Legions

Jesus’ evening on the Mount of Olives wasn’t as solitary or quiet as we might imagine.

He and His disciples were camped on the sloping hill east of the city among thousands of others who had come to Jerusalem for Passover.

Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove. (John 18:2-3, NLT)

A contingent of Roman soldiers is, conservatively, five hundred soldiers.

Why would they bring five hundred armed soldiers to arrest an itinerant rabbi from Galilee?

The religious leaders and the Romans may not have been too fond of Jesus, but the crowds loved Him. They didn’t dare arrest Him publicly.

But even under the cover of darkness, there were still a lot of people camped out on the Mount of Olives that night. They had to be prepared for an uprising.

So, Judas led the Roman soldiers, along with the chief priests, the Temple guard, and the Jewish elders to Jesus.

As they approached, Jesus stepped forward and asked who they’re looking for.

“Jesus the Nazarene,” they answer.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (John 18:5, NLT)

At this they drew back and fell to the ground before Him.

See, this was no causal, “Yes, that’s me.” Jesus had used the holy name of God – the name that no Jew dared speak for fear of misusing it.

In Greek, it is Ego Eime.

In Hebrew, it is Yahweh.

I AM.

People often wonder why Jesus didn’t just come out and say, “I’m God.”

He did. Everyone – at least every Jew – present knew what Jesus was claiming in that moment.

And there it is. The blatant blasphemy they’ve been waiting for.

They arrested Jesus.

Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. (John 18:10, NLT)

Before the situation can escalate any further, Jesus puts an end to it.

He heals the slave’s ear – which had to make His arrest at least a little awkward.

“Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?” (Matthew 26:52-54, NLT)

In other words, “Peter, don’t you understand? They brought a cohort of five hundred men, but if I asked my Father, He could send a legion of five thousand angels. Peter, I don’t need your protection. This is exactly how it is supposed to happen.”

Jesus is in complete control of the situation – not the mob that has come to arrest Him.

He leaves no doubt that He goes willingly to the cross.

“The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” (John 10:17-18, NLT)

The Roman soldiers did not – could not – take Jesus’ life.

He laid it down.

And, three days later, He took it up again.

But we’re not there just yet.

The cross is still coming.

Read John 18:1-11 and reflect on Jesus’ calm and confident presence even knowing what lies ahead.

The Fifth Cup

The Passover meal was built around four cups of wine – one for each of the four promises God made to the nation of Israel.

Jesus instituted what we call the Lord’s Supper with the third cup – the Cup of Redemption.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus says, “Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29, NLT)

Jesus was referring here to the fourth cup – the Cup of Restoration.

So, Jesus and His disciples finish their meal and leave for the Mount of Olives. His disciples, tired by the late hour and relaxed by the wine, drift off to sleep. Jesus, though, was wide awake with the anguish of what lay before Him.

“[Jesus] went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Mark 14:35-36, NLT)

The Passover meal is over. The four cups have already been taken.

So, what cup is Jesus referring to?

Listen to what the prophet Jeremiah wrote:

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled to the brim with my anger, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. When they drink from it, they will stagger, crazed by the warfare I will send against them.” (Jeremiah 25:15-16, NLT)

The Jewish people of Jesus’ day would pour a fifth cup at Passover – but they wouldn’t drink from it.

This is the Cup of God’s Wrath.

Remember, Jesus didn’t drink from the fourth cup of Passover. That cup, the Cup of Restoration, is also known by another name. It is the Cup of Protection.

In other words, Jesus is readying Himself to drink from the Cup of God’s Wrath without having taken the Cup of Protection.

This fifth cup is the cup Jesus prays will pass.

He is already beginning to experience the torment of the cross ahead – the physical and spiritual anguish – and He begs His Father to let this cup pass.

“Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

The first four cups are cups we don’t deserve. The fifth is the cup we certainly do.

The wrath of God is not irrational fury or reckless anger.

God is a just God. His wrath is an outworking of His justice.

But it is also an expression of His love.

A loving God could not possibly let the sin that has wreaked havoc on our world go unpunished.

The problem is that we, the objects of His love, have also become the objects of His wrath through our sin.

The love of God and the justice of God meet on the cross. Jesus takes the cup we deserve and offers us the four cups that we don’t.

On the cross, after six excruciating hours of drinking from the Cup of God’s Wrath, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” (John 19:28, NLT)

In this moment Jesus asks, “Is there anything else I need to drink, God?”

A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:29:30, NLT)

It is finished.

He drank it all.

Every. Last. Drop.

Take time to read Matthew 26:36-44 and reflect on what Jesus did in drinking the Cup of God’s Wrath on your behalf.

The Place of Pressing

After Jesus and His disciples finished their Passover meal, they began to make their way to the Mount of Olives.

The disciples probably sang the hallel – Psalm 113 through 118 – as they walked through the dark streets of Jerusalem. Jesus’ steps probably grew heavier as they crossed the Kidron Valley to get to the Gethsemane.

We often talk about the garden of Gethsemane.

That phrase isn’t actually in the Bible, though.

They did go to an olive grove, but a gethsemane is a thing more than a place.

See, the Hebrew word “gat” means “press” and “shemen” means “oil.” When you put those together – gatshemen – you get the English pronunciation of gethsemane.

A gethsemane is an olive press.

It is here, at the olive press, that Jesus tells His disciples, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 26:38, NLT)

The book of Luke tells us that, “he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.” (Luke 22:44, NLT)

As a gatshemen crushes olives, Jesus can feel the crushing weight of what lies before Him.

I wonder if in this moment, Jesus was thinking of the words Isaiah spoke about Him so many centuries before.

He was despised and rejected—
    a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
    He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
    it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!

But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
    the sins of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6, NLT)

It was our weakness that He carried.

It was our sorrows that weighted Him down.

The agony of the cross didn’t begin on the cross.

It began here – at the place of pressing.

Read Isaiah 53 and, as we get closer to the cross, reflect on the great love that compelled Jesus to offer Himself as a sacrifice on our behalf.