And Judas also, who delivered him up, knew the place, because Jesus was often there, in company with his disciples.
Between the upper room and the arrest comes one quiet line about a place. Judas knew where to find Jesus, so why did the Lord walk into a garden His betrayer could name?
The detail matters. Commentators see the depth of the traitor's guilt here. Judas took the place where Jesus met His friends and made it the address for an arrest.
The wickedness of Judas is as strongly marked here as in John 13. He knew the place well, because Jesus was in the habit of going there with His disciples. What a thought — to choose such a place for His betrayal! What unimaginable hardness of heart! But sadly, he had given himself up to Satan, as it were. He became the tool of the enemy, the display of Satan's power and of his true character.
Judas knew a place that had held a great deal. One writer lists what those visits contained.
Think what that garden had known! Communion with the Father, prayer, intercession. Tender care for the weak disciples, and self-sacrificing interest on their behalf. The watchful love of the good Shepherd, pity for Israel, a heart going out to the sheep that are not of this fold. Yes, Judas knew it. Under Satan, he made his plans to please the chief priests and Pharisees.
But why did He keep going back? One writer sees the same desire in Him now.
How did Judas know the place? The Spirit tells us, "Jesus often met there with His disciples." He loved to have them all to Himself. He is the same Jesus, the unchanging One up in the glory, yet with us here. He cannot give up that place. It is the joy of His heart to be the centre of His saints.
Judas had information. What he lacked was everything that mattered.
In the verses that follow we see the wolf coming. Judas "knew the place" where Jesus had often met with His disciples, but he had never known Jesus. He knew nothing of the glory of His Person. He knew nothing of His mighty power over all His foes, His infinite love for His poor sheep, or His perfect obedience to the Father.
Kelly presses the same point from the side of the arrest itself, noting that Judas used what he had picked up from being near.
He brings before us the truly appalling sight of Judas using his close knowledge of the Saviour's habits and haunts to guide those who wanted to take and kill Him... But Judas really did not know Him any more than his companions did.
If closeness to Christ guaranteed anything, Judas would have been safe. Kelly draws out the opposite rule.
One of the company chosen to be with Jesus here below would prove this awful truth. The nearer a man is on the outside to blessing, the further away he is morally, unless he takes it into his heart. There was only one Judas in Israel, and he was nearest to Jesus. Only one man joined all the privileges of that closeness to Jesus with all the guilt of betraying Him.
The Lord did not change His route to avoid a place His betrayer could name. The garden's name — Gethsemane means oil-press — is read as fitting what He came there to face.
But He is going forward with perfect knowledge of everything on His own part. It matters that we are told here that Judas knew the place as one the Lord often went to with His disciples. He is not avoiding but now seeking the "oil-press" of sorrow. Eternal joy is to be the sure result.
This small explanation also says something about the record itself.
John 18:2. — Here we clearly have the comment of an eyewitness. Every attempt to turn this into a weapon against such testimony must fail.
- The place — Jesus had a habit. The garden was where He met His disciples, and Judas used that against Him.
- The love — He went there because it is His joy to be the centre of His own. He has not given that up.
- The knowledge — Judas knew the location. He knew nothing of the Person: not His glory, not His power, not His love for His sheep.
- The warning — being close to blessing on the outside saves no one. Judas was nearest of all, and furthest away in heart.
- The choice — He knew it all, and still walked toward the press of sorrow. Eternal joy is the sure result, and His steps are ours to follow.
Judas therefore, having got the band, and officers of the chief priests and Pharisees, comes there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Night has fallen outside Jerusalem. Judas arrives at a garden he knows well, at the head of an armed column. John alone tells us what that column carried. The details raise one question: why so much force against a Man who had never lifted a hand?
The word translated "band" points to Roman troops. One writer sets out who came, and why they came after dark:
He now came with the band. These were Roman soldiers from the fortress of Antonia, under the command of a chief captain, a military tribune. With them came officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons (18:3). Those lanterns and torches cast a harsh light on the scene. The account does not say under what pretext they asked for the help of the Roman soldiers. But there they were. The Jewish authorities seem to have feared a disturbance, so they decided to make the arrest at night. And they had clearly gathered this formidable force to frighten the disciples out of any try at a rescue. These details as to the company are unique to John.
The weapons they carried show who was in that crowd:
The swords show that the Roman cohort (John 18:3) was the centre of this crowd. The clubs and so on show that the Jewish temple watch, and other assorted fanatics, were there too. Jew and Gentile, men of different nationality and different classes, were ready to take part in the world's crowning sin — and they did.
Judas needed no help finding the place. He knew the Lord's routine, and that was the limit of what he knew.
Judas knew well the Lord's usual habits, but knew nothing of His heart. He could not find the Lord as his Savior, but it was no trouble at all for him to find Him so he could betray Him to His enemies! He brings the soldiers and officers, well equipped with lanterns, torches and weapons (v. 3). It was a formidable array to arrest a Man whom they knew was no revolutionary or rabble-rouser! All of this on their part was empty folly. They found that their show of strength was utter weakness in His presence, and He never offered the least physical resistance.
The garden was where the Lord had prayed. Judas turned that knowledge into a map:
Think of what that garden had known! Communion with the Father, prayer, intercession, tender care for the feeble disciples. Self-sacrificing interest on their behalf, the watchful love of the good Shepherd, pity for Israel, a heart going out to the sheep not of this fold. Yes, Judas knew it, and he took his measures accordingly, under Satan, to please the chief priests and Pharisees.
Picture the night, and the gear they carried looks absurd. The lights and the weapons were both pointless:
Judas leads the band and the officers from His enemies to the place of the nightly prayer. They bring lanterns and torches and weapons to make sure of their prey — though a full moon was shining, and He had never struck a blow in self-defence. But Judas really did not know Him any more than his companions did. How terrible the sight of a soul blinded to the deadly malice at work, and to the Saviour's glory and His love!
Against all that hardware, the Lord neither ran nor fought:
Was this the time for flight or fight? For neither. Without panic, surprise, or hesitation Jesus faces the crisis. He never did hesitate. Not once in all His earthly life was He at a loss how to act, never had He to seek the advice of any, or change His mind or purpose.
The soldiers were never the deciding factor in what happened that night:
Not all the treachery of Judas, not all the hatred and enmity of the Jews, not all the power of Rome could have seized the Lord. They could take Him only when the time had come for Him to give Himself up. His hour was now come. He could have destroyed the company that came to arrest Him. That was as easy for Him as making them fall face down before His Name.
- Knowledge — Judas knew the place, the habit, the hour; he never knew the Person. Nearness to Christ is not the same as knowing Him.
- Coalition — Roman swords and temple clubs met in one crowd. Jew and Gentile shared in the world's crowning sin.
- Overkill — Lanterns and torches under a full moon. Weapons against One who never struck a blow. Fear dressed up as strength.
- Composure — No flight, no fight, no hesitation. He had never once been at a loss how to act, and He was not now.
- Surrender — Neither Judas, nor Israel's rulers, nor Rome could have taken Him. They took Him only because His hour had come and He gave Himself up.
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that were coming upon him, went forth and said to them, Whom seek ye?
Judas arrives in the garden with an armed band — and the one they came to arrest steps out to meet them. John records no struggle and no escape. Jesus already knew everything that was about to happen to Him.
His knowledge was not a vague sense that trouble was near. One writer lists what was closing in on Him.
Notice in verse 4 that He knew all things that would come upon Him. All the power of the enemy was being concentrated now. Religious leaders, the Jews, the Gentiles and their rulers would all unite in vicious hatred against the Son of God. A true disciple would deny Him. A false disciple was betraying Him. All would forsake Him. And far more than this, He would suffer the awesome judgment of God against sin on the cross of Calvary. Yet in calm, blessed dignity He went forth.
The same words open chapter 13, where He washed His disciples' feet.
Compare this with chapter 13. Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and go to the Father. He knew that the Father had given all things into His hands. Loving His own to the end, He made Himself ready to wash their feet. Here the end has come. Jesus knows all things that are coming upon Him. He knows He is to be cut off and have nothing. And He demands of His enemies that, if they seek Him, they let the disciples go... His foreknowledge was perfect; for Him there were no surprises. The loss of all things, His own cutting off here, was as present to His spirit as the receiving of all things from the Father was there.
He knew, and He still went out. Those two facts together show who He is.
First, we see the glory of His deity and the perfection of His humanity shining out, for we read, "Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward." A mere man, with the slightest knowledge of what was coming, would have turned back. Of no one but a divine Person can we say, in an absolute sense, that He knew all things. And of no one but a perfect Man who knew all things can we say that He "came forward." He submits to men, but in obedience to the Father. He was "not rebellious; I turned not backward" (Isa. 50:5).
No one lays a hand on Him. He moves first, and the question is His.
He comes, with the agents employed by the malice of the priests and Pharisees, to seize the person of Jesus. But Jesus acts first. It is He who presents Himself to them. Knowing all that would happen to Him, He comes forward and asks, "Whom do you seek?" It is the Saviour, the Son of God, who offers Himself... No one laid hands on Him... Who will take Him? He had only to go away and leave them there. But He did not come for this; and the time to offer Himself up had come.
His composure here is a matter of who He is, not of nerve.
Men who do not know the Lord talk of His "limitations." They forget that He is God, the Word become flesh. He no more ceased to be God than a man can cease to be man. Jesus knew all things that were coming on Him. This is the same Jesus who went through it all in the deepest grief, yet in dependence on the Father, for He was just as truly man, the perfect man. Now, when the horrors began to thicken, what calm ran through His every word and act!
He put Himself in front of the armed band so that His disciples could walk away untouched.
First, the perfect willingness with which Christ gives Himself up. He presents Himself without hesitating to the armed band that came out to seek Him, knowing fully what was to happen to Him. "Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward"; "I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go." This proves that, while He offers Himself, there is a full and perfect deliverance for us. "Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one." The Lord presents Himself so that the power of the enemy should not even touch us.
- Knowing — He faced the betrayal, the desertion, the cross and God's judgment against sin with no surprises. His foreknowledge was perfect.
- Going — knowing all this, He still went forward. Anyone else with the slightest hint of what was coming would have turned back.
- Offering — no one seized Him. He moved first and presented Himself, because the time to offer Himself up had come.
- Calm — His composure rests on who He is. He is the Word become flesh: God who never stopped being God, and truly man, the perfect man.
- Shielding — He stepped in front so His own could go free. That is the measure of the full deliverance He won for us.
They answered him, Jesus the Nazaraean. Jesus says to them, I am [he]. And Judas also, who delivered him up, stood with them.
In the garden the armed party comes to arrest Jesus, but He speaks first, and their scornful answer meets a reply that puts them all on the ground. What is happening when Jesus says "I am," and why does John pause to note that Judas was standing there among them?
Nobody drags Jesus out of hiding. He steps forward. Commentators see two things in that one move.
First, then, the glory of His Deity and the perfection of His humanity shine out, for we read, "Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forth." A mere man who knew even a little of what was coming would have turned back. Only of a divine Person can we say, in the full sense, that He knew all things. And only of a perfect Man, Who knew all things, can we say that He "went forth". He submits to man, but in obedience to the Father.
"Jesus of Nazareth" was not a neutral label on their lips.
Face to face with this militant band He asks simply, "Whom are you seeking?" Their answer is "Jesus of Nazareth." Because Nazareth was a place despised by the Jews (compare John 1:46), they spoke this way to belittle Him. But He says only "I Am." This is His name as the eternal, self-existent One (compare Ex. 3:14), whose glory is infinite. (Note that John records at this point that Judas stood with them, on the side of those who defied the living God.)
One writer sets the two directions of movement side by side.
Secondly, we see His mighty power as a divine Person, for having said "I AM", His enemies "went backward, and fell to the ground". They were in the presence of the great I AM, the One with all power. The world can do nothing against Him, despite all its forces joined together with their lanterns and torches and weapons. When the Lord of glory "went forth", His enemies "went backward".
Not everyone who hears that name falls backward.
He was not of Nazareth as to origin, He was the blessed uncreated God. And His testimony was so overwhelming that "As soon as He had said to them, I AM, they went backward, and fell to the ground." Our hearts have been opened to receive the wonderful truth of Who He is. So we fall forward and bow at His feet in worship.
John names the betrayer at this point. Judas knew that voice well, and he now stood on the other side.
How many things had taken place in that garden! What words came from a heart filled with God's own love, seeking to press that love into the narrow and dull hearts of His beloved disciples! But all was lost on Judas... Judas, too, was there, who knew Him well, and knew that voice, so long familiar to his ears. No one laid hands on Him. But as soon as His word echoes in their hearts, as soon as they hear that divine "I am" within them, they go backward and fall to the ground.
If they could not stand, they could not arrest Him either. The next verses show why He stayed.
Who will take Him? He had only to go away and leave them there. But that is not what He came for, and the time had come for Him to offer Himself up... The first time, the divine glory of the Person of Christ had to display itself; and now His care for the redeemed ones. "If you seek me," said the Lord, "let these go their way"... He presents Himself as the good Shepherd, giving His life for the sheep.
One writer explains why an event this striking appears in only one Gospel.
John alone recounts the Lord's answer to the armed band that came to arrest Him, "I am [he]," which caused them to go backward and fall to the ground. Yet Matthew, who saw it, says no more about so striking an event than Mark or Luke. It did not come within God's design for their Gospels, but it did for John, who therefore records it. John, on the other hand, says nothing about the agony in Gethsemane, which the other three dwell on. Yet it was given to Matthew, and even to Mark and Luke, to record that, as dwelling not on His deity but on His human sufferings, in keeping with the design of each of their Gospels.
- He steps forward. No one finds Jesus; He comes out to them, knowing everything that is coming.
- He names Himself. They offer a title of contempt; He answers with the name of the eternal, self-existent God.
- They step backward. Torches, weapons and numbers count for nothing — one word puts the whole band on the ground.
- He stays anyway. He could have walked away free. He stays as the good Shepherd and asks them to let His disciples go.
- We fall forward. The company fell back before that name; those who receive who He is fall at His feet in worship.