The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus | John 18:1-14
Brian Hedges | March 6, 2022
Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to John 18 this morning.
While you’re turning there, let me ask you this question or series of questions. Have you ever had the experience of reading a book that was so deep, so beautiful, so moving that you knew you would have to read it again? Or maybe you’ve seen a film that was so compelling that as soon as you walked out of the theater you knew, “I’m going to have to watch that movie again.” Or maybe, if you enjoy joy art, as precious few of us do, maybe you have sat in silent reflection in an art museum for some lengthy period of time, just gazing on, studying, taking in a magnificent sculpture or painting. Or if you’re musical, have you ever heard a song, a piece of music (maybe it’s a symphony, or maybe just a song, a piece of music), but your appreciation for that piece of music just grows with every repeated listening? It’s like you come back to this thing—this book, this film, this music—and you grow with it, and your understanding of it, your appreciation of it grows over time.
I believe the Gospel of John is like that; the more you read it, the more you see. This morning we’re beginning our final journey through the last four chapters of the Gospel of John, chapters 18-21. This is a beloved book that the Lord has used to bring many people to faith in Christ; perhaps that was your experience as well. I think all believers who are familiar with the Gospel of John have a deep love for this book. There are so many things about the Gospel of John we love, from John’s prologue in chapter 1 about the eternal word becoming flesh, to the stories of Jesus’ encounters with various people that are only recorded in the Gospel of John; such as Nathanael under the fig tree, or Nicodemus who sought him by night and heard about the mysteries of new birth. Or maybe the woman at the well of Samaria, to whom Jesus said, “I will give you living water, and you’ll never thirst again.”
We may think of the seven miraculous signs recorded by John, beginning with Jesus’ first miracle in Cana of Galilee, when he turned water into wine. Or we may think of Jesus’ profound claims, those great “I Am” statements that kind of punctuate the Gospel of John: “I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the resurrection and the life.” All of these are wonderful things that we find only in the Gospel of John. We love this Gospel.
But I want you to know this, that the Gospel of John would not be a Gospel without chapters 18-21. This is where the heart of the gospel is. This is where the good news is found, the death and the resurrection of Christ, these narratives of Jesus’ passion and his resurrection.
This year in Lent, which just began on Wednesday—last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, and so we’re in the season of Lent—as we move towards Holy Week, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, we’re going to be focusing on John 18-19, and then Easter Sunday John 20, and we’ll look at the other Resurrection narratives on the following Sundays. Like a magnificent painting, John’s Gospel just beckons us to sit and linger before it.
C.S. Lewis one time said that "the first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender." He said, “Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way.” That’s what we have to do when we come to the Gospel of John.
This morning we’re going to begin with John 18:1-14, and we’re studying the betrayal and the arrest of Jesus. It’s Thursday night before Good Friday. Jesus has just been with his disciples in the upper room, teaching them and then praying for them, interceding for them, and then in John 18 Jesus retreats to a garden, where he will be betrayed and arrested, and that, of course, will eventually lead to his crucifixion.
Let’s read the passage together, John 18:1-14. It’s page 904 if you’re reading along in one of the Bibles provided there in the chair in front of you. Hear the word of the Lord.
“When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ They answered him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am he.’ Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, ‘Whom do you seek?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.’ This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: ‘Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.’ 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.) So Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?’
“So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.”
This is God’s word.
There is so much to see in these opening paragraphs that I can’t hope to share it all, but I want to focus particularly on Jesus. That’s my focus; not the other characters, but on Jesus himself. I want us to see five things, and think of this like a diamond. As we turn, verse by verse, through this passage, we’re looking at different facets of this diamond, we’re looking at it from different angles. My hope is that in so doing we will see these five distinctive aspects of Jesus’ glorious character and his gracious work.
Now, fair warning, there’s a lot of material this morning. I’m going to try to be brief and work through it. I told Holly this morning I had too much material, and she said, “Think sprinkler, not fire hydrant!” So I’ll do my best.
There are five things I want you to see about Jesus.
1. Jesus is the Second Adam
Where am I getting that? you might wonder. Look at verse 1. “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.”
Now, lest you think I’m just inventing this out of thin air, this has been the understanding of many people throughout the history of the church, including the church fathers, who saw a parallel between Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, who, after they were created, were placed in the Garden of Eden. That reading goes back to the church fathers; it’s in commentaries today as varied as Arthur Pink and James Montgomery Boice and N.T. Wright.
N.T. Wright’s comments I think are particularly beautiful and helpful. He says, “The story of Adam in the garden in Genesis 2-3 stands behind the garden of betrayal in this chapter as well as the garden of Easter in chapter 20. John is, after all, writing a kind of new Genesis, as we saw in the beginning.”
Just pause. Remember how John’s Gospel begins: “In the beginning was the Word . . .” Of course, it parallels the beginning of the Bible itself, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” So John’s Gospel is giving us the new beginning; it’s giving us a picture of new creation.
Now Wright continues. He says, “John hasn’t forgotten that [that this is a new Genesis], even if we may have. Now in this extraordinary and decisive scene we see what it means that the Word became flesh—our flesh, Adam’s flesh, new genesis flesh. The roles are reversed. Sinful men, violent men, men with weapons come to the garden in the dark, looking for someone, the Someone who was the Father’s only Son. Like all humans, they are looking for God, but they don’t know that’s what they are doing.”
Don’t you remember in Genesis 3, after Adam sinned, after he ate the forbidden fruit, he had rebelled against God, and you remember that God came searching for Adam. God used to work with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day; he comes searching for Adam. “Adam, where are you?” What does Adam do? He hides. Here is sinful man hiding from the holy God. But here in John 18, sinful men come looking for the holy God, and what does Jesus do? He does not hide; he presents himself. He knows everything that’s about to happen, and he presents himself to them.
What does this mean? What is the application of this thought, that Jesus is the second Adam? It simply means this, that as you read the stories of Jesus, these passion narratives, you must remember this, that he did everything he did for you. He did it as the great representative, the second great representative of the human race. Adam was the first representative, our first father. Theologians call him the federal head of his people, the one who represented us, and in him we fell. ‘In Adam’s fall / We sinned all,” as the old catechism says. But in Christ, the new Adam, the true and better Adam, the second Adam, he doesn’t fall, we don’t fall; rather, in Christ we are rescued and redeemed.
O loving wisdom of our God,
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.
O wisest love, that flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive affresh against the foe,
Should strive, and should prevail.
Jesus is the second Adam, the true man, the best man of all, the only perfect man, and here he is, emerging from the garden to meet sinful men to be crucified.
2. Jesus is the Sovereign Lord
He is the second Adam, and then secondly, Jesus is also the sovereign Lord. He’s truly man and truly God.
We see this in a number of ways in this passage. We see both that he is the Lord and that he is the sovereign Lord. This is evident in his knowledge and in his control of the whole situation. He goes to this garden, as he frequently did, to pray. This was a frequent place he went with his disciples. But he also went there knowing that Judas would betray him. We already know that from John 13. And the passage shows us that Jesus knew he would be there! So Jesus goes to this garden, knowing full well what will take place.
Look especially at verse 4, which says, “Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, ‘Whom do you seek?’” He knew what was going to happen to him.
It’s one of several places in the Gospel of John where this exhaustive knowledge of Jesus is highlighted. In John 13 he knew that “his hour had come for him to depart from this world and to go to the Father,” so he washed his disciples’ feet and he began to prepare them for what was coming.
Well, here he knows everything that’s about to transpire. He knows the agony, he knows the betrayal, he knows the denials, he knows the trials, he knows the injustice, he knows the scourging, the beating, the mocking, the spitting; he knows the nails—he knows it all! He knows what’s going to come, and not only the physical suffering, but he knows the torment that he will experience as for a time he is cut off from the present of the Father to endure the judgment of God against sin. Knowing it all, he presents himself. “Whom do you seek?”
Look at the response in verse 5. “They answered him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘I am he.’”
Now, on one level Jesus is simply saying, “I am Jesus of Nazareth; I am the one that you are seeking.” But attentive readers of John’s Gospel and of the Bible will know that in those words there is only a thinly-veiled claim to be divine, to be God himself. It was very clear in John 8:58, where Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” You remember those words, “I am,” hark all the way back to Exodus 3, when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. He gave Moses this commission, that he was to lead Israel out of Egypt, to set the people of Israel free from Egyptian slavery and bondage. Moses says, “When I come and tell them that the God of your father has sent me to you and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I going to say to them?”
Do you remember what God said? “Tell them I Am who I Am. Tell them I Am has sent you to them.”
This language, the great I Am, that language and that phraseology, ego eimi in Greek, in the Greek Old Testament that appears over and again, probably a dozen or more times in the book of Isaiah. Over and again it is this declaration of God Almighty, that he is the true, the living, and the supreme God.
Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.”
Isaiah 43:23: “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
Or Isaiah 46:9-10: “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done; saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”
Here is Jesus, who knows everything that is about to transpire, and when they say, “We’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth,” he says, “Ego eimi." "I am.”
We know we’re on the right ground reading this when we look at their response in verse 6. “When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.”
John is the only one who records this. Out of all the Gospel writers, his emphasis is different than the other Gospels—not contradictory, it’s complementary; but he’s showing us something, and he is showing us here the identity and the sovereignty of Jesus. His identity—who is he? He’s Yahweh in the flesh; he’s God; he’s I Am in his sovereignty; he’s in absolute control, so that when he merely utters the divine name, the power of his voice and the majesty of his presence causes these armed soldiers—Romans soldiers and the temple police and Judas and the chief priests—they all fall backwards. It’s exactly what happens in the Old Testament every time there’s a theophany, an appearance of God. What do people do? They fall down to the ground on their faces.
It is showing us something about Jesus. It’s showing us that he is God and that he is in control.
Let me ask you this morning, have you ever reckoned with the claims of Jesus Christ, who he said he was? Jesus of Nazareth was not merely a man. He was a man, he was a true man, gloriously so; but he was also God. He was the God-man. Have you bent the knee to him? Every single person will either voluntarily now fall down and worship Jesus Christ, bending the knee to his lordship, or will someday, on the final day, the last day, the day of judgment, they will, perhaps involuntarily, bend the knee and confess with their tongues that Jesus Christ is Lord, as these people did here.
All of this shows us Jesus’ sovereignty, that he is the sovereign Lord, in full control of the situation, and it underscores for us that he was not a helpless victim. Everything that transpires in the passion, even though Jesus is treated unjustly, it’s not like he could not have escaped it if he’d wanted to. He could have. In Matthew 26 he tells Peter, “I can call legions of my Father’s angels to deliver me.” No, he is voluntarily laying down his life.
As he says in John 10, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” Jesus is the supreme, the sovereign one, the word made flesh, who voluntarily lays down his life for the sheep.
3. Jesus is the Substitute for His People
This leads to the third thing we see about Jesus: he is also the substitute for his people. He is the second Adam, which makes him their representative; he is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth; but he’s also the substitute for his people, which you see in verses 7-8.
“So he asked them again, ‘Whom do you seek?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he, so if you seek me, let these men go.’”
You see what’s going on there? He is saying, “Take me, let them go.” He offers himself to them to be arrested, but “let them go.”
The text here is working on two levels, both the historical narrative and the theological implications. F.F. Bruce in his commentary says, “The evangelist thought moves on two levels, and in the Lord’s intervention to save his disciples from physical harm he sees a parable of his saving them from eternal death.” He offers himself: “Take me; let them go.”
We know this is true because of verse 9. Look at verse 9. “This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, ‘Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.’”
That, of course, goes back to John 6. It’s interesting the formula here, this fulfillment formula. It’s usually used of the Old Testament. “This happened to fulfill the word spoken by Isaiah,” or, “to fulfill what was said in the law and the prophets.” But here it’s, “to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken.” What was that word? John 6:39: “This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given, but raise it up at the last day.” Raise it up at the last day—that’s resurrection, that’s final salvation, that’s eternal life!
What’s happening in this passage is Jesus is both delivering his disciples from the present, imminent danger of being arrested with him, but he is also safeguarding their eternal salvation.
I think what we see here is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement as it is being lived out in its historical narrative form, the narrative of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, leading to his trial and crucifixion. What is substitution? That’s a big word, that’s a theological word. What do we mean by substitution, substitutionary atonement?
J. Oswald Sanders says, “By substitution we do not mean the saving of a life by mere assistance, as in the throwing of a rope to a drowning man, or by the mere risking of one life to save another. It is the saving of one life by the loss of another. As substitute, Christ took on himself the sinner’s guilt and bore its penalty in the sinner’s place.” That’s substitution: his life for mine. He dies so that we live.
Jesus had taught this already in the Gospel of John, John 6:51. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
He’s the substitute. He gives his life for others.
Something I’ve noticed over the years is how often this principle of substitutionary sacrifice shows up in all kinds of non-Christian literature, in movies and films and so on. It’s often one of the most moving things we ever see. I watch for these; I think they help illustrate the point, so I watch for these in movies and books and so on.
Here’s one; maybe I’ve never shared this one before. Has anybody seen the film The Hunger Games? Have you ever seen that? Some of you? There aren’t too many hands going up! Okay, you have seen it. You do watch movies, don’t you?
The Hunger Games is based on this young-adult novel, and the plot is this dystopian society, right, where once a year this corrupt, totalitarian government demands that all of the different states offer two people as tribute, who will then fight in these gladiator games. They will fight to the death. There’s this poor little district, and the day has come for the lottery, and they’re all standing in the crowd, waiting for those dreaded names to be read, and the name is read of a little girl named Prim. It will be a death sentence for her. If she’s pulled into these gladiator games, she’ll die.
As soon as her name is read, her older sister, Katniss, is completely shocked, but without any hesitation she throws her hand up and she says, “I offer myself as tribute" — in order to take her place. It is probably a death sentence for her.
Every story like that, we see it, it moves us, but those stories pale in comparison to what Jesus did, offering himself not just to death, but to take our judgment. That’s what he’s doing here. “It’s me you seek; let these men go. Take me; free them.”
We sing it:
Come, behold the wondrous mystery,
Christ the Lord upon the tree;
In the stead of ruined sinners
Hangs the Lamb in victory.
See the price of our redemption!
See the Father’s plan unfold,
Bringing many sons to glory—
Grace unmeasured, love untold.
What’s the application? It’s simply this, that we must see Christ’s judgment as the price of our redemption. We must understand that his sacrifice brings us blessing, his death brings us life; by his wounds we are healed.
Listen, that is crucial to both the beginning and continuing in the Christian life. That’s how the Christian life begins. It’s that moment where you’ve seen yourself as a sinner, you know you can’t save yourself, you know your works can’t save you; all the good that you could do, none of it could outweigh the bad you’ve done. But you’re able to say, as I love the way Deb put it in her baptism, “He covered for me.” He did good for me. His death covers my sins, my transgressions. That’s how it begins! It’s when you see that and you entrust yourself to that and you abandon all hope of saving yourself and you say, “Lord, I trust what you’ve done.”
But listen, the Christian life continues by over and again applying that basic truth, that basic principle in your life. You’ve probably prayed it a hundred times, as I have hundreds if not thousands of times when I’ve felt convicted of sin. I come before the Lord and I confess—I feel ashamed, I feel guilty, I feel far from God, and I confess, and I quote 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Notice that. “He is faithful and just.” Why is he just to forgive a dirty, rotten sinner? He’s just because the price has been paid. He’s just because the debt has been absolved. He’s just because his judgment has already been satisfied, and he will not demand a double payment.
If thou my discharge hath procured,
And fully in my room endured,
The whole of wrath divine,
Payment God cannot twice demand;
First at my bleeding ’surety’s hand
And then again at mine. (Augustus Toplady)
Jesus is the substitute for his people; that’s right at the heart of the gospel.
4. Jesus is the Submissive Son
Number four, I want us to see this morning that Jesus is the submissive Son of God. Look at verses 10-11. “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.)” John, by the way, is the only person to tell us that Peter is the disciple who cut off his ear and that the servant’s name was Malchus. The other Gospels record the event, but just that a disciple cut off someone’s ear. Luke, the beloved physician, tells us that Jesus then touched the man’s ear and healed him. That’s not John’s focus here; instead, John’s focus we see in verse 11 when Jesus says to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
I think right there we see two ways to live: the way of the sword and the way of the cup. The way of the sword is the idea that so many people have had that through force, through coercion, through worldly methods we can secure the kingdom of God. That’s what Peter’s thinking. He pulls out his sword; he’s ready to fight for Jesus! Jesus says, “Put the sword up, Peter.” “Those who live by the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26). “Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me to drink?”
Does that remind you of something? Doesn’t that remind you of the prayer that Jesus prayed in Gethsemane as recorded in the other gospels, where Jesus three times went to his Father, and he was saying, “Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.” He has complete submission to the Father’s will, to drink the cup.
What is that cup? I don’t think there’s any doubt what the cup is. The cup in the Old Testament was a metaphor for God’s judgment and wrath. The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 57:17 said, “Wake yourself! Stand up, O Jerusalem! You who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.”
Psalm 11:6 talks about “the cup of the wicked, which will be full of fire and sulfur and a scorching wind.”
Ezekiel talked about the cup of horror and desolation in Ezekiel 23:33.
Jesus says, “Shall I not drink the cup?” You see, as the substitute, he is entering into not just the physical afflictions of Calvary, but he is entering into judgment, where he, as our representative and as our substitute, will take the judgment our sins deserve. He takes our cup, the cup of curse and condemnation, so that he can give us the cup of blessing and salvation. His submission to the Father is a model for us, as well, of how we are to live the Christian life in submission to the Father; we are to live not by the sword; we live by the cup.
5. Jesus is the Priestly Sacrifice
Finally, number five, we see Jesus as the priestly sacrifice. You see it in verses 12-14. “So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.”
There are a couple things going on here. One thing that’s going on is, as Jesus is taken to the house of Annas, it is going to begin a series of trials, both before the priest (that trial is recorded especially in Mark), then there will be a trial before Pilate, a trial before Herod—a whole series of trials that will extend all night Thursday night, leading into Friday morning. One of those is a trial in which the high priest of Israel, Caiaphas, will condemn Jesus for blasphemy, and seek to put him to death. They had already conspired to do this. This is what John is referencing in verse 14. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.
This goes back to John 11. After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11, the report of that was going around, and the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council of priests and leaders, they were scared to death. They were afraid of Jesus. They were afraid that a movement would begin that would cause a Roman uprising that would just stomp them all out. So they are ready, as a matter of expedience, to sacrifice Jesus in order to prevent a political upheaval. So, in John 11 Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, “It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” But John says in verse 51, “He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”
Remember, this is Passover week, and here the high priest of Israel is ready to offer Jesus as the Passover lamb, the sacrifice. He’s the priestly sacrifice.
On another level, we could say that Jesus himself is the high priest who is offering himself as a sacrifice. The priests had three functions: a priest taught the people, prayed for the people, and offered sacrifices for the people. Look at the structure of the Gospel of John, and especially chapters 13-19. What does Jesus do? In chapters 13-16 he’s teaching his disciples. In chapter 17 he’s interceding, praying for his people. We often call it the great high priestly prayer. And now in chapters 18-19 Jesus as the high priest is offering himself as the substitutionary sacrifice.
You see how rich this passage is? There’s so much here to see about Jesus, we barely can scratch the surface.
How are we to respond to this? I think the first response is just to bow, to be lost in wonder, love, and praise; to worship this one, this God-man who gave himself for us, to worship him, to adore Jesus the Savior.
One response is to entrust ourselves fully to him. If you’ve never done that, if you’ve never bowed your head, confessed your sins, acknowledged your need for forgiveness, for salvation, for redemption, and said with all your heart, “Lord, I’m a sinner, I need forgiveness; I can’t save myself. For Jesus’ sake, will you forgive me?” If you’ve never done that, you should do that today.
Brothers and sisters, we continue in the Christian life by affirming that over and over again. Every time we come to the Lord’s table, that’s really what we’re doing—that’s what we should be doing. That should be what’s in our hearts. We come to the table, we drink this cup, we eat this bread. What’s it pointing us to? It’s pointing us to the broken body of Jesus, the shed blood of Jesus; and we are implicitly saying when we take that bread and that juice onto our lips, we are saying, “I trust in what he did for me.”
Let me ask you this morning, where do you see yourself in this story? There’s Judas, the betrayer; I haven’t said much about him, but if there’s even the least little root of bitterness and resentment or sin against the Lord Jesus in your heart this morning, when you consider Judas, certainly our response should be that of all the other disciples: “Lord, is it I?” Search your heart.
Maybe it’s the outward antagonism but partly in ignorance of the priests and the soldiers. They didn’t quite know what they were doing.
Or maybe you see yourself like these disciples, this frightened band of men who love Jesus—didn’t fully understand what he was doing, but came to understand in time that everything he did, he did for them. I hope this morning, if you’ve never done so, that you will take your place among the disciples, the followers of Jesus, and worship him, trust him, love him.
Brian G. Hedges
