Many people call this passage the holy of holies passage. This is the time we see that Jesus is arrested and crucified. It is a time of deep grief for Jesus' disciples.
READ John 18:1-3
The word Kidron may have to do with Cedar trees but the word actually means dark or black. You can read in 2 Chronicles that this was the place where the priests when they cleansed the temple, they took anything that was unclean, and dumped it in the Kidron Valley.
They went into the Olive grove. Many think there was the Olive Press there. The purpose of the Olive Press is to crush the olive, remove the oil and the oil was used for various purposes. Even today we get much of the oil from the Mediterranean area, the Middle East.
Oil in Scripture is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. So we have all of these images joining together. Jesus is about to be crushed that the Holy Spirit can be released on us. He had told the disciples that it was good that He went away then He would send the Holy Spirit. But before that He Himself had to crushed for our iniquities and bruised for our sins.
Now Judas who betrayed him knew the place because they had often met there. So Judas came to the grove guiding the soldiers and some officials from the chief priests carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Judas used his knowledge of Jesus and the disciples' behavior to lead a contingent of soldiers against him.
The contradiction of this passage is quite obvious. John is making a point. These people come out and there is a contingent. They come out with torches and knives and wearing armor; they were ready to go to battle to arrest the Prince of Peace! Contingent -- the word there in the Greek is normally used for 600 soldiers. Sometimes it might even refer to 200. But you have a minimum of several hundred soldiers coming out. In addition to that the soldiers were coming from the temple guard, who were trained in military service. They were also armed. So we may have as many as a thousand people to arrest Jesus!
We also see an element here of Judas' leadership. I have heard people talking to their children about leadership, as they raise them. They say if you get a group of people to do something that makes you a leader. That is what Judas did. I do not know about you, but I do not want to be that kind of a leader. There is a kind of leadership that is not good, and leadership for the sake of leadership is something we should not pursue. Instead as followers of Jesus, we should be pursuing servanthood. And as we serve, God will raise us up to positions of leadership! And it will be a servant-leadership.
Verse 4, Jesus knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out asked them, "Who do you want?" They said, "Jesus of Nazareth." He said, "I am He."
Something that we may miss here in the language -- the word here is ego emi, I AM. If you follow through the Gospel of John, there are about 20 "I AM" statements. And just in this passage alone, we have four of those.
Jesus says here I AM. He is stating from what was said in the burning bush from Exodus 3, as God is speaking to Moses, where God says, I AM THAT I AM. And how do they respond? The soldiers took a step back and fell down. We do not know if it is all of them, but I imagine it is about 1000 of them, because it says "they." The Word of God is powerful.
As the soldiers fell, Judas too was one among them. By the way, in some churches they promote falling down. This is an example of where at the Word of God, people fell down. Why? Because they were in rebellion against God! They were coming out to fight against Jesus.
Look at other examples where people fell down. Some people tell about Saul, who fell down and began to prophesy. Was Saul obedient to God? It is an important question we need to ask. If you want to fall down or have a ministry of falling down, please keep these things in mind. There is also Annanias and Saphira who fell down and died by the power of the Spirit. Keep these things in mind.
Later again Jesus asks in verse 7, "Who is it that you want?" My guess is like this -- this time they are saying, "Je..Je..Jee..sus of Nazareth." And He said, "I told you I am He, therefore let these go." And He did that to fulfill the prophecy that said, none of His would be lost.
Verse 9: 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.)
Peter is not a soldier. He is a fisherman and did not know how to use a sword. Maybe he is using it like he is casting a line. He probably wanted to cut the guy's neck and he missed, and he cut off his ear. Jesus asked Peter to put the sword back. And the last miracle of Jesus before His crucifixion is healing a mess that his disciple creates.
Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels. Synoptic means to view together. So Matthew, Mark and Luke pretty much view things the same way, follow the same chronology. But the Gospel of John is not like that. The whole first chapter that you see in John, you do not see it in other Gospels. Chapter two, the changing of water to wine is not in other gospels or chapter three the meeting of Nicodemus is not in other Gospels and so on. But chapters 18 and 19 are almost exactly what you find in other Gospels too.
Now we are moving into a section which is very synoptic. It seems that John felt that there are things that the other Gospel writers left out that he felt were very important and so he wrote a very different Gospel. But when it comes to His arrest and crucifixion, the details are the same, except for the arrest part where Jesus says, I AM and the soldiers fall back.
So Jesus puts the ear back and says, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
In the other Gospels, Jesus continues to tell Peter, "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword." John is not telling us all that. He is focusing on Jesus, willfully choosing to go to the Cross! If He had chosen not to, He could have chosen not to. He is willingly allowing these men to arrest Him. He did not had to; He had the power of His own word, which He could have said. I love the way one of the pastors from California, Greg Lorry put it this way: Jesus could have said, "I AM" and you are not. And the whole crowd that came to arrest Him would have disappeared! He spoke the universe into existence, He could have spoken these soldiers out of existence. For Jesus being arrested is something that He did not allow to be happened. He willingly chose to allow Himself to be arrested."
The cup in the OT is often mentioned as the cup of God's wrath. And you look at the promises to Abraham, as God is speaking He says, "...because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." There is a measuring cup that God has for every nation and every time there is a rape, there is a drop that goes into the cup. Every time a child is abused, there is a drop. Every time someone is kidnapped or thievery or hurt or injured or abortion, there is a drop that goes into the cup. When that cup is full, it begins to overflow and God pours it out as His wrath on the nation. But it seems that the cup of God's wrath is something that Jesus is taking upon Himself, so that the wrath that we deserved, that should be poured upon us, is now going to be poured upon Jesus! So Jesus says, "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"
READ John 18:12 -14
There are two high priests at this time, which is a little strange. The high priest is supposed to serve till he dies and then there is a successor.
1. You do not replace the high priest, while he is still living.
2. Even if the high priest is incapacitated, he is still the high priest and you do not have two high priests.
So why are there two? There are two, because the Romans wanted to determine who would be the one, because it was a position of political power. They felt they could deal with Caiaphas so they appointed him as the high priest. But Annas was the high priest according to the priestly order. So the Jews take Jesus first to Annas because they have to get his approval as he was still their spiritual leader.
They are going to a judgment. But according to the Jewish law, it was illegal to bring a person to trial at night. Simon Peter and another disciple, possibly John were following Jesus. John went with Jesus right into the high priest courtyard, and Peter felt uncomfortable. Everyone probably knew that John was a disciple, but Peter did not feel comfortable hanging around there. So he stays outside the gate. The other disciple who was known to the high priest came back, spoke to the girl and brought Peter in. "You are not one of them, are you?" The girl at the door knew that John was one of the disciples but she must have thought about Peter, maybe as he is John's buddy, he too is a disciple. But what does Peter say? "I am not." "It was cold." Anything that is said in the Gospel of John is not an accident. If he said it was night, he meant something. Now he is saying it was cold. You have to imagine the inside of Peter's heart. Where was it this time?
READ verse 18-20.
Jesus is actually asking the high priest to follow the law. They are not supposed to question the one who has been accused to speak against themselves. He is actually instructing the high priest a proper court etiquette. He and the high priest both know how this is supposed to be handled and they both know that it is not being handled according to the Law.
READ verse 22-23
No decision is made. They just hit Him and send Him to Caiaphas the high priest.
READ verse 25-27
Jesus earlier had said I AM. Here Peter is saying I am not. If it were ever true, it is true now when he is saying it, distancing himself from Christ in more ways than one.
Literary irony. Irony means where something happens where you do not expect it to happen and that is ironic. In Literature, irony means you as the reader know something that the people in the story do not know.
As we read this we know that Jesus had already said that before the cock crows he would deny him three times. So we know that Peter is fulfilling prophecy.
READ verse 28-29
They are breaking the Law by arresting Jesus at night and by trying Him in court in the middle of the night, but they go to Pilate, and they do not want to step inside because that would be breaking the Law. Imagine what it is like for Pilate. Pilate is inside the palace. These people he has to rule over call him and the Pilate has to come outside because they are not willing to come inside. If you were Pilate how would you feel? Being waked up early in the morning and that he needs to come out because he is a dirty gentile? That is the situation for Pilate.
Pilate comes out and asks what is the accusation against this man?
READ verse 29-38
Even in a situation where Jesus was being tried, He was trying to reach out to Pilate, trying to encourage him to listen to the truth, because He knew, "If you know the truth, the truth will set you free." Jesus wanted Pilate to be free. And Pilate in his cynical attitude says, "What is truth?"
We know that Jesus was talking to his disciples, John 14:7 -- I am the way, the truth and the life. Truth is standing right there in front of him. Truth personified is right there. What an emblem of us? We can stand before Him, the truth Himself, and we cannot come to the knowledge of truth. It is like Paul said, "Ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of truth." May that not be said of us. We become so academic and never grasp the truth.
READ verse 39-40
Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion. Another irony here. Bar -- is the local word for son, and abbas -- abba means father. So, it is son of the father, a type of anti-Christ. So they do not want Christ, instead a murderer, a rebel, and a thief.
Sometimes we do not want to follow Jesus, but something else. We will serve a thief and a murderer rather than serving the Lord Most High, and may God help us.
