In the book of John, Chapter 18, talks
about Jesus' arrest. Most of us know the story of Judas betraying Jesus, and
how later on He was led to crucifixion. In the process of His arrest, He was
tested many times, over and over again. But He was persistent with his answer,
and never once He tried to defend Himself although He was asked to justify His
actions, which we know that has not violated any law.
Other than the obvious, there were a couple of things that are worth
highlighting in chapter 18. Before we go in to further discussion about the
chapter, I want you, my dear reader, to do a little bit of warming up. Now, we
have all played the game of truth or dare. Neither choice gave us an easy way
out. You are either asked to spill your best kept secrets to everyone, or you
decide to take up a challenge, which most of the time is something you do not
want to do or something that is "face threatening", which means you
embarrass yourself in front of everybody and risk having a recorded video of you
going viral if the game gets a little bit too crazy.
In chapter 18, the scenario is exactly like what it is in the game of truth or
dare. So how is that so?
1. Jesus and Judas.
From Luke 22 and Matthew 27:3, we know
that Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver but in the end committed
suicide because of the overwhelming guilt he felt knowing that he had condemned
innocent blood (Jesus), as said in Matthew 27.
2. Jesus and the people who came to arrest Him.
In John 18:6, Jesus was outnumbered,
the group that came for Jesus' arrest (which includes Judas), came with torches
and weapons. But when they asked for Jesus, Jesus turned Himself in and asked
that the others are given the chance to go. Not only that, when Jesus answered
"I am He", they drew back and fell to the ground. In the commentaries
that I read from biblehub.com, it was mentioned, accompanied by
citations, that this is a natural reaction when facing terror and/or sudden awe
and that it was the result of fear/terror trembling before truth. From this we
can see the first demonstration of the power of truth.
3. Jesus and Peter
Throughout John 18, Peter stood by
Jesus, but in the end, fulfilling what Jesus has predicted, he denied Jesus three
times. Peter's responses has etched a very deep and clear contrast between
Jesus and him (representing the weakness of human beings).
- Verse 10: Peter wanted to protect Jesus, but
his actions has completely contradict the teachings of Jesus, which is to
not commit murder. When Peter drew the sword, he was attempting to cut off
Malchus' head but he missed and cut off his ear instead, which you can
read further here (Peter's attempt).
- Verse 11: Jesus' response was nothing like
Peter's. Instead, he asked Peter to put his sword back and boldly take on
His destiny.
- Verse 16-17: Peter denied Jesus for the first
time.
- Verse 25-27: Peter denied Jesus the second and
third time, thus fulfilling Jesus' prediction in Matthew 26:34.
4. Jesus's trial
In the following verses show how Jesus
was so persistent with his answers. This shows that He lives by what he
preaches. Most of the time, He need not justify Himself, but He lets his
teachings do the justification by themselves for Him. All this while He preached
about truth and all He said is the truth. There was no need
for Him to find proof because the proof was there wherever he has set His foot
on.
- Verse 20-21
- Verse 23
- The conversation that took place when Pilate
was interrogating Jesus.
Now in verse 22, Jesus did not withdraw
after being struck by one of the officials. This shows that Jesus did not
submit to human authority, but submitted completely to God's authority by
telling the truth. Not only that, when Pilate was interrogating Jesus, He stood
firm saying this, although it was against Pilate's nature to
believe in the in the supernatural.
Now, after reading all of that, think of yourself in Jesus' shoes. No, it was
not easy for Him to go through this whole chapter, because He was just as human
as we are when this happened. He had fears and weaknesses just as we have, but
he never took the easy way out. To be honest to you, I would have fled, cried and
begged. What would you have done? Would you deny Jesus like Peter did? Or would
you follow Jesus' example and stand by the truth? Would you have taken the
courage to stand for the One that sacrificed Himself for you?
A lot of times we would lie to get out of sticky situations, we would even lie
in none life-threatening situations to save our faces; where Jesus, facing
death, acted with honesty. Some of you might have served and preached for a
very long time in church. But I want to give you something to think about
everyday. Will the things you do in life, so called "for God/Christ",
mean anything to you when all you can chose is either to deny Christ or die? I,
as a Christian, made the choice to follow Christ, and I aspire to be the
Christian who will not deny Christ when persecution comes and I hope that you
will do the same. The truth is worth dying for because the truth died for us.
