Last Sunday, I had the privilege of speaking to the women of my church and teaching on John 17 & 18. It was honestly so fun to share what the Lord taught me throughout that week with other people. So, I decided to write a blog post about it in order to share it with even more people!
In these two chapters (which I highly encourage you to read if you haven't already), we see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where He prayed right before His arrest. The entirety of chapter 17 is Jesus' last recorded prayer on Earth where He prays for Himself, His disciples, and all of those who would believe on Him (us). My Bible has each chapter sectioned off with a heading explaining each section, and when you look at the chunks of Jesus' prayer, He spent much more time praying for other people instead of praying for Himself.
Let's get one thing straight, Jesus was not in the dark when it came to the plan for His life. He knew they were on their way to arrest Him at that moment and that He was able to die an unthinkable death. Jesus knew He was about to die, and He was praying for me. As I was reading that, I just had to take a second and sit there to really try to comprehend that type of selflessness and pure love.
How often in my prayer time do I catch myself praying for myself more than I am about the needs of others? Too often probably. This is not to say we should never pray for ourselves; we absolutely should tell God everything we are feeling. We also should make sure to lift up others too because it is not difficult to look around and see that so many people are hurting and in need of prayer.
Transitioning to chapter 18, Jesus is officially arrested, and Peter is so emotionally distraught that he cuts off one of the servant's ears who came to arrest Jesus. John 18:10 tells us this servant's name was Malchus, and I am going to be completely transparent with you right now. When I read that, I was like why do we need to know this guy's name? What purpose does knowing his name have?
I asked the Holy Spirit to help me out on understanding why listing his name was necessary, and He spoke to my soul, "Because I know his name."
Malchus was not just a random guy to Jesus; Malchus was someone He was about to walk up Calvary's hill and die for. When we watch Easter plays and movies about the passion, the arrest of Jesus is always portrayed as the villains coming to take Jesus away, and while in a way this is accurate, Jesus didn't see them as the villains. He saw them the exact same way as He saw His goofy disciples who kept falling asleep during prayer. He saw them as people who He created and knitted together in their mother's wombs. He was about to die to pay for their sins just like He died to pay for ours. That is convicting for me because how often do I forget that every single person in my life is someone that Jesus loves like that? Maybe what God wanted us to get from Malchus' name is that we are all called by name and not just a number to Him. No matter how we have lived our lives He still loves us.
Now for the most mind boggling part (at least for me). Man fell to sin and turned away from God in the Garden of Eden, and Jesus was taken away to fulfill God's plan to save man from sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. Man failed God in a garden, but God sure didn't fail man in a garden. Jesus bowed to the Father's Will in the Garden, so you could someday bow at His throne.
Romans 5 talks about how Adam's fall meant death for us all but how Jesus' perfect life, death, and resurrection meant the free gift of eternal life for all who would accept it. Isn't it interesting that Jesus is shown to live the perfect life that we and Adam didn't live in Romans 5, and in John 18, He is arrested which leads to His crucifixion in a GARDEN. It is so incredible how God brings everything full circle.
Today you can be encouraged that God knows your name just like He knew Malchus' and that your sin was paid for just like Malchus'.
