplish.  Jesus is in control of this situation, not Judas.

For the record, this is why I absolutely loathe the translation of “betrayed” when talking about Judas’ work.  Yes, Judas is guilty for handing Jesus over.  Judas is guilty for trying to force His own agenda upon Jesus’ work.  But when we speak of betrayal we often give the impression that this is against God’s agenda.  God sent Jesus to die on the cross.  Therefore, I believe it is more proper to translate the Greek with what the Greek word actually means, which is “to hand over.”  Judas hands Jesus over – that’s the sin which Judas is guilty of doing.

My second thought with respect to the familiarity of the garden is that Jesus is thinking about His disciples.  In hard times, familiarity allows us to deal with stress.  Jesus knows that his disciples will flee, and Jesus sets them up to be able to flee with ease by taking them someplace familiar.  Jesus is demonstrating an incredible amount of compassion by taking His disciples to a familiar place when He knows the strife that they are about to endure.

Silence Of The Lamb

Then they come out to arrest Jesus.  Jesus goes without argument.  He owns up to His identity.  The plan of God is being fulfilled.  Well … that is … the plan of God is being fulfilled until Peter acts.  Peter draws His sword.  He still doesn’t get it.  And why should He?  The crucifixion is an event that can only be understood after experiencing the resurrection!

Jesus rebukes Peter.  Notice that Jesus doesn’t rebuke Judas, but Jesus does rebuke Peter.  Judas is guilty of handing over Jesus, but Peter is guilty of trying to stop the plan of God from happening!  Jesus asks Peter if he would keep Jesus from doing the work of God!  However, Judas is guilty of knowing what He is doing; Peter is guilty of acting out of his lack of understanding.  Peter’s mistake is still a mistake, but it is far more understandable than Judas’ mistake.

Jesus is arrested.  He is brought before the Jewish leaders.  Peter and another disciple follow Jesus.  Peter ends up denying his Lord three times.  The life of the disciples begins to unravel.  Suddenly the teachings of Jesus take on a seriousness note of reality.  It makes sense that Peter would go into denial.  It’s not particularly right – but again, it is understandable.

Within the courtyard of the high priest, Jesus is fairly blunt.  Jesus tells them that He has taught publically in the courtyards and among the Jewish leaders.  This is not a lie.  Yes, Jesus did teach His disciples privately.  But Jesus also taught publically in parables as well as by doing various miracles.  He did not hide His agenda.  He did not work subversively from behind the scenes.  Jesus’ agenda was plain. That’s actually why He is arrested.  Had Jesus worked more subversively, the Jewish leaders might not have known so much about Him!

Jesus is taken before Pilate.  Notice the Jewish leader’s response.  They can punish their own criminals, but they cannot use capital punishments.  There is no reason to involve Pilate unless they were pursuing the death penalty.  They didn’t bring Jesus to Pilate to judge Him.  They brought Jesus to Pilate to kill Him.

Before Pilate, Jesus makes many neat statements.  Today I’m going to focus on Jesus’ statement about His purpose.  Jesus came into this world to bear witness to truth.  The question is, “What truth?”

Jesus came into the world to bear witness to God’s glory and humanity’s sin.  Jesus came to this earth so that we might genuinely understand the difference between the nature of God and the nature of humanity.  Jesus came to die in order to reconcile the differences between those two natures.

Why does the world hate Jesus and those who follow Him?  Jesus bears witness to the truth.  Jesus bears witness to the sinfulness of humanity.  Jesus bears witness to our inner self-monger.  Jesus bears witness to our need of God.  That is truth.  We can embrace it – embrace Him – or reject truth.

<><