[AI translation] In this section we read about a very strange arrest scene. They want to arrest Jesus, and it is through this that His majestic freedom is revealed. They want to humiliate Him, and it is by this that His divine glory is revealed. They want to kill him, and it is through this that the reality of life beyond death is revealed in the resurrection. They want to render him harmless on the cross, and it is by this that he becomes the greatest divine work of all: the agent of redemption! While reading this scene, I involuntarily thought of the divine humour in Psalm 2. There it is said, "Why do the nations rage, and the people think vanity? Let the kings of the earth rise up, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed [Christ]: let us rend their chains, and cast off their cords from us! He who dwells in the heavens laughs at them, the Lord mocks them." (Psalm 2:1-4)Behold, how the evil one strives against Jesus here too, what a great apparatus he comes with: military troops, priestly servants, torches, lanterns, weapons on one side - as if a whole band of dangerous thugs were to be rendered harmless on this night - and a single, infinitely gentle innocent man on the other! And yet this one stands before the armed men in his helplessness like a king - he exudes such dignity and power that even his enemies recoil from him! They execute a well-planned arrest warrant, and yet, they are only tools in the hands of the One they arrest! They lay their hands on Jesus as a result of a multitude of dark sins: envy, murderous intent, treachery, injustice and other such things, and they themselves do not know that they are only carrying out exactly what God from eternity not only decreed about Jesus, but also put in writing on the pages of the Old Testament. So ridiculous is the shrinking of all the raging, gnashing of teeth power of evil when we see it so much as an instrument in the hands of the even more powerful One. It is a great, exultant proclamation, this whole scene of capture, that Christ is stronger, Christ is victorious!
Look at how self-consciously, freely in control! In fact, He is not even captured as such, but rather He has almost captured Himself, He gives Himself freely, He allows Himself to be captured. This is evident from the fact that He went with His disciples that night to a place in the Garden of Gethsemane, which was almost their usual place when they were in Jerusalem, and which therefore Judas knew very well. He went there almost so that Judas would not have to search long, almost determining the place and time of His arrest! "Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place, for Jesus and His disciples often met there." (verse 2) At the entrance to this garden they were waiting for Him with weapons and lanterns. But it is not for them to search for Him in the dark bushes, but He Himself comes royally before them, in the light of the lamps shining on Him. And He speaks first. He speaks to them, as the greater to the lesser, the greater to the lesser: "Whom are you looking for?" Twice He asks the same question, and twice He says to them, "It is I!" Not only does it simply mean "I am" whom they seek, but it also means that he reveals himself, he reveals his divine glory! This apparently simple "I am" almost shines through, and out of it shines the mysterious divine name of Jesus.
Jesus says here what God said to Moses on Mount Horeb at the burning bush: I am the I Am - I am Who I Am! - It is the same mysterious, eternal divine name that Jesus detailed when He declared Himself thus: "I am the light of the world" (Jn 8,12); "I am the bread of life" (Jn 6,35); "I am the way, the truth and the life" (Jn 14,6); "I am the Good Shepherd" (Jn 10,11); "I am the vine" (Jn 15,5); "I am the door" (Jn 10,9), and when you call me Master and Lord, you do well, for I am: I AM! And with this "I am", which he says twice at the very moment of his arrest, he stretches out his hands to bind him with a cry of triumph.
Somehow it says: they can arrest Jesus, but He is still the light of the world! They can tear off his clothes and make him so wretched that he will cry out like a tortured man, "I thirst! But they cannot prevent Him from remaining the bread of life and the water of life, from which, if one drinks, he will never thirst. They can now beat the shepherd and scatter the flock, but it is by this that he will become the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep! They can take his life, but they cannot prevent him from saving the lives of those who believe in him by doing just that. They can shed His blood with nails and spears, but what can they do about the fact that it is this very blood that cleanses us from all sin!
All this resounds mightily in that simple "I am", and with such power and glory of divine revelation that it is recorded, "When he said to them, 'I am', they staggered back and fell to the ground." (v. 6.) - Jesus had already in His earthly person something of His divine glory so shining through, that He humbled His enemies to the dust before Him: what then will be the moment of which He Himself once spoke thus: "And then shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in heaven; then shall all the people of the earth wail, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Mt 24,30) Yes: the night scene here is a pale foretaste of the great scene of the last day. Just as His enemies crumble to dust before the torch-lit Jesus, so, with far greater emotion, all His enemies fall at His feet before Jesus re-enters the visible world! Among whom will you find your place: among the weeping and wailing, or among the rejoicing and the jubilant?!
But let us look further at the scene in Gethsemane. If Jesus had not been determined to give himself willingly into their hands, he could have made a good getaway, he could have seized this moment when his enemies were paralysed by the divine majesty that was pouring out of him! But he did not. He asks them again, as if to shake them out of their amazement, "Who are you looking for?... If it is me you are looking for, let them go." (v.8) - So Jesus is in such a commanding position that he almost says this to his enemies as a command. They will be caught almost at his command! Though he was in the power of his enemies, it was not by tragic accident, still less because he was weak or helpless, but solely because He willed it! For it is in obedience to God that he does what he wants to undertake, and thus He triumphs even when he is apparently defeated! - This is true freedom, when one undertakes and does what God has decreed for him, freely and voluntarily: he freely comes into line with God's will, he himself wants to do exactly what God wants him to do! O how true it is that Jesus once said, "Therefore if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).
Christ is victorious, not in spite of, but precisely because He willingly gave Himself into the hands of His enemies. Yes: always the strongest and always the victor is the one who acts in obedience to God, who can always accept his fate in the way that God wants him to, so that's why I want him to! Let not a believer, then, even in thought, try to run away from the difficulties of life, but say boldly, 'God wills it, therefore this is my way! That is why he rebukes the fierce Peter, who, drawing his sword, wants to defend his Master. Put your sword in his hand and put it in his sheath. If Christ had wanted to triumph by force, he would have had other means at his disposal. "Thinkest thou that I cannot now ask my Father to give me more than twelve armies of angels?" (Mt 26:53) At the single wave of His hand, twelve armies of angels would have come out from behind the veil of cloud, but He would not have beckoned them, for His is the sign of the cross! It is in the cross, as the sign of forbearance, of suffering, of bearing away, that His true strength is found. Do you feel the deepening of the meaning of that earlier statement, "In the world you have tribulation, but have confidence: I have overcome the world" (John 16:33)?
Finally, let me point out one more aspect of this great scene: the tender pastoral love and care of Jesus. It is already revealed in this question, "Whom are you looking for?" For he knows whom they are looking for. It is a pastoral question! It is a question for reflection. In this way: beware, men! Do you know what you are doing? Do you know what you're doing? Do you know who you are looking for? I sense in this the great, tender, concerned love with which the Lord addresses me, you too, on the path of sin. He stops you and asks: where are you going, what are you doing? Do you know that word of warning in the depths of your soul? Do you ever listen to it? Who are you looking for? It's like the Lord wants to keep you from sinning. It's like he's saying, "Stop going down this road, think about it. Do you know where this road leads? - Oh, how good it is when someone hears the warning in time and gives in!
But what is especially touching is this statement of the Lord: 'Therefore if you seek me, let these things go' (v.8). These are the precious words of the Saviour, faithful unto death, in which the heart of the gospel throbs. By His own devotion to Himself, He gives freedom, as it were, to those who hide behind Him in faith, and who look up to Him in trust! He willingly held out His hand to be bound, so that those behind Him might never be put in chains of darkness, but might stand firm in the freedom and joy of the children of God. He allowed Himself to be captured so that the chains might fall from us and we might praise God with all our hearts for His saving grace!
You know what we just have to do? With an unquiet conscience, with an unquiet heart, we have only to hide behind the Saviour, Who is willing to take upon Himself all the accusations, all the burdens of all sins and omissions, all the painful memories and consequences of all irreparable offences. Who is willing to say to all that troubles our souls, "If ye seek me, forgive these things." Let their debt be forgiven them, for that debt has been paid to the last penny. Let them be released from the curse, for that curse has been made a blessing to them through the cross. Let them be absolved from the penalty, because that penalty has already been fulfilled by their divine Vicar. Let them be released from the sufferings of damnation and hell, because Someone has already emptied the cup to the bottom for them! And then, on the great day of judgment, let them be delivered from the judgment seat of God free and happy, for there too they will be covered by the faithfulness of the Good Shepherd: "Thus must the word be fulfilled which He said, 'Of those whom You have given Me, I have not let any perish.'" (verse 9) - Will you be there among them? Will you be there behind Him? You can come now! You can be here!
Come, let us say together, encouraging one another, but with faith:
Broken and empty, I give myself to him,
That he may make me new, That he may fill the void.
All my troubles and sorrows I give to the Lord,
He bears all my burdens, He erases my sorrows, He erases my griefs.
Canto 459, verse 2.
Amen
Date: 8 July 1951.
Lesson
Jn 18,1-11