After This

Zec. 13:⁶ “And if someone asks, ‘Then what about those wounds on your chest?’ he will say, ‘I was wounded at my friends’ house!’”

John 18:¹ “After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees.” (emphasis added). After saying what things? After casting the vision and the long prayer in John 17, talk time was over, prayer time was over. It was time to pay the price, time for action. After you have talked, strategized, and prayed, you actually need to stop praying, get up and do something. Jesus paid the price in prayer, but He still needed to get up and go to the cross. However, a lot of the time, people try to dodge the cross. Yes, it is uncomfortable because even on the way to the cross, Jesus stopped by at Gethsemane [the olive groove] to pray. Prayer can continue while you are going but you must keep on going. You cannot keep praying and not take action. It is not going to work.

John 18:¹ “After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees.” For the Jew, historically the Kidron valley is pivotal. David crossed the Kidron valley when he was running from Absalom. 2 Sam.15:²³ “Everyone cried loudly as the king and his followers passed by. They crossed the Kidron Valley and then went out toward the wilderness.” When the people in that area saw David crossing the Kidron valley, they wept because of what was happening to him. So, the valley historically is huge for the Jews; crossing that valley shows the pain of the moment and that is important. Jesus crossed the Kidron valley into the greatest betrayal of His life. David was betrayed by his biological son, and Jesus was betrayed by His spiritual son. John deliberately left out certain details that were well covered in the Synoptic Gospels because he was focused more on the narration and supplying the information that was missing in all the others. The Book of John was the last to be written among the four. The first three had been in circulation and at his old age, John felt that he needed to tell this story from an insider’s perspective. He did and we are blessed.

John 18:² “Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples.” The person that can betray you is the person that knows your ‘ins’ and ‘outs’. Like my grandmother would say, the insect devouring the vegetable lives inside the vegetable. As much as we would try to protect ourselves, betrayal is inevitable. Check scripture anyone that will be great would be betrayed. Maybe so that we will have a foretaste of what Jesus went through. It is always tough, but God always helps us. John 18:³ “The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.” The word contingent is a technical military term in Greek translated ‘speira’ and it is a cohort of at least two hundred to six hundred soldiers. Not like what we see from the artistic renditions of what happened to Jesus.

Prayer: Lord, I ask for the grace to discern my next step and act, in Jesus Name. Amen!