The Valley of Death that night was on the lower hillside of the Mount of Olives, in the private garden called Gethsemane. The name means "oil press," quite appropriate since olive trees grew all over the mountain ridge named for them. They came here quite often. Most people would have used that quiet dark place for more fleshly pursuits, but Jesus came here for the last showdown against His flesh. He left the main group near the entrance to the garden, and took the same three who had seen His Transfiguration farther along. Paintings and drawings of this moment are just guesswork, if not pure flights of fancy. It was probably much more mundane to anyone looking on, but false piety afflicts many who think it serves the Truth. The common posture for intense prayer was face down on the ground. Indeed, this was the slave's posture, knees on the earth, bent down between them with the forehead touching the ground. It is quite uncomfortable, and the ultimate sign of humility before some powerful authority. He had asked the trio to pray with Him together from nearby.
Jesus described Himself as feeling tortured. Apparently they were without comprehension on this. His flesh wanted no part of the sacrifice before Him. Still, He was master of Himself, and was willing to take this path if there was no other. He spoke with His Father in terms of a prisoner, sentenced to death by poison. Was there no one else to whom the cup could be passed, so He may be spared? We find His disciples sleeping when He goes back to check on them. Notice His remonstrance was more a matter of their spiritual safety, not His. He could handle what was before Him, but they faced a trial beyond them. Twice He returned to find them overcome by the flesh. Had they any sense of what was ahead, they would have easily been awake and trembling. As always, the business of His impending death fell on their ears with no place in the mind to process the fact. On His third return, ensured He knew His Father's plans, He woke them to face what was coming for all of them. The betrayer was leading the soldiers to them.
Judas knew His former Master's habits. After the Seder, they would typically have come to the garden. Thus, arresting Jesus was simple. Judas was leading a crowd. The Temple Guard, armed with clubs, and Roman soldiers with swords. While the former did the dirty work, the latter by their presence showed it was lawful. There would have been any number of lesser officials of both the Sanhedrin and the Roman cohort, along with servants and perhaps not a few simple onlookers. The pre-arranged sign would be the typical Eastern greeting of respect. Not only was it dark, but many might not have seen Jesus more than once or twice. Judas had no trouble picking Him out.
Impetuous Peter, good as his word, was ready for a fight, though Matthew does not point him out as the one. His "sword" would have been perhaps a large knife, just large enough to be classed by the Romans as a weapon, and thus, illegal. We have to wonder if he lacked skill in its use, for the wound he left was not fatal. Jesus stopped Him there, warning Peter the Kingdom was not served by mortal combat. Should God desire any violence, He uses angels. There were more than enough of them available to have battled the entire city. The need of the moment was to obey the Word, to fulfill the prophecies. Indeed, He mocked the heavy armament of the arresting party. They could have arrested Him at any time, and He would not have offered violence. Still, they did not know they were precisely acting as prophets had said they would.
At that point, the disciples were completely lost. Everything they had expected was wrong, and what happened was utterly beyond anything they understood. The world had turned upside down, so much so they weren't even sure of God anymore. They fled the scene.
Near as we can tell, it would be a good hike to the palace of the High Priest. The position then held by Caiaphas offered a large home on the slope of a hill. The courtyard and entrance was naturally on the lower side. It was here the entire Sanhedrin and court assistants had gathered. Peter managed to follow from a distance. Who knows what was in his mind? He came in the gate of the courtyard and sat near a fire for the servants who must stand in attendance in the open yard. Jesus would have been led up some steps. Most likely the assembly had gathered in a semi-open area just above the courtyard. Jesus would stand at the top of the steps near the entrance, facing the Sanhedrin. This was completely illegal by Moses and by tradition, since it happened at night.
Still, we cannot now know what other corruptions they felt they could get away with at that time. They did attempt to gain a legitimate accusation, but no two witnesses could be found with the same story. With one final attempt at two men suggesting something which added up to Jesus saying He could rebuild Herod's Temple in three days, perhaps after a plot to destroy it, Caiaphas arose to ask if Jesus had any reaction. That they could find a hint of broken law in a mystical statement about temples of flesh shows their desperation. Legally He was not required to answer invalid charges from a single witness. Finally, there was nothing left but to compel Him to answer a question He must, if honest, answer wrongly in their eyes.
Did He claim to be the Son of God? He did. The proof would be after His death, when they would see Him again as the Redeemer of God. They judged Him this night only by an accident of history; He would return to judge them as the Prosecutor of God Almighty. They didn't bother to demand proof of His claim; there could be none in their eyes. It's not as if they would know, in the first place. His claim was blasphemy on the face of it. Of course, for the High Priest to tear any of his garments on official duty was illegal, but he insisted on using the customary symbol of distress as the political leader of the nation, because all who heard a blasphemous speech were supposed to make a tear in their clothes and not repair it ever again. It served to stir the passion necessary to proceed, as they all agreed unanimously to His guilt and death sentence.
They treated Him with the ceremonial expressions of contempt by punching and slapping, and spitting on Him. At the same time, they mocked Him, demanding He as prophet name who was striking Him. From the courtyard below, and still in the Valley of Death, Peter saw all this. He was facing his own torment. Gone was the bravery and boasting, for he could not admit to being so much as acquainted with the Prisoner. Thrice, each time more vehemently, his tortured soul was torn by his fear and his lies. Upon the third time, cursing, he was greeted by the sound of a rooster crowing the coming sunrise. This triggered the memory of Jesus' warning Peter would deny Him three times before dawn. While using the Romanesque term for that final watch before dawn -- "cocks-crow" -- it was all too literal, now. Peter, the man who perhaps struggled hardest with the other-worldly Hebrew mind of Christ, was finally hit with something his literalist mind could understand. It was all too much for him, and he left the courtyard in tears. His sorrows were just beginning.
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Ed Hurst
19 January 2008
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