'I Am He!' ...Questions?
FASCINATE MY SPIRIT #181
Title: ”'I Am He!' ...Questions?”
Scripture: John 18-20
Date: April 2, 2021
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
After Jesus finished this prayer; he left with his disciples and went across the Kidron Valley to a place where there was a garden. Judas, the traitor, knew where this place was, for Jesus had gone there often with his disciples. The Pharisees and the leading priests had given Judas a large detachment of Roman soldiers and temple police to seize Jesus. Judas guided them to the garden, all of them carrying torches and lanterns and armed with swords and spears. Jesus, knowing full well what was about to happen, went out to the garden entrance to meet them. Stepping forward, he asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. (Now Judas, the traitor, was among them.)
He replied, “I am he.”
And the moment Jesus spoke the words, “I am he,” the mob fell backward to the ground!
So once more, Jesus asked them, “Who are you looking for?”
As they stood up, they answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Jesus replied, “I told you that I am the one you’re looking for, so if you want me, let these men go home.”
He said this to fulfill the prophecy he had spoken, “Father, not one of those you have given me has been lost.”
Suddenly, Peter took out his sword and struck the high priest’s servant, slashing off his right ear! The servant’s name was Malchus.
Jesus ordered Peter, “Put your sword away! Do you really think I will avoid the suffering which my Father has assigned to me?”
Jesus Is Taken before Annas
Then the soldiers and their captain, along with the Jewish officers, seized Jesus and tied him up. They took him first to Annas, as he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had persuaded the Jewish leaders that it would be better off to have one person die for the sake of the people.
Peter’s First Denial
Peter and another disciple followed along behind them as they took Jesus into the courtyard of Annas’ palace. Since the other disciple was well known to the high priest, he entered in, but Peter was left standing outside by the gate. Then the other disciple came back out to the servant girl who was guarding the gate and convinced her to allow Peter inside. As he passed inside, the young servant girl guarding the gate took a look at Peter and said to him, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?”
He denied it, saying, “No! I’m not!”
Now because it was cold, the soldiers and guards made a charcoal fire and were standing around it to keep warm. So Peter huddled there with them around the fire.
Jesus Interrogated by Annas
The high priest interrogated Jesus concerning his disciples and his teachings.
Jesus answered Annas’ questions by saying, “I have said nothing in secret. At all times I have taught openly and publicly in a synagogue, in the temple courts, and wherever the people assemble. Why would you ask me for evidence to condemn me? Ask those who have heard what I’ve taught. They can tell you.”
Just then one of the guards standing near Jesus punched him in the face with his fist and said, “How dare you answer the high priest like that!”
Jesus replied, “If my words are evil, then prove it. But if I haven’t broken any laws, then why would you hit me?”
Then Annas sent Jesus, still tied up, across the way to the high priest Caiaphas.
Peter’s Second and Third Denials
Meanwhile, Peter was still standing in the courtyard by the fire. And one of the guards standing there said to him, “Aren’t you one of his disciples? I know you are!” Peter swore and said, “I am not his disciple!” But one of the servants of the high priest, a relative to the man whose ear Peter had cut off, looked at him and said, “Wait! Didn’t I see you out there in the garden with Jesus?” Then Peter denied it the third time and said, “No!”—and at that very same moment, a rooster crowed nearby.
Pilate Questions Jesus’ Arrest
Before dawn they took Jesus from his trial before Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s palace. Now the Jews refused to go into the Roman governor’s residence to avoid ceremonial defilement before eating the Passover meal. So Pilate came outside where they waited and asked them pointedly, “Tell me, what exactly is the accusation that you bring against this man? What has he done?”
They answered, “We wouldn’t be coming here to hand over this ‘criminal’ to you if he wasn’t guilty of some wrongdoing!”
Pilate said, “Very well, then you take him yourselves and go pass judgment on him according to your Jewish laws!”
But the Jewish leaders complained and said, “We don’t have legal authority to put anyone to death. You should have him crucified!” (This was to fulfill the words of Jesus when he predicted the manner of death that he would die.)
Pilate Interrogates Jesus
Upon hearing this, Pilate went back inside his palace and summoned Jesus. Looking him over, Pilate asked him, “Are you really the king of the Jews?”
Jesus replied, “Are you asking because you really want to know, or are you only asking this because others have said it about me?”
Pilate responded, “Only a Jew would care about this; do I look like a Jew? It’s your own people and your religious leaders that have handed you over to me. So tell me, Jesus, what have you done wrong?”
Jesus looked at Pilate and said, “The royal power of my kingdom realm doesn’t come from this world. If it did, then my followers would be fighting to the end to defend me from the Jewish leaders. My kingdom realm authority is not from this realm.”
Then Pilate responded, “Oh, so then you are a king?”
“You are right.” Jesus said, “I was born a King, and I have come into this world to prove what truth really is. And everyone who loves the truth will receive my words.”
Pilate looked at Jesus and said, “What is truth?”
As silence filled the room, Pilate went back out to where the Jewish leaders were waiting and said to them, “He’s not guilty. I couldn’t even find one fault with him. Now, you do know that we have a custom that I release one prisoner every year at Passover—shall I release your king—the king of the Jews?”
They shouted out over and over, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” (Now Barabbas was a robber and a troublemaker.)
Jesus Is Flogged
Then Pilate ordered Jesus to be brutally beaten with a whip of leather straps embedded with metal. And the soldiers also wove thorn-branches into a crown and set it on his head and placed a purple robe over his shoulders. Then, one by one, they came in front of him to mock him by saying, “Hail, to the king of the Jews!” And one after the other, they repeatedly punched him in the face.
Once more Pilate went out and said to the Jewish officials, “I will bring him out once more so that you know that I’ve found nothing wrong with him.” So when Jesus emerged, bleeding, wearing the purple robe and the crown of thorns on his head, Pilate said to them, “Look at him! Here is your man!”
No sooner did the high priests and the temple guards see Jesus that they all shouted in a frenzy, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Pilate replied, “You take him then and nail him to a cross yourselves! I told you—he’s not guilty! I find no reason to condemn him.”
The Jewish leaders shouted back, “But we have the Law! And according to our Law, he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God!”
Then Pilate was greatly alarmed when he heard that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God! So he took Jesus back inside and said to him, “Where have you come from?” But once again, silence filled the room. Perplexed, Pilate said, “Are you going to play deaf? Don’t you know that I have the power to grant you your freedom or nail you to a tree?”
Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. This is why the one who betrayed me is guilty of an even greater sin.”
From then on Pilate tried to find a way out of the situation and to set him free, but the Jewish authorities shouted him down: “If you let this man go, you’re no friend of Caesar! Anyone who declares himself a king is an enemy of the emperor!”
So when Pilate heard this threat, he relented and had Jesus, who was torn and bleeding, brought outside. Then he went up the elevated stone platform and took his seat on the judgment bench—which in Aramaic is called Gabbatha, or “The Bench.” And it was now almost noon. And it was the same day they were preparing to slay the Passover lambs.
Then Pilate said to the Jewish officials, “Look! Here is your king!”
But they screamed out, “Take him away! Take him away and crucify him!”
Pilate replied, “Shall I nail your king to a cross?”
The high priests answered, “We have no other king but Caesar!”
Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them. So the soldiers seized him and took him away to be crucified.
Jesus Is Crucified
Jesus carried his own cross out of the city to the place called “The Skull,” which in Aramaic is Golgotha. And there they nailed him to the cross. He was crucified, along with two others, one on each side with Jesus in the middle. Pilate had them post a sign over the cross, which was written in three languages—Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Many of the people of Jerusalem read the sign, for he was crucified near the city. The sign stated: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
But the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “You must change the sign! Don’t let it say, ‘King of the Jews,’ but rather—‘he claimed to be the King of the Jews!’ ” Pilate responded, “What I have written will remain!”
Now when the soldiers crucified Jesus, they divided up his clothes into four shares, one for each of them. But his tunic was seamless, woven from the top to the bottom as a single garment. So the soldiers said to each other, “Don’t tear it—let’s throw dice to see who gets it!” The soldiers did all of this not knowing they fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my garments among them and gambled for my clothing.”
Mary, Jesus’ mother, was standing next to his cross, along with Mary’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So when Jesus looked down and saw the disciple he loved standing with her, he said, “Mother, look—John will be a son to you.” Then he said, “John, look—she will be a mother to you!” From that day on, John accepted Mary into his home as one of his own family.
Jesus’ Death on the Cross
Jesus knew that his mission was accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said: “I am thirsty.”
A jar of sour wine was sitting nearby, so they soaked a sponge with it and put it on the stalk of hyssop and raised it to his lips. When he had sipped the sour wine, he said, “It is finished, my bride!” Then he bowed his head and surrendered his spirit to God.
The Jewish leaders did not want the bodies of the victims to remain on the cross through the next day, since it was the day of preparation for a very important Sabbath. So they asked Pilate’s permission to have the victims’ legs broken to hasten their death and their bodies taken down before sunset. So the soldiers broke the legs of the two men who were nailed there. But when they came to Jesus, they realized that he had already died, so they decided not to break his legs. But one of the soldiers took a spear and pierced Jesus’ side, and blood and water gushed out.
(I, John, do testify to the certainty of what took place, and I write the truth so that you might also believe.) For all these things happened to fulfill the prophecies of the Scriptures:
“Not one of his bones will be broken,”
and, “They will gaze on the one they have pierced!”
Jesus’ Burial
After this, Joseph from the city of Ramah, who was a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jewish authorities, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. So Pilate granted him permission to remove the body from the cross. Now Nicodemus, who had once come to Jesus privately at night, accompanied Joseph, and together they carried a significant amount of myrrh and aloes to the cross. Then they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in strips of linen with the embalming spices according to the Jewish burial customs. Near the place where Jesus was crucified was a garden, and in the garden there was a new tomb where no one had yet been laid to rest. And because the Sabbath was approaching, and the tomb was nearby, that’s where they laid the body of Jesus.
The Empty Tomb
Very early Sunday morning, before sunrise, Mary Magdalene made her way to the tomb. And when she arrived she discovered that the stone that sealed the entrance to the tomb was moved away! So she went running as fast as she could to go tell Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. She told them, “They’ve taken the Lord’s body from the tomb, and we don’t know where he is!”
Then Peter and the other disciple jumped up and ran to the tomb to go see for themselves. They started out together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He didn’t enter the tomb, but peeked in, and saw only the linen cloths lying there. Then Peter came behind him and went right into the tomb. He too noticed the linen cloths lying there, but the burial cloth that had been on Jesus’ head had been rolled up and placed separate from the other cloths.
Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first went in, and after one look, he believed! For until then they hadn’t understood the Scriptures that prophesied that he was destined to rise from the dead. Puzzled, Peter and the other disciple then left and went back to their homes.
Mary arrived back at the tomb, broken and sobbing. She stooped to peer inside, and through her tears she saw two angels in dazzling white robes, sitting where Jesus’ body had been laid—one at the head and one at the feet!
“Dear woman, why are you crying?” they asked.
Mary answered, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him.”
Then she turned around to leave, and there was Jesus standing in front of her, but she didn’t realize that it was him!
He said to her, “Dear woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”
Mary answered, thinking he was only the gardener, “Sir, if you have taken his body somewhere else, tell me, and I will go and . . .”
“Mary,” Jesus interrupted her.
Turning to face him, she said, “Rabboni!” (Aramaic for “My teacher!”)
Jesus cautioned her, “Mary, don’t cling to me, for I haven’t yet ascended to God, my Father. And he’s not only my Father and God, but now he’s your Father and your God! Now go to my brothers and tell them what I’ve told you, that I am ascending to my Father—and your Father, to my God—and your God!”
Then Mary Magdalene left to inform the disciples of her encounter with Jesus. “I have seen the Lord!” she told them. And she gave them his message.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
That evening, the disciples gathered together, and because they were afraid of reprisals from the Jewish leaders, they had locked the doors. But suddenly Jesus appeared among them and said, “Peace to you!” Then he showed them the wounds of his hands and his side—they were overjoyed to see the Lord with their own eyes!
Jesus repeated his greeting, “Peace to you!” And he told them, “Just as the Father has sent me, I’m now sending you.” Then, taking a deep breath, he blew on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. I send you to preach the forgiveness of sins—and people’s sins will be forgiven. But if you don’t proclaim the forgiveness of their sins, they will remain guilty.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
One of the twelve wasn’t present when Jesus appeared to them—it was Thomas, whose nickname was “the Twin.” So the disciples informed him, “We have seen the Lord with our own eyes!”
Still unconvinced, Thomas replied, “There’s no way I’m going to believe this unless I personally see the wounds of the nails in his hands, touch them with my finger, and put my hand into the wound of his side where he was pierced!”
Then eight days later, Thomas and all the others were in the house together. And even though all the doors were locked, Jesus suddenly stood before them! “Peace to you,” he said.
Then, looking into Thomas’ eyes, he said, “Put your finger here in the wounds of my hands. Here—put your hand into my wounded side and see for yourself. Thomas, don’t give in to your doubts any longer, just believe!”
Then the words spilled out of his heart—“You are my Lord, and you are my God!”
Jesus responded, “Thomas, now that you’ve seen me, you believe. But there are those who have never seen me with their eyes but have believed in me with their hearts, and they will be blessed even more!”
Jesus went on to do many more miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not even included in this book. But all that is recorded here is so that you will fully believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you will experience eternal life by the power of his name!
- John 18-20 (The Passion Translation)