In The Garden
John 18 verses 1 to 11: In the Garden
Introduction
John 18 brings us to the arrest of Jesus. The ministry of the upper room is over. The Passover meal is finished. Judas is gone. Jesus has finished speaking with and praying His disciples. They now head for Gethsemane- the Cross looming large.
Christ’s life, and especially His death and resurrection, have been interpreted in very different ways by different people. For example, Albert Schweitzer, in The Quest for the Historical Jesus, concluded that Jesus was a mistaken idealist, caught and crushed like a rag doll in the wheels of history, who died in confusion, despair, and rejection.
The apostle John saw things very differently. His record portrays Jesus as the Sovereign Lord and Loving Saviour who was completely in control of the terrible events surrounding His sacrificial death.
And so, in John 18 we will see:
The Place of the Saviour
The Power of the Saviour
The Protection of the Saviour
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus is not some helpless victim of fate. Instead, we see He is in control of all that is happening and willingly submits to God’s plan of salvation. Jesus ensures the safety of His disciples and in doing displays, once again, His great love for His People.
In this passage we see that Jesus is Sovereign Lord and Loving Saviour. He willingly drank from the cup of wrath so that we can enjoy the cup of blessing. And so, we are called to submit to Him as Saviour and Lord and surrender to His perfect will for us.
Let us see this, firstly, as we go to…
The Place of the Saviour
In verses 1 and 2 we read:
When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
As we read, we mustn’t miss the significant details John is giving us to set the scene and point us to the deeper significance of what will occur.
At this point in the story the disciples, except Judas, are still with Jesus as He begins His journey to the Cross. They have watched Him serve, listened to Him teach, and witnessed Him pray for them. Now they make their way to Gethsemane.
The Garden of Gethsemane was a favourite place for Jesus and His disciples. Throughout the three years of His earthly ministry it had often proved be a place for rest and reflection. But now, in this moment, it would become a place of betrayal and arrest.
Now, as we witness Jesus enter Gethsemane, we must not imagine that Jesus goes there in order to escape His captors. In verse 2 we learn that Judas, His betrayer, knew this place well, and so it is clear that Jesus’ choice of this location was very deliberate. He went where He knew that Judas could find Him.
Jesus did not run from being betrayed and captured by His opponents. Instead, for our sake, He embraced His betrayal and pursued His capture. He was betrayed so that we who believe might be eternally accepted by His Father. He was captured so that we might be set free.
The place of the Saviour was a deliberate choice. The Sovereign Lord choose the Garden so that He might be captured and betrayed according to God’s Will. Jesus went to the Garden in submission to the Father’s will.
Jesus understood His life would ultimately fulfil its purpose through His sacrificial death on the Cross. And now He moves closer and closer to that moment. But He moves with willingness and authority.
To put it another way, in the Garden, we see Jesus move purposefully, relentlessly to the Cross with sovereign control and humble submission. He does not go as a helpless victim of fate, but as the Warrior-King entering the field of final conflict with the Evil One.
The Garden of Gethsemane is the place of the Saviour. This famous garden is the place of perfect obedience, humble readiness, and divine power.
So, we see Jesus’ sovereign lordship and control in His choosing to meet His captors in the garden. Jesus deliberately chose Gethsemane. The place of the Saviour calls us to marvel at His sovereign lordship and perfect submission.
The place of the Saviour is wonderfully symbolic. Remember, the whole story of humanity begins in a garden. And humanity’s great problem is because of what happened in that garden.
In Eden the first Adam choose to reject God’s Will and he fell into sin- and the rest of creation with Him. In Gethsemane Jesus, the Second Adam, humbly accepts God’s Will in perfect obedience. And in Jesus, the Second Adam, He and all united to Him by faith win the ultimate victory over sin and Satan and death.
In Eden Adam sinned. In Gethsemane the Savior overcame sin.
In Eden Adam fell. In Gethsemane Jesus conquered.
In Eden Adam hid himself. In Gethsemane our Lord boldly presented Himself.
This symbolism is profound and deliberate. Here, as Believers, we are to ponder the place of the Saviour and what occurred there. In the Garden Jesus was not a victim of fate, but sovereign over of all that was unfolding. In the Garden He perfectly obeyed the will of His Father to reverse the curse and set His People free from sin and death.
So, we have the place of the Saviour, then we have…
The Power of The Saviour
There is a gap between verses 1 and 2 that is filled in by the accounts in the other Gospels. From them we understand that an unspeakable horror overcame Jesus in Gethsemane as He wrestled with the reality of what was to come. In the accounts of Matthew 26 and Mark 14 we see Jesus experienced intense agony.
No one has known the sorrow our Lord experienced as the Cross approached. The understanding of what that sacrifice meant caused our Lord to break out in a bloody sweat.
Christ’s agony demonstrates that He knew exactly what was involved- not just the pain of the crucifixion but the horrible penalty for our sins- He would drink the cup of God’s wrath. In Luke 22 verse 42 we read these powerful words:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Christ’s resolve to endure the agony, even at such a great price, demonstrates His lordship and divinity, His love and devotion- this is the power of the Savior.
John picks up the story after Jesus had resolved to do His Father’s Will. In verse 3 we see Judas arrive at the head of a detachment of soldiers and some religious officials- an unholy alliance if ever there was one!
Notice the soldiers were fully armed. With them came the temple guards with their clubs. This must have been terrifying sight for the Disciples. But not for Jesus. In verse 4 we read:
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
Notice what occurs doesn’t take Jesus by surprise: ‘[K]nowing all that was going to happen to him…’ meant Jesus knew He would endure abandonment and rejection by His fellow Isrealites, the torture of battle-harden soldiers, the intense agony of Roman crucifixion, and the Holy wrath of God for the sins of His People.
Jesus is the sovereign Lord. And He is the loving Saviour.
Knowing all that was before Him Jesus ‘…went out…’. He takes the initiative. Our Lord went forward to meet the armed crowd and asks them who they are looking for.
Jesus asks the question, not for His information- He knows the answer- but for their consideration. Jesus is using a question to reveal what is in their hearts, so that they might- even at this hour, or in time to come- reflect on this moment, turn and believe.
However, in this moment they neatly dodge the implications of Jesus’ question. In verses 5 they claim they are looking for a mere man from a Roman backwater- ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.
In verse 6 Jesus openly identifies Himself. We clearly see the power of Jesus here. He is powerful in every way: no shying away, no running and hiding. Instead, He is striding forward with majesty and power- and with divine authority.
And the mob feels that divine authority! Their reaction was to fall to the ground.
What we witness here is an extraordinary power that is revealed as Jesus declares who He is. In the original language Jesus literally says, ‘I am’. In other words, Jesus answered using the divine title, I AM, going back to the burning bush of Exodus 3 when God said, ‘I AM WHO I AM’.
In this interaction with the mob Jesus gives them this great divine disclosure- He declares His divinity. Jesus’ response was a wonderful display of divine majesty and sovereign power.
The mob had thought they had come to arrest a poor peasant upstart and instead they were met with the majesty and power of a divine person. The only possible response was to fall to the ground in awe.
Earlier, in John 10, Jesus had said:
I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
In a very real sense, the crowd did not arrest Jesus- He arrested them. His words were a gracious warning that they were out of depth.
In the garden we must acknowledge the truth that all the soldiers in Pilate’s army could not have taken Jesus, if He had not been willing to be taken. Jesus willingly went to the Cross. He had set His heart on accomplishing the redemption of His People. He loved His People, and He gave Himself for His People.
And we see that played out poignantly as we turn to…
The Protection of the Saviour
In verses 7 to 9 we read:
7 Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” 9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”
Here we see not only the sovereign Lord but the loving Saviour. Even at this crucial moment, when His own unimaginable sufferings were about to begin, He did not forget His disciples.
Here we see the Shepherd is about to lay down His life for the sheep, and His concern is ever for the sheep. And, while the shepherd was taken, the sheep were allowed to flee unharmed.
In effect Jesus says: Take me, and let them go. Kill me, let them live. Here we have a picture of the reality of what Jesus has come to do: He is the Redeemer come to die in the sinner’s place.
There can be little doubt that the soldiers had intended to arrest the Savior’s entire group. But Jesus protected all His followers with His sovereign power and infinite, wise care.
Notice again that Jesus asked the mob twice whom they were looking for, and twice they spoke, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. That narrowed their focus in on Him. And the result of Jesus’ questions was the soldiers sent sprawling to the ground. All of this would make His suggestion to let His disciples go seem quite reasonable.
Jesus ensures His followers are released without harm as He goes to His death. And so we see witness the caring protection of the Saviour, and we are to take comfort in how He looks after all those who belong to Him.
Even at this most extreme moment, when being betrayed, Jesus is thinking about His disciples. How much more can we be assured of His loving care now that He is interceding for His People in Glory!
Jesus is the loving Saviour who we can trust with our lives. He loves His People. He willingly gave His life to save His People. Those who belong to Him can trust Him completely. In Him we are eternally secure. In Him no power of hell or scheme of man can ever do us real harm.
Here we see a loving Saviour and a sovereign Lord. Jesus is not helpless victim of fate. Instead, in humble submission to the Father’s Will, He goes willingly to lay down His life for His sheep.
Conclusion: ‘Put Your Sword Away’
Our time in the Garden closes with verses 10 and 11. Peter, ever brave, ever at the forefront of events, decides to intervene to protect his Master against the horrific betrayal of Judas. He draws a sword and attacks the high priest’s servant.
Perhaps there is a part of us that rejoices in Peter’s actions- at least someone is standing up for Jesus! So often we see that Peter is impulsive, sometimes even brave.
But Peter is also disobedient. Remember, when Jesus explained what was going to happen to Him when He went up to Jerusalem- He would be captured and crucified- it was Simon Peter who blurted out: I don’t know about anybody else, but if I have anything to do with this, that will never happen to you! In other words: I’m not going to let anybody do that to you, Jesus’.
Now, in one sense, this is wonderful devotion. And yet it is an indication of the fact that he doesn’t grasp what’s going on at all. And Jesus on that occasion said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan!’. Peter seeks to come between Jesus and the will of the Father, and Jesus will not have it.
Jesus was going to fulfil the plan of God to sacrifice Himself to save us. We too need to seek not to resist the will of God. We are called to be ‘a living sacrifice’, but too frequently we want to escape the sacrifice. We need to consider Jesus’ willingness to humble Himself and become obedient even to death on a cross, so that we might have the same attitude within us.
So, once again, Peter wants to suggest that there is another way in which things can be handled. We can call him brave. We can certainly call him clumsy- he makes a stab at Malchus’ head and manages just to clip his ear. From the other Gospel Accounts, we learn that Jesus healed Malchus. Not only is our Lord powerful and gracious, but he is merciful, even in His final moments.
And then come Jesus’ final words on the matter: ‘Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?’. The ‘cup’ was the Cross, the cup of judgment that we should have drunk. Instead, Jesus took upon Himself our punishment in those hours of darkness on the Cross. He drinks the cup of wrath in order that we, in Him, might drink the cup of blessing.
The surroundings of Christ’s final hour clearly displayed His sovereign control and humble submission. The intensity of His agony and His sovereign resolve to bear it, His control over His captors, His protection of His own, His grace to the wounded, all proved He is the Sovereign Lord and Loving Saviour.
Christ was in control when life was falling in, when things looked the worst. How does this relate to us?
Although Christ’s Gethsemane was infinitely beyond human experience, in a sense all Believers will experience Gethsemane. All of us will face times overwhelming agony and circumstances that seem beyond imaging.
So we must remember that just as Christ controlled His own destiny even when the opposite seemed to be the case, so He controls ours. He is the Sovereign Lord and Loving Saviour in whom we can face this life with hope and joy. In Christ we belong to the One who has overcome the world and conquered our ultimate enemies- no true harm can come to us. In Christ we belong to the One who loves us completely and will always do what is truly for our good- He is the Good Shepherd who leads His People through dark valleys to the place of full and abundant life forevermore.