“The hour has come,” Jesus prayed. Having washed his disciples’ feet, having shared his extended farewell, Jesus leads the eleven out from the place where they have gathered. Together they venture into the night, making their way across the valley and into a garden.
Earlier that evening, Judas had been dismissed from the table, to “do quickly what [he was] going to do.” Leaving the others, Judas met up with a detachment of soldiers, along with officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, and led them to the same garden. The garden, perhaps enclosed by stone walls, brings to mind the image of a sheepfold, and with it, Jesus’ words about the good shepherd in John 10.
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| JESUS MAFA. The good shepherd, from Art in the Christian Tradition |
The good shepherd calls his sheep by name, and knows them, just as they know him. The good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep. Here, Jesus the Good Shepherd acts decisively to protect his disciples. In the face of this excessive show of force, Jesus places himself between his disciples and the lanterns, and torches, and weapons that threaten them. His disciples - his sheep - are not snatched and scattered, but kept safe. Indeed, he does not lose a single one of those whom the Father gave him, except the one destined to be lost.
During this whole encounter, it is clear that Jesus is the one who is in control, the one who holds true power. It is a posture consistent with John’s gospel as a whole. Here, in the garden, Jesus comes forward of his own volition, rather than hiding, or running away, or waiting for Judas to identify him.
Here in the garden, Jesus asks the questions, demonstrating strength and calm despite the crowd of soldiers. In contrast, the soldiers display not strength, but rather weakness and fear. In response to Jesus’ self-revelation - a few words from an unarmed man - they step back from him and fall to the ground.
Later, given the opportunity to engage with the soldiers through violence, Jesus refuses. He does not seek another way, or pray for this to pass, but rather tells Peter, “Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
His life is his own to lay down and hand over, accomplishing the will of the Father. “No one takes it from me,” Jesus says in John 10, “but I lay it down of my own accord.”
Even in the face of violence and betrayal, Jesus continues in the path that has been set before him, trusting that God is at work. The soldiers, and religious leaders, and Pilate, and Herod may think that they are the ones determining the outcome of the events that have been set in motion, but they are not. Instead, it is the Father’s will that is to be accomplished when Jesus is lifted up and glorified in his death and resurrection.
What is to be accomplished is our salvation - found not in arrogant displays of power, or self-serving actions, or threats of violence, but in love. It is the love of the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep, and who takes it up again. However hopeless things may look as Jesus is bound and led away by the authorities, we know that God, the one with true authority, is still at work.
God is still at work here and now, too. Whatever comes, whether disease or division, death or destruction, we know that it is God who holds us. The work that Jesus set out to do will be accomplished, has been accomplished.
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