John 18:1–11

18:1–2 The Time and Place. Jesus was with his disciples for the Passover in 13:1. At the end of chapter 14, having washed their feet and instructed them, he declared, “Rise, let us go from here” (14:31). Perhaps they took their time, allowing for the speaking of chapters 15–17 prior to their arrival at the garden in 18:1. Perhaps a slow walking pace allowed the conversation to develop as they made their way across the Kidron to enter the garden.

Jesus had dismissed Judas to his awful work in 13:27. If Jesus intended to thwart the efforts of Judas to betray him, going to a garden known to the traitor was not the way to do it. Jesus, however, was not trying to avoid the hour for which he had come (cf. 12:27). Going to a garden known to Judas was part of the way that Jesus enacted his own words in 10:18 concerning laying down his life of his own accord.

Even in the smallest details, Jesus made choices that reflected his courage and resolve.

18:3–6 Jesus in Command. The force Judas led to the garden joined three divided factions against a common enemy, Jesus: a Roman band of soldiers, officers from the chief priests, and some from the Pharisees. The “band of soldiers” (v. 3) was a Roman cohort, a tenth of a legion. Legions consisted of 3,000 to 6,000 men, so a cohort would probably have been 300 to 600 men (cf. BDAG, s.v. σπεῖρα). If that number seems excessive, we can compare it with Acts 23:23, where the Romans prepared 470 men to escort Paul from Jerusalem to Caesarea.

Why would there be such concern over Jesus? He has caused an uproar in the temple (John 2:13–22), done provocative things before in Passover season (6:4–59), beguiled those sent to arrest him (7:30, 32, 45–46), slipped away when they tried to stone him (8:59), and escaped their hands when they tried to arrest him (10:39). In addition to proving difficult to pin down, Jesus has asserted in public, to crowds expecting a conquering king from David’s line, that “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23) and that the world’s ruler would now be cast out (v. 31). John’s audience knows that Jesus refers to the way he will be glorified at the cross, but the opponents of Jesus likely thought he was referring to a more worldly form of glory in a kingdom of this world.

The Jewish opponents of Jesus would have understood that Passover commemorated God’s delivering Israel from Egypt. They understood that the prophets had promised a new-exodus deliverance for God’s people. Now this Jesus, whose arguments they could not defeat, whose physical person they could not entrap, had begun talking about how the time had come for the glorification of the Daniel 7:13 Son of Man. What were they going to think? They would naturally expect trouble. They probably expected an attempt to overthrow the existing power structures in an effort to replace them with the fulfillment of the prophesied Davidic kingdom. Why they opposed such a thing is part and parcel of the shocking mystery of the Jewish rejection of Jesus.

Ironically, what the opponents of Jesus feared was exactly what was going to happen, but not in the way they expected. Rather than leading an armed revolt, Jesus would disarm his enemies with a willing surrender. Rather than attacking worldly regimes, Jesus would cast out the ruler of this world (John 12:31) by laying down his life for his sheep. Jesus would thereby crush the kingdoms of the world, establish his right to sit at the right hand of God, and show himself to be the world’s true king. The armies of Rome will be no more successful against him than the armies of Pharaoh were against the Red Sea.

The huge force comes with “lanterns and torches and weapons” (18:3) because they think they are coming against a mortal pretender, a revolutionary. They seek to vanquish what they expect to be a worldly rebel, and they plan to do it in a worldly way.

Look at the courage John records Jesus as showing in verse 4. He knows he has been betrayed. He knows they have come for him. He knows that cruelty, scorn, agony, and death loom large before him. What does he do? He steps forward to confront the darkness that will put to death the Light of the World. Jesus asks whom they seek (v. 4). When they reply, “Jesus of Nazareth” (v. 5), he uses the name the Father gave to him (17:11, 12; cf. 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19). With Judas standing there, Jesus asserts, “I Am” (18:5).

In a garden in the darkness, the multitude armed with weapons of the flesh is turned back and stumbles to the ground by the power of the one who stood alone. The Light of the World asserts his identity, and the “evildoers . . . stumble and fall” (cf. Ps. 27:2), the “enemies . . . turn back” (cf. Ps. 56:9). By laying low his enemies, Jesus demonstrates that he could overcome them on their terms. By neither pressing his advantage to victory nor using it to escape, he demonstrates his purpose to carry out the Father’s plan. He will lay down his life for the sheep.

18:7–9 Let These Men Go. Jesus has taken the offensive against those who have come to arrest him and has gained the advantage over them. His intent, however, is not to attack nor to flee to fight another day. With his enemies on the ground, Jesus again asks whom they seek (v. 7) and again asserts, “I Am,” before securing his objective: “If you seek me, let these men go” (v. 8).

The enemies of Jesus operate from worldly concerns in worldly ways and pursue a worldly agenda. The ability of Jesus to overcome his enemies in the worldly ways they understand does not distract him from his heavenly concerns. Jesus is the Savior, and Jesus is the example. If Jesus had not given himself up to secure the freedom of his disciples, they would likely all have been arrested in the sweep to find Jesus. If Jesus did not give himself up to secure the freedom of all who follow him, we would have had to face almighty justice on our own merits. And we could never stand. What looks like worldly success does not distract Jesus from his purpose. However others might be tempted from their purpose when they experience worldly success, Jesus is undistracted when he gains the upper hand.

Jesus resolutely, courageously does what the Father sent him to do. Jesus has repeatedly spoken of those whom the Father has given him (6:37; 10:29; 17:2, 6, 9, 24), and he has also repeatedly spoken of how he will not lose any of them (6:39; 10:28; 17:12). John asserts that Jesus’ putting himself into the hands of his enemies so that they would allow his followers to go free fulfills what Jesus said about not losing any of those whom the Father gave him (18:9).

18:10–11 Shall I Not Drink the Cup? What Peter does in verse 10 shows the confusion and frustration of all the disciples. Peter loves God, loves Jesus, and hates the wickedness of a world that would treat one so good as a criminal and a threat. Thus Peter takes action. He seeks to align himself with all that is true and right, but he fails to understand God’s purpose. If anyone has ever found himself trying to do the right thing for the right cause, only to do the wrong thing in the wrong way, he can identify with what Peter does here.

Peter was probably not aiming to cut off merely an ear; he was prepared to fight. Whether it was his intention to defeat the foe or only to create a distraction that would allow Jesus the chance to escape, consider the odds Peter confronted. He could no doubt tell from the many torches that a horde of enemies was at the garden after Jesus. Peter was clearly ready to die in his attempt to deliver Jesus (cf. 13:37). He failed to understand; he was ignorant of God’s plan (in spite of all that Jesus had taught).

Jesus’ telling Peter to stop (18:11) would have only increased his bewilderment. Jesus rebuked him and reaffirmed his own resolve to “drink the cup that the Father” had given him. For Jesus to drink the cup was to subject himself to the just wrath of the Father (e.g., Isa. 51:17, 22; Jer. 25:15–16). This reference to the cup that Jesus would drink establishes that Jesus was not merely giving himself to these officers so that his disciples could go free that night. Jesus was delivering his followers not merely from temporal, earthly capture; he was delivering them from the Father’s eternal, divine punishment that stood over them. By offering himself up in their place, Jesus drank the cup of wrath that God had righteously prepared in response to sin. By drinking that cup in their place, Jesus made it so that God could be “just” and the “justifier” of those who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26).