Smack Down

March 20

Read: John 18:1-11

Smack Down

“When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.” (v.6)

What a weird moment in the arrest of Jesus. After the last supper and his High Priestly Prayer, Jesus retreats to a garden with his disciples awaiting his capture. He already knows what is coming his way… what is going to happen. (v.4) When the soldiers approach Jesus he comes to meet them and asks this question: “whom do you seek?” This was not a question for himself (obviously, he knew what was coming) but rather a question for the disciples and soldiers themselves. It seems like such an out of place question. Judas is with them. Jesus was so famous that crowds followed him wherever he went. They knew who he was and everyone knew who they were looking for…Yet Jesus asks. Why?

As soon as Jesus tells them who he is, they fell to the ground. Knocked down. Dropped them like a bag of bricks. A pastoral smack-down supreme! The entire crowd of soldiers and Judas included fell to the ground. I can’t help but think that “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (cf. Phil 2:10,11) The sheer mention of Jesus’ name bowled these guys over. This is the power of Christ. The is the authority given to him. Incase anyone involved was confused, Jesus cleared up who truly held the power. No one could ever say they took him by force. His name alone pushed them to the ground. No, Jesus went willingly along with the soldiers… the power dynamic was made obvious.

Peter misses the point though. In a strange act of “taking matters into his own hands” he takes his sword and lops the ear of a guard off. Think about this for a moment: Jesus just knocked them all down with his words… his name. Now Peter works to get his “licks in” and starts swinging a sword. Isn’t thins how we function sometimes? We forget the power of Jesus’ name and we resort to taking matters into our own hands. We doubt the supernatural power of Jesus, and resort to our own “sword power” instead… just like Peter.

I wonder how those guards felt? What was going through their minds while they were arresting him? What did they think about that moment when they were shown how weak they were compared to Christ? Did they start to second guess their arrest? The sad truth is that a momentary exposure to Jesus’ power does not automatically change a persons heart… this is a perfect example. It is very possible to be literally “bowled over” by Jesus then get back up and keep on doing what you were doing. We know it was God’s plan for the Son to suffer on the cross… so it could not be stopped. What is important to see is this was not a moment of Jesus laking power, but rather his being SO POWERFUL that he endured the cross! Hebrews tells us that Jesus "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2) My prayer is that the Lord would knock us over every once and awhile to remind us of how powerful he truly is, and how much the Father, Son, and Spirit love us as children of God. I pray that we would not miss those moments of Jesus’ authority and power, and that we would avoid resorting to our own human efforts to getting things down… that we would put the proverbial sword down and trust in the power and strength of Jesus’ name. I pray that when Jesus asks US who or what we are searching for - we would answer HIM as well! Love you guys. - JDP