John 18 introduces us to the greatest day in the history of the world: the final twenty-four hours of Jesus’ life prior to His crucifixion and death. How packed with action these hours are! We’re prone to consider them exclusively as a theological event called the atonement, forgetting that all the events recorded in this chapter happened in real time. We lose the action, the tension, the horror, the pain, the shame, and the bravery of our 33-year-old Savior. Christ did not die a theoretical death. In John 18, Jesus enters the Holy Place as our High Priest where He will tread the winepress of God’s wrath. The culmination of His sufferings consists of the events that took place in Gethsemane, the garden of agony; Gabbatha, the judgment hall of Pilate; and Golgotha, the hill of execution.
Our chapter begins with Jesus and the disciples leaving Jerusalem after celebrating the Passover. Christ is about to lay down His life for His disciples, including the ones who were just disputing who was the greatest among them, those who would forsake Him in His darkest hour, and the one who would deny Him that night. To all He said, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Greater love hath no man than this!
Jesus and His disciples leave Jerusalem through the gate north of the temple. “He went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into which he entered” (John 18:1). This garden was known as Gethsemane, on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives where large, massive olive trees grew, and where the Lord had often gone to pray. But this time He went forth not only to pray but also to suffer betrayal, arrest, and captivity. That is emphasized in verse 4, which says, “Jesus, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth.”
Do the words He went forth give you pause? If not, consider that Jesus went forth, knowing that His disciples would abandon Him, knowing the bitter suffering that was required to make satisfaction for His people’s sins, and knowing the betrayal that Judas, His hand-picked disciple—one of the twelve—had already negotiated with the Jewish authorities. Jesus went forth, knowing that He would be whipped and beaten and spat upon, knowing that the hairs of His beard would be plucked out, and knowing that great nails would be driven through His hands and feet. Jesus went forth, knowing how full and how bitter the cup was that He must drink, down to the dregs. He must be delivered into the hands of wicked men, be crucified, and abide for three dark hours under the wrath of God in the torments of hell itself, until at last He will give Himself up to the power of death itself. Knowing all this, He went forth undaunted and strong in His determination to finish the work He had been given to do in this world.
He knew all that, but He knew you too, and He knew me. He knew His church. He knew that company of people there, which God had told Abraham would be as numerous as the sand on the seashores. He knew us with a loving knowledge, with a sympathetic knowledge, with a forgiving knowledge. He knew that soon we would all be with Him forever as His ransomed people and loved ones. What a joy to be surrounded by everybody we love, without one missing! That was the joy and hope set before Him that strengthened Him and enabled Him to endure the shame of the cross.
Jesus went forth not as a martyr or a helpless victim, but as the willing Suffering Servant of Jehovah, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as the Lamb of God. No one will ever comprehend the magnitude of the sufferings of the King-Lamb in this awesome hour at Gethsemane. In this sermon, I wish to expound the theme of Christ in Gethsemane as the King of kings and the Lamb of God, emphasizing verses 7-8 and 12-13a of John 18: “Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way…. Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, and led him away.”
I set two major points before you: (1) the King’s threefold sovereignty, and (2) the Lamb’s threefold submission.
The King’s Threefold Sovereignty
Only eleven disciples entered the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus, and only three of those were invited to go with Him still further into the shadows and quiet of the garden. But even those three could not enter all the way into His sufferings. Moving a stone’s throw beyond His disciples, Jesus fell to the earth and cried out to God, asking if there be any alternative to drinking this bitter cup of suffering. There are no words strong enough to express His suffering in this garden. Mark says that He was “sore amazed” (Mark 14:33); Luke, that He was “in an agony” (Luke 22:44); and Matthew, that He cried out: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt. 27:38). In sum, Jesus was overwhelmed, immersed, and burdened down with grief. He knew with perfect clarity, even before they happened, that intense sufferings would descend upon Him. The full weight of sin and the awful curse that His Father placed upon it would be imposed upon Him. Even worse, His Father’s comforting presence would be withdrawn from Him in the midst of this horrible suffering.
If the power of His Godhead had not sustained Him, Jesus could not have endured the horrors of Gethsemane, to say nothing of what was to follow. Three times Jesus leaves His disciples to cry out as He writhes in agony of body and soul on the ground. “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus sweats drops of blood as the enemy is approaching to betray Him. He suffers and prays as His choicest friends are sleeping.
After the third session of prayer, Jesus goes forth to meet Judas and a band of soldiers. This is the same disciple who an hour or two before sat with Him at the Last Supper. Judas left the table early to go to the chief priests and Pharisees with an offer to assist them in arresting Jesus. During the time of Passover, hundreds of soldiers, called the Roman cohort or band, guarded the temple against revolutions or uprisings. They were the most highly trained Roman soldiers in the entire army. They were comparable, I suppose, to Green Berets of today.
The chief priests and Pharisees went to the captain of this band to ask for some soldiers to arrest Jesus. They had to convince the captain that the Nazarene named Jesus was about to incite a riot or lead a revolt and needed to be arrested. The captain agreed to send a large part of the band to arrest Jesus. Scripture says a great multitude of people followed Judas to the garden, including Jews and Gentiles, believers and unbelievers. Many of the soldiers in the band came well equipped; they were armed with swords and staves, carrying torches and lamps to light their way in the night and to located Jesus in case He tried to hide in the foliage of the olive tree. So they approached the garden to surround it and tighten the noose around Jesus. No doubt they expected to find Him cowering under one of the olives trees, hiding behind its foliage like a defeated Saddam Hussein cowering in a pit. Perhaps they feared that He and His followers would offer armed resistance. The only uncertainty was whether they had the right man. That was solved by arranging for Judas to kiss the man they are looking for. Thus the plans are complete. They are certain that this time Jesus will not escape.
The King’s Sovereign Question
Suddenly Jesus takes charge as Gethsemane’s King. He walks boldly into the moonlight and asks the sovereign question: “Whom seek ye?” Judas is so intent on his devilish plans that he is blinded to Jesus’ sudden display of His royal glory (krupsis). Judas boldly greets Jesus with “Hail Master,” and kisses Him. The Greek form of the verb implies a repeated action—that is, Judas kisses Jesus repeatedly, so that the entire multitude knows this is the dangerous Nazarene. Those kisses burn—they sting and betray. Astonishingly, God permits this; and even more astonishingly, Jesus responds to Judas’s audacity with a very mild rebuke, saying, “Friend [imagine that: friend!], betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?”
Judas gave every appearance of being a religious, pious man two hours before at the Supper. Now he betrays his Lord with a kiss. What a hypocrite!
Tragically, we by nature are no better than Judas. We too have rejected and betrayed Christ with our blatant unbelief and, as believers, with a vain show of religion. We too succumbed to the temptation to bargain away our profession of faith in Him for whatever the world offers us. Even after we receive grace, the Holy Spirit must teach us that each new sin is another hypocritical kissing of Jesus. That is particularly true of ministers who sin far too easily although we know better. How we need to cry out, “O God, preserve me. Keep me from sinning, and from hypocrisy!”
Do we, like Judas, sit with believers one moment, and strike up a bargain with God’s enemies the next? Are we two-faced in our walk and our talk? Do our spouse and children see us behave differently at home than in church? Would our colleagues in the office recognize the man we try to be at church?
In a loud, clear, kingly voice, Jesus asks, “Whom seek ye?” There is such boldness in these words. The band of soldiers is prepared to surround the garden and lift their lamp-poles high to search for a man in hiding. But now Jesus steps boldly into the light and asks, “Whom seek ye?”
This question also comes to us today: “Whom seek ye?”
We are all seekers, but what or whom do we seek? Jesus, the only Savior? Then what kind of Jesus do we seek? The multitude in the garden also seeks Jesus. They want “Jesus of Nazareth”—literally, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Nazareth is considered a place of reproach; you may recall how Nathaniel asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Though the title Jesus of Nazareth can be used reverently (i.e., Acts 2:22), this multitude is implying that Jesus is a false prophet and a wicked man. They want to arrest Jesus so they can ridicule, despise, and trample upon Him.
We also do this by nature. We try to ignore the true Savior and His calling. We shrug off Jesus’ question by saying, “I can’t save myself anyway.” But if we refuse to answer His question, “Whom seek ye?” now, we will be forced to answer it when everything and everyone we have sought will become public on the Day of Judgment.
You may argue, “But I am much more religious than that!” Indeed, you may well be. But what kind of Jesus are you seeking? What kind of Jesus are people in your church seeking? Do you preach to them in a searching manner, separating the precious from the vile? Is your preaching discriminatory? Millions of people today say they have received Christ, yet give little or no evidence that they have been spiritually awakened from the dead. They do not need Jesus as living Savior and Lord, and remain unresponsive to His spiritual beauty and glory. Unlike Paul, they don’t count everything loss for the sake of the excellency and surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as the altogether lovely Bridegroom and Lord (Phil. 3:8).
John Piper describes this problem well:
When these people say they “receive Christ,” they do not receive him as supremely valuable. They receive him simply as sin-forgiver (because they love being guilt-free), and as rescuer-from-hell (because they love being pain-free), and as healer (because they love being disease-free), and as protector (because they love being safe), and as prosperity-giver (because they love being wealthy), and as Creator (because they want a personal universe), and as Lord of history (because they want order and purpose); but they don’t receive him as supremely and personally valuable for who he is…. They don’t receive him as he really is—more glorious, more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying, than everything else in the universe. They don’t prize him, or treasure him, or cherish him, or delight in him. Or to say it another way, they “receive Christ” in a way that requires no change in human nature. You don’t have to be born again to love being guilt-free and pain-free and disease-free and safe and wealthy. All natural men without any spiritual life love these things. But to embrace Jesus as your supreme treasure requires a new nature. No one does this naturally. You must be born again (John 3:3). You must be a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). You must be made spiritually alive (Eph. 2:1-4). [1]The King’s Sovereign Self-Identification
Jesus then responds to the multitude with a second manifestation of His kingship, declaring His sovereign self-identification. He says simply, yet profoundly, “I am he.” Ego eimi—literally, “I am.” As He does in other “I am” statements in the Gospel of John, it appears that here too Jesus is proclaiming His deity. In John 8:58, Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” In response, the Jews took up stones to kill Him. Jesus now uses the same language that the Lord used in Exodus 3 and is repeated throughout Isaiah 40-55, in identifying Himself as “I am.” Leon Morris writes, “The soldiers had come out secretly to arrest a fleeing peasant. In the gloom they find themselves confronted by a commanding figure, who so far from running away comes out to meet them and speaks to them in the very language of deity.” [2]
Jesus’ proclamation has such profound effects on the multitude that the people fall backward to the ground (v. 6). What good are all the torches, lamps, swords, staves, officers, soldiers, and captains against Jesus who proclaims that He is the great “I am”—the great Jehovah, the unchangeable covenant-keeping God who was, is, and will always be what He is? Even in the state of His humiliation, one word from Jesus’ lips is enough to make an entire multitude fall to the ground.
What then will be His power when He comes as Judge at the last day? Scripture tells us that every knee will bow—some out of gratitude and love for being saved, and others in fear of everlasting perdition who cry out for the mountains and hills to cover them. Robert Rollock (c. 1555-1599) wrote,
If the bleating of a lamb had such force, what force shall the roaring of a lion have? Where shall the wicked stand? And if the voice of the Lord Jesus, humbly, and like a lamb, standing before them himself alone, and speaking with such gentleness, had such an effect as to throw them down upon the ground, what effect shall that roaring, full of wrath and indignation, at that great day, not out of the mouth of a lamb, nor of an humble man, Jesus of Nazareth, but out of the mouth of a lion, out of the mouth of Jesus Christ the Judge, sitting in his glory and majesty, and saying to the wicked, “Away, ye cursed, to that fire which is prepared for the devil and the angels” (Matt. 25:41), what effect, then, shall that voice have? [3]What a difference between these two responses to Jesus’ sovereign self-identification, “I am!” These words comfort His disciples and terrorize His enemies. Those who were once enemies are now His friends, causing them to fall forward in respect before Him. What must it have been for Peter and the disciples to see not only the multitude, but also Judas, fall back before Gethsemane’s Lamb? As they gaze upon a helpless Judas, their former friend, how can they help but think, “There but for the grace of God, go I!”
Has the great “I am” ever made you fall before Him in awe of His powerful justice and merciful grace, crying out, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou Son of David”?
Gethsemane’s King lets the confused and frightened band of soldiers get back on their feet. With royal authority, He then repeats the question: “Whom seek ye?” At this point, don’t you want to cry out to the multitude: “Do you not understand that the One you are seeking to arrest is not only Jesus of Nazareth but the very Son of God? Don’t you see the danger of challenging this King? Repent! Repent and bow before Him before He destroys you.”
But the multitude is still totally blind. Incredibly, they repeat their first answer, “Jesus of Nazareth.” We should not be surprised. God is a God of second chances, but unbelievers will continue to cling to their rejection of God’s Word if the Holy Spirit does not cause the scales to fall from their eyes.
The King’s Sovereign Substitution
To their second rejection of Him, Gethsemane’s King not only speaks with a sovereign question and sovereign self-identification, but also with sovereign substitution. “I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way” (v. 8). What a staggering expression of kingly love this is! Not a single soldier dares to draw his sword against Jesus or His disciples—not even when Peter lunges at Malchus and cuts off his right ear.
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) wrote, “Those words, ‘If ye seek me, let these go their way,’ were like coats of mail to them…. The disciples walked securely in the midst of the boisterous mob…. The words of Jesus proved to be a right royal word; it was a divine word; and men were constrained to obey it.” [4]
Christ’s mediatorial grace for His people is expressed in verse 9: “That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.” Protecting His disciples was more than just kindness on Christ’s part; He was fulfilling the Father’s commission to save His sheep. The Father has entrusted His elect to Christ for salvation, and now Christ will walk alone to the cross so that not one will be lost. Christ’s royal words will come true (John 6:39; 10:28; 17:2, 12, 19). As Don Carson notes, Christ’s care for the physical safety of His disciples offers us an “illustration” of His work for their spiritual salvation. [5]
So Christ tells the soldiers to take Him but to let His disciples go. Those who could not watch with Him even for one hour now hear their glorious King declare that He is willing to be arrested, bound, and led away as a lamb to the slaughter so that they might go free. He will be scourged, but not they. He will be crucified, but not they. He will fulfill the words of Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Truly, there is nothing more loving than what He says: “Let Me be bound for their sakes.” Have you seen Christ standing in the place of His apostles, His people, His church—and you? Have you experienced the power of His substitutionary, royal love?
If Jesus Christ had fled at this moment or simply destroyed His enemies, our salvation would have been impossible. So He stands His ground, saying: “Let these go their way.” He stands His ground so that even cowards like us may be caught in His eternal net of love and drawn to safety with His cords of love. But He also stands His ground so that servants of God like us could be given “a royal passport in the way of providence,” as Spurgeon called it, and then he added, “Fear not, servant of Christ, you are immortal till your work is done.” [6]
Verse 12 says, “Then [literally, therefore] the multitude took Jesus.” So after He clearly showed who was in charge in uttering His sovereign questions, revealing His sovereign self-identification, and declaring His sovereign substitution, Jesus is bound and led away (vv. 12-13a). He turns Himself over to His enemies. The King’s amazing sovereignty gives way to the Lamb’s equally amazing submission.
The Lamb’s Threefold Submission
The Lamb’s Willingness To Be Arrested
We first see Christ’s submission in His willingness to be arrested. Verse 12 says, “Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus.” The original word translated “took” is actually the official term for a formal arrest. So the soldiers formally arrest Jesus for the purpose of charging Him. And Christ willingly submits. See how the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down His life for His sheep! Behold the voluntary offering of Christ! See how He lays down His life and no one takes it from Him (John 10:17-18)!
Spurgeon said, “You are clear that he went willingly, for since a single word made the captors fall to the ground, what could he not have done? Another word and they would have descended into the tomb; another, and they would have been hurled into hell…. There was no power on earth that could possibly have bound the Lord Jesus, had he been unwilling.” [7] Instead, the sovereign, speaking King willingly becomes a submissive, silent Lamb.
Jesus wasn’t intimidated. He believed the promises of the Word of God that He would have God with Him. He believed the prophecies of that Word would be fulfilled. Jesus knew that this was His Father’s appointed hour of suffering. All history had been moving toward this hour of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. God had been at work during all the previous centuries from the creation of the world and the fall of man, down to this very night, with this hour ever before Him. God willed it, God planned it, God worked it all out. The incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of man, is publicly arrested and taken. No one can tamper with God’s plan—not Judas, Caiaphas, Herod, nor Pilate, much less the fearful disciples. God decreed the rise and fall of nations and empires for this end; He decreed that the high priest and his cohorts should conspire to kill Jesus, that Judas should betray Him into their hands, that wicked King Herod and weak Pontius Pilate should fall in with their plans. So Jesus knew what was coming. Satan’s hour had arrived, but ultimately it would be Jesus’ hour. In dying, He would destroy the devil who had the power of death. He would make the destruction of death itself an absolute certainty.
Jesus knew that His hour had also come—His hour! He wasn’t afraid because His Father, the God of providence, with His hand of almighty and everywhere present power, was in absolute control. Judas, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, the Roman soldiers, and the Jerusalem multitude could not so much as move without His will. That same God is in control of your life also. Nothing happens because of chance. When your worst fears are realized it isn’t that the Son of God has stepped away from the throne of the universe, abdicating responsibility for what is happening and abandoning you to the evil that is in the world. Rather, He is operating among the affairs of men. Do you believe with the psalmist:
Not unto us, O Lord of heaven,
But unto Thee be glory given;
In love and truth Thou dost fulfil
The counsels of Thy sov’reign will;
Though nations fail Thy power to own,
Yet Thou dost reign, and Thou alone!
And with William Cowper:
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain
God is His own interpreter
He will make it plain.
Everything that happens to us is according to a plan and timetable that was fixed before the foundation of the world. No one but the Lamb of God has been found worthy to execute that plan for the salvation of His people. What befalls us in this life is all part of the will of our Father in heaven as executed by our Savior. What a comfort for a Christian!
The Lamb’s Willingness To Be Bound
Second, we see Christ’s submission in His willingness to be bound. Jesus’ hands are chained like those of a murderer or criminal. Tradition claims that when people were arrested to be brought to a Roman judge, the accusers bound the hands of the accused so tightly that blood came out of the ends of their fingers. The goal was to prejudice the judge against the accused and so incline him to find the accused guilty as charged. That is probably what the soldiers do to Jesus. The soldiers bind the hands of One who would gladly have gone with them unfettered. They bind the blessed hands of One who never sinned, healed the eyes of the blind and the lame, and blessed little children. They bind the hands of One who washed His disciples’ feet and broke bread for them in the Upper Room. They bind the hands that have dripped with bloody sweat in prayer to the Father. Yet Jesus offers His hands to be bound in meekness and humility.
Jesus’ bound hands are symbolic of much more. Let me mention four ways this is so.
First, Jesus is bound to set us free from the bands of sin. Proverbs 5:22 says that by nature we are “holden with the cords of [our] sin.” By grace, Jesus became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). Fettered with our sins, He let Himself be arrested and be held captive to free us from the captivity of sin and Satan, and from the bondage of being prisoners of hell. As Rollock observed, Christ’s bondage corresponds to and counteracts our being bound as captives to sin, the devil, and death. He is a fit Redeemer for sinners because He was bound as we were. [8] Therefore, when He arose and ascended on high, He led captivity captive—bound by the cords of love—to capture His people in the net of His substitutionary gospel. By His Spirit, He is still drawing sinners with those bands of love today.
Second, Jesus is bound so that His people might be bound to Him by obedience and love to serve Him all their days. When they see Him voluntarily bound for their sake, they become willing to be His servants forever. When they see Him bound for their sake, no persecution becomes too much. When they view His bonds, their afflictions and trials are sweetened and sanctified. They may even rejoice in suffering under His banner of love like Paul and Silas, who sang in prison and counted it joy that they were reckoned worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake (Acts 16:25). When the early church father, Ignatius, was bound and chained for confessing Christ, he regarded his bands as spiritual pearls. Do you know the joy of being bound for Christ’s sake as His willing servant? Do you ever feel the sweetness of His bonds in pastoral ministry when you are persecuted for Christ’s sake?
Third, Jesus is bound as the Second Adam to restore in the Garden of Gethsemane what was lost by the first Adam in the Garden of Eden. (1) The first Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden; the Second Adam bore sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. (2) The first Adam was surrounded with glory, beauty, and harmony in Eden and refused to obey; the Second Adam was surrounded with bitterness and sorrow in Gethsemane and was obedient unto death. (3) The first Adam was tempted by Satan and fell; the Second Adam was tempted by all the forces of hell, and did not fall. (4) The first Adam’s hands reached out to grasp sin; the Second Adam’s hands were bound to pay for sin. (5) The first Adam was guilty and arrested by God during the cool of the day; the Second Adam was innocent and arrested by men in the middle of the night. (6) The first Adam hid himself after fleeing; the Second Adam revealed Himself after walking into the moonlight. (7) The first Adam took fruit from Eve’s hand; the Second Adam took the cup from His Father’s hand. (8) The first Adam was conquered by the devil; the Second Adam conquered the devil. (9) The first Adam forfeited and lost grace in Eden; the Second Adam merited and applied grace in Gethsemane. (10) The first Adam was driven out of Eden; the Second Adam was willingly led out of Gethsemane so that room might be made in the heavenly garden of paradise for sinners who trusted in Him. Praise be to God—Christ regained all that was lost in Adam, and more; in Eden, the sword was drawn and the conflict of the ages began; in Gethsemane the sword was sheathed, and the eternal gospel was displayed.
Finally, Jesus is bound above all by the will of the Father. “He spared not His own Son” that His people might be spared. His being bound is one of the ingredients of the cup that He had to swallow in paying for the sins of His people. He was bound to Himself and to His own work which He had undertaken from eternity. He was bound to fulfill the eternal covenant of redemption. God bound to God—how wondrous our God of salvation is!
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ is the lowly Servant of the Lord. He did not come to earth to do His own will but to do the will of Him who sent Him. As Isaiah 42:1-2 tells us, Jesus was the obedient Servant of the Lord whom God chose, in whom God delights, and upon whom God puts His Spirit. Likewise, as the Suffering Servant, it pleases the Lord to bruise Him, to put Him to grief, and to make His soul an offering for sin (Isa. 53). Jesus thus moves ahead with quiet determination to do God’s will. As He says in John 10:17-18, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”
The Lamb’s Willingness To Be Led Away
Third, we see the Lamb’s submission in His being led away. The Leader and Shepherd of God’s people is led away as a “lamb to the slaughter.” “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” (Isa. 53:7).
It is remarkable how fully this prophecy was fulfilled. Sheep that were fed in the fields of Cedron were often led through a sheep-gate to be sacrificed. This was a type of the messianic Lamb of God to come, for the Lamb of lambs is now led through that same gate to be sacrificed. He is led from place to place like a wandering sheep so that you and I, who are wandering sheep, might find rest and guidance in Him.
Jesus is led a total distance of seven miles before being crucified. He is led from Annas to Caiaphas to Pilate to Herod, back to Pilate and then to the cross to be crucified. What a wonder that this innocent Lamb not only lets Himself be taken and bound but is willing to be taken from place to place while knowing that His end will be the cross!
Let us ever thank the triune God for our great substitutionary Lamb, who was led away so that we might one day be led into heavenly mansions! Have you ever seen such a complete and willing substitute? Praise God that He was taken for criminals, bound for captives, and led away for wanderers.
In the midst of it all, He was a willing, submissive servant. We are like sponges soaked in salt water: when people press on us, we squirt out bitter words of complaint and resentment. But when Christ is crushed under malice and hatred, not one evil word comes out of His mouth. His gentleness reveals that He is a perfect Savior from sin and a perfect example for us.
We read in 1 Peter 2:21-25, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”
Conclusion
Jesus is the Lord God Almighty, the great I Am. His very name and word can bring men and angels to their knees. He is a Savior for the lost, a Redeemer for the guilty, a Physician for the sick, a Friend for the needy, an Intercessor for the sin-accused, an Advocate for the law-condemned, a Surety for the debt-plagued, a Healer for the broken-hearted, a Helper for the self-ruined, and an altogether lovely Bridegroom for an unfaithful bride. He is everything we need.
We cannot imagine a fuller redemption or a deeper love than what is provided by Gethsemane’s Lamb. He who is taken and arrested also takes and arrests sinners, causing them to cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” He who is bound binds His people so that they declare death on their self-righteousness and flee to Christ alone. He who is led away leads sinners to see that salvation is exclusively in Him and applies it to them so that they glorify Him for His full and free salvation.
Apart from His great love for us, nothing explains our Lord’s willingness to be arrested, bound, and led away; but in so doing He shows Himself to be the perfect Christ for His own. He is arrested so that He can arrest us as our Prophet and bring us from darkness into His marvelous light. He is bound so that we can be freed from the burden of sin and guilt that threatens to destroy us, when as both Priest and victim He offers an acceptable sacrifice to God on our behalf. He is led away so He can govern us as our King by His Word and Spirit, leading us back to God, and preserving, guiding, and defending us in the salvation He has purchased for us.
How unspeakably beautiful is our Lord Jesus Christ! Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) said, “In the person of Christ do meet together infinite majesty, and transcendent meekness.” [9] This, Edwards said, is what makes Christ so very excellent. He is the mighty and terrifying King, at whose presence the earth quakes. Yet He exhibits the greatest humility, even under the bitter attacks and injuries of His enemies. May Christ’s unique combination of majesty and meekness win your heart to forever adore Him.
What a wonder it is that the great Deliverer delivers Himself up; the divinely appointed Judge is arrested as a common criminal; the great Liberator is bound; the great Leader is led away. Let us praise Gethsemane’s Christ, the King of kings and the Lamb of God, and resolve to trust Him more fully, follow Him more obediently, and look the more expectantly for His return to take us to Himself. Let us take with us five practical ways in which Christ as Gethsemane’s King and Lamb should impact our faith and life.
- Let us honor His authority as King with greater fear and reverence.
- Let us submit to the trials He imposes on us without complaint—indeed, with cheerfulness and thanksgiving—so that we may drink the cup He places in our hands rather than to plead for another.
- Let us learn to know when silence is a more powerful testimony in the presence of evil and unbelief than any words we might say.
- Like Paul, let us cherish the privilege of being admitted to the fellowship of His sufferings
- Let us honor His giving up of Himself for us with more complete surrender of ourselves to Him, so that we would request to be His willing servant, now and forever.
- John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2010), 71.
- Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 658.
- Select Works of Robert Rollock, ed. William M. Gunn (1844-1849; repr., Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), 2:24.
- Charles Spurgeon, “The Captive Savior Freeing His People,” Sermon 722 on John 18:8, 9, Nov. 25, 1866, in Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 12 (repr., Pasadena, Tex.: Pilgrim Publications, 1973), 650.
- D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 579.
- Spurgeon, “The Captive Savior Freeing His People,” 652.
- Spurgeon, “The Captive Savior Freeing His People,” 650.
- Rollock, Select Works, 2:39.
- The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 19, Sermons and Discourses, 1734-1738, ed. M. X. Lesser (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 568.
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