Hello and welcome to today’s Holy Week reflection on this Holy Monday.  As you know, we’re walking our way through the Passion Narrative in the Gospel of John. It starts at the beginning of chapter 18 and runs through the end of chapter 19. Today, we’re going to be looking at the first 11 verses of chapter 18, where we see the betrayal and arrest of Jesus. 

So let’s hear that scripture now. And as we listen to it, I want you to listen for where, how you see the crowd and the people respond to Jesus. What do you see happening in the garden? Envision yourself there. Put yourself as if you are an eyewitness to these things happening and notice some things that maybe you haven’t seen before in this very familiar story. 

Scripture: John 18:1-11

1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place because Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” 5 They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.”[a] Jesus replied, “I am he.”[b] Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus[c] said to them, “I am he,”[d] they stepped back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”[e] 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he.[f] So if you are looking for me, let these people go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, “I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.” 10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. 11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

So here in the garden, we find that the religious officials or the soldiers of the religious officials have come to arrest Jesus.  And they’ve come there in order to take Jesus in for trial.

And we’ll learn more about that in coming days. There’s a lot here that we could reference and we could think about. One of the things I thought about, that we won’t talk about so much today, is the fact that we know the slave’s name. I think that is really interesting, and if you get interested too, you might want to Google around about that or do some research about that. 

But the thing that really struck me here is the reaction of the soldiers and all who were gathered there when Jesus says that he is Jesus of Nazareth. Note with me, when Jesus said to them, this is verse six, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. In my mind’s eye, this is not a voluntary thing.

It’s not like the soldiers are immediately convinced that Jesus is the Son of God and they’ve decided to kneel and worship him. This is Jesus proclaiming God’s name  and the soldiers having no choice but to kneel at the power of Jesus’s name.  You know, we pray in Jesus’s name all the time. We close our prayers that way, and maybe it’s become routine, it certainly has for me, until we think about this moment here. It’s easy for us to forget that we are claiming the power of God for our prayers when we close in Jesus’s name.

That there’s power in naming God.  To name something, is to own something. As I write, I’m eating. And here we have a sandwich and a plate. These things are named. And I kind of, I guess I do own them. They’re mine. But when we name something, we’re able to claim it.  And God, if you remember in Exodus, is very reticent to reveal God’s name.

And yet, God eventually does. And then we have a variety of names that we can call God by, all ways that we can claim God’s power in our lives.  For me, I have sometimes varied how I pray and what name I call for God. I call God when I am dealing with something in my own life, like when I was going through a difficult time when we lived in Cartersville back in 2016 and an appointment up there turned out to be an absolute disaster and seemed to threaten our very stability as a family.

I took to calling God in my prayer life during that time El Shaddai. That means God Almighty in Hebrew.  And so I would address God, El Shaddai, calling on God’s power, almighty power, to be sovereign in this situation I was in. We had just bought a house up there. We had just gotten the kids settled and Jackson in school and Dana at a job and Carter in daycare and felt like we just had things worked out.

And then all of a sudden, all that gets called up into question and sure enough, in the end, eleven months later, we moved to Eastman.  But in that time period, I didn’t know what was happening and I felt like my sense of stability was absolutely gone and my family’s with it. And you can imagine there were a lot of emotions that went with that.

So I was praying and asking God to be sovereign, to be almighty, to be present in that kind of powerful way in those circumstances that I was dealing with.  I wonder if you can relate to that, if you’ve had experiences where you have called God a different name. 

One of the things we lose in the Lord’s Prayer when we translate it, and the way that it’s been handed down to us over generations, is that the Greek word there for our Father is Abba, which is more like Daddy. It’s a familiar, loving name for a father. If I call my dad father, it’s very formal. But if I call my dad daddy, or just dad, which is how I refer to him, I am speaking in a familiar, loving way. We have a relationship that is more than just formal.  So one of the ways that I have at times prayed is to say, Abba, which is another way that we can pray. 

So for today, we are of course doing a think, pray, do response to our devotionals.  

Think

I wonder if you can think about where you or a loved one are experiencing pain and suffering today.  Maybe it’s something in your life. Maybe it’s something in their lives. Certainly Jesus was experiencing much pain and suffering as he was in the garden.

We know that he, before this, has prayed in the garden and prayed earnestly and caused, brought himself into great stress. So Jesus is full of pain and suffering, and where do we know someone in our lives, or maybe ourselves, experiencing tremendous pain and suffering? That’s our think.  

Pray

Our pray is to pray in a name for God that relates to that pain and suffering that we know or the loved one knows. So what is a way that we might pray? We call on God to relieve or to bring power to address this particular suffering that I know someone is experiencing. 

Do

And our do is to research names for God. Finding one that speaks to that prayer that we’re going to pray today. Perhaps it’s El Shaddai.  Perhaps, and as I was googling some other names, I saw one that I wasn’t familiar with but speaks to my current moment, which is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our Healer.  Certainly, I am still awaiting full healing and that one speaks to me in my current moment.  So what are some names? You might Google around or you might pull out your Bible and just start to read and see what are different names for God that you might use in your prayer life to call on God to address pain and suffering that you are experiencing or a loved one is experiencing. 

So as we close, I offer us a prayer and we will together. As we pray, call on the power of Jesus’s name, for there is great power when we call on a name of God. Let’s pray.  

Pray with Me

Abba, we give you thanks that you allow us to call on your name, to call on your power, to address situations in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones that cause pain and suffering.  Draw us close to you. Draw us close to names that speak of what we need to hear and of what we need in our lives  that we together might experience your power afresh and anew. We pray all this on this holy Monday in Jesus’s name.  Amen.  

Thanks for joining me today and I’ll see you again tomorrow.