The Disciple Jesus
Loved Tells All!
John 18
Clip from The Hunt For Red October – Torpedoes in the water - “This is going to be close!”[i]
I love a good story. One of my favorite authors is Tom Clancy, whose first book, The Hunt For Red October, set the standard for a whole generation of action thriller. His books, typically, are huge, thick volumes, filled with incredible detail. After reading one of his books, you almost feel like you could climb into a sub and know what to do!
Some find his books a little too detailed – and I will admit that there are time when I feel like I have to push myself through some of the details about the inner working of an Apache Attack helicopter – but then you get to the end of the story, and the action begins to build, and by that time you find yourself mesmerized – I have stayed all night finishing some of his books! I couldn’t wait to read the next page.
In the biography of Jesus that we have been studying this summer, we have reached those pages. We are rapidly approaching the climax of the book, and the activity reaches a fever pitch in these last few chapters.
Jesus has shared the Passover meal with His disciples. During that meal, he took bread and wine, and forever gave them incredible meaning and importance as vivid reminders of His broken body and poured out blood. He has humbled Himself and washed the feet of His followers, He has warned them of His coming death, but promised them that He will not leave them alone, but that the Holy Spirit will come and live in them. As He led them from the Upper Room, He paused once and pointed out a grape vine, telling the disciples that they need to remain connected to Him to remain fruitful and alive. He stopped a second time, lifted up His face toward heaven, and prayed. He prayed that He would glorify the Father as He faced the last 12 hours of this earthly life, and He prayed for His followers then, and for His followers now.
And now, as Jesus led his disciples through the dark, quiet streets of Jerusalem, the silence belies the mounting fury of activity that is raging in the city. The pace of activity in the 18th chapter of John’s biography is rapid, and filled with tension and contrast. Let’s look at the primary characters, and their action.
In verse 1, we read, “When He finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it.” The Kidron Valley is located east of Jerusalem, between the city wall and the Mount of Olives. Through it runs the Kidron River. The name Kidron means “dark and gloomy” which may seem like a strange name for a creek, but the people of Israel called it that because in ancient days the blood that ran into it from the temple sacrifices often discolored the water. So Jesus walked through this dark valley, crossed over the dark waters to the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means, “Oil press.” It was in this grove of olive trees that there had been a press where olives had been put into the press for their oil.
The symbolism is amazing. Jesus was also being pressed at this time. The other biographers paint for us a picture of Jesus under extreme stress in these hours. He is torn between the most basic instinct of humanity – self-preservation, and the highest call of his divinity – obedience to the Father.
Human history began in a Garden, and the first sin of man was committed in that Garden. Adam disobeyed God and was cast our of that Garden, but Jesus, who Paul calls the Last Adam, was obedient as He went in this Garden. In that first Garden, the first Adam, through disobedience, brought sin and death on all humanity; but Jesus, in this Garden, by His obedience, brought righteousness and life to everyone who believes in Him. Jesus was obedient to the Father, “obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”
In the moments, maybe hours that they were in the Garden, Jesus asked his disciples to pray with Him, for Him, and for themselves, but they slept. Jesus knew what was coming. But he went to the Garden, through that Valley, into that pressure, out of obedience to the will of the Father. When Peter later tried to defend Him, Jesus corrected Him, and showed his determination by saying, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” He was obedient and submissive, even in the face of overwhelming difficulty, and He set an example for us to follow.
Verse 2 begins, “Now Judas.”
Judas had lived with and listened to Jesus for three years, but his familiarity had built nothing but contempt. He had seen the miracles, witnessed the compassion, and heard the words of Jesus, but they did not fit with his agenda. He had personal goals and plans that included the defeat of the Romans, and he had been certain that Jesus was the one to do the job – but he grew more and more frustrated as Jesus’ plans fit less and less with his own.
But his familiarity with Jesus had put him in a unique place. He was close enough to really hurt Him. He knew where Jesus would be – in the olive garden where he always went. He knew when He would be there – after the dinner. And He knew who Jesus was, so there would be no screw-up like at the Temple earlier in the week when the guards had tried to arrest Jesus and He had escaped.
Now through that same dark, gloomy valley comes a detachment of troops – between 200 and 600 men, armed with spears, swords and torches. They march into the garden, Judas leading the way. John tells us in verse 4 that Jesus went out to meet them, and presented himself to them. John says in verse 5 – “Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them.” When it came down to it, Judas was counted among Jesus’ enemies. He had no problem identifying Jesus – He made no attempt to hide! He had already determined that He was going to be obedient – He would not resist the Father’s will. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
A kiss was a way that a student showed respect to his rabbi, or teacher. It was a sign of devotion and respect. Jesus responded, according to Luke, with the question, “Judas, do you betray me with a kiss?” This was a terribly difficult time for Jesus, He knew what was coming, He knew the death that awaited Him, but I can’t help but believe that Judas’ betrayal had to hurt deeply.
While Judas had allowed contempt and disappointment to sour his relationship with Jesus, as their agendas clashed, Jesus loved Judas. They had shared so much. Judas had been entrusted with the financial resources of the group – he was, if you will, the treasurer – a member of the board, but now he became a traitor – turning his intimacy with Jesus to hatred.
And when people today allow their knowledge of and
familiarity with Jesus to breed contempt in their heart, it has to hurt Him
just as deeply. Truth be known, many of
us choose to be counted among the world far more often that we care to admit. We “kiss” Him on Sunday, but we hold Him in
contempt the rest of the week. We are
OK with Him as long as He seems to be doing things that are in line with our
agenda for life, but let things go wrong, and we get bitter. Judas came to Jesus with all the wrong
motives – He saw Jesus as the savior of the world – but saw no need for a
savior personally – a fatal mistake.
In verse 10, Peter appears on the scene. Seeing the threat to the Lord, Peter drew a sword, and attacked a servant of the High Priest named Malchus, cutting off His ear. In some ways, Peter’s actions are another act of rebellion against the will of God. When Jesus had once told the disciples that he was going to go to Jerusalem and die, Peter had said, “No, Lord, I won’t allow it.” To which Jesus had said, “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter was, in that moment, placing HIS agenda ahead of the Lord’s sovereign plans.
We need to remember that when we resist the will of God, we are in rebellion. Even if we think we know better…God knows best! Peter should have known that all this was coming – Jesus had told them just the night at dinner! While Jesus was submitting to the will of the Father, Peter was getting in the way of the Father’s will. At dinner he argued with Jesus about his loyalty and been told that he would deny Him three times. He talked when he should have been listening, and he had slept when he should have been in prayer. With that type of preparation, I don’t suppose its too surprising that he tried to handle things in his own power when times got tough!
Peter continued to work in his own strength after leaving the garden. I don’t know what he thought he was going to be able to do by following Jesus to the courtyard of the High Priest. There is a part of us that wants to admire Peter for his loyalty, but the fact is he put himself in a position where he was going to fail. What did Peter think he was going to accomplish there? Did he think he could somehow prevent Jesus death – a death that Jesus had already said he would accept and embrace? Whatever Peter’s reasons for going, his rebellion led to failure. He put himself in a position where he suffered perhaps his greatest defeat – denying publicly the Lord He had tried to defend earlier.
When we fight God’s plans, we set ourselves up for failure – our greatest defeat will be when we are in rebellion to God’s will. Peter’s rebellion did not lead to his destruction, he was still a child of God, a follower of Jesus, but he allowed his own will to block the Father’s will, and he ended up in defeat, weeping bitterly at his failure.
Finally, Jesus is brought before Pilate in verse 28. Pilate finds himself in a place that many in our society can relate to today. He is a person who has lots of questions, deep questions about who Jesus really is, and about the absolutes of life. As you read the interaction between Pilate and Jesus, and Pilate and the Jewish leaders, it is obvious that he was struggling with the issues.
The Jews wanted Jesus killed as a heretic, claiming to be the Messiah, the king of the Jews. Pilate wasn’t so sure. He had heard the stories about this man who could raise the dead and walk on water. Matthew tells us that Pilate’s wife had told him that to be careful with Jesus, because she had had a dream that warned her about Him. Pilate did everything he could to not have to make a decision about Jesus.
He tried to pass the decision off to Herod, but he didn’t want to deal with Jesus. He tried to have it both ways by having Jesus whipped and abused, hoping that would satisfy the Jews. But the circumstances would not allow Pilate the luxury of indecision. He had to make a decision. Would he give in to the building pressure around him, or stand for what he stated several times – that there was no cause for Jesus to be killed?
Then, in his desperate search to find a way out, he came up with an idea. He would simply not make a decision! He would wash his hands of the matter. If the Jews wanted to kill Jesus, then they could do it, but he was not going to be involved.
But his decision to give into the pressure of the masses resulted in the death of an innocent man. There was no way out. As a person of responsibility – the responsibility remained with him. By doing nothing, he chose to reject Jesus.
There are a lot of people today who are “Pilates”. They just want to wash their hands of this whole religious mess. They have deep questions, and they seek for answers, but when presented with the absolute truth of Jesus, they get uncomfortable – they don’t want to have to make a decision. The tragic, awful truth is that they end up in the same hell that Judas found himself in after rejecting Jesus directly. Acts 4:12 is clear – “there is salvation in no other, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved.” Pilate asked, “What is truth?” The truth is this – whether you reject Jesus as an act of rebellion, or simply choose to make no decision, you will spend eternity in the same place – eternal punishment, eternal torment, eternal separation from God.
The story that is our lives sometimes is like those pages of a novel where the background details are being filled in. The early years of life, the parents we have, the friends we meet, the school, church and jobs we attend. Those critical passages are what shape the events of our lives as we reach those times when the tension mounts and the action picks up. And as the story of your life builds toward the page-turning days of crescendo, when conflict, decision or tragedy strike, how will we respond? What character will we be most like?
Will we respond with bitter rejection that things did not go our way? Even with all the opportunities to know Jesus, will we turn in anger against God, and be counted among his enemies?
Will we react with stubborn rebellion at the path God takes us down? Fighting it all the way, unwilling to allow Him to have His way with us?
Loving Him? Yes.
Knowing Him? Yes.
But fighting all the way as he leads us.
Or will we respond with fatal ambivalence? Thinking that we can somehow get by without making a decision. Hoping that the Universalists are right – that God will just let everyone at the last moment, and in the mean time, I don’t have to take a stand…well, that is a fatal error. Those who choose not to choose, choose death. You do not have the luxury of ambivalence. You can’t ride the fence. You either believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, or you face eternal, terrible judgment.
It is Jesus who gives us, once again, the example to follow. When the tension mounts, the conflict reaches a fever pitch, and things seem to be out of control, we need to submit ourselves in total obedience to the will of the Father. In the final analysis, that is the only place we want to be.
None of us knows the content of the next page of our lives. Temptation, trial, tragedy, joy or sorrow may be just around the corner. All through the biography of Jesus that was written by the disciple He loved, we have seen that Jesus always placed Himself in the Father’s hands. That’s where we need to be, too.