Download Series: The God We Can Know (Palm/Passion Sunday) Text: John

Series: The God We Can Know (Palm/Passion Sunday)
Text: John 18:1-8 (CEB)
Title: Facing Jerusalem
Theme: This series explores images John uses to help us understand the nature and character
of God. In the season of Lent, this series helps us know more about God who came to break
down any barrier between human beings and God. We hear Jesus declare something about his
identity, which threatens our understanding of the human Jesus and calls into question how we
understand God, the great I AM.
Prayer of Illumination
For Sundays in Lent:
Holy God, Word made flesh, let us hear your word open to being surprised.
Silence our agendas;
banish our assumptions;
cast out our casual detachment.
Confound our expectations;
clear the cobwebs from our minds;
penetrate the corners of our hearts with your word.
We know that you can, we pray that you will, and we wait with great anticipation as you reveal
your nature and your will to us. Amen.
Text: John 18:1-8
Jesus went out with his disciples and crossed over to the other side of the Kidron Valley. He
and his disciples entered a garden there. 2 Judas, his betrayer, also knew the place because Jesus
often gathered there with his disciples.3 Judas brought a company of soldiers[a] and some
guards from the chief priests and Pharisees. They came there carrying lanterns, torches, and
weapons. 4 Jesus knew everything that was to happen to him, so he went out and asked, “Who
are you looking for?”
5
They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
He said to them, “I Am.”[b] (Judas, his betrayer, was standing with them.) 6 When he said, “I
Am,” they shrank back and fell to the ground. 7 He asked them again, “Who are you looking
for?”
They said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
8
Jesus answered, “I told you, ‘I Am.’[c]
The Word of God for the people of God. . .
Here at the beginning of Holy Week, we conclude our study of, “The God We Can Know.” In
this series we have looked at some powerful images Jesus uses in John’s gospel to describe his
identity, character and nature. We have been learning something more about God, growing in
our faith, and finding ways to deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Today we began worship with Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Hailed by the people
as the embodiment of their hope in God’s promise to restore Israel to its former glory days, we
symbolically re-enacted the waving of palm branches and the shouts of “Hosanna!” We placed
ourselves in the biblical narrative.
Like the ancient ones, we, too, want to ignore the threatening implications of Jesus’ arrival in
Jerusalem for the annual festival of Passover. As thousands gathered, the Roman army also
arrived in Jerusalem to quell any potential for uprising against the oppressive Roman
government. Instead, we want to focus on Jesus’ power. We want to celebrate his triumph.
We want to move with the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of the Son of Man about whom we
have heard so much. Perhaps he has a miracle for us, too! Maybe he will call us to follow him.
Maybe we will become one of his closest companions.
As we listened to our text for today, though, we moved again from the waving of palm
branches to the swaying of olive trees, and the tone just took a significant change. Our text for
today doesn’t rest with Jesus coming into Jerusalem. It takes us to an olive tree garden, late at
night, after the Passover meal was finished. Jesus went out to pray – which was not at all
unusual for him, “Jesus often gathered there with his disciples” we are told – and he invited his
best friends to come with him, to watch and to pray.
Worn out from travel and travail, from feasting and from following, the disciples could not
keep their eyes open. Jesus was alone. The silence of his anguished prayer was abruptly
interrupted. “Judas brought a company of soldiers and some guards from the chief priests and
Pharisees. They came there carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons.” This was not a friendly
visit. Judas did not come to join Jesus in prayer.
Judas came to betray. Judas came to force Jesus’ hand. Judas came to advance his personal
agenda over against everything Jesus taught and healed and restored. Judas was stuck in the
mindset that Jesus came to overthrow Roman oppression. Judas needed Jesus to be the son of
David, the king who had united the kingdom and put Israel on the map, politically speaking.
Judas needed Jesus to be the fulfillment of the branch arising from the stump of Jesse. Judas
yearned to see Israel restored to her heyday of power and might. Judas would be satisfied with
nothing less than a show of military power a display of political might from Jesus.
And Judas was not alone. He brought with him a company of soldiers and some guards from
the chief priests and Pharisees. They came bearing torches and weapons. They came in fear
and in anger. They came not knowing if Jesus would defend himself and unleash supernatural
powers to harm them.
Jesus surprised everyone, not by defending himself, but by speaking two little words. Over the
weeks of Lent, we have heard Jesus speak these words over and over again in different settings,
to various people. He has used these words to clarify for crowds and individuals alike who he is
and what he’s about, his nature and his character. He has used descriptions like bread, light,
gate and shepherd, true vine, the way and the truth and the life, and most shockingly, the
resurrection; all of these have been hand holds along the path to learning how to follow Jesus,
how to trust Jesus, how to experience Jesus, how to live in Jesus. And they all began the same
way, “I AM.”
I AM – that God-name given to Moses so that the people would know who sent him. I AM –
that ever existing personal pronouncement that God was, is, and will forever be. I AM – that
adverbial description that is more than a noun, a name – it describes what God is in this
moment in time. I AM – that statement of being, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end of all
things. God is God. God was always God. God will always be God. God: Noun and verb.
Twice in these 7 verses, Jesus spoke those God identifying words, “I AM.” He answered a
question, participating in the conversation, but there’s so much more going on here. For the
many times throughout the gospels that Jesus healed someone and then told them not to tell
anybody about him, here, near the end of the story, Jesus stated the obvious with the utmost
clarity.
“Jesus knew everything that was to happen to him, so he went out and asked, “Who are you
looking for?”
They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
“
He said to them, “I Am.”
He asked them again, “Who are you looking for?”
They said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
Jesus answered, “I told you, ‘I Am.’
Jesus’ two little words are told to us, the audience, a third time to give us a mental picture of
what happened when Jesus spoke them. “When [Jesus] said, “I Am,” [the company of soldiers
and the guards from the chief priests and Pharisees] shrank back and fell to the ground.” It’s
really true that every knee bends at the name of Jesus – the I AM.
At the moment of his arrest, Jesus stands in the strength of his identity with God, “I AM” he
said.
Judas sought Jesus with fearful and unflattering, even evil, intentions. He was too afraid to
speak first, so Jesus asked the question, “Who are you looking for?” If you are looking for Jesus
today, you most likely don’t have Judas’ intentions, but maybe you have concerns about who
Jesus is, or whether or not you’ll find him, and what will happen if he is the one you seek.
Jesus takes the initiative for us and asks us today: “Who are you looking for?”
A Savior?
A Healer?
A Counselor?
A Physician?
A Miracle Worker?
A Prayer Warrior?
A Mystic?
A Prophet?
A Saint?
Who are you looking for in your life to turn things around and get you heading in a different,
more spiritually mature direction? Who are you looking for to nurture and feed your faith?
Who will bring light to the darkest corners of your heart and soul and heal the hurts hiding
there? Who will be your shepherd, searching for you when you’re lost, keeping you safe from
harm?
Jesus said, “I AM the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd who safeguards
and protects the sheep.” He said, “I AM the true vine, the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus
is the one in whom you will find the source of your being, the meaning and purpose of your life.
Because Jesus is God’s incarnation, Jesus is the most direct way to a relationship with God. And
Jesus has assured us that life eternal comes only by grace through faith in him.
Whatever you need, whatever you seek, Jesus answers, “I AM.” Even on the night when Jesus
was betrayed and gave himself up for us, for our sins, Jesus remains confident in his identity, in
his connection to God. He knows what’s going to happen to him. And yet he does not shift
from facing it. No matter how hard things get to be in our lives, Jesus will hold that same
confidence for us and continue to be our “I AM” no matter what happens.
Prayer Following Sermon
Great I AM, you are active and living and the source of all we are. Even your name (I AM) tells
us something about your eternal presence. Through your incarnation, you are God-with-us;
through your death and resurrection, you are God-with-us even now, beyond the limits of time
and space. Grant us a holy encounter with the great I AM so that our lives, our discipleship,
will be forever empowered by our confidence in you and your love for us. Amen.
Blessing and Dismissal
For Sundays in Lent:
Eternal God,
by whose power we are created
and by whose love we are redeemed:
guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,
that we may give ourselves to your service,
and live this day in love to one another and to you;
May the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy
Spirit be with you and those you love now and forever.
Amen.