Carey's Bible Study Notes
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gethsemane and arrest
life of christ: Matthew 26.36-46; John 18.1-14
gethsemane and arrest
introduction
According to tradition, Jesus and His disciples shared the Passover meal in an upper room located at the southwestern edge of the city. After the meal was finished, Jesus proceeded with 11 of His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane which was located on the eastern side of the city, directly across from the Temple compound. As Jesus walked with the disciples through the city, then through the Temple compound, and finally across the Kidron valley to Gethsemane, He would have spoken the Farewell Discourse and prayed the High Priestly Prayer (John 13:31-17:26). All this time Jesus has focused on the disciples and the benefits His death will bestow upon them. Jesus now focuses upon the agony which Calvary is going to thrust upon Him. Will He be equipped for the pain He is going to suffer? That is the issue He must deal with as He enters Gethsemane.
It is appropriate that Jesus faces this struggle in Gethsemane for two reasons. First, the name "Gethsemane" means "the oil-press," that place where the workers crushed the olives to produce olive oil. The grinding of the olives serves as an apt metaphor for the anguish Jesus will experience in that garden. What happens in the next few hours in Gethsemane will determine whether Jesus will obey the Father by dying on the cross or will refuse and thereby dash any hopes we might ever have of salvation. Second, Zechariah prophesied that on the Mount of Olives, the location of Gethsemane, the Messiah would face a mighty struggle against the armies of the world in order to save His people (Zech. 14:2-4). Although that final battle awaits, the struggle on Gethsemane previews for us that final struggle. Just like Jesus won the battle against Satan on the Mount of Olives in Gethsemane 2000 years ago, so He will consummate His victory against Satan and his hosts on the Mount of Olives when He returns.
Before we look in detail at the account of Jesus� prayer in Gethsemane, we need to clear up the issue of whether or not this event really occurred. I have heard sincere Christians question whether or not this really happened. For example, they wonder how the disciples who wrote this account could know what had happened since they were asleep while Jesus was praying. Before answering, we need to remember that many times the Bible does not reveal to us the mechanics of how the writers knew everything that happened to Jesus or to the other heroes of the faith. The biblical authors were more interested in telling us their stories than in telling us how they knew about those stories. All we know is that they claimed to be eyewitnesses (2 Pet. 1:16). There is no doubt though that Jesus faced this titanic struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane because this is not the kind of story the early Christians would have concocted about Jesus. In fact, it was a story they discovered they had to defend to the opponents of Christianity. Why would the early Christians make up a story that potentially cast Jesus in a weak light and that they were going to have to defend? That does not make sense. Their opponents argued that Jesus could not be God the Son because of the "weakness" He displayed in the Garden. The truth though is that this episode does not ultimately portray Jesus in a weak light. What it does portray is the magnitude of the sufferings He was going to have to endure on the cross the next day. How great was the struggle? Luke informs us that Jesus was under so much stress that He sweat drops of blood. If Gethsemane had not happened, we would have never known how much anguish Jesus faced on the cross. Jesus would have been weak only if He had refused to go to the cross.
gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46)
Jesus heads for Gethsemane first because Jewish laws demanded that Passover pilgrims spend the night in Jerusalem during the Passover. Although Gethsemane was not technically inside Jerusalem because it lay outside the city walls, the Jewish religious leaders had declared that during Passover the Mount of Olives was to be considered a part of the city. This helped with the lodging of the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who attended the Passover. Jesus second heads for Gethsemane because He had spent the night there on the previous occasions He visited Jerusalem. Sometimes He would stay the night at Bethany with the family of Lazarus. At other times He would spend the night here in Gethsemane.
When Jesus enters the enclosed garden, He leaves 8 of the disciples on the outskirts of the garden and summons Peter, James, and John (the inner circle of the apostolic band) to accompany Him further into the garden. Although Jesus will go deeper into the garden by Himself alone, He wants these 3 nearby for moral support. They are His best friends, and He needs their support. He informs them that He is sorrowful to the point of death; in other words, His heart is so heavy that it is about to burst. This is not hyperbole because certain medical experts claim that Jesus literally died of a broken heart. Jesus does not want them to accompany Him for His own sake but also for theirs. Not only will Jesus need spiritual strength to weather the coming storm, they too will need that spiritual strength. This kind of strength results only from intensive prayer.
When Jesus goes deeper into the garden alone, He falls prostrate to the ground and asks the Father that if it is possible, He take this cup away from Him. The word "cup" in this sense refers to the cup of wrath which God is going to pour out upon Him. In order to prevent His people from experiencing the wrath they deserve for their own sins, God is going to place their sins upon His Son who will then need to suffer the wrath they deserved. There is not a drop of condemnation left for us to drink since Jesus drank the cup to the fullest. In fact, Paul claims that Jesus not only took our sins upon Him, He actually became sin (2 Cor. 5:21). The one who had always been so pure now feels filth, shame, and guilt for our sakes.
As bad as this will be, what�s even worse is that the Father will separate Himself from Jesus because Jesus had become sin. One of the worst things a son can experience is his father�s displeasure. This past week Nathan was involved in a weight-training program for 7th-grade football. The first day about killed him. His body is just not ready for that kind of workout. One day it will be; just not now. Well, his mom told him to inform me that he didn�t want to continue with the workouts. When he entered my bedroom where I was watching TV, I gave him a look that communicated, "Now what is all this about?" Like the good son he is, Nathan was really upset because he thought I was going to be disappointed in his decision. At that point I was able to reassure him of how much I loved him and Molly, and that nothing they ever did would ever keep me from loving them.
As good a son as Nathan is though, Jesus is the perfect Son. Throughout eternity the Father and Son have been in constant, intimate communion with one another. Not once did Jesus ever experience His Father�s displeasure. Now on the cross while Jesus is experiencing sin for the first time and needing His Father more than ever, He will not only be deserted by His Father, He will also experience God�s genuine wrath. Jesus� cry on the cross comes from a broken heart which for the first time experiences God�s displeasure. He�s willing to experience this though so that we will always have communion with the Father.
The prayer Jesus prays in the garden is unique in Jesus� ministry. As we saw earlier, Jesus� prayers normally took the form of thanksgiving (John 6:11; 11:41). In prayer Jesus always sought to know the Father�s will and then thank Him for how He was going to accomplish that will through Jesus. In this prayer though, Jesus comes with a pure request. Although what Jesus asks for may not harmonize with the Father�s will, as a genuine Son Jesus has every right to approach the Father and ask Him this request.
The first request is in the form of a first class conditional clause: "Father, if it is possible (and it is possible), then let this cup of wrath depart from Me." The way Jesus phrases this indicates that it is possible for Jesus to avoid the cross. What is not possible is that Jesus avoid the cross and we still be saved. Jesus as God�s Son has every right in the world to make this request. As the perfect Son who will always obey His Father, He qualifies the request with the statement, "Not My will but Thine be done." The results of such disobedience would have been cataclysmic. The unity of the God-head would have been ripped asunder, and the entire universe would have been cast into the abyss. Gethsemane is a critical moment not only in the life of the God-head but also for the destiny of the universe.
After Jesus had been praying for approximately one hour, He returns to the 3 disciples and discovers that they are fast asleep. Since the hour is late and since they have been drinking wine at the Passover meal, they are exhausted. Moreover, the surprise comments Jesus has made about His betrayal have thrown them into an emotional tailspin. Jesus asks them the rhetorical question why they could not stay awake with Him and pray. He acknowledges that although their spirit is willing, their flesh nevertheless is weak. By this last comment Jesus is not justifying their behavior though; He�s just explaining it. The fact is that even though they may have a good excuse for sleeping, they are nevertheless still going to face some terrible consequences because they did fall asleep and did not pray. Jesus encourages them to stay awake and pray with Him.
Jesus then returns by Himself into the inner recesses of the garden. Although our English versions translate this request pretty much like the first request, the Greek shows us that the requests are quite different. In the first request Jesus claims that the request is quite possible. In the second request Jesus acknowledges that it is now no longer possible: "If it were possible�but it is not!" The emphasis falls now on Jesus� resignation to the Father�s will: "Thy will be done."
After the second hour of prayer, Jesus returns to the 3 disciples and finds them sleeping again. Again He encourages them to stay awake and pray. Their response to the coming storm depends upon the time they spend in prayer before it hits. Jesus returns for a third and final session of prayer in which He reconciles Himself completely to the Father�s will. Arising from prayer the third time, He is ready for what is to come. He finds the disciples asleep once more. He does not encourage them to stay awake and pray because it is now too late. A quick conversational prayer will not carry them through this ordeal. They no longer have enough time to pray adequately. They had just as well sleep.
arrest (John 18:1-14)
At this point Jesus sees Judas approaching Gethsemane with the soldiers. Jesus approaches them instead of making them look for Him in the garden. Having been to Gethsemane, I easily see the dynamics which operated on that night. First, where Jesus prayed was so close to the Temple compound. The Temple itself would have been lit up for the Feast of Passover. While He prayed, He very easily could have seen the Temple bearing down upon Him. Instead of being the place where Jesus was going to be rightly glorified, the inhabitants of the Temple were going to use their authority to crush Him. Second, the Temple police would have come out of the gate of the wall next to the Temple. They would have crossed over the same bridge Jesus and His disciples crossed earlier. Because of the large number of soldiers coming to get Him and because of all the lanterns and torches they were bringing, at a distance Jesus would have seen them coming and approaching Gethsemane. He very easily could have escaped, ran over to the other side of the Mount of Olives, and hidden. In fact, He could have hurried away to Jericho. He could have been half-way to Jericho before they realized He had escaped their hands. That was not God�s will for His life though. Instead, Jesus meets His traitor and opponents head on.
John informs us that Judas approaches Jesus with a contingency of soldiers. Several elements about this contingency need to be pointed out. First, the word used to describe the contingency means they numbered anywhere between 200 and 600 men. Some NT scholars scoff at this number because they claim that such a number was unjustified and that such a large number would have left Jerusalem itself unprotected. In response, it is easy to see why Judas brought such a large number of soldiers with him. Although Judas believed that Jesus was not going to be the conquering militaristic Messiah he had always wanted Him to be, Judas did not know that if at the last moment Jesus might change and resist arrest and become that very kind of Messiah. Such a large number was necessary to handle any armed resistance from Jesus and His disciples. Moreover, they did not know about the reaction of the crowds. If the Passover crowds got wind of this, they might have rioted. Such a large number of soldiers would have made the crowds think twice before striking.
The second element about this contingency is that it was composed of both Jewish Temple police and also Roman soldiers. Again many scoff at the presence of the Romans. They claim that Pilate would have not gotten involved in such an affair since it was primarily religious and not political. In response though, such an action might have led to rioting in the streets; therefore, it was "wise" for the Jewish religious leaders to have Pilate be a part of this. Moreover, this may help explain why Pilate�s wife had a disturbing dream that very night about Jesus.
The third element concerns the lanterns and torches brought by the armed force. Many claim that the contingency would not have needed them because of the bright light provided by the Passover moon, the Passover always being held while the moon was full. Whereas that makes sense, it is also true that Judas and the religious leaders would have never in their wildest dreams thought that Jesus would have just turned Himself over to them. They probably thought that they were going to have to search for Him hiding up in the trees or behind some large boulders.
As the armed force enters the garden, Jesus approaches them and asks them for whom they are seeking. They reply, "Jesus the Nazarene." Jesus very calmly informs them, "I am He." At this the soldiers including Judas fall down to the ground. Why did they do this? Were they afraid that Jesus was going to attack them? That�s not what John seems to be saying. Literally Jesus says, "I AM," the very name God applied to Him at the burning bush, "I am that I am" (Ex. 3:14). In other words, Jesus in some way or other reveals to them His deity. They probably don�t understand what He is doing; however, something coming from Him overpowers them in such a way that they collapse to the ground.
Jesus again asks them whom they are seeking. They respond once more that they are seeking Jesus the Nazarene. Apparently it is at this point that Judas comes forward and kisses Jesus fervently on His cheeks. He calls Jesus, "Rabbi," that is, teacher, a far cry from the title of Lord with which he should have addressed Him. Jesus instructs Judas to carry out his designs.
Jesus next informs the soldiers that He is willing to submit to them on the condition that they let His disciples go free. By doing this Jesus is acting like the Good Shepherd who is laying down His life for His sheep (John 10:11). He will die in order to protect them. Peter though will have none of it. Luke informs us that the disciples took at least 2 swords with them when they left the upper room. Peter is not going to let Jesus get arrested. He still does not understand what kind of Messiah Jesus had come to be. He takes one of the swords and strikes at the head of slave of the high priest named Malchus. Although Peter cuts off only the lobe of the slave�s right ear, he was most likely hoping for more. He was probably trying to cleave the man�s head in two. When the slave saw the sword descending, he most likely dodged. He saved his head but lost his ear lobe.
Jesus rebukes Peter. Such an act was not only futile, it was inappropriate. If Jesus had wanted physical protection, He would not have relied upon Peter�s pitiful efforts. He could have called 12 legions of angels numbering 72k. (Matt. 26:53). Jesus though was going to submit voluntarily to death; Peter�s action just shows that he does not have a clue as to what Jesus is doing. Jesus claims that violence only begets more violence. According to Luke, Jesus then turns to the slave and heals his ear. At this point the soldiers bind Jesus and lead him to the real force in the Jewish religious supreme court, Annas the father-in-law of the high priest Caiaphas.