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Jesus Is Betrayed And Arrested (John 18:1-11)

 St. John says that after they ate the Passover in the Upper Room, they went to the Kidron Valley. It was a familiar place, likely where they would get away to pray. Judas Iscariot knew the place, too.

Judas Iscariot brought soldiers and representatives from the chief priests and Pharisees. Apparently, they were expecting a more violent confrontation.

Jesus stepped forward, asking the soldiers who they were looking for. Why did they draw back, after Jesus identified himself? Did Jesus knock them over with some sort of power, or did his name somehow carry a special significance? Did some of the soldiers believe in him, or hear stories of his miracles? Based on what we have right here in the text, we don't know. I would like to think that a certain voice of conscience offered the soldiers an opportunity not to participate in this evil betrayal. Eventually, though, they got off the ground and did what they were ordered to do.

Jesus bargains for the release of the rest of the apostles, and St. John sees it as a fulfillment of a prophecy that Jesus made in the high priestly prayer, that none of his true apostles will be lost. In this way, St. John is telling us that Jesus was worshiped already, when St. John wrote his Gospel. I suppose we could claim that St. John is only claiming Jesus is a prophet, but given what he wrote in the prologue (John 1:1-18) and in the rest of this Gospel, this seems unlikely.

St. Peter didn't like the way things were going. Maybe he thought he could stop Jesus from getting arrested. So he drew a sword, and he cut off the right ear of the high priest's slave, Malchus. St. John probably wants to give us this information because someone in the original audience could back up the story. In St. John's account, Jesus doesn't fix the man's ear, but in others, he does.

St. Peter doesn't see the Father's plan in the way this is unfolding. Jesus had rebuked him earlier--as recorded by St. Matthew--by saying, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Matthew 16:23) at Peter's first suggestion of rescuing him from being arrested. Like us, St. Peter doesn't really see the point of suffering and injustice. Sometimes our first response is to fight against it, but succeeding may not be possible. And in this case, fighting against the suffering of Jesus is fighting against the will of God.

We will have plenty of opportunity to reflect upon this mystery before the end of the Gospel. In fact, we could spend the rest of our lives contemplating the mystery of the suffering of Jesus in the will of God, and it would not be a waste.

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