The Gospel of John

Malchus Ear

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 62- 70

Genre:

Track: 060

Dictation Name: RR197AG62

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy and in Thy fear will I worship towards Thy holy temple. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight oh Lord my strength and my redeemer. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee that day after day Thy mercies are new every morning. We thank Thee that we live, move and have our being in Thy government and grace. Give us patience, faith and hope that in all things we may know that Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us, that we are triumphant in Christ. Teach us that Thy will shall surely be done and that all things shall serve and praise Thee. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is John 18:1-11. John 18:1-11, and our subject: Malchus Ear.

“When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.

2 And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.

3 Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.

4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?

5 They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.

7 Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.

8 Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:

9 That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”

These verses are properly titled by many as ‘the betrayal’ and rightly so, but John stresses Christ’s status, not as a victim but as a Messiah in His glorification. He does not even mention Judas in this context as the other evangelists do. Until now our Lord’s conflict had been with the religious leaders, now another phenomenon comes out against Jesus, the Roman state, the Roman Empire. The world at its best in the religious and civil forms was now arrayed against the Christ, man’s highest way and highest authorities against God incarnate. The disciples and Jesus had crossed the brook Cedron. When the Passover lambs were killed at the temple and then taken to be eaten, each family eating theirs, their blood was poured on the altar as an offering to God. Many lambs were killed there. Thirty years later a census showed that two hundred and fifty thousand lambs were offered. Now calculate that and figure one lamb per family and if you assume that the average family was four or five you easily have a million populations. And if you assume that the families were large, relatives getting together because they consumed the entire lamb, you would say two million easily. Now I cite that because we do have the accurate count. Scholars who are ready to feel that nobody was accurate until they were born and nobody ever recorded anything accurately have ridiculed the idea that at the time of the Passover there would be as many as two million people in Jerusalem.

And that when the Jewish-Roman War began there were that many there that accentuates the disaster. But they never bother to take the very accurate record of the lambs offered and compute the population from that, they are only good at cynicism. But at any rate the number of lambs tells us how many families of Judeans and pilgrims from all over the world were in Jerusalem. From the altar there was a channel that led to the brook Cedron and the blood flowed into it because all the animals had to be thoroughly bled. When Jesus crossed the brook it probably still ran red from the blood of the Passover lambs. A grim reminder that He himself was the true Passover lamb. His destination was the garden of gethsemane. It was not open to the general public but some wealthy citizen had apparently given a key to Jesus so that He and the disciples when they needed it could find a quiet retreat when in Jerusalem. Of course the idea today is almost an impossible one, a group of people, say of a common persuasion or of considerable means having something like a park which was only for their use. But this was common in antiquity. Judas of course knew that this is where they often went and so he came with a band of soldiers sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to arrest Him. The officers mentioned in verse three are as the Greek word indicates, temple police. They were connected with the administration of the temple and the high priest. The band mentioned again is a Greek word translated which could mean technically a Roman cohort of six hundred men, or if the cohort were of auxiliary soldiers it would be one thousand men, or if sometimes the Greek word refers to a manifold, a detachment of two hundred men.

Now for even two hundred men to be sent out to arrest a lone man meant that they feared He would have surrounding Him a vast throng of supporters. They came with torches, lanterns, weapons, and men. Well Jesus went forward to meet them and asked whom seek ye. The answer was ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. Jesus answered them saying I am He, we’ll come back to that very significant statement later. Judas was in that crowd. Now when Jesus identified Himself the crowd stepped back and so doing stepped on those crowding behind them and they all stumbled and fell to the ground we are told. Again our Lord asks whom seek ye and they said ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, Jesus then answered I have told you that I am He.

“Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:”

Meaning His disciples. He had earlier declared that none would be lost in this coming trial, this was in John 13:12. At this point Simon Peter seeing the fearfulness of the arresting men drew his sword against the high priest’s servant. The man ducked but in the process his ear was cut off. Our Lord then healed it and an already fearful crowd of arresting men were even more intimidated. John skips over the healing which Luke tells us about because John skips over a number of details but he does tell us the man’s name, it was Malchus. Our Lord’s word then to Peter and to any other disciple about to pull their sword was:

“Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”

The future of mankind depended on His atoning work, it was inconceivable that He would avoid that calling.

The presence of Malchus the high priest’s servant has an irony to it. The word in the Greek text is [unknown] a form of [unknown], a bond servant, in effect Malchus stood between high priests, Caiaphas and Jesus Christ. Caiaphas could regenerate no man, Jesus Christ could raise the dead and make a man a new creation. Malchus unwittingly was a testimony to the power of Jesus Christ as against Caiaphas. To his dying day Malchus was an unwitting witness for Christ and against Caiaphas. The healing of Malchus here was Christ’s last miracle. His last ministry to human suffering and need. All His miracles testified to the fact that He was God incarnate. Now the glory of the atonement would replace the miracles. For a time Christ continued to work miracles through His disciples, but these in time gave way to the glory of the atonement and the resurrection. The promise was more than healing now, it was eternal life in Him and the personal and cosmic resurrection and renewal. I called attention to the fact that twice our Lord says I am He but if you will look at the places where He does, verses six and eight, you will see that He is italized in the King James Version or Authorized Version meaning that it is not in the text, that what He simply said was I am. Now in the grammatical form He can be understood but He normally would be said.

Yet all He did was to say I am. In other words He declared Himself to be God. For in Exodus 3:14 in declaring Himself God says I Am, I Am that I Am, the eternal being, the Lord the creator, the governor over all things. Now it was a combination of His boldness when they said they wanted to arrest Jesus of Nazareth, He stepped forward, no man steps forward normally to be arrested. That plus His answer I am, this self-identification, His boldness made the throng of soldiers and temple officers fall down literally in confusion, backing up and tumbling one another. They were badly shaken in finding one who was not a victim but confronted them as their Lord. The soldiers even as they arrested Him were a shaken lot because they had been confronted by a statement implying deity, then a miraculous act of healing when a cut off ear was restored. Now verse twelve is properly a part of the next section but it is related to verses one through eleven. We are told that the arresting officers bound Jesus. They tied Him up to a delivery to the high priest’s kangaroo court. They had seen the miracle of Malchus’s ear and had heard Jesus declare Himself to be one with God but they still felt that their bonds could hold Him. Too many scholars and theologians place bonds on Jesus assuming that they can contain Him. It would be easier to chain the universe than to chain God the Son, God incarnate. John writes here with a very fine irony as do all the evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke. The blindness of sin is a radical one and it leads to blindness in the most deadly form: an inability to recognize God’s truth and person.

In what follows we see Jesus scourged, that would be with the kind of thing we now call a cat of nine tails. It would take the skin and flesh of a man’s back to the bone. This is why Jesus could not carry the cross while- or stumbled the burden. While such scourgings were commonplace it was apparently done with a particular fervor to Jesus. He had shaken them and they did not like it. Christ still shakes up men and they still do not like it. They will not turn and be converted. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that our Lord and Savior is omnipotent and able to complete that which He has begun in our lives. That He will never leave us nor forsake us because He like Thee is omnipotent. How great Thou art our Father and we thank Thee. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

It is interesting that the gospels are so emphatic in stressing this episode with Malchus. It seemed to them a very interesting and a grimly ironic fact which they liked. This vast crowd comes out to arrest Jesus and when He steps forward and identifies Himself they fall back and fall all over each other.

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] No. They all knew who He was, He was well known throughout the country and the curiosity about Him would have been such that the Roman soldiers would have known. Well, given that fact they must have been afraid of what He could have done to them, a man who could raise people from the dead, make the blind see, perhaps He could strike them dead. They came in some fear, the fact that they brought out so many men is indicative of their fearfulness because normally it would not take that many to arrest one man. Now you could say as I believe it was partly true afraid that there might be a great throng of followers but they also knew that a handful of Roman soldiers could whip a crowd into submission. Remember in the early days the saying was in Texas ‘one riot, one Texas ranger’ and it worked. Well the Roman soldiers were no different.

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Why would he leave out what?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Because there was so many other healings and apparently he was familiar with the fact that the others were writing gospels and stressing that so John tries to mention things and aspects that others did not mention. Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well they were aware that somehow He had divine powers.

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Probably not. Then you have to recognize that God meant different things to different peoples so that the soldiers who would all be at that time non-Judeans and almost certainly Romans, possibly some Gaelic men, their concept of God would be radically different. It could be a very limited thing. When the soldier at the foot of the cross says as Jesus is dying surely this man was the son of God he didn’t mean it in a biblical sense, but that some God-like being was His father.

Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] That’s right, that idea was anathema to them and yet they were afraid of Him.

Well, let us now conclude with prayer.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that Jesus Christ is our Lord, that by Thy sovereign grace Thou hast made us to be His people for time and for all eternity. Make us faithful to our calling and joyful therein that in the face of all adversities we may know that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And now go in peace God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.