Betrayal, Arrest, &Trial of Jesus John 18:1-27

In the Garden It’s an interesting thing to note that the beginning and end of Satan’s power happened in a Garden. In Eden, Satan overcame man and caused the 1st sin. In Gethsemane, Jesus pushed Satan back and began his final conquest of sin. This final conquest starts in John 18 and is broken up into 4 parts.

Part 1: Betrayal & Arrest Just as Jesus’ final prayer ended, Judas arrived with a large group of soldiers (v. 3). In Greek, the word for “band of soldiers” referred to a Roman platoon that ranged from 200 to 1,000 soldiers. Judas walked a short distance ahead of them to find Jesus and distract him while the soldiers surrounded the Garden (they didn’t want him escaping like he had in the past). When he found Jesus, Judas gave the sign to the soldiers: a kiss on Christ’s cheek.

Who captured Who? The soldiers came prepared to hunt Jesus down in the garden like an animal. Little did they know, he was ready and waiting for them (v. 4). The soldiers were looking for “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said, “I am he”...When Jesus said this, the whole platoon of men fell to the ground! In verse 8, we see his willful surrender. He was not forced to give up. He chose to do so on his own! Jesus was in control.

Peter and his Sword The scene in the garden ends with Peter attempting to defend Jesus by cutting off the ear of one of the soldiers (named “Malchus”—v. 10-11). Jesus protected Peter from any retaliation of the soldiers by telling him to put his sword away and re- attaching Malchus’ ear. When we try to “defend” God on our own, we often create a mess that Jesus has to clean up. Submit to Jesus and let him fight his own battles.

Part 2: The Trial Jesus’ trial took place in 3 stages between midnight and 3:00 AM. 1st: Trial before Annas (this trial was just a formality) Annas was Caiaphas’ father-in-law. He was the high priest 20 years earlier, but remained the head of all religious matters in Jerusalem. He also was very rich because he was in charge of selling merchandise in the temple (which Jesus cleansed...twice. So Jesus wasn’t his favorite person).

Part 2: The Trial 2nd: Trial before Caiaphas/Sanhedrin (Matt. 26:57-68) Caiaphas harshly questioned Jesus trying to find a crime to charge him with. They even had to bring in false witnesses that they had bribed in an attempt to pin charges on Jesus (v.59-61). Jesus remained silent, with no retaliation. The officials grew so frustrated that they resorted to beating Christ and mocking him for saying he was the Messiah (v.67-68). Jesus most likely spent the rest of the night in a criminal pit underneath Caiaphas’ house (read Psalm 88 with Jesus in mind).

Part 3: Peter’s Denial While Jesus was being tried, Peter was involved in his own conflict. He was fighting an inner battle—would he claim Christ publicly or deny Jesus to save himself? Peter was asked 3 times whether he followed Jesus or not: 1st- A servant girl (Peter played dumb) 2nd- Another servant girl (Peter swore he didn’t know Jesus) 3rd- Malchus’ cousin (Peter swore and cursed in anger) Then a rooster crowed, he made eye contact with Jesus, and he ran away weeping bitterly (note that he didn’t commit suicide like Judas did. We have a choice how we respond to our mistakes).