John 18:19-27

Friends, thanks for

being back with us on this Monday as we start the week together.

Working through the Gospel of John.

We're in the 18th chapter.

We're in the 19th verse.

Jesus has been taken into custody.

He is appearing before the high priest.

Peter has Jesus has denied Jesus once already.

And that's where things stand as we jump back into this.

Read a few verses here, and then we'll come back and have some discussion.

Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples

and about his teaching.

Jesus answered, I've spoken openly to the world.

I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple

where all the Jews come together.

I have nothing that I have said in secret.

Why do you ask me?

Ask those who heard what I said to them.

They know what I said.

When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck

Jesus on the face, saying, is that how you answered the high priest?

Jesus answered, if I've spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong.

If I've spoken rightly, why do you strike me?

Then Annas sent him, bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself, and they asked him,

you are not also one of his disciples, are you?

He denied it and said, I'm not one of the slaves of the high priest,

a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off,

asked, did I not see you in the garden with him?

Again Peter denied it.

And at that moment the rooster crowed.

So, a continuation here,

although we begin to see an escalation as well.

And Jesus is beginning

to be questioned, Jesus says, look, you know what I've said?

I haven't heard anything that's in keeping with Jesus.

That's in keeping with John.

And then there is this act of violence where one of the,

police that are nearby strikes Jesus in the face.

I think, Michael, there's,

there's an interesting balance,

to these kind of texts.

And certainly we have to remember, and I think we should remember,

that violence was done to Jesus.

But there are times when I think

we've we've been kind of fascinated with that.

You know, I think back on that,

the movie The Passion of the Christ and the absolute

just horrific scenes and

in the Gospel of John, Jesus bears that, that violence.

Well, again, in this gospel,

Jesus is not really portrayed as a victim.

And I suppose

the the middle ground we try to find is between

not being aware that Jesus suffered on Thursday,

and to think Jesus is suffering is only relegated to the cross.

But the other hand is is sort of unhealthy fascination

with the beatings and and the rest of it.

And John,

I John, I think is a helpful voice in that

because he acknowledges it.

But again, it doesn't diminish Jesus.

It doesn't diminish.

I mean, here we have Jesus being struck and he simply answers.

He. He answers with logic.

He answers with wisdom.

John presents that.

I think maybe in a slightly different way than than some of the other gospels.

Well, I think the example that you raise actually presents a real interesting

opportunity to engage in the text because in, portrayal, like the passion

where the violence is very much there to serve the purpose of revolting us, of

of making us feel the depravity and the disgusting nature of it.

It is a very emotive, kind of powerful visual,

feature of that telling of the story.

I think that that does lack

something when we come here to John, because I have to point out

that John goes out of his way to point out where Jesus is struck.

You know this Jesus is struck on the face.

And in this gospel,

we just read another encounter where someone was struck on the face.

Do you remember? Right.

It was when Peter whips out his sword

and he strikes the servant of the religious leader.

And that is a fascinating difference here, right?

Because in that story, Jesus turns to Peter and says,

violence has no place here, and he heals that servant in this place.

Jesus's opponents are literally leveraging

the violence as a way to to advance their cause.

What are we being shown by John?

The kingdom of the world, or in this case is actually the kingdom of the

the Pharisees and the religious leaders

and God's kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

And that is a very powerful storytelling

way of helping us understand the difference of who Jesus is as Messiah,

as opposed to the power wielders that Jesus now stands in front of.

And I think it it is violence, yes, but it's violence

that has a purpose of revealing something about who Jesus is.

I think that that dichotomy that that difference matters.

It has a powerful, different teaching force in a story like as John tells it.

I completely agree.

And I think the you on one hand we would be wrong

if we missed that Jesus does suffer before the cross.

We want

to be aware of the suffering Jesus undergoes.

I think, on the other hand, we'd be in the wrong to be obsessed

with it, ordered to sort of quantify it by how much Jesus suffers.

Because neither of those things, though both important, is

is ultimately the point.

And so here we have,

this act of violence done toward Jesus.

And John, I think, uses that as a sign of what is to come.

And then we go to this next part of the narrative,

which is the second and third denial by Peter.

And it's told very simply,

there's not a lot of detail here.

It doesn't really elaborate.

Aren't you one of them?

I'm not somebody who recognized somebody.

Are you sure I didn't see you there?

And again, he denied it that third time.

We don't even get his words.

But we do get mentioned that the rooster crowed.

Jesus says predicted this, of course.

And again, I think this is it's interesting

the way that John tells the story kind of starkly,

simply because I think it highlights

what's happening here, that Peter

and those who have been with Jesus now stand apart from him.

They now are afraid.

There were

bold words not a few chapters ago.

I'll die with you. I'll go with you.

That has all fallen by the wayside and in

and in the midst of the capture

and the violence and the threat of death, Jesus now stands alone

and even those who said what they said with good intentions,

and they may have even believed that they meant it at the time,

have now stepped aside,

have denied knowing Jesus, have protected themselves.

And I, I it's interesting that I think if you give John a fair reading

because he tells it so simply,

I think it almost adds to the sense of

of aloneness, the sense of forsaking this,

that Jesus experience or that Jesus undergoes here.

And I think it's really well done.

It's well done.

It also, I think, has a way of helping us understand

that the emphasis of this story is on Jesus and His mission,

and not the people who are in this moment leveraging their power against Jesus.

I think one of the things that should strike us is

how quickly this story moves to the cross,

that you might expect that the early gospel writers would spend

just chapters upon chapters of time, of of space

dedicated to Jesus's last moments, that that would be so critical

for them to explain to us how the Son of God ends up on the cross.

But the gospel writer John wants you to know that Jesus

has been testifying this whole time to the truth of who he is.

And I think what we need to recognize here within this very text is

Jesus says in verse 23, If I've spoken wrongly, testify

to the wrong, but if I've spoken rightly, why do you strike me?

Why Jesus is even now before the the highest leadership

in the Jewish faith, he is giving witness to the truth of who he is.

And Jesus is saying, if what I've said is wrong, then then,

why is it in this moment that you're not telling me what was wrong?

No. Instead you're coming to me with violence.

That is a way that John is is telling us without saying explicitly

they didn't have a way to testify against Jesus, that he was wrong.

All they had was to use the power that they have against Jesus.

So it is not a significant amount

of storytelling time, but an unbelievably depth,

or sorry, deep amount of meaning built into the story that is told.

It doesn't have to be lavish and garnished with a whole bunch of verbal detail

for this to be gritty and real and theologically deep and compelling.

And it's been written well so that we know what we need to know without emphasizing

some of the things that we might imagine, or we might be tempted to overemphasize.

Have a story like this.

I think there's a kind of profound,

juxtaposition, a

with Jesus at the center of the story, which is always the case here.

There is a very interesting arrangement of the characters

on one hand, in this first snippet, this this first passage,

we have people who do not know the truth of Jesus,

so they bring false accusation

and and misuse power.

You follow that up with those who do know

the truth are afraid to proclaim it.

So they give false answers, saying, I don't know him.

So those that do know him,

I'm sorry.

Those who don't know him

are wrong.

Those who do know him are also wrong.

And I think that again, in a very subtle way,

it it gives the effect that I think John intends of

just honing the story down

to this man, Jesus, at the very center.

People are lying, whether they're lying

because they don't know him or they're lying because they do know him.

Ultimately, the only one who stands with truth

is the Christ who stands in the middle of all the rest of it.

And I think it's just a powerful way that John tells his story,

that helps get us there.

I also want to point out the detail that is going to become even more clear

as we continue on with this story tomorrow, because we're going to come

to the the power holder of the Roman occupiers,

the the institutional political power that held the power of crucifixion.

But notice today, and this shouldn't be missed,

that the one who is referenced here

at the very top of our screen here, is that how you answer the high priest?

And for today we're going to talk about Pilate tomorrow.

But for today, I just want you to see the irony of that,

that Jesus is being asked to give account

to the highest religious ruler of the day

without it being known or recognized, that they were demanding

that from God Himself and John has set up the story

so that we know that Jesus, we said so many times that I almost dare

not repeat this,

but Jesus has made it abundantly clear who he is, that he's the Son of God,

that he is the one who reveals God's will and character to the world.

This has been over and over and over and over again, repeated in this book.

And now here, the irony that the human religious leadership

is accusing Jesus and is calling

Jesus to account for his words before the high priest is,

I think, a fascinating, even almost comedic kind of irony,

because it exposes how limited of an imagination,

how much understand,

how much of a lack of understanding these individuals have of God's

actual will and plan

the idea that literally, Jesus stands in front of them, God himself.

And the thing that they're worried about is what God has to say to the high priest.

That is an inversion of reality at the most fundamental level.

And John is exposing that from the religious component in today's text.

Don't miss as the conversation continues, because we're going to see

a very similar kind of exposing when we continue on with the story.

Yeah, John helps the reader know that throughout all the power structures,

whether they be religious or civil or military,

that ultimately they're all upside down.

And the one who looks powerless is, in fact,

the only one with true power and truth on his side.

It's true. It's really it's powerful storytelling.

Hope you can join us as we continue through this part of the gospel.

Yeah, couldn't agree more.

Grateful to have you with us.

Have this conversation has been interesting, inspiring or helpful?

Give it a like helps others find it in their own study and certainly do subscribe

so you can stick with us through studies like John as we continue on tomorrow.

Just a note for those of you who listen by audio or on YouTube,

we will be off on Wednesday,

but we are going to be studying this week, Tuesday and Thursday.

Hope you'll join us live then.