A Creative Force (John 18:1-14)
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jeremy_1_05-14-2026_132607: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are ten-minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts. And today, we are on episode seventy, which sounds like, another big one. And just to let you know, we only have seven episodes left through the Gospel of John. And so, we are nearing the end of this book study.
We're getting into the final stretch as Jesus is now going to face His death. The teaching moments are over. The prayers are over. It is time to do what He knows needs to be done.
So much of what we've seen has been preparing for this moment, and now we're gonna see how this all takes place the way that John records it. So today, we're gonna look at John chapter eighteen, beginning in verse one. " After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees.[00:01:00]
Judas, the betrayer, knew this place because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and the 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. This is almost that kind of Western standoff, right? You have this group versus that group. You have this ultimate showdown that has been building throughout the Gospel of John. Now, I want you to just think for a second, how many people are you imagining when we read this story?
Perhaps you consider, like, a handful, right? Because you're thinking it's Jesus. He's not violent. They don't need a lot. But that's not what the text indicates. The Greek word that John uses here that we translate as a contingent of soldiers normally [00:02:00] refer to six hundred soldiers
Now, I don't think that there were six hundred soldiers, and so it's probably not the literal usage of the word there. But there was a similar word, that referred to a maniple of soldiers, and that would have been a hundred and twenty to two hundred. So the point being, there's probably way more people involved in this story than we tend to picture, than we tend to imagine.
And you might think, "Why on earth would they bring that many people?" Now again, we say that because most of us know Jesus is non-violent. We know he's not going to fight back. We know there's not gonna be, anything weird here. He's gonna go willingly. But you gotta remember, they don't know that. In addition, we already know in the Gospel of John, they had previously tried to arrest Jesus, and it didn't go well.[00:03:00]
This is in chapter seven. We already looked at this story. If you wanna go back and listen to that episode, that episode is called Becoming the Other, and that's where we looked at that passage in chapter seven. So what we have here is Judas and this group of soldiers who are determined to complete the job this time.
Like, "Hey, uh, you guys, we tried to arrest Jesus once. It didn't work, and Jesus, you know, talked his way out of it, so this time there's going to be a show of force." And so as you read this, you need to imagine this is probably a lot of people involved, almost an absurd amount of people involved for what's about to take place.
Verse four, " 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." Which I just love the way that John tells this story. I- [00:04:00] it's just incredible. "Who, who are you looking for," Jesus says. "'Jesus the Nazarene,' they replied. 'I am he,' Jesus said.
Now Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. As Jesus said, 'I am he,' they all drew back and fell to the ground. Once more he asked them, 'Who are you looking for?'" Which again, you just imagine Jesus standing over them, while they're on the ground. "And again, they replied, 'Jesus the Nazarene.' 'I told you that I am he,' Jesus said.
'And since I am the one you want, let these others go.'" Now, it's important to know if you compare the way John tells this story with the other three Gospel writers, John's version is way different than the other ones. In the other ones, Jesus does not seem this confident, but in John's version, Jesus is fully in control and in fact, you have the language making this scene almost humorous in how [00:05:00] lopsided it is.
For example, John says that Jesus fully realized- All that would happen. So nothing is catching him off guard here. He's fully aware of it. It says he stepped forward to meet them. Again, he's not waiting, he's not holding back. He is going forward to meet them. In fact, when he says, "I am he," John says that they all drew back.
So Jesus is going forward, they're drawing back, and then he says that they fell to the ground, which some scholars have even noted is almost a jab at they are worshiping Jesus or in a posture of worship almost against their will. They're falling to the ground at the feet of Jesus. And he has to ask a second time, "Hey, who is it you're looking for?"
So again, the way John , is portraying this scene, Jesus is fully in control. And even this, like, cohort of soldiers is thrown off guard in this moment. Now, I [00:06:00] want you to notice how Jesus is offering himself, but he is bargaining for the lives of his followers. So he doesn't just say, "Hey, take us all.
We're ready." He says, "Hey, you can have me. I'm the one you're looking for. Let everyone else go." So even in this moment, he is setting himself apart, saying, "I'm the one you want. You can let everyone else go home." Verse nine: He did this to fulfill his own statement, "I did not lose a single one of those you have given me."
Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest's slave. 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?" So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.
Now again, notice the fearful language. They're not just arresting him, they're tying him up in this process. First they took him to Annas, [00:07:00] since he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at that time. Caiaphas was the one who had told the other Jewish leaders, "It's better that one man should die for the people."
So it's likely here that Peter was indeed trying to rescue Jesus by force by killing the guy. And people go like, "Why the ear? Why is Peter cutting the ear off?" Well, I don't think Peter is aiming for the ear. He's aiming for the head. But here's what you gotta remember. This is a fisherman with a sword.
This is not Peter's training. This is not Peter's specialty. This is what Peter thinks in his mind. This is what good guys do, is they fight the bad guys with weapons. And so even though Peter has no idea how to use it- He's a fisherman with a sword, which again reminds me of a lot of Christians today with all of their, weapons that we tend to have.
And yet Jesus is going, "No, no, no, this is [00:08:00] not what it's about. This is not how we're going to do this. This is not what I came to do." This whole incident is designed to make the act of violence, the use of violence absurd. Like, "Peter, are, are you really so dense that you have no idea? Not only can you not even do the job, but I'm not here to defend myself.
Shall I not drink this cup of suffering?" And so then Jesus redirects it. "Peter, I'm willing to suffer. I'm ready to suffer." Now, we've talked a lot about the way of Jesus throughout this book, not just the ideas of Jesus' teachings, but the way of Jesus. And I can't help but wonder as we look at this moment, what does this teach us about the way of Jesus?
How do we face when we have overwhelming odds against us? Now, I don't think there's anything inherently good about suffering, but there are moments when we must face suffering in order for good to [00:09:00] emerge. And so I want to close with something that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said about his own suffering.
He said, " My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted, I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation, either to react with bitterness or to seek to transform the suffering into a creative force." And that is what Dr.
King did with his suffering, and that is what Jesus does with his suffering as well. That what we're gonna see in the remaining seven weeks as we study this gospel, we will see Jesus take this suffering and leverage it as the ultimate creative force to launch a movement that will literally change the world forever.
I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
