I Am He

John 18:3-9 During the Lenten season we see Jesus abandoned by his disciples and betrayed by his friends and rejected by his people.  We see religious leaders conspire against him and plot his death.  We see political leaders convict him unjustly.  We see Roman soldiers beat him almost to death and then nail him to a cross.

And when Jesus finally bows his head and gives up his spirit on Friday afternoon, I think we have this sense that-- the hatred of the devil, and the failure of his friends, and the political powers of the day-- have finally had the victory.

Nothing could be farther from the truth!  Throughout the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ there is one person in control, one person who knows how it will all come out, one person who will have the victory and that is Jesus. 

That is why this scene in the Garden of Gethsemane is recorded in Holy Scripture:  so that we can see with our eyes of faith, before these terrible events occur, that Jesus does not go to the cross and die as a helpless victim, but he goes to the cross as our mighty champion who will win the victory over sin, death, and the devil.  The Bible says that:

Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”

            Jesus knew all that would happen to him and still came forward.  Is that not the most remarkable thing!  I can assure you that if an armed crowd was looking for me in the middle of the night, I would not be coming forward!  I am going the other way as fast as I can!

And there’s even more to it than an armed mob.  Jesus knew ALL that was going to happen.  He knew who these people were.  He knew what they wanted.  He knew that he was going to be accused and condemned unjustly.  He knew he was going to be beaten almost to death and then suffer the worst kind of death imaginable. 

He knew all of it and came forward to meet them.

Jesus did not shrink back in the face of pain and death.  He went to meet it because he knew that this would be the terrible price he would have to pay for our sins and so he stepped forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?’ 

Now think about that just for a second.  Remember, Jesus knew all that was going to happen and yet asked them, “Who do you seek?”  If Jesus knew all that was going to happen-and he did-why does he ask them that question?

It’s exactly the same kind of question that God asked Adam and Eve in the garden, “Where are You?”, and asked for the same reason:  that in that moment of sin and rebellion, the people involved can have a chance to come to their senses and think about what they have done and confess their guilt and turn to God.

With swords and clubs and torches in their hands, hunting down an innocent man, it was still not too late for them to repent.

Jesus knew exactly who the mob was seeking but he wanted them, even in that late hour, to come to grips with what they were about to do to an innocent man who had never been anything other than kind and good and loving and gentle. “Whom do you seek?”  They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.”

Jesus of Nazareth.  An angry mob armed with clubs and swords looking for…Jesus of Nazareth.  Not some violent revolutionary.  Not some terrible criminal.  Not some enemy of the people.  Jesus of Nazareth.  That name tells you everything you need to know about Jesus and about the mob.

Jesus.  The name given at this birth. The God who saves.  Of Nazareth.  That humble man from a nowhere town.  The One who went around healing the sick and feeding the hungry and raising the dead.  The One who taught that real love is love for enemies.  The one who was born and lived in poverty.  The One who embraced and welcomed all those on the margins of society. 

That’s who Jesus was and his name revealed it all.  But it also revealed the truth about those in the mob. 

Guards and soldiers.  Swords and clubs.  Lanterns and torches in the dead of night.  Armed to the teeth in the middle of the night completely focused on capturing:  a teacher, and a miracle worker, and a friend to women and children.

As soon as the words “Jesus of Nazareth” came out of their mouths they should have come to their senses and cast down their weapons and asked themselves, “What on earth are we doing?”  “Have we lost our minds?”  But of course they didn’t.

Greed had gotten hold of Judas who had been stealing form the common purse.  Envy filled the hearts of the Pharisees when the people followed Jesus instead of them,  Fear filled the hearts of the Sadducees who didn’t want to lose their connection to the Romans. 

And all that sin blinded them to the terrible thing they were about to do to the very Son of God.  The Bible says that:

Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he.”

            Have you ever wondered about this?  There were perhaps a hundred people including thugs with clubs-- and armed roman soldiers.  They were pursuing Jesus with a single-minded, hard-hearted purpose.  And yet when Jesus responds to them, “I am he”, to a man they fall to the ground like they were struck by lightning!

            What on earth, or really who on earth, could have caused such a reaction that would render a hundred armed men, helpless?  In our English translations we render Jesus’ answer as “I am he.”  But what he actually says is just two words “I am”.

            Thousands of years before this moment, when the Lord called Moses to be his chosen instrument to set his people free, Moses wanted to know the name of the Lord so he could tell the people and their enemies the name of the God he served, the Lord said to him:  I Am.

I AM would set his people free.  I AM would destroy their enemies.  I AM would bring them home. 

The soldiers and guards thought they were on the hunt for Jesus of Nazareth, that gentle kind man who went around doing good—and of course they were –but that is not ALL that Jesus was by any means-- and if anyone had been paying attention they would have known that!

Jesus said about himself:  I AM the bread of life.  I AM the living water.  I AM the light of the world.  Before Abraham was, I AM. 

Who are you seeking?  Jesus of Nazareth.  I AM.  And a hundred hateful men fell to the ground, helpless in his presence. 

Helpless in his presence just like story seas.  Helpless in his presence just like terrible diseases.  Helpless in his presence just like the devil.  Helpless in his presence just like death.

Here’ the point:  There was no amount of money that could ever be paid to a traitor to make Jesus do what he did not want to do.  There was no legion of soldiers that could ever take Jesus somewhere he did not want to go. 

He was indeed Jesus of Nazareth:  the LORD who saves-- and he would go willingly to the cross to die in the place of sinners.  Jesus told them:

If you seek me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”

            Every one of Jesus’ disciples escaped harm that time because Jesus stepped up and said “I am he.”  The next morning a violent criminal named Barsabbas would go free and Jesus would go to the cross.  And that afternoon Jesus would die on the cross day in the place of every sinner under his Father’s just wrath so that Jesus could say about every one of us:  let these people go free.

            Earlier that night in the upper room Jesus had prayed to his heavenly Father for all of those the Father had placed into his hands, that he would faithfully preserve them all.  That prayer was answered and those words fulfilled as the disciples escaped the death that would have surely come at the hands of an angry, armed mob.

But that promise is a comfort for us too.  You see, it was not just the 11 who were entrusted to the hands of Jesus, it was all of us here tonight as well. 

Our forgiveness, our salvation, our life on earth and our eternal future in a heavenly home—all of that was entrusted into the hands of Jesus, the very Son of God who willingly went to the cross as our champion over sin, death and the devil.  Amen.