PASSION WEEK – Friday (before dawn)
K, y’all… full disclosure… blogging my way through the Gospels has been the hardest thing yet. Even harder than Job and Ezekiel. Sometimes an event or parable is in only one gospel. Sometimes we get 4 versions of the same thing. And that is SO hard to keep straight! You oughta see all my little scribbled notes to try to keep track of it.
And I am also trying to keep things as chronological as possible. So I didn’t want to write about the arrest in the garden until we finished John 14-17 which fit in before the arrest.
Well I just realized that – though we already read it in previous chapters (Mt. 26, Mk. 14, Lk. 22) I never wrote a syllable about Jesus praying in Gethsemane.
😐 That’s kinda an important part.
Yes it is. So we’re going to squeeze it in here even though it’s not included in John 18.
THE PRAYER IN GETHSEMANE
“When Jesus had said these things, he went out with his disciples to the other side of the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden into which he and his disciples entered.”
John 18:1 LEB
The name Gethsemane means “oil press.” It was a grove of olive trees with a press in the grove.
Matthew and Mark record that when Jesus entered the garden He withdrew from the group and took Peter, James, and John with Him. He was very grieved in His spirit and asked them to wait for Him and keep watch. Luke tells us that Jesus walked about a stone’s throw further and began to pray.
Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus went away 3 separate times and prayed. Each time He came back to Peter, James, and John, they were asleep.
You may have grown up seeing a copy of this oil painting by German artist, Heinrich Hoffman, painted in 1886. And it’s pretty. But Jesus is way more serene in this painting (and most others) than how the text actually describes Him.
Matthew records that Jesus “fell on His face,” (26:39). He was grieved to the point of death. Luke the Physician includes the detail of the bloody sweat which we now know happens when capillaries in the skin burst due to extreme stress.
A grief-stricken, sweat-soaked, bloody man lying on His face is not how the artists usually depict Jesus in Gethsemane.
It was so bad that an angel was actually dispatched to strengthen the Son of God.
Think about that.
This is Jesus.
He walks on water. He commands winds to be still and dead people to get up. He teaches for hours and days on end and still has the strength to turn loaves and fish into a feast. He orders a legion of demons to leave and handily withstands Satan himself after 40 days without food.
But this… the weight of sin…the weight of what is about to happen…
He needs an angel – that He created – to come and support Him.
It’s appropriate that this is taking place in a place called “Oil Press.” There were 3 steps for extracting the olive oil in Gethsemane. Jesus experienced a parallel of all three.
- SWEATING – The harvested olives were salted to induce “sweating.” This warmed the fruit and made oil release easier.
- CRUSHING – The olives had to be crushed in order for the oil to be released. They would be poured into a shallow stone trough and a huge stone would be rolled over them; mashing them into a paste.
- PRESSING – The mashed olives would be scooped into woven, circular straw mays. Several of these mats would be stacked up and a heavy beam placed on them. Stones would be added on top of the beam to increase the weight, forcing the oil out of the mashed paste.
Jesus was sweating in the garden. His soul was crushed with grief and His body mashed and mangled. Within hours He would have a heavy beam placed on Him as He walked to Calvary where His life would flow out of Him. Jesus was being pressed in Gethsemane.
There is no other way to bring about salvation. That’s what He’s praying. If there is any other possible way to save the world that doesn’t involve torture and death, “let this cup pass from me…” But there is no other way. And Jesus submits to the suffering.
Our sufferings never replace or surpass those of Jesus but perhaps they echo His. Maybe our own experiences of lonely agony can serve to bring us to the utter surrender of “not my will but Yours be done,” and ultimately to victory.
THE ARREST
“So Judas, taking the cohort and officers from the chief priests and from the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.”
John 18:3 LEB
These were not Roman soldiers. These were temple guards. Levites.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke record the kiss of betrayal by Judas. John does not. My best guess is that Judas identifies Jesus with the gesture and then this happens…
Jesus: Who are looking for?
Guards: Jesus the Nazarene.
Jesus: I AM.
The text in Greek literally just says, “I Am.”
“So when he said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.”
John 18:6 LEB
And no wonder. The I Am has just uttered the Divine Name from the burning bush.
They recover and Jesus again asks them who they are looking for.
Think about that. He knows they are there to arrest Him and He’s standing there like a customer service agent asking “How can I help you today?” Make no mistake, Jesus is the One in charge here.
The text seems to suggest that the guards had perhaps already captured the other 8 disciples because Jesus tells the mob, “If you’re looking for me, let these men go.” And then Peter takes a swing at the high priest’s servant (probably a bodyguard) named Malchus.
🤔 I’ve always thought it was weird that Peter cut off a guy’s ear. Why would he do that?
Well, I don’t think Peter meant to cut off just an ear. I think the guy ducked.
😳 You mean, Peter was gonna… 🗡️
Yup.
Well, Jesus DID just tell them “If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one,” (Lk. 22:36).
But Jesus didn’t mean for them to start a battle. He told Peter to put away the sword and even healed Malchus’s ear.
Then, as they began to take Jesus away, the disciples run for it and there’s a random naked guy mentioned in Mark.
😳 A what?!
🤓 Random naked guy? What’s he doing?
I don’t know. You tell me…
“And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.”
Mark 14:51-52 ESV
Ancient tradition says that this was none other than the Gospel writer Mark himself. He was not one of the 12 but he was a follower of Jesus from a young age.
🤓 Why was he dressed in a sheet?
We don’t know but traditiona also connects the mother of John Mark with the Upper Room where Jesus just ate the Passover; perhaps it was even her home. Maybe Mark had been in bed and heard the disciples leaving and he decided to follow Jesus but didn’t have time to get dressed so he just wrapped up in a sheet and followed Jesus and the disciples to Gethsemane.
THE ILLEGAL NIGHT TRIAL
Jesus gets hauled around a bit during the wee hours of the morning.
- Annas – high priest emeritus, father-in-law of current high priest Caiaphas. Annas questions Jesus and it may be that this is where Peter’s denials begin.
- Caiaphas – high priest, lives in a huge house, has the scribes, chief priests and council of elders assembled. They were not supposed to meet at night.
- They bring in many false witnesses. The law required at least 2 witnesses to agree before a guilty verdict could be called. It took a while before they were able to get 2 of them to agree.
- Peter denies Jesus and the rooster crows.
- Jesus is slapped around and mocked by the leaders of Israel.
- Tradition has it that Jesus was kept for a few hours in an empty cistern under the home of Caiaphas. This:
There are stairs down to the cistern now, but Jesus would’ve been lowered by ropes through the round hole in the ceiling (still there). In that way, Jesus was like Joseph who was kept in a dry cistern while waiting to die (see Gen. 37:20-24).
Perhaps Jesus leaned against a wall and slept. This will be His last chance to rest.
