He told them some frightening things during this last "Lords supper." He even warned them that the time would come when religious zealots would "put you out of the synagogue; yes, the hour will come that whoever kills you will think that he actually offers a special service to God!"

And then He made one of the strongest statements of all; that, even though He had told them that the cup was the "blood of the New Testament which was shed for them," the bread was "His body" which was offered for them, and sure martyrdom would come to them later, He said, "I have yet many things to say to you, but you couldn’t stand to hear them now! However, when the spirit of truth has come, it will guide you into all the truth!"

Jesus well remembered that when He had previously given His larger group of disciples the teaching that He was "that bread which cometh down from heaven" and that "His flesh" was the "bread" they would have to eat, that many of them had left Him and refused to go along with Him any further (John 6:48-66).

He remembered even then how Peter had said, "Lord, to whom shall we go; you have the words to eternal life!"

Now He was telling His disciples even stronger things, if that were possible, and furthermore stating to them that many of the things He wanted to say were so strong they would not be able to understand and appreciate them at that time. Jesus reminded His disciples that God's Holy Spirit would lead them into greater understanding and into "all truth" at a later time!

He concluded a portion of the discourse by saying "In a little while now and you will not be able to see me any more; then a little later, you will be able to see me!"

Some of the disciples began reasoning among themselves, and one asked, "What is this that He is telling us? Why is He telling us that in a little while you will not be able to see me, and then a little later and you will see me?" And, "What does He mean when He says, ‘Because I go to the Father?’"

They said, "Just what in the world does He mean, ‘In a little while?' We don't know what He is telling us."

But Jesus perceived desiring to ask Him and He said, "Don’t reason around among yourselves about what I said, 'A little while and you won't be able to see me,’ and then, 'A little later and you will see me,’ I am telling you the truth that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice! You will be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy!

"When a women is giving birth she is full of pain because her time has come; but later when she has delivered the baby, she forgets all about the anguish, because of the joy that a child is born into the world!

"And You are growing sadder now, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and that joy no one can ever take away from you!"

These chapters of the book of John (14 through 17) are some of the most beautiful in all the Bible, especially the real Lord's prayer contained in the 17th chapter of John.

Finally Jesus’ lengthy discourse and prayer was over, Supper was finished now. It was a custom to sing hymns (from the Psalms) during the Jewish Passover observance, and Jesus wanted to sing a special hymn with His disciples prior to leaving the large upper room in which the lengthy dinner had been eaten.

They all stood, and Jesus leading in a clear voice, sang one of His favorite hymns. Probably it was one of the psalms, and one may speculate if it could have been the twenty-second and/or twenty-third psalm considering the former's application to Jesus’ moments of agony on the tree, and especially the latter's promise of deliverance.

In any event, one can well imagine the emotions flowing through these men, after such a particularly heavy, atmosphere during the lengthy meal, Jesus’ very, pointed statements and long discourse, and especially His tone of unusual finality in so much of what He had said.

Clearly, the disciples knew that something very unusual was about to occur.

They filed out of the room, and gathering their outer garments, after thanking the householder and the servants, went their way out into the streets of Jerusalem, down a steep slope, fording the brook Kidron which still ran full in those days, and began to walk along pathways winding up the opposite slope until they arrived at a beautiful arboretum and garden place which was named Gethsemane. There were benches and stones, and it was a site to which weary travelers could resort and enjoy the beauty of the plantings. Realizing the imminence of His situation, Jesus told the disciples, "Sit here while I go over there a little and pray."

As He had done so often, He took with Him the leading three disciples who had accompanied Him on so many special occasions in the past—including the transfiguration—Peter, and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John.

They noticed that a terrible troubled look had come over His face, and He turned to them and said, "I am terribly sorrowful, and deeply aching inside, to the point that I feel death upon me!"

He said, "Stay here and watch for me," and then, going forward a few more steps, about a stone's throw, dropped to the ground quickly, and even pressing His face forward on the ground, began to pray loudly enough that the three closest disciples could hear Him saying, "Father, Father, everything is possible with you! If there is any way to remove this cup from me ... nevertheless, it is not my will that should be done, but your will!"

The prayer continued, Jesus being in an agony of tense communication with His Father, until, looking up, feeling a strong hand on His shoulder, He could see a powerful angel standing there to give Him encouragement and strength. It was as if He had received a direct communication that the turbulent events swirling about Him would continue exactly as they had been intended, and that there would be no respite from the suffering of the next few hours. After looking at the angel's face, He prayed even more earnestly, until He quite literally broke out into a sweat, with rivulets of perspiration falling from His nose and chin, dropping down on the ground.

He got up, wiping His face, and walked back and found the disciples curled up on the ground, asleep.

He grabbed Peters shoulders and shook him, saying, "What! Couldn't you keep your eyes open and watch for me here for one hour? I'm telling you, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation; the spirit of course is always willing, but the flesh is weak."

Peter, James and John stumbled to their feet, rubbing their eyes and looking foolishly about. Then, after saying these words, Jesus groaned, turned away, and went back to His place of prayer a second time, dropping to the ground and praying the very same prayer again, begging His Father to "take the cup from Him" but quickly saying, "If this can't pass from me except I have to partake of it, then your will be done!"

After this second earnest prayer, He came back to this same area and found them sleeping again, because they couldn't keep their eyes open.

Again He rebuked them and told them they should be watching and praying with Him, and turning away for the third time, went back to the same place and began earnestly and intensively praying the same prayer.

As the being who was the God of the Old Testament, He knew the case of Elijah and the third request for the dead boy's life; Jesus was after all the very designer of numerical symbolism and its revelation to the prophets of old, and as surely as He had designed a seventh day for the perfection of the weekly cycle, knew that three represented finality. After He had prayed so movingly for the third time, Jesus knew He had His final answer. The original plan would continue.

Thus, returning after His third intensive prayer, Jesus said, "Well, go ahead and get what rest you can, then, because the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners!"

As Jesus returned the third time. He heard the clatter of an approaching group, and saw the torches they carried as they forded the creek below. He cried, "Get up! We'd better be going, because the one who will betray me is right here! He had no sooner finished the statement to Peter and John when Judas materialized out of the dancing light of the torches held by the nearest of the group, followed by a large number of others including the chief priests and elders, a number of soldiers, the officers of the temple, all of them obviously heavily armed, carrying the lengthy lances, Roman short-swords, and some wearing helmets and breastplates.

It was well known among the disciples that Jesus resorted to the area of Gethsemane, and Judas knew precisely where to find Him since he had heard Jesus discussing His plans for the later evening.

Jesus stepped out from the gloom into the flickering glare of the torches and lanterns and said, "Who are you looking for?"

Those in the nearest ranks answered, "Jesus of Nazareth."

Jesus said, "I am he!"

When these words came out of His mouth, the strangest phenomenon you could imagine occurred!

Several ranks of the group seemed to quickly stumble backward and actually toppled over and fell to the ground! A babble of excitement went rippling through the crowd as they cried to disengage themselves from each other. One or two leaped about, slapping wildly where a torch had touched their garments They picked up their spears, readjusted their helmets and swords, as the whole group tried to create some semblance of dignity and order out of the chaos of the sudden, unexplained idiocy of those boobs up in the front rank leaning suddenly backward causing the whole group to lose their footing and fall over backward!

(Several cases in the Bible show that when a person is under demonic influence, he always "falls away backward," when confronted by the influence of God, or in the presence of an angelic messenger.)

While reasonable order was being restored to their ranks, Jesus waited, He then asked them again, "Who are you looking for?"

Again, one of them said loudly, "Jesus of Nazareth!"

"Fine!" he said, "I told you I am he, so if I'm the one you're looking for then let these others go," indicating His frightened disciples standing nearby. "Let these go their way." John later wrote that Jesus said this to fulfill the word that He had spoken in His prayer when He said, "Of those whom you had given me I lost not one."

About that time, Judas came directly up to Jesus and in the most cheerful possible fashion said, "Hello, Rabbi!"

And, taking Him by the shoulders, kissed Him quickly on the cheek.

Jesus stood rigidly, looking at Judas in scorn and hurt, and said, "Judas, do you mean to tell me you would betray the Son of man with a kiss?"

Peter and some of the other disciples had drawn protectively about Jesus, as if to try to conceal Him from the leaders of the mob; Peter said, "Lord, shall we attack them with these swords?"

Several of the soldiers leveled their pike and spears, and one of the officers of the high priest made as if to seize Jesus. Peter took a step backward, and the whisper of his sword coming out of his sheath had barely been noticed when the flashing blade descended with a vicious arc through the air! The servant of the High Priest dodged nimbly, or Peter's Roman sword would have split his head open like a ripe melon! The priest's officer stumbled backward, and Peter’s blade barely sliced through his ear, completely severing it from his head! Peter was raising the blade for a second blow as a wild yell went through the crowd behind.

Jesus quickly spoke with great authority, saying to Peter, "Put your sword away into its sheath! All those that take the sword will perish with the sword! Don't you think that I could turn to my Father and beseech Him and that He could send me more than twelve legions of angels?" Saying this, Jesus stooped down to the ground, picked up the officer's severed ear, and touching it to his head spoke briefly. The officer, amazed, put his hand to his ear and found it as whole as the other! Peter, mumbling, put away his sword and stepped back with the other disciples.

Jesus said, "Have you come out here to arrest me as if I were some robber; do you believe you have to be heavily armed with swords and spears to seize me? Here I was, sitting daily with you in the temple teaching and, you didn't arrest me; but this is all being allowed to happen that the scriptures the prophets wrote might be fulfilled; but this is your hour and the power of darkness and desolation shall prevail. However, your time will be short."

The mob moved forward with several of the soldiers trotting quickly left and right with their spears at the trail, intending to surround the whole group. Quickly, the disciples all melted into the darkness, and fled as fast as they could.

Years later, young John Mark (the author of the second gospel) admitted that he had been among the group when he wrote about "a certain young man" who followed along after them, being clothed only with a linen cloth about his naked body, and when they mistook him for one of the disciples grabbing at his clothing, he left the linen cloth and fled away naked (Mark 14:51-52).

This took place probably either a little before or a little after the hour of midnight.

They bound Jesus, and, with significant jabs with the butt of their spears and wild talk among the officers and the chief priests about what would happen next, plus any number of threats that "we will finally find out about all of this" and "see just who is in authority here" and other threatening statements, they clattered their way along the trails back to the brook Kidron, and began to climb the other side.

The boisterous crowd took Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem, where the curious peered out of their upper windows at the throng going by at this ridiculously early time just before the Jews’ Passover preparation. The noisy band finally came to the residence of Annas, who happened to be Caiaphas's father-in-law, the high priest for that year.

Caiaphas was the one who had given instructions to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people—little realizing the awesome spiritual significance of his remark.

At Annas's home, the high priest demanded to know of Jesus, "Now just who in the world do you think you are? What is all this teaching you have been bringing in the temple? Who are your disciples, and where are they from?"

Jesus answered, "I have spoken openly to the world; I continually taught in synagogues all up and down the country, and even in the temple, where all the Jews gather together. I have taught nothing in secret. Why are you asking me these questions? Ask those who have listened to me what I have taught them. Look! These people standing right here by you know exactly what I have said!"

At Jesus' sincere yet authoritative tone, one of the officers standing by slapped Him with a ringing blow to the head, saying, "Do you think you can talk to the high priest this way?"

Jesus, His ear ringing from the blow, turned to the man and said levelly, "If I have spoken evil, then accuse me of the evil deed; but if I have spoken well, why are you hitting me?"

The confrontation came to an end when Annas indicated they should leave Him bound, and take Him to Caiaphas's house where the scribes and the elders were gathering together in a "kangaroo court," having already sent runners far and wide to roust out of bed as many as they could recall who might have agreed in advance to bear false witness against Jesus.

Again, the noisy group clattered its way along the streets until it came to Caiaphas's house, where Jesus was held bound, while the final preparations were being conducted with the false witnesses.

One after another they whispered their stories in the high priest's ears, only to have them rejected because the high priest realized some of these wildly absurd tales would never stand up with the people.

Finally, however, two of the false witnesses agreed that Jesus had allegedly said, "I will destroy this temple, made with the hands of man, and then in three days, I will build another temple made without hands!"

Another said Jesus had actually claimed that He "would be able to destroy the temple of God and build it again in three days."

Jesus had been ushered into the presence of the high priest as these two false witnesses were making this statement, and it was then that the high priest stood up and said, "Do you have nothing whatsoever to say about this? What is this that these witnesses are telling against you?"

Jesus looked straight at the high priest, and didn't open His mouth.

The high priest, growing angrier by the moments said, "I adjure you by the living God [the words reassured him, and gave him a greater consciousness of his alleged godly authority] that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God?" Jesus said, "As you say, I am! And I am telling you you will see after this the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven!"

That did it!"

The high priest was beside himself with rage! furthermore, Jesus had finally spoken out so publicly and in such a supercharged environment with all of the essential leaders there, that the high priest could seize this opportunity to dispense with any need for further testimony from the false witnesses. Ripping at his garments so that he tore them (the habit of rending one’s garments in the time of great emotional stress must have given deep emotional comfort to these posturers) in an anguished scream, the high priest exclaimed, "He blasphemes! What further need have we of witnesses? Listen all of you! You have heard that blasphemy yourselves! So what do you think we ought to do about it?"

The crowd began answering, "That demands the death penalty! He ought to be killed! He is worthy of death!"

Some of them walked near and began to spit in Jesus’ face, while others slapped Him ringing blows across His cheeks, hitting Him about the head and ears, as the scene disintegrated into mob violence.

Here and there, one would reach over the outstretched arms and fists of others pummeling Him and shriek, "Prophesy! Who is this who just hit you?"

Of course, Jesus had been quickly blindfolded upon entering into the house, so He could not recognize any of the witnesses who appeared against Him. This was done as a precaution in case this thing should get out of hand and develop in an unwanted direction, or if Jesus should prove to have so many sympathizers that for some reason the high priest and religious leaders could not execute their plan of getting rid of the man once and for all.

While He was both tied and blindfolded, these "courageous religious leaders continued to beat Him on the face, shredding His lips against His teeth, opening up cuts with their bare knuckles, spitting on Him and saying, "Go ahead, prophet! Who is this hitting you? Tell me!"

Many were shrieking, "Bastard! False prophet! False teacher, friend of whores and harlots!" and other epithets of every sort.

Outside the high priest's home was the large outer court. After the clattering group with their flickering torches and lanterns had left the garden of Gethsemane, Peter picked himself up behind a large boulder where he had hidden, and stumbling along in the dark managed to parallel their course until they entered the city gate. He waited until they were sufficiently far ahead, and then followed along behind. Peter and John were both surprised to find each other in the streets as they were about to turn in to the court of the high priest. John had already entered the court, and was standing by a fire that had been hastily kindled so some of, the officers and soldiers could warm themselves.

John, wondering what was happening in the large lighted rooms, and waiting to see what would develop, noticed a furtive figure just outside the door, and in quick whispered consultation with one of the maids who guarded the door, asked if the man could be brought in.

She ran to do as John asked, and said, "Are you one of this man’s disciples?" Peter said, "I most certainly am not!"

He then walked over to join John and the officers and some of the servants warming themselves by the brazier.

The girl wouldn't quit, it seemed. Standing across the fire, she gazed steadfastly at him and said, "I believe this man was with Jesus, that Galilean!"

Peter denied it again, saying loudly before all of them as they were murmuring about the events of the last hour or two and, looking now and then toward the lighted rooms where the screaming epithets were dimly heard, "Woman, I don't know what you're talking about! You don't know what you're saying! I most certainly was not one of his disciples. I don't even know who he is!"

Peter had to get away from this stupid girl, and so, leaving the warmth of the fire, went out on the porch.

As he arrived there, when it was just darkest before the dawn, he heard a rooster crow. Another of the female servants said to a group of the others standing there, "This fellow here was with Jesus the Nazarene!"

Peter cursed at this, and said, "I don't know the man!" He began to use epithets and oaths, cursing and swearing, and saying, "I don't know what you're talking about! I have never seen him before!" But a relative of the servant of the high priest whom Peter's own sword had nearly killed, said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him?" Peter continued to vehemently deny Jesus for the third time, and while the denial was still on his lips, heard the second crowing of a rooster nearby.

Peter could see the raised fists, hear the distant "smack" of the blows descending on Jesus just inside the lighted hall. From time to time, he thought he caught a glimpse of Jesus in the midst of His tormentors; then, shockingly, just as Peter finished his third loud cursing denial, a hush seemed to fall over the group inside. It seemed they had knocked Jesus' blindfold loose, and, quickly stooping to retrieve it lest He could identify all of them later, several bent to pick it up off the floor. Just then, in the hush, Jesus glanced Peter's way; and, just after the cock had crowed for the second time upon Peter’s third denial, their eyes met. Jesus seemed to give a wan smile through pulped lips, just as His face was blotted from Peter's stricken gaze by those surrounding Him. (See Luke 22: 60-61.)

Peter was thunderstruck.