21 Days in the Book of JohnExemplo

The previous three chapters took place in the Temple Courts, but now Jesus moves to the Garden of Gethsemane – a place where He often met His disciples.

Here are a few things I’d like to point out about Chapter 18:

1. When Judas came to the garden, he was with as many as 600 soldiers and the temple police. They brought lanterns and weapons because they expected to have to find and seize a hiding Jesus. Did you notice that John doesn’t mention Judas betrayed him with a kiss? The soldiers asked for Jesus and He replied, “I AM.” Some versions may say “I am He” but the “He” was added later. This is a way Jesus identified Himself with the Father who used these same words many times. The soldiers fell to the ground with the power behind those words.
2. Simon Peter wanted to protect Jesus, so he used a heavy sword to cut Malchus’ ear off. Interestingly, he showed he was willing to prove his faith with his sword, but not his tongue. As we see later in this chapter, Peter will deny Jesus three times. Did you know on this night he may have denied him a total of up to 9 times (depending on which scholar you ask)? Each of the gospels records him denying Jesus 3 times, but they are not all the same occurrences.
3. Jesus stood trial 3 times before the Jews and 3 times before the Romans. There were at least 43 illegalities in the proceedings. When standing before Pilate, the Jews refused to go into the courtroom because they would be considered unclean and unable to eat at the Passover feast. They obviously were not concerned about lying, breaking the law, or murdering an innocent man. The initial charges were for blasphemy but that was not a strong enough allegation for crucifixion, so they changed it to treason. The custom of releasing a prisoner outside of the gospels is unknown. In Aramaic, Barabbas means “son of a father.” Some suggest his release symbolizes that Jesus died for every son of every father. The son of a father gets to go free, but The Son of The Father gets put to death.