In his commentary on the Gospel of John, R. Kent Hughes posses the question, Who Arrested Whom in the garden. Many people view the garden as a dark and depressing episode in the life of Christ ... the night and location of His betrayal and arrest. Yet, who arrested whom in the graden?
The events of the entire evening were orchestrated by the Lord Himself ... even the location was under His control. The first eleven verses of John 18, while setting the stage for Christ's trials, gives us a glimpse at Jesus' absolute Lordship. He controlled the location of the event. Jesus could have broken with tradition and secluded Himself away with the eleven remaining disciples. Yet He chose to go to His regular garden of solitude. He went to a place that Judas had visited upon many occasions. Jesus did not run from His arrest ... He embraced it. R. C. Sproul writes, "Jesus was not seeking to avoid arrest. It almost seems that He went out of His way to be apprehended." If He embraced His circumstance and situation for the glory of God ... if He exercised control over the meeting ... can we not trust Christ to control our circumstances, situations, and surroundings for the glory of God as well? Our circumstances and situations are not random things that "just happen to us by chance" ... they are orchestrated by the hand of God to refine us and make us more like Christ. Christ has the power to arrest our circumstances.
In addition, to "arresting" His surroundings, Christ arrested the crowd who came to capture Him. Jesus did not shrink into the shadows to escape from His would-be capters. He stepped forward and took the initiative in the encounter. He asked who the crowd was looking for and quickly identified Himself as that man. Throughout John's Gospel account, one encounters the I AM statements of Christ ... I am the bread of life ... I am the light of the world ... I am the way, the truth, and the life ... etc. Each time, Jesus used the name of God given to Moses during his burning bush encouter ... I AM WHO I AM. The sacred name of God ... the name which identifies Him as the One True God. Whenever Jesus identified Himself using that name He claimed to be the One and Only Son of God ... He claimed to be deity incarnate. It is that phrase Jesus used in response to the crowd ... I AM He! When Jesus clearly identified Himself, the crowd drew back and fell to the ground. They had been arrested by the Lord.
The arrest of Christ was not against His will ... earlier that night in the garden Jesus had stated His resolve to accomplish, to complete the Father's plan of redemption. Jesus went with the crowd willingly to carry out the divine plan of salvation established from eternity past. Christ willingly went with the crowd to be tried, crucified, and buried in order to rise from the dead conquering sin and death. He did so to arrest the hearts of everyone who would one day be drawn to Christ by the Father for eternal life. In the garden Christ willingly went with the crowd so that He would drink the cup that the Father has given Him.
The arrest of Christ, the cup that the Father gave Him was the cup of judgment for our sins. It is the cup of God's wrath on sin that was absorbed by Christ on the cross when God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).
