Tragedy At Gethsemane

Jesus … asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said … [Then] they drew back and fell to the ground.
John 18:4-6

“Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out” (John 18:4).

He—and he alone—knew every step on the road to the cross.

The soldiers coming to seize him thought he was no more than a dangerous rebel who needed to be silenced. But they were unsuspecting participants in a divine drama, as G. Campbell Morgan explains.

WALK WITH G. CAMPBELL MORGAN
“There and then a remarkable thing happened, which was a supreme evidence of his majesty.

“He faced the soldiers and said, ‘Who is it you want?’ They replied, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’

“He then said, ‘I am.’ Our versions render it ‘I am he.’ Quite literally he simply said, ‘I am.’

“When he did so, a cohort of Roman soldiers, the temple police, the rulers themselves, and Judas guiding them, drew back and fell to the ground.

“I think that something in the bearing of Jesus as he stood confronting his enemies caused their shrinking and fall. They could not lay a hand on him.

“Right to the very end he revealed the fact that no man could lay hands upon him until his hour was come.

“ ‘I am,’ he said, and they drew back and fell. Thus the majesty of Jesus was revealed.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Sovereign.

It’s a big word to describe a majestic God. The God who knows the end from the beginning.

Human perception could see only tragedy in Gethsemane. Yet the plan of God was unfolding in all its perfection.

The soldiers came to Jesus to arrest him. Instead, his “I am” drove them to fall on their faces.

Let the thought of his “I am” cause you to fall before him as well.