If Jesus Knows All Things, How Could Judas Betray Him?

Tom: We’re continuing with the gospel. We’re in the Gospel of John and we’re currently—Dave, we’re at John:18:1When 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.
See All.... It’s kind of an event when we move from one chapter to the next.

Dave: We’re closing…

Tom: I don’t want to get too excited.

Dave: We’re closing in on the end of John.

Tom: We are. So John:18:1When 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.
See All..., “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; And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye?”

Dave: Well, Tom, this is a different account from what we have in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 and Luke 22.

Tom: Now, Dave, before you elaborate on that, just over the weekend, somebody said, “Well I heard there were contradictions of the Bible, and we have all these different views of everything.” But those aren’t contradictions are they?

Dave: No there are no contradictions. In fact, we have a book I wrote many years ago, In Defense of the Faith, [in] which I deal with some of these supposed contradictions. In one of the gospels, Jesus said to Peter, “The cock [the rooster] will not crow twice until you deny me thrice. In the others it says, “The rooster won’t crow until you deny me thrice.” So which is it? Well, we deal with that in that book, In Defense of the Faith, and a number of other things that they claim are contradictions. But they’re not.

But, Tom, it doesn’t go into the details here that the other gospels give you, and their account that Jesus is on His knees praying, that He removes himself a bit from His disciples, and that He goes back and finds them sleeping and says, “Couldn’t you watch with me one hour?” That he’s in agony, and he pleads with his Father, “If it’s possible, let this cup pass from me.” So we know that there was no other way man could be saved because Christ himself asked His Father, “If there’s any other way, don’t make me go through this.” But there is no other way. Christ alone could pay the penalty. And if man were to be forgiven, the penalty had to be paid. So we kind of move a little quickly through this scene and we don’t get those details.

Tom: Because that’s John’s focus.

Dave: So what we are getting, Tom, are different accounts of the same event but from a different perspective. If you went into a courtroom and we have four witnesses—well, some people say, “Why should there be four gospels? Why wouldn’t one be enough? You have four witnesses, and they all just parrot one another. I’m a bit suspicious of this. There’s some collusion here.”

Tom: Yeah, because they’ve all seen something exactly the same way and that doesn’t happen. If we’re standing if different parts of a room, we’re going to have a different perspective on things, but go ahead.

Dave: So, we have four witnesses. In some cases, they’re—it’s precisely the same. But we are getting a broader perspective, a deeper insight. For example, none of the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, give you the words of Jesus such as we have here from John. The precise words that Jesus speaks at the Last Supper in chapter 14, chapter 13, even, is in more detail than any other gospel. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, all of these are either Jesus is talking to His disciples, or in chapter 17 that we just finished, He’s in prayer to His Father, and you have that nowhere else. These are the exact words that He spoke. You don’t need that anywhere else. We only need one account of that. But some of the events are spoken of differently.

So He, as He says these things, He says, “Arise and let us go hence,” and we get that statement in another gospel. Well, it’s interesting, Tom, He knows what is going to happen. In fact, at the Last Supper, chapter 13 of John, and you’ve got that in no other gospel, He said, “One of you will betray me.” He knows it’s Judas. He says to Judas, “Whatever you’re going to do, go out and do it quickly.” So Christ could have hidden Himself. He could have not gone to the Garden that night. Judas knew this was where He had spent the night the last few nights. Jesus could have gone somewhere else.

So once again, you see that Christ, in contrast to previous times—for example, we read it in chapter 8: “The Jews took up stones to stone him,” and Christ, it says, apparently made Himself invisible. I don’t know what He did—He just walked through the midst of them. On a number of occasions, they tried to take Him. He would not allow it. He miraculously prevented them from doing it. Here, He deliberately goes to where He knows Judas is expecting Him and allows Himself to be taken. He says, “I could have had twelve legions of angels.” I mean, one angel would wipe them all out. But He is now—it said before “his hour was not yet come.” Now he has prayed, “Father the hour has come.”

Tom: That prophecy might be fulfilled, right Dave?

Dave: Right. Yeah. So, first of all, we get that quite clearly here. It says Judas, verse 2, which betrayed him, knew the place. That’s what he’s expecting, and Jesus goes there so Judas will find him.

Well Judas has gone to the chief priest. Why did he go there? Well we went back to chapter 11, it says that there was a price on the head of Jesus. They wanted to kill Him, because people were following Him instead of them. It was a selfish ego trip. They’re protecting their own position. Remember, they argue about it and discuss it and finally they say “Well, if they follow Him, the Romans won’t see any need for us any more, and they’ll take away our position. So we will lose, you know, our perks and so forth.” So they had a price on His head. It doesn’t tell us what the price was. I can’t believe it was thirty pieces of silver. Maybe it was five or ten. I think Judas held out for a higher price and finally he’s got his nest egg for his retirement. Thirty pieces of silver. Well it was all foretold in the Old Testament. Yahweh is speaking. “Well, that’s the way you want to do it? Count out my price. What do you think I’m worth?” And Zechariah says they counted out for me thirty pieces of silver, and God says sarcastically, “A goodly price that I was prized at by them.” Well, it was the price of a slave.

So all of this is now going to be fulfilled exactly as the prophets foretold. So Judas has made a deal and verse 3: “Then Judas having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, he comes thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.”

And Jesus, He knows everything that’s going to happen. He just walks out to meet them and He says, “Whom do you seek?” Of course He knows whom they are seeking.

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

Well, Tom, I guess we’ve run out of time here, but this is a fantastic scene. Jesus is giving Himself to them. It has all been foretold, and it will all be fulfilled.