This Lenten season we are talking about Jesus' journey from death to life. After Jesus’ time with the disciples in the upper room, He prayed His High Priestly prayer and as Rob spoke about last Sunday. Jesus was praying for unity, indwelling of the Spirit, joy, glory, giving and salvation for those who come to believe in Him. All of His prayers are woven together and are anchored in the love of God. His prayer revealed the profound extent of His love for His disciples and for the world. In this next chapter we see what Jesus was willing to go through just to make that love a reality for us. Let’s turn to:
John 18:1-12
1 After Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley, where they entered a garden. 2 Now Judas His betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His disciples. 3 So Judas brought a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. They arrived at the garden carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons.
4 Jesus, knowing all that was coming upon Him, stepped forward and asked them, “Whom are you seeking?”
5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. Jesus said, “I am He.” And Judas His betrayer was standing there with them. 6 When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 So He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?”“Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.
8 “I told you that I am He,” Jesus replied. “So if you are looking for Me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word He had spoken: “I have not lost one of those You have given Me.”
10 Then Simon Peter drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. 11“Put your sword back in its sheath!” Jesus said to Peter. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?” 12 Then the band of soldiers, with its commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him.
After Jesus and His disciples had celebrated the Passover and after He prayed the high priestly prayer for Himself, the disciples, and for those who would become His disciples, they crossed over the Kidron Valley and entered the Garden of Gethsemane. The Kidron Valley and Garden of Gethsemane were two places that were rich in historical and theological meaning to the reader. In fact John’s gospel is full of OT references from the very first verses. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word” - referring back to God’s pre-existence before time began. He was testifying about Jesus’ life from eternity past till He came to dwell among men as the Light and Redeemer of the world.
And in His journey from death to life, we see Jesus:
Cross the Valley
In the Garden
In God’s Will
In John 18:1, we see Jesus:
1. Cross the Valley
The Kidron River in the Kidron Valley got its name from the Hebrew word, cedron which means dark or murky. This described the waters that flowed from Kidron all the way to the Dead Sea. The location, which is near the East Gate of Jerusalem, is associated in the Scriptures with sorrow, the final judgment, and death. We know each year on Passover, blood from the passover sacrifices would be running down the valley into the Kidron River, turning the water red as it was mixed with the blood of the sacrificed animals. Josephus recorded that at some Passovers the Jews had slaughtered up to 15,000 lambs in one day. Each year the priests took the blood and poured it out over the alter and that blood flowed from the Temple down into the Kidron.
Kidron Valley, also called the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:2; Rev 14:14-20) which means, “God has judged” speaks of God’s judgment on sin. Each year Israel brought animal sacrifices to pronounce judgment on their own sins and to pay or atone for their sins through the blood of these animals.
The cost for sin was staggering and John recorded in chapter 18:1 how Jesus crossed over this same valley, knowing that very soon, He would be sacrificed and that His own blood would be poured out for the sins of the world. But when Jesus crossed the Kidron valley, His intent was to pronounce judgment on sin and then to pay for the sins of the world with His once and for all sacrifice. In the last days, the OT tells us that when the Lord returns, He will gather all the nations into the Kidron Valley and bring judgment upon those who rejected His perfect (Joel 3:14).
(2 Sam 15), 1100 years before Christ we read how King David crossed over the Kidron when he was fleeing from his son Absalom. The Scriptures record that he “went up the slope of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went” (2 Sam 15:30). To make matters worse, David was then told that Ahithophel, his close friend & trusted advisor had betrayed him. It was on this occasion that David wrote Psalm 41, where he said, “He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.” This is the same verse that Jesus quoted just hours before crossing the Kidron, during the Last Supper, when he predicted that one of His own disciples would betray him. This valley of Kidron was also called the valley of decision.
Jesus knew what was coming in this next part of His journey but made the decision to go through the valley of darkness, despair, and death, the valley of judgment, this valley of decision to bear the sin of the world upon Himself. After crossing the Kidron, we see Jesus:
2. In the Garden
Gethsemane comes from the Aremaic word semane and in both Hebrew and Aremaic the word is translated “olive press” suggesting there was an olive press in this garden. Back then, in order to extract all of the oil out of the olives they had to be crushed 3 times and each time a greater weight would be added. That olive oil was used to light the Temple, to bring healing and for cleansing. We see in the passage that the Garden of Gethsemane was the place where Jesus would regularly come to spend time with His disciples as a place of rest, communion, and fellowship.
It’s interesting to note the parallel of this Garden, the last place Jesus was with His disciples, to the first Garden, at the very beginning of time where God walked with Adam and Eve. The Garden of Eden - a place of perfect fellowship, life, peace and communion with God. The garden represented the way life ought to be. But the serpent, the enemy of God and humankind, tempted Adam and Eve to enter into sin. This decision took Adam and Eve on a journey from life to death, destroying the perfect fellowship they had with God - distorting the way life ought to be. Yet as Adam and Eve stood there in the garden, completely ashamed and defeated by their sin, God made a promise to them that one day a Savior would come to crush the head of the serpent and their relationship to God would be restored once and for all.
Now fast forward thousands of years later as we see that promise unfold with Jesus in Gethsemane - the place of the olive press. There is another parallel here, that just as the olives were crushed 3x in this garden, under great amounts of pressure and weight, we see Jesus in this garden praying 3x under the crushing weight placed on Him to accomplish His Father’s will. 2xs He prayed for the Father to remove the cup He was about to drink, but each time, He submitted to the Father’s will. It was in this garden that Jesus, the second Adam, would experience the weight of sorrow so that He could be used to crush the serpent’s head and restore the relationship between God and the first Adam.
Luke, a physician and writer of the third gospel, described the physical effects of that crushing as Jesus struggled to obediently accept the cup. He recorded, “Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.” In the garden, in the midst of unbearable agony, Jesus prayed more earnestly and overcame the final temptation because he would not let the world perish. But Jesus willingly chose to be crushed and poured out to be light, healing, and cleansing for the world.
Bishop Fulton Sheen said:
As Adam lost the heritage of union with God in a garden, so now Our Blessed Lord ushered in its restoration in a garden. Eden and Gethsemane were the two gardens around which revolved the fate of humanity. In Eden, Adam sinned; in Gethsemane, Christ took humanity's sin upon Himself.
It’s in the garden that Jesus met Judas who betrayed Him, the one who had been with Him, ministered with Him, followed Him, sat under His teachings, and witnessed His miracles. Yet after all that time with Jesus, his heart was never changed. Judas knew where Jesus would be and led the temple police and a cohort of Roman soldiers of considerable size (possibly 600 men) to the garden to arrest Jesus. They brought all these Roman soldiers, not because Jesus was dangerous or violent, but because they didn’t want to cause a riot. Remember, just a few days before, the people were welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with palm branches, shouting Hosanna - blessing and extolling Him.
From a human perspective, it looked like Jesus was being taken to the cross by forces outside his control. But in v. 4 we see that Jesus knew this was going to happen. He wasn’t a helpless victim or a courageous martyr, He is the Son of God who orchestrates every encounter and is in full control of the flow of events. Every step of Jesus’ journey to the cross was according to the plan and He was in control. When Judas came with the soldiers to the garden Jesus was waiting, He didn’t hide, He did not run. Instead, He stepped forward to meet this group and took charge of the situation asking: “Who are you looking for?” (Most likely addressing the captain of the Roman cohort.)
They respond in a belittling way saying they were looking for “Jesus a Nazarene.” They were looking for a popular rebel. Jesus replies with amazing authority and says: “I am He.” or “I Am” referring to His deity. When the soldiers heard this they fell backward - we don’t know if it was out of shock or from the power of His presence but it was clear, Jesus was no mere man, He was God in human flesh and He was in control of the engagement. In John 10 Jesus had said, “I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.” He meant it. No one could take His life - no armed band of soldiers or group of religious leaders. Jesus would lay down His life willingly for His sheep when He wanted to and He would take it back up when He wanted. As I read through this passage, it made me think that we have a Savior who is far more willing to save us than we are willing to be saved. Far more willing to change us than we are willing to be changed. Christ is just as willing to receive and pardon, as He was willing to be taken prisoner, to bleed, and to die.
While they were still on the ground Jesus asked them again “who are you looking for?” They responded the same way but Jesus told the soldiers in v. 8, “I am the one you want - you can let these others go.” We see Jesus’ shepherd’s heart here. He was fulfilling His prophetic prayer to His Father in John 17 - that He didn’t lose anyone whom the Father had given Him.
Jesus knew precisely what He was doing and nothing would stop Him from accomplishing His Father’s plan, nothing could stop Him from fulfilling every OT prophecy. Not even Peter who thought things were spiraling out of control and out of desperation drew his sword and wildly swung at Malchus, cutting off his ear. Jesus is like, “what are you doing, I don’t need your protection. Do you think swinging your weapon will accomplish anything? Have you noticed the cohort of Roman soldiers? Btw, if I wanted to stop this from happening I could have called down a legion of angels and ended it, but I must drink the cup that my Father gave me. Jesus was so focused on the goal that no one could stop Him, not the crowds, not the soldiers, not the suffering because Jesus was walking:
3. In God’s Will
in v. 11: Jesus said:
“Put your sword back in its sheath!” … “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”
What cup did His Father give Him? According to the Word, the “cup” can be filled with blessing and salvation (Ps 23:5, 116:13), or it can be filled with wrath and horror (Is 51:17; Ez 23:33). In this case in John 18 the cup represents God’s judgment and wrath.
He is alluding to these images in Scriptures of judgment and wrath, pain, suffering and distress. By going to the cross, he would drink the cup of God’s wrath, all the way to the dregs. In His humanity, He felt the weight of this and prayed more earnestly to His Father who had sent an Angel to comfort Him. Jesus was on the journey from death to life. He cared for His own and would eventually die for them and the whole world as He took the cup.
V. 12 says,
Then the band of soldiers, with its commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him.
This was the beginning of the end for Jesus - there would be no turning back. He would now be brought into the courtroom of men who would try and crucify Him.
When we read this historical event we can intellectually comprehend what happened, what Jesus did for us, our families, our neighbors, and for the whole world. We may be thankful and praise God for all He went through on our behalf but then we can just go on living our lives without being affected, challenged, or changed by this knowledge. How does this event even apply to us today 2,000 years later?
We will all come to the valley of Kidron, to the valley of decision, but in this “generation me” we tend not to focus on the goal of self-sacrifice or making decisions that will positively impact our peers or the next generation. Instead, we more often ask the question “how will these decisions impact me, my finances, my family, my future?” The journey from death to life is so counter-cultural, so revolutionary, revealing an up-side-down culture and kingdom but the difference is we know how this ends. This death and dying which is motivated by love, ends in life, peace, and joy.
In the Lenten guide that we are reading together as a church, it talks about the temptation to choose the way of self-promotion, pursuing recognition and the significant self, the idol of “greatness” instead of dying to the ways the world measures self-worth. As was brought out we can think we are climbing the mountain of success imagining that we are going up - up in public opinion only to realize that, to the same extent, life is ebbing away.
It would be easier for me to talk about the blessings and joy in our happy Christian journey to heaven, but life is more than this. For A.W. Tozer, the Spirit kept stirring him to press onto the deep things of God so that people would experience a deep Christian life. A lot of leadership books talk about having goals and resolve but I haven’t read many that talk about the goal of self-denial and a crucified life, exchanging the need to measure success so we can be freed to receive the immeasurable gift of life.
God will bring us to this valley and to this garden and the choice to die to self and seek His will instead is quite an intense struggle. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways so of course it will be a struggle but it’s in those times that God will strengthen us, it is in those times that we experience the deeper Christian life. What we go through is not just for us but for others as well.
Our goal as a church is to see people grow to the fullest measure God created us for in Christ. God wants us to lengthen our tents, extend our cords and deepen our tent pegs so others can come in and experience His life.
Jesus was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9) Paul said about Jesus’ followers:
For we who live are constantly being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies. So death works in us, but life in you (2 Cor 4:11.12).
I recently read a story about a man who had a heart transplant. He said that every day he wakes up with the awareness that the only reason He is alive today is because someone else died. Now he does not take one day for granted and lives each day with intentionality. He goal is to focus on what is most important in life and it wasn’t on what he owned or his career. Every day, he wanted His family to know how much he loved them.
But let’s move this story into the eternal realm.
What if we woke up every day realizing the only reason we are alive today, the only reason we have eternal life, hope, peace is because Jesus loved us enough to lay down His life for us so that we could live. That He has given us a new heart spiritually speaking, knowing this, how would we live each day of our life, what would we do with our time? Would we be willing to lay down our lives so that others can live? Would we want others to know that they could experience the love of God, that they could have a new heart? That our journey ends with life, hope, joy and peace?
