Television shows like CSI and Law and Order help us get a picture in our minds of the scene from this Gospel passage.  They help us conjure up that picture of a person being arrested and bound and taken into custody as Jesus was on the night of his arrest.  On these shows, we’re relieved that the cops are in control.  We’re relieved that the threat of the arrested person is contained.

    Yet, with Jesus’ arrest things are very different.  Even though he is arrested and bound and seemingly under the custody of the soldiers and Jewish police, we know that Jesus is in control.  We understand that all of this is part of the divine plan that God had in store for God’s Son.  Several parts of this passage help us gain this understanding.

     Verse four tells us that Jesus knew what was going to happen to him.  He could have run, he could have hidden, but instead he came forward to the group of at least a couple hundred soldiers and police that had come looking for him and asked them, “Who are you looking for?”  He basically surrenders.  He turns himself in.  And he does this because he knows what his purpose is. 

     “Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” he asks Peter after Peter resorts to violence.  Jesus has come to the moment in his life for which he was born.  He enters this moment with confidence, purpose and peace, fully aware of who he is.

     When the soldiers tell Jesus that they are looking for Jesus of Nazareth in verse five, it’s important for us to realize the depth of his response.  The English translation leads us a little astray as we read that Jesus’ responds, “I am he."

     To us, it sounds simply like a simple human physical identification.  A more exact translation would have Jesus saying simply, “I AM.”  You see, he responds with a divine name.  The name God gave Moses from the burning bush.  As he speaks the “I AM," he is revealing his truest nature.  He is revealing his divine nature.  And we know that the soldiers and police get it as they fall to the ground because of the power of that name, “I AM.”
 
     Jesus is ultimately arrested, not because of Judas’ betrayal, not because he is   outnumbered by soldiers and police, but because it is part of his destiny as the Son of God.  Already in the garden, he gives himself up, so all the other people with him – his disciples – can go free as he demands in verse eight.

     Jesus uses his power to make sure others go free.  He exerts control to make sure that God’s will is done.  This is the good news for us on this Good Friday.  It’s good news because we are recipients of the freedom he gives – freedom from our sins, freedom from having to gain salvation and eternal lives for ourselves. 

     It’s good news because God’s will was done in Jesus’ life and he was raised from the dead – a victory that we get to celebrate – a victory that gives us hope and peace about what happens in our own death or the death of a loved one.  But we’re not there yet.  It is only Friday.  For Jesus and for us, his disciples who walk this journey with him, there is a long night ahead.  

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     Maybe the most dangerous words in this passage are the words “they” and “them”.  They cried out, “Away with him!”  Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.  They took Jesus.  They crucified him. 

     These words let us off the hook.  These words allow us to conveniently forget that it is our cries that convicted Jesus.  It is our hands that handed him over to soldiers with hammers and nails.  It is our sinful actions that sent Jesus to the cross. 

     We do the same thing with Judas and Peter.  “How could Judas, someone in  Jesus’ inner circle betray him like that?” we think.  “How could Peter, the rock, one of the favorites, deny even knowing Jesus like he did?  And do it three times?!” we wonder. 

     As we judge them, as we point out their shortcomings, we look past our own.  We forget our own betrayals of Jesus and his teachings – the times we delve into the things of life that are not of Christ.  We forget our own denials of knowing Jesus – the times we choose not to stand for justice and fairness – the times we choose indifference over love.

     The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus carried the cross by himself to Golgotha.  There is no relief or help from Simon of Cyrene like in Matthew, Mark and Luke.  This lonely walk is the image that seems the most fitting. 

     No one else could carry the burden that Jesus carried.  No one else could bear that weight of Judas and Peter’s betrayals and ours.  No one else could bear the injustice of those who cried out that day to “Crucify him!”.  No one else could bear the sins of the whole world. 

     But, Jesus did.  He bore everything the whole world could throw at him – betrayal, denial, sin that wasn’t his own, crucifixion and death.  
I’ve wondered at times why Good Friday is called good.  What happened to Jesus certainly wasn’t good.  My conviction – my part – in his death doesn’t feel good.  Betrayal, denial, death – these things aren’t good. 

     It is what Jesus creates out of all this that is good.  He responds with grace to our betrayal.  He gives us opportunity upon opportunity to respond in love to him to balance our denials.  He creates new life where endings and death seemed certain.  That’s why it’s good.  Jesus makes it good.  Amen.