The Apprehension of Christ
C. Bradley, M. A. John 18:1-14 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden… I. THE MANNER IN WHICH HE WAS EMPLOYED WHEN THIS MULTITUDE CAME UPON HIM. St. John does not mention this. But all the other evangelists do. 1. Prayer was His last employment before His final sufferings began. Have we sufferings beginning? Our praying Master tells us here how to prepare for them. "Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray." 2. But our Lord was praying for that which was not granted Him. "If it be possible," &c. And what was His Father's answer? In that very moment He mingled that dreaded cup and sent it Him. We hear much of the omnipotence of prayer, but we are plainly taught here that there is a limit to its power; that we may pray and pray fervently, as Christ did, and yet have our request denied. Generally God causes our prayers to fall in with His plans, and then He puts honour on prayer by sending us the blessings He designs for us as answers to it; but when our petitions would thwart His plans, He will not grant them. "I besought the Lord thrice," says the suffering Paul, "that it might depart from me"; but it did not. His Master would take him up unasked into the third heaven, would do any thing that was good for His faithful servant, but He would not remove from Him the affliction He had prepared for Him. II. THE FRAME OF MIND IN WHICH OUR LORD RECEIVED THESE MEN WHEN THEY CAME TO TAKE HIM. But a few minutes before He was in a state of great mental agitation. But look at Him now. The thing He dreaded is come on Him, and what a change! Not a trace is left of fear, or agitation, or weakness. He comes forth to meet this armed multitude as unappalled and calm as though they were there to do Him honour. How like ourselves! Through God's abounding goodness, some of us have borne, and borne with calmness, the very troubles that in the distance we trembled to look at. The strength within us has astonished us. And we may trace this generally to the power of prayer. Had we seen this multitude, we should have said, perhaps, "Those earnest supplications have been all in vain." "Not so," says God. "Earnest prayer from one I love is never lost. I could not keep from Him the cup He dreaded; but I have done something better for Him — I have given Him strength to drink it." So with us. We go to God imploring Him to save us from the coming sorrow, and because He does not save us and the sorrow comes, we wonder. But He gives us a better thing than that we ask for; not deliverance from trouble, but power to bear it, and grace to profit by it, and a heart to thank Him for it. And this shows us the chief value and use of prayer. It is not so much to alter God's purposes, as to reconcile us to those purposes. We expect it to regulate God's providence; but, instead of this, it unlocks the treasures of God's grace. III. THE MARVELLOUS EFFECT PRODUCED BY OUR LORD ON THESE MEN. Officers of justice, and brave Roman soldiers, a simple sentence uttered by the man they came to apprehend, strikes them all to the ground. Now why this display of power? It is clear that there was nothing vindictive in it — the men were not injured. Neither was it intended for our Lord's rescue — there He stands waiting for them to rise. 1. It vindicated Christ's greatness. He had just feared and trembled as a man; but He was more than man: there was the infinite Godhead within Him, and for an instant He discovers it; He lets the majesty of it beam forth. It is a miracle of the same kind as that He wrought on the cross. There He brought a hardened malefactor to repentance, working on His mind none could see how; here He touches the minds of a whole multitude together, producing in them, not repentance indeed, but confusion and terror; thus plainly showing us in both instances, that He can do with the mind of man whatsoever He will. And nothing manifests His greatness more forcibly than this. 2. It provided for the safety of His disciples. The hour of His sufferings was come, but not of theirs. At present, therefore, He will not have one of them touched; and when Peter wounded one of them they did not retaliate. And just as weak before Him are all the enemies of His people. 3. It manifests the voluntariness of our Redeemer's sufferings. And whence did this willingness proceed? From the love and pity of His heart; His own free, abounding, wonderful love to a world of sinners. IV. THE CONDUCT OF THIS BAND OF MEN TOWARDS OUR LORD AFTER THEY HAD FELT HIS POWER. In the seventh chapter these officers return without their prisoner. "We heard Him talk, and we could not take Him." They preferred braving the anger of their rulers, rather than commit so great an outrage. Here they are again sent on the same errand. Endeavouring to seize our Lord, they are struck down to the earth at His feet. Surely they will rather die than touch Him. But look — they bind with cords the very Man before whom a few minutes ago they shrunk away in terror. See here, then, the hardness, the amazing stupidity of the human heart. We talk of miracles. We think that were they wrought around us, unbelief would every where give way, all men must believe and be saved. But Christ was not only born among miracles and lived amongst them, He was despised and rejected amongst them, He was apprehended amongst them, He was crucified amongst them. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples. WEB: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.