Where to follow Jesus: His condemnation
Warm-up: When reading or watching reports of journalists, how do you expect them to give you a true idea of complex events?
- How can you verify whether a given story is true?
- When do omissions in a report question its veracity?
1) vv1-11 John’s account of how Jesus was arrested emphasizes several aspects omitted by the other evangelists. How can such differences show what he wishes to emphasize? cf Mt 26:36-56; Mk 14:33-52; Lk 22:39-53).
- vv3-12: One difference is that only John mentions a “band” (lit. cohort) of Roman soldiers and their tribune (vv3+12) equivalent to a modern-day regiment commanded by colonel. If Judas led there hundreds of soldiers, how do you picture their deployment to prevent another escape of Jesus and his disciples?
- vv5-8: According to the synoptic gospels, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss (Mk 14:44-45). At a time when this was already widely known, John completed the picture by writing about troops who either arrived before that sign or who missed it because the place got crowded and/or because of the dark. How did Jesus show at that moment that he was fully in control? [3x: I am = Yahweh] => And why? Hint: Read again v9. What did this confrontation with God’s power reveal about Jesus‘ ministry? cf Jn 17:12
- What does that say about what it means to be the true high priest?
- vv10-11: Why did Peter still draw his sword?
- What did he likely aim at?
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How may Christians create similar damage today?
- Only John disclosed that the swordsman was Peter: Why could this be relevant for us to know? Hint: How does this detail fit with John‘s focus on the true high priest and his intercession (ch 17)?
2) vv12-27 contrast Jesus as the true eternal high priest against those who held this position for a time because of their descent from Aaron (Jn 17:13). What really happened in the court chaired by the former high priest Annas?
- v13 (cf vv22+24): Who were Annas and Caiaphas? What was their relationship?
- From 6-15 AD, Annas preceded Caiaphas as high priest. Was he still revered as such by the Jews even after the Romans appointed his son-in-law of Caiaphas from AD 18-36? cf Acts 4:6; Lk 3:2]
- Since a guilty verdict was already cast in advance (Jn 11:49-52), why did they question Jesus at all?
- v15-17: “Another disciple” who was known to Annas, v15:
- Why is he mentioned?
- v17: If this had been John himself*, why didn’t the servant girl at the gate ask him the same question as Peter? Why did Peter not tell the truth?
- v19: Why did the high priest ask Jesus about his disciples?
- vv20-21: Why did Jesus give an evasive answer? Was Jesus aware of the presence of his disciples, v15? cf Lk 22:61
- v22: What might have provoked the official to strike Jesus (v22): Was he upset by what Jesus said, or rather by what he did not say?**
- How does this questioning show Christ rather than Annas behaving as the true high priest?
- vv25-27: What was at stake for Peter?
- What could have been the outcome if Peter had not denied Jesus?
- Was he now suddenly afraid of death, or merely of looking stupid for having been mistaken about Jesus?
- Why does following Jesus draw condemnation and ridicule from the world? cf Jn 15:13
- Why do his followers have to confess him with their mouth to be saved (Ro 10:8-9)?
3) vv28-37: What were the lies by which the accusers of Jesus hoped to get him convicted?
- v28: How did they lie to themselves about their defilement? cf Mt 15:18-20
- vv29-30: How did they ‘justify’ their accusations?
- v31: Were they sincere about the Roman law that prohibited them to lynch Jesus? cf e.g. Jn 8:5; 10:31-33; Acts 7:59; 14:19
- Why were they not satisfied with Pilate’s permission to kill Jesus by themselves?
- vv33-35: Of what crime was Jesus accused before Pilate? cf Lk 23:2
- Did his accusers truly believe this? cf Mk 15:10
- vv36-37: Did Jesus confess to be guilty as charged? Why or why not? cf Jn 19:19
4) vv38-39: What was at stake for Pilate in this trial?
- What was his verdict about Jesus?
- By handing him over to the crowd, what sentence did Pilate bring upon himself?
- v39: How do you explain his relativizing of truth?
5) vv39-40: How did the condemnation of Jesus lead to the release of Barabbas?
- What would you think of a custom where citizens could request the release of a convict every Easter? Why are we uncomfortable with the thought?
- How did this custom illustrate the meaning of Passover? i.e. why didn’t God release the Israelites from their captivity without this sign?
- Read Col 2:13-14. How is Barabbas an illustration for what it means that God cancelled the record of the charges against us by nailing them to the cross? cf Ro 8:3-4
6) Personal and application
- Do you recognize yourself in any of the characters of this chapter? Where, and why? Why could that be important?
- What do you make of John‘s comparison between the virtue of the accused versus that of his accusers?
- How does this story sit with the creed of contemporary psychology that our actions are determined by what we believe to be our “identity”? How does that belief in old versus new “identities” square with the biblical notion that instead (!) we were (spiritually) dead in our trespasses, but in Christ have been made alive (Eph 2:5)?
* Elsewhere, John called himself “the other disciple (Jn 13:23; 20:2). Already in the 5th century AD, Jn 18:15 thus has also been taken by some as referring to the evangelist (Nonnus of Panopolis). However, in all other instances where John clearly wrote about himself, he calls himself “the other disciple whom Jesus loved” (cf Jn 19:26; 21:7, 20). This appreciation of being personally known to our true high priest as such a close friend is conspicuously absent in Jn 18:15. Therefore, “another” disciple more likely is mentioned anonymously here to not incriminate him for his personal link to the household of the ungodly high priest Annas.
**Unable to find dirt on Jesus himself, they could have gone after his disciples if Jesus would have divulged their names.
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