John 18:1-27

The life of Jesus takes a different direction or moves into a new space.

Jesus enters the legal justice (or injustice) system, whatever your preference.

He is arrested, questioned by the authorities, betrayed and denied by His own disciples and physically assaulted by his captors. Then it gets really serious.

Yet, in the midst of all that negativity and abuse, Jesus continues to be God. This time He comes to the aid of one of His captors. I wonder if either of His followers, watching this incident, remembered that He had earlier taught them, ‘love your enemies’ and ‘do good to those who hate you’. Now Jesus was practicing what He had preached.

Let’s get back to the situation (verse 10).

Malchus (note John actually names the slave of the High Priest) was one of the people who came to the place where Jesus was with His disciples. It was dark, because they carried lanterns and torches. There was much commotion and confusion. Like any such encounter, stories vary from one witness to another.

Peter, who had a sword, (why he was carrying a sword is a fascinating question to consider), leapt into the fight and cut off the right ear of Malchus. In such situations, it may be advantageous to have a guy like Peter. You could almost imagine the other followers cheering Peter’s action and encouraging him, ‘cut of the left one too’. That would be the human response.

But it was not the response of Jesus. It was not Jesus’ way.

He shouted (must have been noisy there) to Peter to put away the sword. When the voices quieted a little, He told him that what was happening had to happen. I can imagine the expression on Peter’s face at that precise moment.

Then Jesus touched the man’s ear and healed him. A side note – John does not record the healing part, neither do the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, but Luke does. Would Luke the Physician want to include this medical detail?

The message for us is straightforward.

Following Jesus means putting into practice, in the weirdest of situations, the Gospel which our God of Love expects us to emulate. That is not always easy, but Jesus did not promise us a rose garden … all the time.

(Today's post submitted by guest writer, Rev. Hollis Hiscock.)