John 18:1-14
1 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?” 12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
The Bible is a story about gardens.
Indeed, the whole human race is a story about gardens. Our story as a race began in a garden: Eden. Our story as a fallen race finds its hope in a garden: when Jesus accepts the reality of the cross in Gethsemane. And our story as a redeemed race finds its fruition back in the garden: in the Kingdom of God where we see the tree of life and its leaves for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).
Or we might say more specifically that the story of the whole human race is a story about trees. We fell at the foot of the forbidden tree. We are saved at the foot of Jesus’ tree, the cross. We enter our eternal joy in the shadow of the tree of life in the Kingdom of God.
After praying for His disciples, Jesus goes to the garden for His betrayal. At the beginning of His ministry He went into the wilderness for His temptation. Here He goes into a garden for His betrayal.
It is not by accident that He comes to a garden. The fingerprints of Eden are all over this story. Indeed, the Apostle Paul will draw the parallel and the contrast between Jesus and Adam later on, but many of the Jews would likely have seen the irony admittedly.
Eden and Gethsemane. Adam and Jesus. The garden where we fell. The garden where Jesus determines to save us.
This connection is crucial. It is crucial because just as Adam and Eve stood in the garden at the dawn of creation, so Jesus, the second Adam, stands in the garden at the dawn of new creation. Just as Adam ushered in death by sinning against God in the garden, so Jesus will usher in life by being obedient in the garden.
Again, it is not by accident that Jesus was betrayed and arrested in the garden. While everything has been leading up to the cross, the reality of the cross begins here, in the garden.
Eden and Gethsemane. Let us consider these two gardens.
I. In Eden, a man is deceived by the devil. In Gethsemane, a man is betrayed by a friend. (v.1-3)
Jesus has finished His amazing High Priestly Prayer (ch.17) and now He leads His disciples to the garden of Gethsemane.
1 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.
It is interesting that John notes Jesus and the disciples crossing “the brook of Kidron.” William Barclay offers an intriguing thought about this little detail.
“They would leave by the gate, go down the steep valley and cross the channel of the brook Kedron. There a symbolic thing must have happened. All the Passover lambs were killed in the Temple, and the blood of the lambs was poured on the altar as an offering to God. The number of lambs which were slain for the Passover was immense. On one occasion, thirty years later than the time of Jesus, a census was taken and the number was 256,000. We may imagine what the Temple courts were like when the blood of all these lambs was dashed on to the altar. From the altar there was a channel down to the brook Kedron, and though that channel the blood of the Passover lambs was drained away. When Jesus crossed the brook Kedron it would still be red with the blood of the lambs which had been sacrificed.[1]
This is a provocative thought: the Lamb of God crossing the brook of blood stained red by the blood of thousands of lesser sacrifices. The Lamb of God who came to offer the once-for-all redemptive sacrifice of Himself crosses the barrier of sacrificial blood on His way to the cross.
Now we approach the Gethsamene.
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.
Like the collision of two storm fronts forming a perfect storm, Christ moves toward His great work and Judas toward his great evil. The two collide in the garden. “Judas,” John tells us, “also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.” It was a familiar place, a place where Judas had previously communed and fellowshipped with Jesus.
Had they laughed together in this garden? Had they prayed together? Did they discuss the ways of the Lord in this garden?
Likely they had done all of these things. But not now. Now the earlier theater of their friendship is perverted into the present theater of a hellish crime.
Judas comes to meet Jesus, but he does not come alone. In fact, Judas brings with him representatives of the two great forces that will conspire to kill the Lord Jesus: the religious establishment and the state (“a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and Pharisees”). Judas comes to betray the Lord Jesus.
It is hard to fathom how utterly wicked this act of betrayal is. In Matthew 26:24, Jesus said, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
Indeed, it would have been better for Judas had he never been born. His act of betrayal has gone down as the most despicable and cowardly act in all of human history. He betrays his friend and he does so with a kiss.
In Michael Card’s song “Why?” he asks a question about Judas’ betrayal and then answers it:
Why did it have to be a friend who chose to betray the Lord?
and why did he use a kiss to show them, that’s not what a kiss is for?
Only a friend can betray a friend, a stranger has nothing to gain.
and only a friend comes close enough to ever cause so much pain.
Jesus went into Gethsemane and was betrayed by Judas. Judas came to Jesus like a serpent. In fact, the ancient serpent was intimately involved in Judas’ actions. In John 13:27, John tells us that “Satan entered into” Judas.
It is not the first time the serpent had met his target in a garden. In Eden, the ancient serpent deceived Adam and Eve. In Eden, he led our first parents into sin and ruin. They fell, and we fell with them.
Gethsemane becomes Eden all over again, alike in some ways but thankfully different in so many other ways. But here is a similarity: the serpent works mischief once again. In Eden, he deceives. In Gethsemane, he betrays.
Dear church, please heed me: the serpent does not and has not changed. The ancient serpent still seeks to meet us in the garden and do us mischief. Sometimes he is direct in his assault. At other times, he comes to us in the guise of a friend. But the devil still does what the devil has always done: he deceives and betrays.
II. In Eden, a man sins and hides. In Gethsemane, a man is obedient and reveals Himself openly. (v.4-9)
In Eden, the serpent leads a man into sin. In Gethsemane, the serpent attacks a man who never sinned. As a result, in Eden, a man sins and hides. In Gethsemane, a man is obedient and reveals Himself openly. Something is hidden in Eden. Something is revealed in Gethsemane.
Notice Jesus’ deliberate resolve to advance, to reveal Himself, to proclaim His person and His presence:
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.”
Behold the courage and resolve of the Son of God:
- Jesus comes forward on His own.
- Jesus addresses the crowd before they address Him.
- Jesus reveals Himself immediately: “I am he.”
- Jesus repeats the question after they fall to the ground.
- Jesus reveals Himself yet again: “I told you that I am he.”
- Jesus moves to protect His disciples: “So, if you seek me, let these men go.”
His mind is made up. His resolve has been steeled. He is ready. He marches into the face of death. He has struggled and He has wept but now He comes. What unbelievable courage!
Last night I read to Roni and Hannah Alfred Lord Tennyson’s epic 1854 poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” We were watching the movie “The Blind Side” and there’s a scene where they discuss “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” So, of course, I looked it up and read it! (Pray for your pastor’s wife and child! Ha!) Do you remember this poem? Many of you know it well. In it, Tennyson hails and celebrates the raw courage of the British calvary in Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. Do you remember?
Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns’ he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismay’d ?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Some one had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d & thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash’d all their sabres bare,
Flash’d as they turn’d in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder’d:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel’d from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter’d & sunder’d.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
Ah, yes! We love undaunted courage! We love resolve in the face of death! We write poems and songs about courage like this.
But does any great act of bravery even compare to Jesus’ charging into the garden, knowing what He will face? I think not! He charges into “the jaws of death,” into “the mouth of Hell,” and He does so knowing exactly what is about to happen. The men who charged with the Light Brigade knew that they may face death in their charge. It was a noble and brave task to take up. But Jesus knew that He would face the cross in His charge, and the world has never seen anything like it.
The sin in Eden led to a concealment and to hiding.
The obedience in Gethsemane led to a radical uncovering and revelation of the Champion who had come to conquer through obedience.
III. In Eden, the shedding of blood is accepted by God. In Gethsemane, the shedding of blood is rejected by God. (v.10-11)
Jesus reveals Himself in power. The hostile crowd, once they had recovered, moved forward to seize Jesus. When they did so, Peter reacted in the way he deemed best and bloodshed resulted.
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?”
It is interesting, that little parenthetical statement: “The servant’s name was Malchus.” Does that suggest that this man came to accept and embrace Christ and His way? Perhaps, for otherwise we wonder why they would even had taken note of his name.
Regardless, Peter strikes Malchus, cutting off his ear. Blood is shed in the garden, but Jesus rejects this blood: “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
This is not the first time that blood has been shed in a garden. In Eden, after our first parents fell in sin, blood was shed in the garden. In Genesis 3:21, we read, “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
The Lord killed an animal and covered the bodies of Adam and Eve in its skin. This was the first “sacrifice” of scripture and was a type of the sacrificial system to come. It linked the shedding of blood with the covering of sin, which is an idea central to the cross of Christ.
In Eden, the shedding of blood was necessary to reveal the nature of the fall of man and to establish the beginnings of the system of sacrifice that would reign from Eden to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
In Eden, the blood was necessary. But in Gethsemane, Peter’s shedding of blood was deemed inappropriate and illegitimate. Why? Three reasons: (1) because Jesus had embraced the cross and Peter was seeking to thwart the cross by his actions, (2) because human violence is not how the Kingdom of God is to advance in the world and (3) because the only blood that the world needed was the blood of the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus, shed on the cross.
Here is a contrast between the gardens: the blood of Eden that was necessary and looked forward to the cross and the blood of Gethsemane that was unnecessary and was seeking to stop Christ’s progress to the cross.
Blood would be shed again, the blood of Christ on the cross, and it would put an end to the entire system of sacrifices that preceded it. As the writer of Hebrews put it in Hebrews 10:
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Let us thank God that Jesus rejected the bloodshed wrought at the hands of Peter. We are not called to lop off ears. We are not called to advance the Kingdom with the sword. Such is not the way of Jesus. We are called instead to come to the cross and embrace the blood that was shed once-for-all for us all.
IV. In Eden, a man approaches what God has forbidden, takes it and brings death to the human race. In Gethsemane, a man approaches what God has called Him to, takes it and brings life to the human race. (v.12-14)
So the arrest is made, and the series of events leading to the cross come now with greater speed.
12 So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
Here we see the greatest contrast between the events that transpired in Eden and the events that transpired in Gethsemane. In Eden, a man approaches what God has forbidden, takes it and brings death to the human race. In Gethsemane, a man approaches what God has called Him to, takes it and brings life to the human race.
There is no more classic or powerful expression of this truth than that found in Paul’s words in Romans 5:
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Adam brings sin. The second Adam brings forgiveness.
Adam brings death. The second Adam brings life.
Adam takes what he thinks will be sweet and it turns bitter. The second Adam embraces what He knows will be bitter, and sweet waters of forgiveness flow forth.
Adam sins and hides. The second Adam is obedient and comes into the open.
Adam goes to a tree and sins and is cursed. The second Adam goes to a tree and becomes a curse for us to set us free.
We have lived under the curse of Adam. Now we can live in the freedom of the second Adam.
We have lived under the shadow of the tree that kills. We now live in the shadow of the tree where our salvation was won.
In Calvin Miller’s Divine Symphony, Miller writes:
Adam’s ghost walked through
Hiroshima’s ruins
Giving apples to the dying,
Begging their forgiveness.[2]
That is well said. We may trace all of the misery and pain and heartbreak of the human race to Adam. But it is not that simple. It is not as if the curse of Adam is a curse I have resisted. No, we may trace it all to our own rebellion, our own sin. I am cursed because I have eaten and I have rebelled. I am Adam!
But then the second Adam, Jesus, comes back to the garden and sets things right. He is obedient where I was disobedient. He says “Yes!” where I have said “No!” He is the champion where I was the coward.
Oh thank God for King Jesus, who walks with head held high into the mouth of Hell and slays the serpent through a radical act of life-giving obedience! Oh thank God that we have been set free!
Have you embraced the Jesus of Gethsemane, or are you still cursed in the Adam of Eden?
Come to Jesus! Come to Jesus and live!