Wednesday in the Word...John 18:1-11...Arrested but not busted!!!

Jesus would be "arrested" in this passage but He was not "busted."  The players of this scene come thinking they are in control but a careful reading shows us who is really in control and also leading into suffering.  We are in a time of suffering.  Are we leading?  Are we pointing to the One who has the ultimate plan in place for all time?  Does this current suffering make us think beyond the inconvenience of being "sheltered in place" to the place we will be for all eternity?  For God's children, it is to be more desired that what we have at the present.

Today's Wednesday in the Word covers John chapter 18 and verses 1 through 11, which read,

v.1 - When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden, in which He entered with His disciples.

Jesus has finished His prayer to the Father for Himself, His disciples, and all believers.  Jesus basically says, "Amen" and then "went forth."  This indicates that Jesus is leading His disciples to where they are going.  He is orchestrating their moves as He gets closer and closer to the cross.

On the east side of the city of Jerusalem is the East Gate and also the temple.  Between the east side and the Mount of Olives that He came over from Bethany on what we call Palm Sunday is a ravine called Kidron.  Sometimes and especially during the rainy season, a stream forms and therefore it is a good place for a garden to thrive.  The Gospels of Matthew and Mark call this garden "Gethsemane."  Jesus entered this garden so it gives the picture of a walled enclosure and a specific place.

v.2, 3 - Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples.  Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priest and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

We receive from John the information that this was a common place for Jesus and His disciples to gather.  "Let's meet at Gethsemane."  The Upper Room was not known by Judas Iscariot, only the two disciples Jesus sent to get the place ready, but this place was known by him.  This would be a good hunch of where Jesus might be after being in Jerusalem and heading back to Bethany for the night.

In Jerusalem is a Roman fortress that housed the Roman soldiers who would be in the city because of the Passover Festival.  They were there to keep the order of the swelling city.  Judas comes with them and also the officers who would be the temple guards.  This number could have been great descending down on an unarmed Jesus and His 11 disciples.  This was a night capture and therefore they have lanterns and torches.  They also came "packing" with weapons.  

v.4, 5 - So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?"  They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene."  He said to them, "I am He."  And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them.

Jesus not only knew all things that were coming upon Him but again He is leading by going forth and addressing the armed force before He is ever addressed.  Jesus is always leading.  He requests who they are coming to get.  They are not there to capture the disciples of Jesus but Jesus the Nazarene alone.

With this identification clarified then Jesus says, "I am He."  Remember all the "I AM" statements of Jesus.  Remember that this phrase is related all the way back to the burning bush and God saying to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."  Jesus is not only the man named Jesus from the region of Nazareth but He is also God.

v.6,7 - So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground.  Therefore He again asked them, "Whom to you seek?"  And they said, "Jesus the Nazarene."

When Jesus basically says, "I AM GOD" this would be a natural reaction of anyone to find yourself on the ground.  This is one of the supernatural events surrounding the cross that gives us insight of His control over the events that follow.  After they get up and brush off that Jerusalem dirt, Jesus asks them again about their intentions.  The answer is the same, "Jesus the Nazarene."  He is the only one they would take.  They saw His power manifested with no weapons but His spoken word and so they better just take the one they came for.  

v.8, 9 - Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way," to fulfill the word which He spoke, "Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one."

The eleven disciples would not be harmed by this mob.  They would scatter and be afraid but they would not be detained.  Jesus had just said these words to the Father in His prayer in chapter 17 and verse 12 which reads,

"While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled."

This made me really think.  So this is a fulfillment of what Jesus just said, a near prophecy, but also a fulfillment of a far prophecy given in the Psalms.  I learned this week of thinking about near and far prophecies like the sights on a gun barrel.  You have one near your eye and then another at the end of the barrel and you are looking beyond that to your target.  The near sight would be the far prophecies of Psalms 41:9 and 109:8.  The far sight would be the near prophecies of John 13:26, 27 and 17:12.  The target would be our present situation in chapter 18.  We line of the prophecies to see the fulfillment of God's plan.

v.10, 11 - Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave's name was Malchus.  So Jesus said to Peter, "Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?"

So much detail is given to us in these two verses.  The people of that day would have been able to find the high priest's slave named Malchus and ask him about his right ear.  The other gospel accounts tell us that Jesus put it back on his head and healed him instantly and gave a fuller scolding of Peter.  Peter was trying to write his own story when the story of God was being unfolded.  God's story didn't involve any little swords at this time.

The cup in the Old Testament was a picture of suffering and judgment.  One example would be Jeremiah chapter 25 and verses 15 and 16 which read,

For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.  They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them."

This cup, this suffering and judgment, Jesus would endure.  No little sword was going to get in the way.  It is just like His triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the criticism of the praise given to Him.  The religious leaders told Jesus to make them stop what they were saying.  But, it was prophesied that the Messiah would come into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey and it would be to praise.  Jesus response was that if the people didn't praise Him, for the Scriptures to be fulfilled, then the rocks would give the praise.  God's word will be fulfilled as He has said and no scheme of man was going to deter it.

The surety of God's plan even though it meant suffering and a cross also gives surety to our salvation.  Those who are truly converted can rest on what God has said in the Old Testament (the near sight), what Jesus has said in the New Testament (the far sight) and what has been said about our resurrection someday to be with Him (the target we are pointing at).  In that beautiful song, "In Christ Alone" is this line,

"No power of hell, no scheme of man, 

can ever pluck me from God's hand"

Even the arrest of Jesus brings the saved great comfort to know that He was and is and always will be in control of His will.

Pastor Adam