John 18:1-11 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” 10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) 11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
INTRODUCTION
There are events in world history and in each of our lives that truly and dramatically catch us off guard. That is, we all know of and have experienced the sensation of going about our day as usual only to be surprisingly confronted with an unexpected situation, confrontation, conversation, or piece of news. Imagine Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7th, 1941 or downtown NYC on July 11th, 2001. Imagine going in for a routine checkup only to find out you have some serious health condition. Imagine finding out that your spouse had been unfaithful. Imagine getting a phone call letting you know that a loved one was in a car crash. You get the idea.
As I mentioned last week, the backdrop and tone change dramatically from the end of ch.17 to the beginning of ch.18. In ch.17, Jesus was praying in a garden with His closest followers nearby. It was a humble, hopeful prayer for Himself and His followers. It was a quiet, isolated setting. And then, ch.18 begins with the “shocking” description of one of Jesus disciples betraying Him.
Was Jesus’ experience like Pearl Harbor, 9/11, a cancer diagnosis, revealed adultery, or news of a crash? In one way it was. There was a clear, immediate, and tragic shift in Jesus’ situation—from prayer to betrayal. But in a more significant sense, it was very different. As v.4 clearly states, Jesus was fully aware of that betrayal. Indeed, Jesus came to earth to endure it. Far from being shocked out of peaceful prayer by an unexpected betrayal, Jesus had known about it and been preparing His disciples for it from the beginning. And, therefore, far from being subdued against His will, Jesus willingly surrendered Himself as a ransom.
The big idea of this passage is that the time had come for Jesus to “drink the cup that the Father” had given Him—He knew exactly what was coming, because it was the loving, eternal plan of God, to save the world. The main takeaway for us is to humbly trust Jesus’ promises even when conventional reason suggests otherwise—especially His promise to save those who would trust in Him.
A BRIEF WORD ON THE BACKGROUND
Before we come to the substance of the passage, let’s first consider a few background ideas. But before we come to the background ideas, let’s first consider why we would do that.
I heard a pastor liken preaching to a nice dinner a while ago. Preparing to preach is a lot like a chef’s time in the kitchen. A chef typically selects ingredients, cuts, mixes, cooks, bakes, and arranges outside of the view of those who will eventually eat the food. The vast majority of what a chef does is never seen by restaurant guests. Likewise, pastors typically study, diagram, pray, outline, consult commentaries, and go through several revisions of the sermon apart from the knowledge of those who will eventually hear the sermon. Intentionally, much of the work a chef does in the kitchen and a pastor does in the study never sees the light of day.
Under ordinary circumstances, people who go to a restaurant don’t want to know about how their food was prepared, they simply want to enjoy eating it and be nourished by it. Again, that’s a lot like preaching.
However, there are times in which your enjoyment of a well-prepared meal is enhanced by a chef’s explanation of the ingredients, the reason behind their combination and pairing, and certain aspects of their preparation. And, once again, in the same way, sometimes getting a bit more of the background of a passage (grammar, history, literary or historical context, etc), can help appreciate the content of the sermon. I think this passage is one of those kinds of passages. There are five specific pieces of background information that I think will serve to enhance the three main points of the passage—that will make it more nourishing and enjoyable.
The Path to the Garden
Our passage is set in a garden. The first piece of background/kitchen information concerns the path that Jesus and His followers took to the garden. Throughout chapters 13-14, Jesus and the Twelve were together in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem. That’s where they celebrated the Passover meal together. At the end of ch.14, Jesus said to His disciples, “Rise, let us go from here.”
This background information is significant for two main reasons. First, this means there is a good chance that the events of ch.15-17, including Jesus’ high priestly prayer, took place as Jesus and the eleven walked together from that house to this garden. In that way, it is right to imagine these men walking, talking, and praying together over some length of time at night. They walked through lower Jerusalem, came around the Temple Mount, across the brook Kidron, and made their way up the Mount of Olives, which looked down on the Temple Mount.
Grace, Jesus, the Son of David, was leading His followers around the City of David, seeing all the things put in place by God over centuries to prepare the way for…Him…on His way to His death at the hands of those He came to save. In the city in which most things pointed to Him, in the darkness of night, set the perfect backdrop for what was to come.
And second, this is significant because it’s another reminder of the historical reality of these events. These are real people, in real places, doing real things, at a real point in time. There really were streets to walk and animal droppings to avoid, streams to cross and mountains to climb. This took place at a time in which the city was as full as it would be, celebrating a meal and the God who gave it to them just as they had done for centuries.
This is not a myth or a fairy tale or one more religious lesson. It is as real and true as is the fact that we are all here now, on Faxton Ave., in Wyoming, MN, at Grace Church, in the year of our Lord 2024.
The Garden Testimony
Second, this garden itself testified to Jesus. It did so in several ways, but I’d like to quickly point out just two. First, it was an olive garden (not that kind). We learn from the other Gospels that this “garden” was called Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36; Mark 14:32) and on the side of the Mount of Olives. This is significant because it’s a reminder that God gives what He requires. For instance, God required pure olive oil to be used to light the lamps of the Tabernacle. And God sent Jesus as the sinless light of the world. Similarly, pure olive oil was used to anoint kings and priests. And God gave Jesus as the Priest and King.
Second, and even more significantly, throughout his Gospel, from the very first words, John has connected many of stories to the creation account in Genesis. His main point seems to be to communicate the continuity and imminent fulfillment of the one grand story in Jesus.
In that way, as you undoubtedly remember, Genesis begins in a garden, with a man tempted by Satan. It’s impossible to miss that this story is coming to a climax in a garden with a new temptation by Satan. The first man, in the first garden, Adam, succumbed to that temptation and died such that all mankind died with him. This next man, in this olive garden, Jesus, came to do what the first man didn’t and undo what he did. He came to resist temptation and die in our place such that all mankind might live with Him.
Again, everywhere Jesus went was a reminder that all things were made by Him and for Him. And that is a reminder of what an absolutely treacherous thing it is that He went to be betrayed in a garden filled with a fruit created to instruct and prepare a people for His glory.
The Authorities and the Betrayal
Third, it’s important to grasp the significance of who Judas brought with Him in his betrayal. In v.3 we read, “Judas…procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees”.
The thing to see here is that Judas brough two groups of two groups who despised each other. The “band of soldiers” was Roman and the “officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees” were Jewish. Romans and Jews hated each other at that time since the Jews were under Roman control and oppression. And within the Jewish officers were both Pharisees and Sadducees. They too hated each other at that time because of different interpretations of the Law and different spheres of authority.
The background key to all of this is that it took quite a situation to bring these groups together under a common cause. Jesus was a significant problem in their eyes, so much so that waring groups joined forces to put Him down. What would it take for today’s Democrats and Republicans to come together in a common cause, with a common strategy? And again, the thing to see is that it was the One who came to save the world who united them.
The Tools of the Betrayal
The third piece of significant background information (which we just considered) was the people Judas brought with Him. The fourth (which we’ll now consider) was the objects they brought with them.
They brought weapons and lights (3). The weapons were brought by the (possibly 600) Roman soldiers. The weapons and the numbers are significant in that they meant that the Romans understood the seriousness of the situation, but not the nature of it. Jesus made clear from the beginning that His kingdom was not of this world. He’d also made clear that He had come to die, not to kill. That’s the essence of vs.10-11, which we’ll come back to in a bit.
They brought weapons and they brought lanterns and torches. The torches and lanterns make it clear that it was night, which is significant because that meant the Jewish leaders were acting against the Law of God. To ensure justice, God had prescribed the manner in which a person could be accused and tried of a capital offense, and part of God’s prescribed manner was that trials had to be done in the daytime. This was treacherous treachery and everyone knew it.
The Need for Betrayal
The final piece of background/kitchen information I’d like to give concerns one of the more interesting aspects of this whole scene. Why was there a need for betrayal? More specifically, why did Judas need to be involved? Hadn’t Jesus lived and taught and performed marvelous works in public for years, in and around Jerusalem? Wouldn’t His face have been recognized by nearly everyone? Certainly, the Romans and Jewish leaders could find plenty of men among them who’d seen Jesus, right? Was this really a matter of identifying Jesus for those who wanted Him dead?
There are two answers to this question; one practical and one spiritual. The practical reason for the need for Judas is hinted at in v.2, “Jesus often met there with his disciples.“ Jesus and His followers (including Judas) had gone regularly to this particular garden. This is significant, the text tells us, because it’s how Judas knew where to take the authorities. It seems like none of the arresting party recognized Jesus, but that is almost certainly related to the fact that it was dark and on the side of a mountain. He was easy to find and recognize in the day (Mark 14:49), but because the leaders decided to do their wickedness at night to avoid stirring up the crowds, they needed an inside man to pinpoint Jesus’ location at a time in which (they thought) He’d be most vulnerable.
And the spiritual reason was that God had long ago promised a betrayer, which John points out, and which we’ll consider in a bit. In other words, the spiritual need for Judas’s betrayal was to fulfill prophecy and serve as the starting line for Jesus’ path to the cross.
My aim is that this more-than-normal time in the “kitchen” is to set you up well to enjoy the rest of the “meal;” the meal of Jesus knowing what was coming, because it was according to God’s loving, eternal plan, to save the world.
JESUS KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT
If you remember back to John 13, we’re told that at the end of the Passover meal, “…after receiving the morsel of bread, [Judas] immediately went out [to betray Jesus]. And it was night.”
Luke adds another key detail.
Luke 22:1-6 …the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put [Jesus] to death, for they feared the people. 3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot… 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
Provoked by Satan, Judas sought out an opportunity to betray Jesus. It seems that he caught wind of the wicked desires of the Jewish leaders and looked for a way to profit from it. He went to them.
In other words, at some point during Passover week, Judas met with the Jews and they contrived a plan to capture Jesus out of the eye of the public. Judas, knowing the quiet place in which Jesus took His disciples, the garden of Gethsemane, and the fact that they’d be going there once again after the Passover, set it all up. At the end of the Passover meal, Judas left the group and went off to set the plan in motion.
Just as he imagined and revealed to the Jews, after the meal, “[Jesus] went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered” (1).
Thus, when we come to v.3 of our passage, we read, “So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.”
What a treacherous act! What a diabolical scheme! Entrusted as one of Jesus’ closest followers, having lived and served with Jesus for years, having heard His teaching and witnessed His miracles, having been offered eternal life by Jesus at the cost of His own life, Judas chose to betray Jesus. Indeed, more than a mere passing thought or initial impulse that he later regretted and aborted, he saw it all the way through. He did it. He betrayed Jesus and did so such that he believed himself to have successfully carried out the coupe in secret.
Under ordinary circumstances, things might have been just as they appeared. It might have been a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 where Jesus thought He was in the clear, only to be completely caught off guard by Judas’s wickedness.
As I mentioned in the introduction, however, these were anything but ordinary circumstances. Far from surprised, as we saw for the first time back in 6:64, “Jesus knew from the beginning … who it was who would betray him.”
Similarly, a little late in John 6(:70) we read that, “Jesus [said], ‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.”
Again, in John 13:21 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
And most clearly of all, in v.4 in our passage we read, “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward…”.
Jesus was not caught off guard by Judas’s betrayal. It was not a surprise at all. He expected it. He planned on it. He prepared for it. He prayed about it. He came forward to receive it. He was not subdued, He volunteered.
Grace, all by itself, even apart from the greater glory of the next point, this is a remarkable thing. Rightly understood, it is nourishing and enjoyable to eat. At the very least, on its own, it means that Jesus was wise beyond any ordinary wisdom and trusted in His Father with an extraordinary faith.
It might be possible for someone particularly in tune with the people and circumstances surrounding him to anticipate such a thing. Think Sherlock Holmes on steroids. We have a concept, even if it’s only on TV of someone with nearly this level of perceptive power. Even on an earthly level, though, for Jesus to know that He would be betrayed and by whom the betrayal would come, as far in advance as He did (“from the beginning”), puts him in a category all by Himself. It’s worth marveling at.
Likewise, even if Jesus was merely a man like us, the faith He placed in His Father to carry the weight of such a thing for years is astounding. Imagine 3+ years living with someone, nearly 24 hours/day, knowing all the while that one day they’d betray you to the worst death imaginable. Imagine willingly enduring that in faith that God’s good plans for it were more than worth it. Imagine Abraham’s march to the alter with Isaac on steroids. That too is worth tasting and seeing the glory of Jesus.
And yet, of course, Jesus was not merely a more perceptive Sherlock Holmes and a more faithful Abraham. His knowledge and faith went far, far deeper than exceptional insight and extraordinary trust.
That leads to the second main course of this meal.
JESUS CAME TO BE BETRAYED, ACCORDING TO GOD’S LOVING, ETERNAL PLAN, IN ORDER TO SAVE THE WORLD
Jesus knew what to expect because the betrayal was a part of the loving, eternal plan of God for the salvation of the world.
We see this in Psalm 41:9, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” This Psalm predicted the events of John 18:1-11 in ways David never could have imagined.
That’s astounding, isn’t it, Grace? Inspired by God, unknowingly, King David wrote a song, sung by the people of God, about Judas’s betrayal of Jesus, centuries before it happened. O, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Jesus knew what to expect because He knew the Psalm was about Him.
But that leaves us wondering why that would be the case. Why would God intend His Son to be betrayed and inspire a song about it? Who writes corporate songs about a betrayal? Why was it worth commemorating and celebrating?
The answer takes us a bit further back and deeper into the meaning of all of this. More fundamentally, and many years earlier, in Genesis 3:15, God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Before explaining how that relates, I simply want you to note that within the first three chapters of the Bible is a promise of someone who will crush the head of Satan. And before explaining what that means, consider a couple of NT passage with a similar promise.
In Ephesians 1:3-4, Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
Similarly, in 1 Peter 1:20 we read, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you…”
God promised that a descendant of Eve would one day defeat the devil who tempted Adam and Eve. More than that, we’re told that Jesus was that descendant, that His coming was promised long before Genesis 3 even—before the foundation of the word, and that He would not only defeat the devil but save a chosen people.
Indirectly, we see this in our passage in the fact that at His self-revelation the authorities “drew back and fell to the ground”. There is no explanation for this other than the glory and power of God being briefly revealed to the betrayer and his henchmen. In that moment, in that revelation of glory, they were given yet another chance to recognize that the man they sought to kill was no mere man, though none accepted. Like the rest of Jesus’ marvelous works and words, it didn’t register. That’s what sin does.
Indirectly this is evidenced by the fact that Jesus commanded the Romans and Jews to let His disciples go, “to fulfill the word that he had spoken: ‘Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.’” Jesus came with the power to save a people from sin. We catch a small glimpse of that in the fact that these armed men of authority acknowledged Jesus’ power to save the eleven from them.
Directly, we see this in our passage at the very end. There we find that the sword-carrying Romans were not the only ones who understood the seriousness of all of this without truly grasping the significance. Peter too knew that this was serious. He too carried a sword. But in that, he too revealed that he didn’t yet truly understand what was happening.
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
On one hand, we are right to be amazed by all of this confusion in the face of the very Son of God. At the same time, however, it was through the confusion of Judas, the Romans, the Jews, and Peter, that Jesus made everything clear.
11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Throughout the beginning of His ministry, when pressed to speak with greater clarity or act in more miraculous ways, Jesus consistently said that His time had not yet come. But then, beginning at the end of chapter 12, the beginning of this Passover week, Jesus changed His message, revealing that the hour was now at hand.
Jesus’ time/hour ultimately referred to His suffering, death, and resurrection, which, in the final words of our passage, Jesus referred to as drinking “the cup that the Father has given [Him].
The heart of this passage is that Judas’s betrayal was the first domino to fall on the way to those things. And that is what made this Psalm worthy; not the betrayal, but the fact that the betrayal was part of the plan of God for the salvation of the world. In that way, Judas’s betrayal, as diabolical as it was, was a representation of the fact that we’ve all betrayed Jesus. We are all Judas in that sense.
Grace, I invite you to eat the meal—for nourishment and enjoyment—of the loving, eternal plan of the godhead to send Jesus into the world, to be betrayed by Judas because He’d already been betrayed by the whole world, in order to save the world.
Humble yourself, acknowledge that you are Judas, and accept Jesus as the One who drank the cup of the wrath of God on your behalf. Turn to Him. Trust in Him. Put off worldly wisdom and eat His flesh and drink His blood as He commanded, and you will be forgiven, freed, reconciled, and brought eternally into the loving family of God as His beloved sons and daughters. Praise be to God!
CONCLUSION
The big idea of this passage is that the time had come for Jesus to “drink the cup that the Father” had given Him—it was why Jesus had come, it was the loving, gracious plan of God from eternity past, He knew what to expect, and it was the means by which Jesus would bring salvation to the world. The main takeaway for us is to humbly trust Jesus’ promises. We ought to respond to this passage in awe and wonder at the awesome plan of God to save us from our betrayal, through betrayal. And we ought, as a result, to gladly drink whatever cup the Father has for us, knowing that will certainly be a more refreshing drink than any other.