Back at it- John 18

I initially took a break from these, as the conclusion of the school year, the conclusion of the weekly Bible Study, and a bit of a thematic conclusion in the book of John itself all suggested putting this on the shelf for a while. But today's a lazy Saturday with everybody out of town, and I haven't written in a while, so it's either this, baseball, or politics.

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John 18

Jesus Arrested

1When he had 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.

2Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

4Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?"

5"Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.

"I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.

7Again he asked them, "Who is it you want?"
And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth."

8"I told you that I am he," Jesus answered. "If you are looking for me, then let these men go." 9This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: "I have not lost one of those you gave me."

10Then 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.)

11Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"

***

Two things of note, one of plot, and another of more purely religious substance.

First: what's up with Judas' betrayal?

As a child, I don't think I fully understood even the pure mechanism of Judas' betrayal. When I saw betrayal in movies or books or TV, it was a little more plain. The James Bond Girl ties him up and sets up a bomb to betray the West. The guy from The Matrix tells the Machines where to find Neo. Isildur keeps the One Ring for himself instead of throwing it into the lava and betrays Elrond! But leading the soldiers to Jesus isn't as obvious as this, so I didn't get it right away.

Surely the soldiers knew where Jesus was before. He had been teaching in the streets and mountainsides and temples. It seems to be that they needed a quiet spot away from crowds where Jesus was most vulnerable, so they could arrest him and there wouldn't be a big public outcry against it. That's Judas's betrayal: show the soldiers where Jesus is so there isn't a riot. Only someone with intimate knowledge of Jesus would be able to supply that information, so this is what makes Judas's betrayal both necessary to the religious authorities doing it, and actually effective.

But would there have been a big public outcry if Jesus had been arrested in public? Only a few days before, Jesus had come into Jerusalem hailed as a king. Everyone had a big parade. He was very popular. I think it's reasonable to think that if the High Priest had moved then, if there had been guards who had swooped in to take away Jesus, donky, colt, and all, there would have been a riot.

But Jesus was also a somewhat controversial figure. When he told people that they needed to eat his body and drink his blood, we're told that a great many people turned away from him- "surely this is a hard teaching!" Even when he drove out demons from people (see Matthew 8), this made others frightened of him and they begged him to leave their town. Earlier, in John 8 and again in 10, Jesus makes a very straightforward claim to being the Son of God ("before Abraham was born, I Am!"), and is almost stoned to death.

Lastly, on Good Friday, those same voices that cried out 'Hossanah in the Highest!' days earlier scream, 'Crucify! Crucify! We have no King but Caesar- give Barabbas to us!' We're told that the people are manipulated by the Teachers of the Law to say these things, so it's unclear whether this represents their true feelings, or if they're coerced. Probably a mixture of both, though. (This is not an argument that these actions cannot be condemned or that they get off the hook. Adam and Eve were tricked and coerced into eating the fruit, but played an active role in it themselves, too)

The point is important. The people need to rabidly support Jesus, or else Judas's betrayal is pretty meaningless. But they also need to be upset with him and reject him, or else he will not be crucified in the end, and moreover, I will not be able to see myself in the crowd, shouting for Christ's death along with the rest of my fellow sinners.

The fact that I can see myself in that crowd at times, that as the illustrious Alex Gallagher once posted on our wall, "Sometimes we murder our saviors", is as dramatic an illustration of God's grace as any I can conceive. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us".

So what facilitates this shift from support to dejection? We can maybe answer this by looking at what makes Jesus popular, and at what makes him unpopular in the past. This also dovetails a bit with my second point in this section of scripture. Jesus is at his most popular when he's healing the sick, blind, deaf, and lame, when he's feeding 5,000 people with bread and fish, when he's preaching that poor people have the riches of Heaven to store up.

He's very unpopular when he says that He is the way to get there, that followers have to give up everything to follow Him, and that He (and he alone) is the Son of God. In short, people expect a different kind of Messiah than Christ has come to be. They want a political King to overthrow the Romans. They want a medical King to heal their diseases. They want a cooking King to give them food without cost. When they find out that Jesus is instead a spiritual King, they turn on him.

Perhaps Peter himself is one of these people frustrated with Jesus. He thinks that right now, tonight, in this very garden, is where the Revolution is about to begin. He pulls out his sword and delivers the first blow in establishing God's Kingdom on Earth. And is quickly repremanded by his best friend: what you think is going to happen, isn't, Peter. Is it any wonder that Peter denies knowing his best friend three times and weeps bitterly? Peter finds that what he has dedicated his life to is a lie.

Isn't this very much like what we see today, too? People are very eager to believe in a Nice, Gentle Jesus who tells people to be excellent to one another, the kind of Jesus who gives great big hugs and wipes away tears, but who is a super-glossed-over version of the Jesus in the Bible who demands your love and life and says he is the Son of God. If you ask people what they think the central teaching of Christianity is, they are very likely to tell you to "treat others as you would like to be treated", and not "Jesus was the Son of God who died for our sins."

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Jesus Taken to Annas

12Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people.

Peter's First Denial

15Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, 16but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

17"You are not one of his disciples, are you?" the girl at the door asked Peter.
He replied, "I am not."

18It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

The High Priest Questions Jesus

19Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.

20"I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said."

22When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. "Is this the way you answer the high priest?" he demanded.

23"If I said something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?" 24Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.
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I've always loved this exchange that Jesus gave. It's designed to always proclaim and testify about Jesus. The Son of God being put to death for the crime of blasphemy, of claiming to be what he was, is as much an act of rebellion as Adam, as Babel. Those who claim to be unjustly punished for the sins of their fathers should remember this. Sin is not just stubbing your toe or getting confused and carrying a 2 when you should have carried a 1 while doing addition in your head. It's not just hurting someone else's feelings unknowingly. It's not just moral weakness. It is active, knowing rebellion. When I confess that I am by nature sinful, I am confessing not only that I am possible of human error and 'oops!' moments, but that in my inmost being, there is a part of me that hates God, that rebels against him, that is jealous of his power and questioning of his love.

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Peter's Second and Third Denials

25As Simon Peter stood warming himself, he was asked, "You are not one of his disciples, are you?"
He denied it, saying, "I am not."

26One of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, "Didn't I see you with him in the olive grove?" 27Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

Jesus Before Pilate

28Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"

30"If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."

31Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."

"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. 32This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.

33Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

34"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

35"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

36Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

37"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

38"What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. 39But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?"

40They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.

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This section is chock-full of the motif I wrote about earlier: Pilate and the Jews think that Jesus means to be a political ruler, where Jesus is interested in being a divine one.

This section also speaks of two foils. Peter is a foil of Judas, and Barabbas is a foil of Jesus. Barabbas is a political rebel, the kind of person Jesus could have chosen to be if he'd wanted. An army with endless amounts of bread and divine protection would make for an unstoppable rebelling force. Barabbas's rebellion is a reflection of our own against God.

Peter is a foil of Judas because his actions are almost as painful as Judas's betrayal: he vehemently denies knowing his friend, his teacher, his Lord. But whereas Judas feels like Jesus cannot forgive him and eventually takes his own life because of it, overwhelmed with guilt and having nowhere to release it, Peter finds forgiveness and redemption. He is the first disciple to visit the empty tomb. His reconciliation with his friend later in this Gospel is a reflection of the reconciliation we all have with God as a result of Christ's death and resurrection.