John 18:1-11
# Jesus is the I AM, but he is also Jesus of Nazareth.
# What John puts in (I AM; name of slave;drinking the cup) , what
John leaves out (healing the ear; Jesus' prayer in the garden; Judas'
kiss)
# Jesus in charge – lets them take him, makes them not take the
disciples, shows it is his will and not theirs that has brought them
success (after their previous failed attempts).
We're looking today at the beginning of the end for Jesus. In the
chapters preceding chapter 18, Jesus had laid out some significant
information for the disciples, and he has prayed for his people both
there with him, and throughout history. Now that this long
exposition has been completed, Jesus is ready for the last hours of
his life to unfold. Jesus, the man from Nazareth, the Son of God, is
ready to fall into the hands of his pursuers.
Have you ever had to pursue someone? I don't mean like chasing after
a wayward child, I mean really have to put in considerable and
repeated effort to get to a person. If you are a police officer,
then likely you can say yes. But perhaps you have had to pursue a
member of the government public service – I certainly have. Maybe
this sounds familiar to you – you are trying to get something done
through the government – apply for something, pay for something,
sort out something – and you are given the name of a specific
individual. So you call to talk to this person, but they're not
available. They're currently out to lunch. So you try again later,
but now they're in a meeting. You try the next day, but apparently
they've got the day off. You try another day, and you only get
through to their voicemail. You leave a message, and they call you
back when you're in the shower, and leave you a message asking you to
call back. But even if you do so immediately, it seems that person
has just stepped out of the office and you can't speak to them. You
send emails, but they bounce back. You make more phone calls, but
you get the run-around. Eventually, you go in person to the
government office, only to be told the person you're looking for is
on maternity leave, and you won't be able to speak to them for three
months.
The public servant holds all the power. You don't know if they're
really at lunch or in a meeting, or just not answering their phone.
It can feel like you are being given the run-around. You have no way
of checking. You have to wait until they are prepared to talk with
you. This is precisely how the enemies of Jesus must have felt back
in the day. In the book of John alone, we read over and over again
about the times that the teachers, the Pharisees, the temple guards,
and sometimes just the crowd sought to capture or kill Jesus while he
was teaching. And every time, Jesus would elude them, escape from
them, hide from them, or they would just not have the guts to grab
him. So what makes this time different? Why is it that they succeed
now in apprehending Jesus, when all of these other times they have
failed? Is it because Judas betrayed Jesus, and led the soldiers to
him with their lanterns and weapons? Have they finally outsmarted
him by ambushing him by night, away from the crowds of people that
loved him?
Those might seem like sensible options, but this little section of
John makes it clear that they are absolutely baseless. Because
Jesus, of course, has all the power in this situation, just as he
always has. You'll notice that John does not mention the betraying
kiss of Judas – instead, Jesus asks them who they are looking for,
and when they say it is Jesus of Nazareth they seek, he answers
plainly, “I am he.” Judas's betrayal in identifying Jesus is
meaningless when Jesus openly admits who he is to his pursuers.
Jesus is not hiding. They came at night, so that he would not be in
the midst of all the people of Jerusalem, where it would be difficult
to abduct him in full sight of the public. But Jesus gives the
soldiers orders about who they are to arrest, and who they are to set
free – and they obey him. Even after Peter cuts the ear off the
high priest's servant, they do not arrest him! Because Jesus is in
control of this entire situation. They come to him with weapons,
even with a small military force, and with the authority of the high
priest and of the Roman emperor, but when Jesus opens his mouth, they
all fall to the ground. If there was ever any doubt that Jesus
accepted his capture, went with his enemies willingly, it should be
struck down by this passage.
Why does Jesus hold this power? The answer to anyone who has been
reading John's gospel up to this point should be obvious, but Jesus
has made it clear right here to his captors as well. This can be
seen in what is possibly the most important section of this whole
passage – Jesus' reply to the mob, “I am he.” They have come
looking for a man from a backwater town, a popular and controversial
teacher, an apparent blasphemer and healer. And that is who they ask
for, “Jesus of Nazareth.” And Jesus is that man... but he is so
much more. His answer, “I am he,” contains not just an admission
of being the man from Nazareth, the adopted son of the carpenter, the
preacher and the teacher.
Jesus has proclaimed himself to be many things throughout the book of
John, and John has used the words “I am” to draw attention to
these statements. John 6:35, “I am the bread of life.” John
8:12, “I am the light of the world.” John 10:7, “I am the gate
for the sheep,” and John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd.” John
11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 14:6, “I am
the way, the truth, and the life.” John 15:1, “I am the true
vine.” John 8:58 is the most important, “Before Abraham was, I
am!” These words “I am” contain an authoritative statement of
Jesus as God.
Why do these words hold so much power, so much authority? Why is it
that when Jesus says this in John 8:58, the Jews picked up stones to
stone him? Because these words, “I am”, are the same words God
uses to name himself to Moses, way back in the book of Exodus, when
Moses asks God, “Who shall I say sent me?” This is the name of
God – not just a title, such as Lord of Hosts. God is the “I am”
- because He Is. That is the defining nature of God – where as all
other gods are not, he is. Jesus is claiming, both in John 8:58 and
here in John 18, that he is the “I am” - that he is God. And so
here we find in chapter 18 this great tension brought to stark relief
– Jesus boldly proclaims, “I am he,” in answer to the name of
Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son, but at his words “I am”,
the people are thrust to their knees before the God of all creation.
This is the God we worship – he is the I am, but he also took the
humbling form of a man.
Why did he take this form? Why does Jesus finally allow his enemies
to have this victory over him, even when he has the power to force
them to bow at his feet? The answer can be found by looking at
another time they tried to seize him. In John chapter 7 we read
about Jesus teaching at the Feast of Tabernacles, teaching about the
hypocrisy of the Pharisees and religious leaders. In verse 30, it
says this, “At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand
on him, because his time had not yet come.” If you read chapter 7
as a whole, you will see they wanted to arrest him, they even sent
temple guards out to capture him. The people know that the religious
leaders want him dead, and because he is now there speaking publicly
in the temple and they are doing nothing, they are asking themselves
in verse 25, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he
is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have
the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ?” The
authorities obviously did not want people to think that Jesus had
their tacit approval! But there was nothing they could do – his
time had not yet come. They were not in control, Jesus is in
control, both way back in chapter 7, and now here in chapter 18.
Jesus was in control when he was not being captured, now he is in
control when he is captured.
This can only mean one thing – that the capture of Jesus, the trial
of Jesus, the sentencing of Jesus and the punishing death of Jesus
are all part of God's plan. In fact, John makes this point even
clearer here in chapter 18, where while he does not record the
tearful prayer of Jesus to his Father asking that the cup be taken
from him, he does give reference to it in Jesus' recorded words to
Peter in verse 11, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given
me?” Jesus accepts that this is his fate, for his death to pay the
price of our disobedience and failure. We likely already know this,
since we openly accept that Jesus' death was a sacrifice for our
sins, freely given. But what does it mean for us? The death itself
I'm sure will receive plenty of focus when you come to it. But the
willingness of the sacrifice, the preparedness to be captured and
placed into the hands of one's enemies, what can we learn from this
today?
I daresay we can learn two things. One is that the God we worship is
capable of turning the most terrible of situations into a triumph for
his will. This is the power of our God – that he can take a bad
situation and make it good. God does not take lemons and make
lemonade. God takes lemons and makes pure gold. This is the God we
worship – a God who has power over what is good and what is bad.
No-one can work against him, for he can turn their works to serve
him. They can march and arrest his son, they can crucify him and
kill him – but God makes this serve his purposes, for the sake of
his glory and our salvation. This is an awesome God.
The second thing we should note from Jesus' willingness to fall into
the hands of his enemies is that this is a model for our lives we
should follow. Paul makes this clear in the book of Colossians
chapter 1 verse 24, where he says, “I fill up in my flesh what is
still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of
his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the
commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its
fullness.” It is through Christ's body that the world is saved,
once for all. It is through our bodies that such salvation is made
known to the world. You have heard the stories of those who travel
to faraway lands, who cross cultural borders, who suffer to take the
word of God to those who need to hear it. This is something we are
all called to do. Because sharing the word of God with others will
result in our suffering.
In Australia, it can result in people laughing at us, or refusing to
talk to us, or even verbally attacking us and criticising us. So why
would we do it, knowing that this might be the result? Because Jesus
did it, and look at the result he accomplished! By God's grace and
power, we can be his instruments in letting people hear the message
of salvation. We don't need to worry about people's reactions
either, no matter how negative. God can take even the most negative
reaction to the gospel, and turn it into gold for him.
Let me give you just a tiny, tiny example, to show you how achievable
this is for us. As you may know, I run a weekly gaming club out of
the St Ives Community Church building, where we invite people we have
never met to come and play various games with us, for fun. We use
this to build friendships with the people there, so that through our
lives and our words we can share the gospel with them. These people
are just ordinary Australians – they come from different places
here and overseas, they live, work, study or whatever. They drink,
they smoke, they swear. The vast majority of them are atheists, and
some of them quite militantly so. Although they don't make fun of
you for being Christian to your face, usually, you have to put up
with the constant jibes on Facebook, or in conversation, about
religious people being dumb, about Christianity being baseless or
outdated, about science being our saviour.
But I also get to discuss deep questions about philosophy, morality,
spirituality with them, and show them that as a Christian I have
logical and reasonable answers to their questions. I get to invite
them to church – and some accept, even though most don't. I was
able to put a copy of Luke into the hands of a death metal
enthusiast, and he read it. All for the small price of facing some
insults, putting up with bad language and making friends. Just as a
side point, I don't even count organising all the games as a cost,
because I would have done that anyway. I just decided to turn what I
was already doing into an opportunity to share the gospel in a
culturally appropriate way. Maybe you can think about the things you
already do, and how you could do them in such a way that would allow
you to share the good news to those around you.
When Jesus speaks the words, “I am,” people fall at his feet.
But they must hear him make this claim. Because the time has not yet
come where all must bow. When that time comes, for many it will be
too late. But for now, Jesus is still calling to the lost to freely
take him as their Lord. We have to make sure that we are acting in
accordance with his plan, and we have to understand that yes, this
will include suffering. And in this, we are blessed, because not
only does it mean that we find ourselves following in the footsteps
of Jesus, who was willing and prepared to make a sacrifice for the
sake of others, but we will be blessed by seeing God take the
negative situations we find ourselves in, and turn them into gold to
serve his glory. In my mind there is little more miraculous than
when God changes the hearts of those who are stubborn towards him.
Let's pray.
