John 18 - ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible

18:1–14 Earlier in the history of redemption, another king crossed the Kidron Valley, reeling in the pain of betrayal. King David, barefoot and weeping, went away from Jerusalem because his son, Absalom, had conspired to replace his father by force—enlisting a small army to assist him. David’s dear friend and counselor, Ahithophel, was also a part of the conspiracy (2 Samuel 15–17). King David fled from their advances; but Jesus, the greater Shepherd-King promised in 2 Samuel 7, fled into the betrayal of those closest to him—Judas and Peter.

No one could take Jesus’ life from him; he freely laid it down for us (John 10:17–18). A large army of natural enemies, both Jews and Gentiles, tried; but Jesus spoke two words, “I am,” and they fell back to the ground (18:6)—an echo of divine encounters in the past (Ex. 3:14) and a preview of the day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord—many to their coronation; many others to their condemnation (Phil. 2:1–11).

Not only was the glory of the Son of God revealed in Jesus’ arrest, but also the compassion of a caring Savior. Peter’s misguided action of cutting off Malchus’s ear is superseded by Jesus’ merciful action of reattaching the severed ear (Luke 22:51). Oh, how low our God stoops to show mercy to the ill-deserving!

18:15–18, 25–27 Peter’s words of denial, “I am not,” are the tragic counterpoint of Jesus’ words of affirmation, “I am” (v. 6). But even as the rooster was crowing, Jesus was still loving Peter “to the end” (13:1). Our sins do not separate us from the love of Jesus; Jesus separates us from the love of our sin, and from sin’s guilt and power. Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus will be answered, in time, by Jesus’ threefold restoration of Peter (21:15–19).

18:28–32 The unrighteousness of self-righteousness is placarded before our eyes in the ugly irony of these verses. The rulers of Israel refused to enter the governor’s headquarters because of their scrupulous commitment to the demands of the law, not wanting to be defiled before eating the Passover. But they were unscrupulous in their commitment to rid the world of the One to whom the law points—the One who fulfills the demands of the law for us—the true Passover Lamb, Jesus. He took the defilement of the cross so that we might know the unhindered delight of our God (Zeph. 3:14–17).

18:33–40 When Jesus declared, “My kingdom is not of this world” (v. 36), he wasn’t implying that his kingdom has no implications for the earth and the world we now live in. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather he was saying, “My kingdom is on another plane than the kingdoms erected in the fallen ways of humanity.” For in fact, Jesus’ kingdom is simultaneously over this world and very much in this world. He has come to make all things new.