John 18:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"When Jesus had said this, He went out with His disciples across the Kidron brook, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. Now Judas, His betrayer, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with His disciples."

He goes in the middle of the night, crosses the brook, and hastens to reach a place known to the betrayer.

Thus He spares the plotters their labor and frees them from every anxiety. He shows the disciples that He goes to suffering voluntarily, which especially could console them.

He encloses Himself in the garden as though in a prison.

"When He had said this" to them. What are you saying? He was speaking with the Father. He was praying.

Why then do you not say that He came there after finishing the prayer?

Because that was not a prayer, but a discourse for the disciples' sake.

His disciples also entered the garden with Him. To such an extent had He freed them from fear that they no longer contradicted Him, but even entered the garden.

He made Himself invisible and very easily escaped the hand of those who sought Him, Jn 8:59.

He did not yet wish to suffer, because the proper time had not yet summoned Him to this.

But when it had come, He left the room where He had initiated His disciples into the mysteries. He came to the place where both Christ Himself, the Savior of all, and the holy disciples often used to stay.

He did this again in order to let the betrayer find Him without difficulty.

That place was a garden, fulfilling the figure of the ancient Paradise. It was, as it were, a recapitulation of places and a return of all things to the beginning.

For in Paradise the beginning of our sorrows took place. In the garden the Passion of Christ takes its beginning, bringing correction to everything that once happened to us.

And let him first believe, before he knows whether he can attain such knowledge in this life, or cannot because of some impediments. There is nothing written by one Evangelist, among those received by the Church as canonical authorities, that contradicts his own or another's equally truthful account.

After giving us the antitypical mysteries of His precious Body and Blood, when Judas was no longer with them, Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives near the brook Kidron, where there was a garden.

The Apostolic Constitutions 5.3.14.2. Matthew says in his narrative: "Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane" (Mt 26:36). Mark says the same. Luke also mentions this, though he does not give the name of the place. There, as we understand, was the garden which John mentions in his account.

Having completed the account of the great and lengthy discourse which the Lord had with the disciples then with Him after the supper, as He approached the shedding of His Blood for us, John the Evangelist joined to it the prayer addressed to the Father.

Then he began the account of His Passion in this way: "When Jesus had said these things, He went out with His disciples beyond the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which He and His disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with His disciples" (Jn 18:1-2).

What he says here about the Lord, how He entered the garden with His disciples, did not occur immediately after He finished His prayer. The Evangelist's words "when He had said these things" concern that prayer.

Something else happened, which may be read in the other Evangelists, but is omitted by this one. Likewise, he has much about which they are silent in their own account.

Whoever wants to know how all agree with one another, and how the truth reported by one is not overthrown by another, should seek the answer not in these sermons, but in other, more complex works.

Let him learn this not by standing and listening, but rather by sitting and reading. Or let him direct a hearing and mind filled with the highest attention toward the one who reads.

Yet let him believe before he knows, whether he is able to know this already in this life or cannot because of any hindrances. No Evangelist, among those accepted by the Church as canonical authorities, wrote anything that could contradict either his own true narrative or that of another.

So now let us look, without comparison with the others, at the account of blessed John. Let us examine it without lingering over what is already clear, and linger where it is necessary.

Therefore we should not take His words, "When Jesus had said these things, He went out with His disciples beyond the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which He and His disciples entered," as if He entered the garden immediately after those words.

Yet the phrase "when He had said these things" should make us understand that He did not enter the garden before He had completed those words.

In the Song of Songs the prophet teaches that the garden is better than the fruitful field: "A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed," Song 4:12.

This signifies the pure and undefiled virginity of the soul. No fear of punishment, no promises of worldly pleasures, and no attachment to life can lead it away from faith.

That only the power of the Lord returns man is especially witnessed by the Evangelist Luke. He alone mentions the Lord's words to the thief: "Truly I say to thee, today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise," Lk 23:43.

This is the "brook on the way" from which He will drink; therefore "He will lift up His head" (Ps 109:7), when He is lifted up upon the Cross. He goes through the brook of sorrows in order to leave His footprints there for us also.

"Your paths are in many waters" (Ps 76:20), in many sorrows, that we too may follow Him to the heavenly Kingdom by the path of many sorrows. Let our soul pass through the brook of calamities, that is, "the raging water" (Ps 123:4) of persecutions, pursuits, and attacks from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

David flees from his son Absalom "through the brook" (2 Kgs 15:23), with weeping and sorrow. Here too malicious Absalom pursues, and the sinner pursues his Father, who begot him by water and the Spirit.

The Lord also goes through the same brook with sorrow, saying: "The pangs of death surrounded Me, and the torrents of lawlessness troubled Me" (Ps 17:5). For because of the torrents of our iniquities He crosses the brook of sufferings.

Solomon, having summoned Shimei, said to him: "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere. Know that on the day you go out and cross the brook Kidron, you shall surely die" (3 Kgs 2:36-37).

It happened that Shimei, forgetting the king's covenant, went after the servants who had fled from him. He was put to death because he crossed beyond the brook Kidron.

The sinner withdrew from his Master: "He went into a far country" (Lk 15:13). And behold, when You, O Lord, seek him, when in Your mercy You go after him beyond the brook Kidron, I fear that they will put You to death.

For the impious tormentors are already preparing their instruments for You, O Lord. Death is already sharpening its scythe against You, O Christ, and Jewish malice wishes to show its savagery upon You.

The elders gather, the people run together, the creature rises against its Creator. "The rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Anointed" (Ps 2:2).

"Jesus went out beyond the brook." "Man goes out to his work and to his labor until evening" (Ps 103:23). He does not go out to idleness, sloth, lying down, sleep, or rest, but to toil, work, a task, and appointed labor.

Every man, as Job says, is born into the world for labors (cf. Job 5:7). Saint Paul forbids the man who does nothing to eat bread: "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat" (2 Thess 3:10).

And he who does not labor has nothing. "The slothful man," says Solomon, "is always in poverty" (Prov 11:16). Therefore every man goes out to his work from earliest morning, "from the morning watch until night" (Ps 129:7), and "to his labor until evening" (Ps 103:23).

But does any man have labor so heavy, work so sorrowful, or a task so difficult as the One who became man for love of mankind? He "appeared on earth and lived among men," and Pilate shows Him to the people, saying, "Behold the Man" (Jn 19:5).

This is the labor of our Lord Jesus Christ, "who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried."

He says: "My Father works until now, and I work" (Jn 5:17). What is this work? "You wrought salvation in the midst of the earth, O Christ God, stretching out Your most pure hands upon the Cross!"

O how difficult the task, how great the work, how heavy the labor, in which the Worker is drenched with tears, with bloody sweat, and with His very Blood!

At that time the trees were clothed in tender spring foliage, recently unfolded, and moonlight made its way through them with shimmering rays. Everything around was solemnly quiet and peaceful.

Even the birds slept unconcernedly on the soft branches, beneath the covering of the starry sky, where the heavenly Father cared for them also.

Behind rose Mount Moriah with its artificial terraces leading to the majestic porch of the temple. Ahead, beyond the garden enclosure, began the slopes of the Mount of Olives.

With its summit, it hid from view the blessed little house in Bethany. Christ's spirit was filled with great thoughts about what lay ahead, and He desired solitude, that He might pour out His heart in prayer to God the Father.

Leaving most of the disciples at the entrance to the garden, He took three of the chosen ones with Him into the depth of Gethsemane. These were Peter, James, and John.

As witnesses of the glory of His Transfiguration, they were also to be the nearest witnesses of His greatest anguish of soul. But even their presence was burdensome in that dreadful hour.

"My soul," He said, "is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." Having commanded them to watch, He withdrew still farther from them into the thicket of the garden, about a stone's throw away.

There He began to pray, to strengthen His spirit, which was seized with horror before the weight of humanity's sins. These He now had to take upon Himself.

His human nature was horrified before the coming burden that He had to bear. In agonizing prayer Christ even for a moment admitted the possibility that the dread work of redemption might be removed.

He cried to the Father: "Abba, Father! All things are possible for You. Let this cup pass from Me." But then He immediately entrusted everything to the will of the One who sent Him: "Yet not what I will, but what You will."

Never before had the union of His divine and human nature appeared in Him with such clarity as at this very moment. At first glance, the human nature here seems to take precedence over the divine.

Yet one must keep in mind that this moment was the moment of Christ's greatest self-emptying. Then especially "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death," surrendering Himself wholly to the Father as representative of sinful humanity.

But the very ability to do this, His close communion with the Father in will and counsel, and the most perfect triumph of self-renunciation over human weakness, serve as clear proofs of His Godhead.

In this terrible struggle the Savior was not left without help. As at the first temptation by the devil in the wilderness, so now an angel from heaven strengthened Him.

But men, even His closest followers and disciples, did not think of offering Him any comfort or strengthening. When the Savior returned from the depths of the thicket to His disciples, they were asleep.

Even Peter was asleep, and to him especially the Savior addressed a gentle reproach: "Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation."

And there, as though excusing this human weakness, Christ added with gracious condescension: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Twice more He went away into the thicket and repeated the same prayer.

Twice, when He returned, He again found His disciples sunk in so deep a sleep that they did not even know what to answer His questions and reproaches.

But the third time He awakened them with a clear indication of approaching danger: "Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Behold, he who betrays Me is at hand."

"He entered, He and His disciples." With this brief remark alone the Evangelist limits his account of the Lord's stay in the garden of Gethsemane before Judas came there with soldiers and guards.

He does not speak of the Lord's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. Certainly this is because he assumed this event was known to his readers from the Gospels written earlier.

Cf. Mt 26:36 and following, and parallels.

In general, in the history of the Lord's sufferings, John only supplements the accounts of the first Evangelists with particular details.

If he speaks of certain particular events of this history already narrated by the first Evangelists, he evidently does so in order to supplement them in some important detail.

On the southeastern side of Jerusalem, through a deep valley, flows the Kidron brook.

This is the brook crossed by the sorrowful David when he was pursued by his own son Absalom.

The valley, poorly watered by the meager Kidron, is known in history from its darkest side.

Here children were offered in sacrifice to Molech, 1 Kgs 15:13; 2 Kgs 23:4, 6-12. Into it also flowed impurities.

Beyond the Kidron, not far away, rises the Mount of Olives, and at its foot lies the village of Gethsemane.

To the right of Gethsemane, the same Kidron watered the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of tombs and judgment.

Near Gethsemane there is an olive garden. Here, in view of such mournful memorials, the Savior's sufferings before death took place, according to the Evangelists, Mt 26:30, 36; Jn 18:1-2; Lk 22:39.