Truth or Dare?

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.