John 18:1-14

08/29/10
John 18:1-14
Hudson UMC

The time for talk is over. The beginning of the end has come. There is no more time for Jesus to teach His disciples. Up until this moment, there has always been more time, but now the time is gone. It is hard for us to grasp the idea that there would come a time where there is no more time. It is part of the reason that many of us fear death; we are brought face to face with the reality that, in spite of the fact that we have always had possibilities for the future, all of our possibilities will eventually come to an end. If the disciples believed, as it seems they did, that Jesus was going to be their political savior and overturn the Romans in order to establish a new, independent state of Israel, they very well would not have even begun to understand that their time with their master was coming to an end, but this is precisely what was happening.

It is believed that the earthly ministry of Christ, from His baptism to His crucifixion was approximately three years. These twelve men, including Judas, not to mention the women we are told were also with them, had followed Jesus for three full years, hearing the incredible teaching and witnessing the mighty acts of healing on all manner of people. And yet, the one that they were following was going to be taken away and executed. If nothing else, it would surely seem as though the one who seemed to be in control all those times that the people tried to capture Him and failed is finally no longer in control.

However, this is not the case. If there is one thing that we should gather from John’s account of the betrayal of Jesus, it is that Jesus is always in control. Things do not ever simply happen to Him, but He is able to stop them, even when He chooses not to. Earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus told the people that nobody takes His life from Him but that He has the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again. It is in this chapter that we get to see that He really means it. It is true that Jesus is taken away, questioned by the leaders, and then put to death, but at no point is Jesus ever out of control, but knows exactly what is happening and allowing it to happen.

This kind of control amazes us and makes us feel uncomfortable because it is so very much unlike control as we and others use control. For most of us, if we found ourselves in danger and were in absolute control of the situation, we would stop the danger from coming to pass, we would assert our dominance over those who would seek to do us harm and we would laugh in the face of those who would dare to oppose us. Why wouldn’t we do this? Why would we even begin to think about suffering the evil of others if we were had the power to prevent it? This is what we think that Jesus would do. We would expect Jesus to prevent the cross, but that is precisely what He does not do. He allows the evil of humanity to rise to its highest heights and does something that only God can do; He takes the real evil of human beings and uses it for His holy purposes, the forgiveness of sins and the re-creation of the world.

But let us look at what actually happens in this scene, so we can understand the sheer control that Jesus has over His enemies. “After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples.” This, according to the thinking of the world, is Jesus’ first mistake. If there was reason to believe that He was going to be betrayed that night, why in the world would He have gone to a place where He and His disciples went all the time? It is the perfect place to find Him if someone was looking for Him, and this is exactly what happened. If Jesus had not gone to that place, Judas would not have found Him there. Jesus has not struck us as naïve before, so we cannot think that He was unaware of the danger He was walking into, but He did it anyway. Danger did not spring upon Him by surprise. He deliberately went to confront it.

“So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.” If we just read this and don’t have a hint from the historical context, we will miss the sheer amazing nature of this statement. The word translated here as “detachment of soldiers” is the word that is consistently used in Greek to refer to the “cohort.” At the very least, this word would have referred to a group of two hundred soldiers but most often referred to a group of six hundred. So Judas has brought out several hundred trained, disciplined Roman soldiers, along with the official Jewish police from the religious authorities, all of whom are armed. Think about what a sight this must have been. Hundreds of people, a small army has been sent to arrest someone, but whom have they come to arrest? A dangerous criminal? No. Someone who has exhibited violent tendencies in the past? No. They are going to arrest a Rabbi, a teacher. It is not as though it would have taken this many people, even if we include His somewhat impulsive band of followers. After all, they had no military training, they were just a ragtag group of fishermen, tax collectors, and others who were at the bottom of their society.

Keep this image of this huge group of people who have come to get Jesus in your mind, because it makes what follows even more amazing. “Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to Him,” remember How Jesus is completely aware and in control of the situation, “came forward and asked them, ‘Whom are you looking for?’ They answered, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus replied, ‘I am he.’ Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.” Literally, Jesus’ response is not “I am he,” but simply “I am.” That might not sound like a big difference, but it is very significant. In the Old Testament, when Moses asked God what His name was, the answer was a word that, in Hebrew, meant “I am who I am,” but also carried with it the idea of “I will be who I will be.” This word, which so powerfully expressed the essence of God, the one who truly exists and whose existence does not depend on anything or anyone else like ours does, was considered to be so holy that people refused to say it out loud. The point is that, when Jesus says “I am,” He does not use the ordinary phrase, but one that is intensified, one that would have been understood to be His taking the divine name upon His own lips. Every time Jesus has said “I am,” in John, it has been this powerful phrase. Jesus is not just saying that He is the one they are looking for, but He is declaring that He is the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who spoke from the burning bush.

“When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they stepped back and fell to the ground.” When Jesus responds with the name of God, not as a blasphemer, not as one who uses the name of God as a curse, but as the one who bears it rightly because it is indeed who He is, it quite literally knocks the people over. But who are the people who fall to the ground? Weak willed peasants who are easily impressed? No, they were Roman soldiers, trained and strong. Not only that, but they are not Jewish, which means they would not have been in awe at the name of God being spoken to them, but they were knocked down, nonetheless. The very power of the presence of God was enough to take all the strength out of these skeptical professional soldiers. Hundreds of armed men were overcome with nothing more than a word from the mouth of this poor traveling preacher.

“Again he asked them, ‘Whom are you looking for?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.’” Look at the control that Jesus has here! He has demonstrated quite clearly that He has more power in a word from His mouth than this entire cohort of Roman soldiers. Nobody is pushing Him into anything. Nothing is happening to Him that He did not foresee and welcome. Even when His mere presence overpowers His captors, He reminds them of their business. He doesn’t say, “See how I can knock you over with nothing more than a word? Perhaps you should think twice about arresting me because I am more than a match for you.” Instead, He reminds them that they are there to arrest Him and take Him to the religious and secular leaders. He did not run away, hiding from those He had left in confusion, but entered as fully as possible into the danger that faced Him. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing.

However, not all of His followers knew exactly what He was doing. “Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus.” Peter did what most people in his situation would have done. He saw His master being attacked and mistreated and so he was going to fight. In the face of danger, Peter’s response was natural. He was not going to be pushed around; he was going to fight and resist, even if it meant that he would be killed. So far, he is keeping his promise that he had made, that he would stand strong, even if everyone else abandoned Jesus. Remember this because next week we will see that, in the very next passage, Peter denies the one he was so bold to defend here. Peter wants to defend Jesus by worldly means. The problem with this is that he presupposes two things; that Jesus needs to be defended in the first place and that this defense can be achieved by violence. Neither of these is the case.

“Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’ So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him.” Now Jesus is being taken out to be tried. Now the Lord of the universe is going to be interrogated by human beings. The first step is to be taken to the religious authorities. “First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.” Jesus was brought to the one person who should have understood the work of God in their midst. If even the high priest does not recognize God when he sees Him, how much trouble are the people in?

But in any case, we need to remember where we have heard the name of Caiaphas before because John felt it was important to remind us. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and the leaders were getting particularly excited about this troublemaker, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, suggested that they capture Him and put Him to death because it is better for one person to die than to put the whole nation in danger. We read that, even though Caiaphas did not realize he was saying it, he was speaking the very truth of God, because Jesus was going to die, not just on behalf of the nation of Israel but on behalf of the entire world. The time for that amazing act to take place had come.

So, in light of these events, these dramatic times two thousand years ago, how should we live? Do these things actually have anything to say to you and me in modern America? Indeed they do. We need to remember that, when we look at the big picture, the center of the universe is Jerusalem two thousand years ago. Everything that happens in all of creation looks to that point for its meaning. At that particular time and in that particular place, the Son of God was betrayed by a human being, who had seemed to be one of His best friends. He had willingly walked into danger and suffering, while protecting those who belonged to Him. He showed us just how powerful He really is in the midst of this difficult time.

If Jesus were nothing more than a great human teacher, this passage would simply give us a profound example of compassion and courage in the face of death. However, Jesus is not just a man who lived once upon a time and has been dead and gone for millennia. Instead, Jesus is the risen Lord, who is alive today and forevermore and we are able to meet Him in our daily lives. And He is the very same Jesus now as He was then. He is no less powerful, no less courageous, no less in absolute control than He was then. It is true that this control looks a little different than we might expect. Just as Jesus does not prevent the crucifixion, He does not prevent other events that we might think He should. And yet, even though these things are not prevented, we are not presented with a Jesus who is overcome by those events, but one who maintains His sovereignty, even while suffering and dying.

The power of God is not like the power of human beings. We have seen over the years that, when human beings get power, they tend to use it in a selfish way, protecting themselves and getting themselves more power at the expense of others. This is not the power that we see in Jesus. We see an incredible power of suffering love, a power that is not afraid of the brokenness of this world and life, but a power that, through suffering, death and resurrection, proves itself to be stronger than the greatest fears that we have.

We live in a country where, thanks be to God, there is not much persecution for our faith. Sure, some people have been convinced that faith in God is intellectually shallow, some are prepared to make fun of the kid in school who talks about actually liking church, but it is not like in other places where people are attacked and cruelly treated because of their faith in Christ. Because our lives are not in danger every time we meet together to praise the Lord, we might forget how amazing it is that God has endured all these hardships on our behalf and in our place. And yet, the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ reminds us that God is not overcome by human cruelty, but stands strong above the worst treatment that we can ever imagine. Even though we may not ever have to experience that in this country and at this time, surely the God who can overcome such evil can give us strength to live in this world with confidence and joy in spite of the fact that things don’t always go so well. This Jesus that we see in the Gospels reminds us of what really matters, fills us with joy and gives us an inward drive to go forth and share what we have received with the rest of the world. Jesus does not just offer us some wise teaching or some ethical code where doing more good than bad is all that is asked of us, but takes our place in our relationship with God, offering what we never could. Let us give thanks to God and allow Him to fill us with the passion, the excitement and the joy that He is and let the Holy Spirit fill this place and transform us. Let us pray.

AMEN