Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

Good morning. Remember I said that John did not elaborate upon what happened in the garden. If you take it at face value, almost as soon as Jesus and the disciples arrived at the garden, Judas and multitude arrived to take Him into custody. So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, “whom do you seek”? He knew what was about to happen, and yet He did not run and hide like we would have – in fact we would never have come to Jerusalem. They answered Him, Jesus the Nazarene. He said to them I am He. The “He” is in italics, so it is not actually in the Greek. So literally He said “I am“. That is reminiscent of Moses and the burning bush. God said to tell the children of Israel “I am“ sent you. And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, “I am He“, they drew back and fell to the ground. That of course does not sound like a normal reaction to a statement. Did they do this of their own will, or were they knocked to the ground by the Holy Spirit? These were Jews after all, who knew the story of Moses and the burning bush. Perhaps His presence was so awesome that they could not help themselves. Therefore He again asked them, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus the Nazarene. I can imagine that the first time they were very bold in their statement, but that this time they were quite timid when they said “Jesus the Nazarene”. After all, they had no idea what was going to happen this time. If Jesus had not repeated His question, it is possible they would have disbanded in fear; and that is exactly what He did not want to happen. We on the other hand would’ve said “hot dog!”, if they had left us alone. Father thank You that Jesus did not take the easy way out. He did not consider this a way of escape, but rather embraced the cross. Give the reader whatever wisdom he/she needs to meet his/her challenges.