John Chapter 18

                   John: Chapter 18

This chapter begins the passion narrative: John's description of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection.

At the conclusion of Jesus discourse and prayer, he and his disciples went across the Kidron valley (which lay between Jerusalem and the mount of olives) to a garden. But Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place. So, clearly, Jesus wasn't hiding from his enemies. He went to a location where he knew Judas could find him. Jesus was ready to complete his mission in obedience to the father.

The Jewish religious leaders were given authority by the Romans to make arrests for minor infractions. The Roman soldiers may not have participated in this arrest but just accompanied the temple guards to make sure matters didn't get out of control.

Judas showed up with the company of soldiers and some officials from the Jewish religious leaders.

The presence of chief priests and Pharisees recalls their appearances elsewhere in the gospel. The entire world both Jew and gentile has come together against Jesus.

Once again, John makes clear to his readers that nothing caught Jesus by surprise. He knew everything that was about to happen to him. After all, he's the son of God. When Jesus asked whom, they were looking for, they said, Jesus of Nazareth. His disciples had fallen asleep; 

(Luke:22v45-46) says When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Why are you sleeping? He asked them. Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

When he merely replied, “I am he”, they all fell to the ground. Jesus's words sure do pack a punch! The Greek words behind the translation “I am he” can simply be rendered as “I am”-the divine name, the self-designation that God revealed to Moses. Jesus is no mere man. He's the God man. He's the word who was with God, was God, and became flesh. Jesus spoke the divine name using the same voice that had spoken the world into existence. And it knocked the betrayers and his accomplices off their feet.

John does not record judas's kiss of greeting, but Judas kiss marked a turning point for the disciples.

(Matt:26v49) says Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, greetings, Rabbi! And kissed him.

(Mark:14v45) says Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, Rabbi! And kissed him.

(Luke:22v47-48) says While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, Judas are you betraying the son of man with a kiss?

With Jesus’s arrest, each one's life would be radically different. For the first time, Judas openly betrayed Jesus before the other disciples, His betrayal must have devastated them. Then, also for the first time, Jesus’s loyal disciples ran away from him. The band of disciples would undergo severe testing before the holy spirit transformed them from hesitant followers to dynamic leaders.

(Matt:26v56) says but this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled. 

Then all the disciples deserted him and fled. 

The power of the actual name of God threw these soldiers to the ground. By the words* I am he*, Jesus declared his divinity again. He was saying. The *I am* is here.

(Exod:3v14) says God said to Moses,” I am who I am”. This is what you are to say to the Israelites:” I am” has sent me to you.

(John:8v58) says Very truly I tell you, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, “I am”!

If the temple guards would have comprehended what Jesus meant, Jesus affirmed with his powerful voice that the earthly government had no power over him except as he would allow.

When he asked them again they gave the same reply, Jesus again said, “I am he”, and told them to let the disciples go. John tells us that Jesus said this to fulfill the words he had just prayed: I have not lost one of those you have given me. When Jesus intervenes to protect you, his intervention is always effective.

Trying to protect Jesus, Peter pulled out a sword and wounded the high priest's servant. But Jesus told Peter to put away his sword and allow God's plan to unfold. 

(Luke:22v51) says But Jesus answered, no more of this! And he touched a man's ear and healed him.

Jesus was taken immediately to the high priest’s residence, even though it was the middle of the night. This gathering was illegal and violated Jewish protocol. The religious leaders were in a hurry; they wanted to complete the execution before the Sabbath and then continue with the Passover celebration. The residence was a palace whose outer walls enclosed a courtyard where servants and soldiers could warm themselves around a fire.

Simon peter was following at a distance, along with another disciple. This unnamed disciple was John, the author of the gospel. John never identifies himself by name but typically calls himself “the disciple Jesus loved”. Since John knew the high priest, he was able to get himself and Peter into the high priest's courtyard. Earlier, Peter had declared emphatically that he would lay down his life for Jesus, but Jesus predicted that he would, in fact, deny him. This was the time of reckoning. A serving girl saw Peter and asked if he was one of Jesus’s disciples. He denied it. John then tells us that the servants in the courtyard were warming themselves by a charcoal fire. The Greek word translated “charcoal fire” appears only one other time in John's gospel. When it shows up in 21: 9, it will be significant.

By warming himself at the fire of the people who were going to kill Jesus, Peter was not trying to fit in; he just did not want to stand out. Sadly, this is far too often the response of believers when they're put on the spot.

The scene switches to Jesus standing before the high priests annas, who asked him about his disciples and about his teaching. He wanted Jesus to tell him what he had been doing to get everyone so riled up. But Jesus wasn't about to recount everything he'd done and spoke. He had spoken openly both in the synagogue and in the temple. He had done nothing in secret, nor did he lead any secret organization. Why didn't the high priest simply ask the people who heard him?

For his response to the high priest, Jesus received a slap in the face. But he was unfazed. If he had spoken wrongly, he demanded that they give evidence about the wrong. Otherwise, the slap was an unjust assault. If this trial were to be legitimate, they would have to bring forward witnesses to testify about what he had done wrong. Jesus requested that the high priest do so. Instead, someone simply hit him! When they refused to answer his question and instead sent him bound to Caiaphas, they merely confirmed that they had no interest in justice. They just wanted blood. 

The scene returns to Peter outside in the courtyard warming himself by the fire. He had denied a direct question about whether he was a disciple of Jesus. Here he denies twice more having any relationship with Jesus. One of those who accused him of being with Jesus was a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off. Surrounded by the stairs of an inquisitive crowd, Peter was asked in essence, aren't you the one who drew my kin's blood? In spite of his former boast that he would die for Jesus, Peter wasn't ready to put his life on the line. And immediately after his third denial, a rooster crowed just as Jesus had predicted.

Imagine standing outside while Jesus, your Lord and master is questioned. Imagine watching this man whom you have come to believe is the long-awaited Messiah being abused and beaten. Naturally Peter was confused and afraid. To disown Christ is a serious sin. But later Jesus forgave Peter. No sin is too great for Jesus to forgive if you are truly repentant. He will forgive even your worst sin if you turn from it and ask his forgiveness.

This fulfilled Jesus words to Peter after he promised he would never disown him.

By Jewish law, entering the House of a gentile would cause a Jewish person to be ceremonially defiled. So they stayed outside. They followed their religious rules carefully, yet they were planning to have Jesus killed. They cared more about being ceremonially clean than having clean hearts.

This Roman governor, Pilate, was in charge of Judea. He was a ruthless man with no affection for the Jews, and they had no fondness of him either. But since the Romans alone had the power of execution, the Jewish leaders needed Pilate to condemn Jesus.  pilot insisted that they judge Jesus themselves according to their own law, they made their intentions clear: it's not legal for us to put anyone to death.  Pilate was unpopular with the Jews because he had raided the temple treasuries for money to build an aqueduct. He did not like the Jews, but when Jesus, the king of the Jews, stood before him, Pilate found him innocent.

Pilate knew what was going on; he knew that the religious leaders hated Jesus, and he did not want to act as their executor. They could not sentence Jesus to death themselves-permission had to come from a Roman leader. But Pilate initially refused to sentence him without significant evidence. Jesus's life became a pawn in a political power struggle.

Pilot made 4 attempts to deal with Jesus:

1. He tried to put the responsibility on someone else
2. he tried to find a way of escape so he could release Jesus.
3. He tried to compromise by having Jesus flogged rather than handing him over to die. And
4. He tried a direct appeal to the sympathy of the accusers.
5.  Everyone has to decide what to do with Jesus. Pilate tried to let everyone else decide for him-and in the end, he lost.

This prediction is recorded in Matthew 20v19-and John 12v32. Crucifixion was a common method of execution for criminals who were not Roman citizens.

Again, John interrupts his narrative to let us know that these actions were fulfilling Jesus’s words. He had foretold the kind of death he was going to die. Previously, Jesus had spoken of being “lifted up” to indicate the kind of death he would die. The Old Testament teaches that a person under God's curse was to be displayed by hanging on a tree as a sign of divine judgment on sin. 

Clearly, Jesus was not a victim of fate; he is the sovereign Lord who proceeded towards his death according to God’s plan.

(Deut:21v23) says You must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

(Gal:3v13) says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, For it is written: cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.

Apparently, the Jews had told Pilate that Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah and a king in opposition of Caesar, because when Jesus stood before him, he asked, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus asked Pilate if he wanted to know the answer himself or if he were asking because his accusers put him up to it. Pilot sounds disgusted with the whole thing: I'm not a Jew, am I?.... Your…. Chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done? He wasn't interested in this religious squabble. He just wanted to get the case over with.

So, Jesus answered palate’s question about whether he was king: my Kingdom is not of this world. Or, yes, I'm a king. But not from here. Was he the king of the Jews? Of course. He was also king of the Romans. In fact, he is king of the entire world. But the source of his kingship and authority is in heaven.

Jesus is king, but one whose Kingdom is not of this world. Pilots seem to have no question in his mind that Jesus was speaking the truth and was innocent of any crime. It is also apparent that while recognizing the truth of Jesus innocence. Pilot chose to ignore it and sentence him to death. It is a tragedy when we fail to recognize the truth, it is a greater tragedy when we recognize the truth but fail to act on it.

If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. Actually, one of them (Peter) tried! And Jesus scolded him and healed the man he attacked. But those were earthly methods-not the methods of Jesus Kingdom. This is a good reminder that if you are going to be a Kingdom disciple, you've got to use Kingdom methods-not the methods of this world.

 Earthly means won't work when your source is spiritual. pilot followed the logic. If Jesus claimed to have a Kingdom, then he must be claiming to be king. Jesus affirmed his response: I was born for this. Indeed, he had come into the world… to testify to the truth. In fact, he said, everyone who is the truth listens to me. This was Jesus’s way of saying, if you want the truth-if you care about the truth-then you'll listen to me, too. But Pilate brushes Jesus’s assertion aside by asking, what is truth? Sadly, pilots’ question is repeated by this fallen postmodern world today. Many in our culture reject the notion of absolute truth. Truth to them is relative-that is, what's true for one person isn't necessarily true for another. But this is false. Truth is the absolute standard by which reality is measured. It does not change based on feelings or perspective. A person can deny that gravity is true, but if he decides to jump off a building to prove it, he's going to find that truth doesn't care about his feelings or perspective. Truth exists whether you embrace it or not. So Pilate told the Jews that he found no grounds for charging Jesus with a crime. The Roman governor concluded that he wasn't worthy of death, so he reminded them of the custom in which he would release one prisoner during the Passover. Then he proposed releasing the king of the Jews. But the Jewish leaders would have none of it: not this man, but Barabbas! As it turned out, Barabbas was revolutionary. He was an insurrectionist a murderer who had created havoc for Rome because he wanted the Jews out from under Roman rule. Whatever his specific crime was, he had earned the death penalty.

Don't miss the fact that the leaders preferred a criminal who had fought for physical deliverance from Rome because that's all they cared about. They wanted political deliverance from gentile rule, when what they needed was spiritual deliverance from sin.

 John's passion story is like a symphony, which seems to pursue one theme: the sorrow of Jesus departure, his rejection by many, the dismay of the disciples, the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, and Jesus imminent death. Each of these are a part of the “hour” that beats its way through virtually every chapter of John's gospel.

This scene, this hour, Does not belong to Pilate or Caiaphas, it belongs to Jesus. Jesus is in complete control of this situation. John's statement in verse 16 should be read in full realization of that deep truth.