Tag Archives: a garden

JOHN’S GOSPEL… “THE TIME HAS COME” – 30

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John 18:1-3 NIV
[1] “When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.”

Jesus had a tryst to honour. He had to meet someone who would play a crucial role in the unfolding drama.

[2] “Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. [3] So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.”

What an unusual situation! Written between the lines was Jesus’ prophetic word…

John 10:17-18 NIV
[17] “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. [18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Step by step, through these dramatic events, Jesus demonstrated His absolute control over the story as it unfolded. He had a timetable to follow, and every detail had to fulfil all the prophecies about Him that covered this salvation event.

John 18:4 NIV
[4] Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

So, like a prearranged signal, Judas knew where to find Him.

Why a garden, why this garden? Again, there is symbolism in the story. How fitting that the death of humanity, when they rejected God as theie God, which happened in a garden, should be reversed by the one who came to do the Father’s will by dying, in a garden!

The Garden of Eden was a plethora of provision for the first pair, delights of every kind in the fruits of the garden. In that same garden, they forfeited everything by one choice and one decision, turning their lives from perpetual bliss into never-ending suffering and loss. Driven out of the garden, they and all mankind, were to live their lives in toil and struggle.

The Garden of Gethsemane was a garden of olive trees, the fruit of which demanded extreme pressure to release its bounty. Gethsemane, the name that always reminds us of His suffering, means “press”. As the oil is pressed from the olives to benefit humans, so our Saviour was pressed until all that remained was His loyalty to the Father and obedience to His will, the way of suffering that restored our bliss.

Mark 14:36 NIV
[36] “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Only when every shred of reservation, every atom of resistance was submitted to the Father, was He ready to move with the circumstances that took Him to the cross.

It was at the perfect moment, when the struggle was over, that Judas and his ignominious bunch of “religious and military might” arrive on the scene to arrest Him. Why the need for such a mob? Did they really think this was necessary to arrest one man…and the one man who would be willing to go because it was His destiny? How little did Judas know that he was not in charge, and that those with him were doing the Father’s will?

Acts 2:23 NIV
[23] “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

So, the drama picked up pace. Arrest, trial…all in the perfect timing and purpose of the Father. How Jesus monitored the unfolding events until the moment when the cock crowed…the sun darkened…and the Passover lambs were slaughtered. The angel of death passed over, taking only the firstborn, the perfect Son of God…as the sacrifice for sinners.

How can we ever believe that Calvary was a random event, in which sinners carried out their own will? Far from this, Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He died in eternity, caused it to happen in time, carried it out according to a perfect timetable, and made salvation through faith in Him possible from before the beginning of history. Hence, the Old Covenant encapsulated, in a symbolic ritual called Passover, what Jesus did before time, and which Jesus fulfilled perfectly at Passover, so that we can know without a doubt, that His sacrificial death was all of God.

1 Peter 1:20 NIV
[20] “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”

So, closely monitored by the Father, and fulfilled through the Spirit, Jesus walked the road to Calvary. Paul asserted that the Father was “in Christ” doing the work of reconciliation, while the writer to the Hebrews declares…

Hebrews 9:14 NIV
[14] “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

The Scriptures affirm that Jesus’ death was an event of the Godhead rather than just Jesus alone. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were in it together. The timing was perfect, prophecy was perfectly fulfilled, and the Father’s will done fully to the perfect moment.

How can we, then, not believe that the three-in-one God is sovereign in all He does. No matter what happens, as Jesus assured His disciples before these events unfolded…

John 14:1 NIV
[1] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

If with Him, so with us, He is working in all things for our good, patiently and purposefully restoring in us the image of His Son.

A RICH MAN’S TOMB

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A RICH MAN’S TOMB

“At the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” John 19: 41-42.

Ever built a 2000-piece jigsaw puzzle? It’s a massive undertaking. First one has to find a table or board big enough to fit the reassembled puzzle and all the loose pieces separated and lying face up. Then one has to find all the edge pieces and put them in their correct places to form the outer frame. Next, one painstakingly studies the picture and the pieces to find the shapes and colours that will fit together to form the picture, either beginning at the outer edge or with some focal point that will fit into the puzzle as one goes along.

As the story of Jesus flowed, things happened in quick succession which replicated the words of the prophets of the Old Testament with uncanny accuracy. It was as though God had, in front of Him, a picture of the events of Jesus’ life, from His conception to His ascension which He had described to the prophets. As event after event happened, He put the puzzle pieces together exactly as the picture showed.

Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 53 contributed the details of a major part of the completed picture. Joseph’s compassionate action provided the pieces which reproduced the picture of His burial perfectly.

“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.” Isaiah 53:9.

According to Matthew 27:57-61, Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man who owned an unused tomb near the crucifixion site, which he had prepared for his own burial. Mark added that he was a prominent member of the Jewish Council. What moved him to request the body of Jesus and to use his own tomb in which to bury Him? Was it love, generosity or perhaps even guilt because he had not been open about his faith in Jesus?

Perhaps, as he watched the terrible events, knowing that Jesus was innocent and that He had been killed to mask the wickedness of his fellow religious leaders, he was moved in his heart to rescue Him from the ignominious end of executed criminals – cremation in the city’s garbage dump in the Valley of Hinnom.

When he was sure that Jesus was dead, he hurried off to Pilate to ask permission to take charge of the body. Together with Nicodemus who allied himself with Joseph, they claimed His body, carrying out hurried burial rites because it was almost sundown and the beginning of the special Sabbath, and placed it in the tomb.

What does this little detail say to us who read it? It fascinates me that God wrote Jesus’ story in His book before He was born. Apart from the fact that it gives me assurance that the Bible really is God’s book – who else can write a biography before it happens and be spot on in every detail? — it also makes me wonder whether He has written my story as well. If He has, it means that I am not an insignificant nobody in His eyes, but someone worth writing about.

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16b.

Does this mean that I am just a puppet that God pushes around at will? I don’t think that’s what David meant when he wrote those words. I think he meant that God sees everything from beginning to end. He is able to write our stories before they happen because He can see the whole thing from His perspective. This means that God is very great, greater than that He can see into the future. Past, present and future are all “now” to God. He is already there, at the end of my story just as He is here now where I am on the journey and was present at the beginning.

This also means that, from the perspective of salvation, although Jesus died at a specific time in history, all the benefits of His death applied from the beginning of time. God’s people weren’t forgiven because they offered animal sacrifices. That was only a picture to help them to understand that it was the blood of God’s Lamb, His Son that cleansed them from sin.

God has taken care of everything that was needed to forgive us and reinstate us as His children. He left nothing to chance and He leaves nothing to chance as far as our lives are concerned. We can trust Him. After all, He chose us from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE POWER OF “I AM”

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THE POWER OF “I AM”

“When He had finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and He and His disciples went into it.

“Now Judas, who betrayed Him, knew the place because Jesus had often met there with His disciples.  John 18:1-2.

Gethsemane! It was almost as though Jesus and Judas had arranged to meet there.

No doubt Jesus had not discussed His next move with His disciples. He gravitated to the olive grove after the Passover meal almost from habit. Perhaps He felt claustrophobic after sitting for hours in the smoky Upper Room. He felt the stuffy heat of the enclosed room and the events of the next few hours closing in on Him. He needed the space and the cool, refreshing night air of the garden.

Judas had made a calculated guess as to where Jesus would go. He had slipped away from the group around the supper table to buy supplies, so John thought, or even to pop something into the offering box for the poor. But why at this hour of the night? No one suspected that he had left to commit a deed so heinous that no one would credit a human being for doing it to a fellow human being, least of all to one’s own rabbi.

Judas’ real reason for leaving was to tip the high priest off about Jesus’ whereabouts. Perhaps he was lurking in the shadows when the little group made its way through the darkened streets towards the outskirts of the city. He may have followed at a distance until he was sure of Jesus’ intention and then hurried off to Caiaphas to offer his services as a guide for the arresting party.

“So Judas came into the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

“Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘I am He,’ Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing with them). When Jesus said, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” John 18:3-6.

Only John recorded this remarkable incident. Why was it important to him? The purpose of his gospel was to present Jesus as the Son of God. During the course of His disputes with the religious leaders, Jesus had already made it clear to them that it was He who had interacted with His people during the Old Testament era, revealing Himself to Abraham on many occasions and to Moses at the burning bush as the “I AM” and claiming the title, “I AM” in His “I Am” sayings.

But, according to John, He not only claimed the title but He also showed His enemies the power of that name. He was not merely saying, ‘I am the one you are looking for,’ but “I AM”, Yahweh, the God of Israel.’ This was important because Jesus had made it clear that His crucifixion was not the choice of the religious hierarchy or the Roman government but a voluntary sacrifice planned by both the Father and the Son before the foundation of the world.

“‘I AM the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep… The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to 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 authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.'” John 10:14, 17-18.

Not only were His enemies to know who they were dealing with but also that they had no power to arrest Him. He would voluntarily hand Himself over to them and submit to everything they did to Him because He chose to submit, not because they had power over Him.  He could free Himself from their clutches at any time, but He didn’t because He chose to lay down His life for His sheep.

The utterance of His divine and eternal name sent them spinning to the ground. Did they not understand who this man was whom they were so determinedly arresting? Only by the Father’s sovereign permission could they carry out their dastardly deed.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.