John 18:12-18

Hey, everybody.

Thanks for being with us.

Thanks for closing out the week with us as we continue through John the gospel

and as we make our way through the 18th chapter.

A pretty quick turn today, really,

as Jesus has been taken into custody.

And now John begins to I won't say hurry us,

but move us along in the the narratives of passion

narratives and

John.

He does a really interesting thing we get a chance to look at today,

but we're jumping in in verse 12, I'll read through a couple

verses, will come back and have some discussion.

Verse 12.

So the soldiers, their officer and the Jewish police arrested

Jesus and bound him first

they took him to Annas,

who was the father in law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year.

Caiaphas was the one who advised the Jews that it was better for one person to die

for the people.

Simon Peter

and another disciple followed Jesus.

Since that disciple was known to the high priest,

he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest.

But Peter was standing outside the gate,

so the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out,

spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in.

The woman said to Peter, you're not also one of the man's disciples, are you?

He said, I'm not.

Now the slave.

And the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold,

and they were standing around it warming themselves.

Peter also standing with them, warming himself.

So, here we just begin to move into the story.

John.

It's it's interesting.

Like, I feel like John is a really competent, really good storyteller here.

He kind of takes us in a layer at a time.

And you even see that here.

Whereas other versions of the story

have Peter's three denials at once.

John uses them as kind of transitions

or almost cut scenes back and forth.

We look at Jesus, we look at what Peter is doing.

We look at what's happening to Jesus, you know?

And so it's really interesting presentation of the story here

and the very first layers simply to get,

introduced to some of the characters.

So we have Caiaphas, the high priest, we have Peter,

Simon Peter and another disciple.

It is often

suspected that when John tells us there's a disciple present

but doesn't name that disciple, he may in fact be referring to himself.

That's not something that can be proven, but I think many scholars suspect

that in those moments of anonymity, John is actually telling us

exactly who he has in mind or who was there.

And so we have Peter

first making and it's it's pretty tame.

Aren't you one of his disciples?

And Peter says, I'm not.

And so again, just it's like we're dipping our toe in a little bit.

I think it's very interesting the way that John brings us into this story.

Yeah, absolutely. It's this surrounding details.

I think, that makes this story so rich.

I do think that the way that John tells the story to grips us in a particular way,

because he peels back and reveals the the many layers

of the variety of characters, values, structures that are happening.

And I think that's really practical.

I think we get in verse 14 what's a pretty unique statement

in terms of the story, of the motivation of those who are coming to arrest Jesus?

Caiaphas is the one who advised the Jews.

It was better to have one person die for the people.

You know, Clint, that statement has always stuck out to me in this gospel

because it in a way humanizes a character who represents

characters who John's not done much humanizing in this book.

In fact, I'd argue the opposite.

I think the Jews are often portrayed as kind of being a religious mob, almost.

It's sort of like a mob mentality to come after

Jesus, and it's been consistent throughout the whole book.

But here, here for a moment,

John peels back that kind of tender fear, that anxiety.

Well,

someone is going to die.

And it'd be better for this man who's causing all of this turmoil and tumult.

Right?

The thing he's claiming about himself is causing so much risk for all of us.

It's better that that he dies and preserves the rest, that there's a

there's a kind of

I'm not going to say compassionate

or necessarily even empathetic,

but but there is a recognition

of the motivation there that I think is somewhat unique to this book.

I think it helps us understand before we get to Peter,

which is a surprising turn because of the fact that he's a disciple.

It helps us understand here that the reason why Jesus is in

the crosshairs is because the Jews understanding of their security

and their their perseverance and and their identity

was at risk is how it's been interpreted by the leadership.

And it's a comment like that

that might seem like a throw away that's always grabbed me.

I wonder, Michael, do you think it's fair to say that?

One of our struggles is because we're so far

removed from the culture, and since most of us have a very basic

understanding of the the day and time that Jesus lived,

we tend to flatten.

In other words, we read Sadducees and we read Pharisees,

and we read High Priest, but we don't really understand

the nuances and differences and what that tells us.

We read Jewish, we read Roman.

But but we don't understand that John is introducing us here

to several different circles of people,

and that there is a kind of danger to the Jews

in having conflict, even

even though they believe Jesus to be a blasphemer,

even though they believe they have to deal with him.

The part of that is the risk that if they draw the wrong

kind of attention to themselves, there could be drastic,

terrible repercussions for breaking the peace.

And so I think these kind of short

snippets, as John uses us in,

kind of give us a sense for some of the complexity

that we don't always know is in the story.

Yeah, absolutely.

In fact, I think that Clint, maybe one of the things that modern

Christians really miss most consistently

is how much anger there was levied in the rural regions

of Israel at the power brokers who were at the Temple in Jerusalem,

because they were playing around with the marketing marks of Roman power.

In fact, you see it happening right here. Let's be very clear.

What's happening is you have the the upper echelon religious leadership

making a decision, which they're utilizing Roman power

to carry out because they believe that's best for all the people.

I think that there was this huge contention between Sadducees

and Pharisees, because in many ways, the Pharisees believed that the

the people in power had lost sight of the whole people,

and now they were consorting with the oppressor.

They were actually working with the Romans to maintain their power,

because from the upper side of the perspective, the thought was,

well, stability is to be chosen over now.

Now we're going too far in and we're we're leaving the text.

I think the point here is made, though, that ultimately

there are many motives, nations for Jesus Christ to be arrested.

There are many waves which are going to bring him to the cross.

There are many movements that want Jesus dead for very different reasons.

And and there is a texture in the nuance in this book.

I think you're exactly right.

John even names some of these characters just as if to say, here

is some of the people who represent these motivations in the story.

Two little things before we move on.

One, one strange. And I think one important,

the important one is

that, again, if we can entertain

the idea that this unnamed disciple might be John,

what is John telling us in this, this little passage here?

He's telling us that that disciple could go into the courtyard

and could come out and be with Peter.

So what does that say?

Well, that says we have an eyewitness account, right?

John is telling us in a very subtle way

that whoever this is likely himself has access

to what's happening inside

with the priests and outside with Peter.

And I think, you know, in a very modest way that that kind of affirms

the way that this story is told and the information conveyed in it.

And then the other thing and I'll I'll be honest,

Michael, I don't know if I've ever

noticed this.

The woman who guarded the gate

and speaks to Peter, that is unusual.

Right on on to from. Multiple.

I mean, right, that there is a woman guarding the gate

and that she speaks first to a man.

I, I, I'm I'm intrigued by that.

I wish I had a good I don't know why that what that means or why that's there, but,

I, I may have to look into that because I, I've read over that before.

I, I want to point out here, I think that we

have a way of sort of synchronizing

the gospel stories of Jesus's last days into kind of one account

where I think we can bring some of the threads together,

and we let them lay down on top of each other to make sure one story.

But I just want to I want to call to mind for all of us here

how much John has emphasized the idea

of witness, the idea of proclaiming what we have seen, that

Jesus Christ is the miraculous kingdom of God on earth incarnate,

and that our job is to proclaim that here

Peter is

asked explicitly in an eyewitness account with with this disciple, right,

that Clint has already said, you know, most biblical scholars

do would suggest it's probably John.

Regardless, it's an eye witness who says

you are not also one of these man's disciples, are you?

Which is literally a question of witness.

It's a question of testimony.

It's a question of will you give voice to this man?

Will you give voice to his teaching?

I am not I think it would be hard, Clint, to overestimate

how significant this story is in this gospel.

Now, this story is also another Gospels, but both its size.

But I want to even argue far more its theological import.

This is Peter

in the moment where the rubber meets the road,

denying the truth of what he just claimed.

He was willing to kill for, by the way.

And now, when questioned by a woman guard keeper,

I think that detail is fascinating by a woman gatekeeper, he denies

the witness of who Jesus Christ is, and he's not going to just do it one time.

We know that,

but it is artistically told in such a way that each denial hits us

with another wave.

And and that is so important in this gospel because

it has so much import.

It's going to appear again in words that we're going to discover

at the end of the book that this is not just a one and done aspect of this story.

This is a critical moment.

Jesus's moment in many ways, has already come.

He's revealed himself.

He's he's been at the table with the disciples.

He's pray this prayer.

Now we see the powers of the world meet the for the two of the disciples.

And Peter is waffled.

Yeah, there's a beautiful thing that happens

here, and I don't want to spoil it.

But if you're a person who highlights your Bible

or if you're comfortable writing in your Bible,

circle those words charcoal fire.

Because I will show you something later.

I think that speaks to the.

The depth

and the ability and the mastery of John.

As an author,

there's that's important in a way that we won't know yet for a couple

chapters, but it's coming up and we'll we'll make sure we circle back to it.

But for now, put an asterisk there because it becomes really important.

I've, I've got it highlighted there.

This it's in yellow. We're good.

We're good to go. Okay.

Well I hope yeah, I hope, it's I hope you've learned something.

Hope there's been something important about this first layer.

In order to kind of keep the next layer together.

I think we'll keep it short today.

We'll be back on Monday, and we'll take a look at the next step in the story.

Good summary. We'll see you on Monday.