In the seventeenth chapter, while the Lord Jesus was praying so earnestly for His disciples, Judas was preparing to betray Him into the hands of those who hated Him. How little men knew of the goodness that was in the heart of God, which led Him to send His Son. “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:1919And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)).
The Lord Jesus was God and He knew all that was about to take place. “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth” (verse 4). He went over the brook Cedron to a garden (the garden of Gethsemane), and Judas came there with his band to take Jesus captive. They brought lanterns and torches and weapons, thinking such things were needed. But they could not have done anything to Him unless He had willingly submitted, and this He did because it was His Father’s will.
The “I AM”
Jesus went to meet them and said, “Whom seek ye?”
They replied “Jesus of Nazareth”.
The Lord Jesus said, “I am He.” Many, many years before when Jehovah God appeared to Moses in the desert, He told him to tell the children of Israel that “I AM” had sent Him unto them (Exodus 3:1414And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:14)). Now the Lord Jesus was that “I AM”, and so when He said that, a little bit of His glory was seen, even by those wicked men who had come to take Him, and they could not stand in His presence. They all went backward and fell to the ground, yet even after this they got up on their feet again and bound Him. Their hearts were hardened by sin, and Satan had entered into Judas, and led him to do this terrible act of betraying Jesus to be crucified. Even although Judas had been with the Lord for so long, and had seen all His wonderful works, his heart was still evil, because he did not have faith. You may have a Christian father and mother, brothers and sisters, or friends, but unless you have accepted Christ as your own personal Saviour you are lost. Have you accepted Him?
Meeting Our Enemies
Peter thought he should fight to prevent the Lord Jesus from being taken captive, and so he took his sword and cut off Malchus’ ear. The Lord Jesus’ act of healing was to heal Malchus’s ear (Luke 22:5151And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him. (Luke 22:51)), showing that He loved His enemies. We ought to love our enemies too (Matt. 5:4444But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44)). He proved His love to the utmost when He died on the cross for us who were His enemies. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
Instead of being kind to our enemies, we are sometimes like Peter, and by sinful and unkind acts we close their ears to the truth. We need to be very careful about this even at school, work, or recreation. If we love the Lord Jesus, we would not want to dishonor His precious name before others.
Further Meditation:
1. Why should Peter not have used the sword to defend the Lord?
2. How does the name “I AM” show that Jesus was God?
3. Loving our enemies is an area most of us need to grow in. There are some helpful thoughts on this subject in Romans 13. Any commentary might be helpful on thinking on them further. I’ve personally found the remarks in Notes on Romans by W. Kelly to be helpful.