Episode 1981: Betrayal and Arrest: "I am He" - Part 5

(John 18: 4-5) "Then Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, 'Who is it you want?
'Jesus of Nazareth,' they replied.
'I am he,' Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.")

"Then Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, 'Who is it you want?
'Jesus of Nazareth,' they replied.

Jesus knew everything that had happened to lead up to this moment and he knew all that was going to happen to Him; and yet when the soldiers come to the garden to arrest him, he is in total control. HE went out and asked THEM, who is it you want? He had to have taken them by surprise by the fact that he stepped forward before they even said or did anything. I wonder what the soldiers were expecting to find. But I’m sure they were not expecting this man to calmly walk to them and ask who they were looking for before they even had a chance to speak and ask for themselves. We don’t know what the soldiers were thinking or feeling. But whether they were angry, determined, nervous, scared, uncertain - Jesus most certainly had to have thrown them off by making the first move. What courage that had to have taken to walk toward the men who had come to arrest him. The fact that Jesus is still able to maintain control of the situation in spite of everything that was about to happen is incomprehensible. Is it irony or ignorance - the soldiers not knowing that Jesus, being all knowing, is fully aware of what is happening when they, the soldiers, don’t even know which man is Jesus.

He handed Himself over; they didn’t have to seize Him. Jesus was doing what His father had asked Him to do. St. Augustine said in a sermon in reference to this passage, “Had [Jesus] never permitted them to apprehend Him, they would certainly not have done what they came to do.”
I mean, think about that. What WOULD have happened if Jesus had not stepped forward of his own accord? Would Judas have tried to follow through with the plan? Or would the disciples have covered for Jesus and said he wasn’t there? We will never know.
'I am he,' Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was
standing there with them.")

Many centuries earlier, we read in Exodus 3:13-14 about when Moses had encountered God at the burning bush and he had asked God to reveal His name. God replied that His name is “I am,” the One who is eternal, infinite, and self-existing. Jesus claims this name as His own on several occasions in John’s gospel, and here as well, implying that He is God incarnate.

I need to add the line that follows “And Judas the traitor was standing there with them” - and that line is, “When Jesus said, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.”

St. Augustine, from one of his tractates on this passage, said that Jesus demonstrated His divine power in this moment.

Before I continue, I need to interject a side note: I discovered the word tractate when I was looking for information in discussing this gospel passage. The tractate is a specific type of sermon, delivered as part of a liturgy, which combines scriptural exegesis (another new word meaning critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture), preaching, spiritual commentary, and theological reflection. St. Augustine delivered 124 tractates on the Gospel of John.

And so St. Augustine said that even though the soldiers fell down, immediately afterward, they were able to stand up again, bind Him, and take Him away to His trial and execution. St. Augustine concluded in the same commentary that Jesus demonstrated His divine power to prevent His own arrest momentarily, because His enemies needed to know (as do we) that He was giving Himself up willingly. “I lay down my life, that I may take it again,” Our Lord had earlier declared. “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again” (John 10:17–18).

And finally, what does it say that Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them as this all happened? Jesus had already told Judas that he knew he would be the one to betray him. Jesus, in disclosing this information to Judas at the Last Supper also told Judas, “That which thou dost, do quickly.” Again there is a cruel irony that Judas is doing as his master told him, even in betrayal. He was standing there to be sure that he followed through with his end of the bargain. What was he thinking as he stood there? Now that’s a whole other episode!

Thank you for listening.