Voices around Easter 6 - The Arrest

In the next to last of these monologues we hear two views of the arrest of Jesus in the garden -from the soldiers and the disciples. Strangely enough, there are some striking similarities.

The soldiers

We set off into the darkness, not knowing what to expect. We did not have much light. We were told we were going to arrest the King of the Jews, but we no idea what that meant. If it meant that he would have his own guards there would be a fight. Fights in the dark are risky things. Torches get dropped. You can easily hit your own people. And how would we recognise the man we want? All these Galileans look the same, especially in the dark. Judas, who has called us out, knows, but how will we tell? The king, if that's what he is, won't be wearing a crown, we can be sure of that. Some people say our man is the Son of God. How can we tell that?

In the end, events took us by surprise. We did not need to search. He came to meet us and asked us who we were looking for. He looked composed, almost serene. All the people around him were hiding their faces in their cloaks, several quite terrified of us (which we are used to, of course, being part of the job) but he stood with his face uncovered. 'Yes, that's me', he said. If he is the Son of God we saw that night the Son of God surrender himself to human power.

The disciples

We had set out into the darkness, not knowing what to expect. We stood around together in the garden, full of anxiety. We had just had the Passover meal with Jesus. It was quite different from any meal we had shared before. He had begun by washing our feet. He insisted to take the task of the lowest servant, despite Peter's objections. We shared bread and wine as usual, but this time it felt completely different. There was something special about what Jesus said and did this time which we could not then understand. Then we went out to the garden. We expected Jesus to be arrested at any time that week, and some of us had weapons, but most of us were afraid for Jesus, and afraid for ourselves too. Here we were together in the dark. How would the police recognise Jesus when he came? And what if one of us got arrested too? Perhaps they wouldn't recognise him in the dark and we would be able to sneak away.

But it did not turn out like that. Events were to take us by surprise, as they did over the all those three days. When we saw the police coming, we had no doubt that Jesus would be recognised because we saw the face of our own companion Judas in the light of the lanterns. He would know Jesus, even in the dim light of the torches. But Judas did not need to do anything. Jesus came forward himself and when they said they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth, he replied 'Yes, that's me'. We could scarcely bear to look. Here was the Son of God surrendering himself to human power.