When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron …” John 18:1 KJV
When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron… John 18:1 NASB
Scholars will continue to debate where the words of John 17 were uttered. Was it while seated at the table in the upper room? Was it as they lingered at the door to go out into that cold night? Or was it as they walked through the streets to make their way across the Kidron Valley?
We need not concern ourselves with the geographic location of John 17, but we should stop to consider the Scriptural and moral location of the chapter in light of John 18:1, which immediately follows it. Among the elevated and exalted themes of that account of the Lord’s stewardship in chapter 17, there are four significant thoughts – considering the close link the Spirit of God has made between the chapters. In John 17, we are told of an atmosphere of love, an anticipation of glory, an appeal for unity, and an awareness of honour due to Christ.
Now, “When Jesus had spoken these words … He went forth.” He left the atmosphere of love to face the tsunami of the world’s hatred. This was no mere personality difference which fueled their hatred. This was the hour when the powers of darkness were given free rein. The seed of hatred in the human heart which had been planted in Eden was now fueled and driven by Satanic power. As great as the love which the Savior enjoyed and spoke of in chapter 17, so great was the hatred he faced in the garden and the subsequent events.
He left a consciousness of coming glory to face the depths of shame and humiliation. This One Who could speak of the glory which He enjoyed by the Father’s side before the world began, was now going to be shamed by being placed side by side with transgressors, by being deemed more worthy of death than a robber and murderer. The One Whom God is determined to glorify – and He will – was mocked by His own people, His own creatures.
We are all familiar with the three-fold prayer for unity which marks His High Priestly Prayer. And while the Father never forsook His Son, His own forsook Him and fled. I understand that the unity of the previous chapter is spiritual and indissoluble, but the loneliness during all that followed was literal and real to the Savior. In His perfect Manhood, with all of its acute sensitivity, He looked for some to take pity, for a comforter, for a friend, but He found none. He was all alone.
The Savior was aware of honours due to Him. It was not self-centeredness or self-promoting behaviour. He had glorified His Father, finished His work, honoured His Name, and manifested His heart to the men who had been entrusted to Him. No one else could say without boasting, “I have glorified Thee on the earth” (17:4). If the law of sowing and reaping is operative here, as it always is, since He had sown to His Father’s glory, He will reap the same in due time. But instead of honour, He left the upper room for scenes of dishonour, reproach, and shame (Ps 69:19).
The words breathed out in John 17 stand in stark contrast to the experiences of the remainder of that night and the next day. If in John 17 He enjoyed the atmosphere of heaven, in John 18 and 19, He experienced the assault of the powers of darkness.
Consider:
Note the difference between John’s account of the Garden scene from that provided by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In the three Synoptics, for example, the Lord is seen on the ground in prayer. Yet, in John 18, the soldiers are seen falling to the ground in awe.