Arresting God: John 18:3-11

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, at the point when the mob is confronting Jesus, we discover an amazing detail tucked within John’s gospel that shows us Jesus really does choose to face the cross. While skeptics might argue that the verse John includes is irrelevant, for those of us who like to see the nuances each gospel writer includes, this verse is fascinating.

Let’s read this event now and discover what John includes in this event that is significant for us to pay attention to. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 18, and we will be reading it from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 3, John tells us that:

³ The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.

⁴ Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.

⁵ “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) ⁶ As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! ⁷ Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

⁸ “I told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” ⁹ He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”

¹⁰ Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. ¹¹ But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

We’ll stop reading here. While John’s gospel gives the individual Peter attacked a name, Luke’s gospel describes how Jesus restored the slave’s ear on the spot. While this miracle and healing should have been enough to challenge the soldiers coming to arrest Jesus on their motives, while reading this passage just now, a different verse jumped out at me than the one I had originally planned to focus on.

The verse that stood out to me while we were reading the passage was the first verse. The opening verse tells us that, “the leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards…”

This detail stands out in my mind because this means that Jesus’ arrest was at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles. The temple guards would have been Jewish for them to guard the innermost parts of the temple effectively, which was places where gentiles were not allowed to go, and Roman soldiers were not Jewish, making them gentile by definition. When we look at the details of the crucifixion, Jesus died at the hand of humanity, and not at the hand of one group of people.

While it might be easy to blame the Jews for their rejection of God’s Messiah, that is only half of the details. Rome was active and present during Jesus’ arrest, Rome was present when the Jewish leaders had finished with their condemnation because Rome stood as a gatekeeper for the death penalty, and Roman soldiers were active in the crucifixion.

Not only were the Jews and Romans to blame, but Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, was also present for Jesus’ arrest. The arrest could not have happened if it wasn’t for Judas’ betrayal, which brings a third group of people that could be blamed as well – specifically Jesus’ own disciples.

While you and I did not bring soldiers to arrest Jesus, our actions and our choices can be described by the actions or lack of actions we see among the disciples present. We could actively betray Jesus through how we act, we could lash out emotionally and/or violently against those who appear to be against us, we could be fearful and hide in the shadows, or we could run away and not stand by Jesus.

The death of Jesus was because of a disciple’s betrayal mixed with the hate and violence of sinful humanity. However, even though Jesus was crucified at the hands of Christians, Jews, and gentiles, Jesus chose to die.

Verses 4-6 describe Jesus fully having the power to avoid arrest. John tells us that:

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.

⁵ “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) ⁶ As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground!”

This detail is something that we shouldn’t let slip by us unnoticed. When Jesus said, “I am He”, the logical response would have been to rush Him and overpower Him, but the opposite happened.

When Jesus spoke the word’s “I am He”, I wonder if a sliver of His divinity slipped out, whether it was through His appearance or simply His voice, and it knocked the soldiers back and to the ground. “I am” is one of the names given to God, and, at least in our English translations, this wordplay is clearly visible.

If three simple words could knock an angry mob of soldiers down, no one present could have even touched Jesus if He had not let them.

After Jesus had the mob’s attention, He restates the question, and then follows up with the request or command to let the disciples go. I’m not sure if the soldiers were already circling the whole group of disciples to arrest them all, or if that was on their minds, but Jesus simply short-circuits the idea of a group arrest with this direction.

Even after Peter gets violent in His defense of Jesus, we see Jesus responding in a calm way, and indicating that this entire event is a part of God’s plan. Our passage finishes off with Jesus’ rhetorical question in verse 11: “Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

Everything in this passage draws our attention onto two huge truths. The first is that Jesus died at the hands of everyone in humanity. He was betrayed by one of His followers, and He was arrested, tried, and crucified by both Jews and gentiles working together.

The second big truth is that Jesus chose to die. While He could have avoided the cross, avoiding pain, suffering, and death was not a part of the Godhead’s plan. Jesus revealed just enough of His divinity that should have woken up everyone present to His divine nature and that they were arresting God, but they were already too set on arresting Jesus.

Jesus used this opportunity for one purpose: to follow through with the one death that leads to life. Jesus chose the cross and to die a sinner’s death so that we can accept the gift of His life and not die the death we deserve. While sinners killed Jesus, Jesus chose to die for those who God desires to save!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Remember and accept the gift that Jesus gave to each of us through His death. Realize that all of us are partially responsible for His crucifixion. If it weren’t for His desire to rescue us from sin, Jesus wouldn’t have faced the cross!

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself, and intentionally grow your relationship with God. Choose to take time each and every day to walk with, remember, and thank Jesus for what He has done for all of us! Without Jesus, our lives would be hopeless.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!