Monday Meditation
September 12, 2016
From the desk of A.J. Higgins
Ironies in the Garden
“As soon then as He had said unto them, ‘I am,’
they went backward and fell to the ground”
John 18:6
Once again, the unique contribution of John to all the events in the Garden and at the cross are worthy of our notice. It is only John who records for us the scene of majestic and regal dignity when the Lord Jesus went forth to meet His pursuers, arresting them with the words: “I am” (John 18:5). Such was the force of His words that “they went backward and fell to the ground” (v 6). Some suggest that the word “fell” actually means that they fell on their faces rather than simply falling back. Men prostrating themselves before the great “I am” hardly seems like a sign of weakness or helplessness before His captors.
At every turn in his account, John is showing us that the Lord Jesus is in control of all the events. He is a Lamb led to the slaughter, but He is also the Good Shepherd laying down His life – a life that no one can take from Him (John 10).
What heightens the irony is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe the Lord Jesus on the ground in the Garden. So while John depicts the hostile crowd on the ground, the other three Gospel writers show the Lord Jesus on the ground kneeling (Luke 22:41), on His face (Matt 26:39, and falling “on the ground” (Mark 14:35). Thus in the Gospel of the Son of God, He comes forth in dignity to meet the foe and they fall before Him!
Why does John include this scene and why did the Father allow this to happen? One answer, ready to hand, is that it was part of the Spirit of God’s design in this Gospel to display the deity of Christ at every possible turn. But perhaps there’s another reason why they fell before Him in the Garden – a reason that is not so easily discerned.
During the final week of His movements in Jerusalem, the Father gave His Son “encouragements” on His way to the cross. One of these, for example, was that there was a man in the city of Jerusalem, who, despite the crowded conditions and demand for space, recognized the claims of Lordship and reserved a room for Him to keep the Passover (Luke 22:8-13). In point of fact, the man did not give Him the “guest-chamber” on the lower level, but a large, spacious upper room which would normally be for special individuals.
How would the prostration of enemies in the garden have been an encouragement to the Son? He was going to the cross as a submissive Lamb; He was moving in full dependence of His Father for resurrection and ultimate enthronement (Ps 110:1). Here was a reminder that God can make every foe fall before Him. Here was a reminder that while the cross would mean shame, suffering, spitting, and death, that a day would come when every knee would be forced to bow to Him. It was as though the Father was giving Him a forceful reminder of the glory that awaited Him on the other side of the cross. The writer of the Hebrew epistle reminds us “Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising (thinking little of) the shame” (Heb 12:2).
Consider
1. Can you trace other events in the last week of the Lord’s earthy sojourn which would have been encouragements to His faith?
2. What does it say of the blindness of human nature that they could rise from their prostrated condition and bind Him?
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