Under Arrest

John 18:3 Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. 4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?" 5 They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am He." And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. 6 Now when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Then He asked them again, "Whom are you seeking?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." 8 Jesus answered, "I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way," 9 that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, "Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none." 10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. 11 So Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?" 12 Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him.

Silly to even think about arresting God isn’t it?

This is exactly what we see happening in John 18. Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, bound and led away. Found and identified by His betrayer, (Judas Iscariot,) captured by a regiment of Roman soldiers serving at the behest of the Sanhedrin, tied up like a common criminal and taken.

Only Jesus wasn’t taken against His will. He was taken according to His will, which was in complete accordance with His Father’s will.

Gen 3:22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

The first Adam had been driven out of the garden God had created for him due to sin. Ever since, mankind wandered the face of the earth in toil, separated from the Father by his own defiled, sinful flesh and a wicked heart. And now Jesus had come to put an end to the enmity. An end to the brokenness. An end to fruitlessness. An end to blocked access to the Tree of Life. (Rev 22:12)

And so, behold, the invitation back into God’s Garden comes by way of the hand of The One who is likewise driven out of a garden – only through no fault of His own - but through the further fault of man. What love is this? What gentle, arrested glory!

- Pastor Bill