Bound to the Cross

What an absurd scene it was. The Roman soldiers, together with temple guards, bound Jesus hand and foot after arresting Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Tradition says they tied His hands behind Him and even put an iron chain around His neck.

They must have been really scared. Only moments earlier the words of the One now in chains had driven all the would-be captors to the ground. This sword-wielding, club-carrying mob of priests, scribes, soldiers and guards had been met by a solitary figure who asked them whom they sought.

When the mob said they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus announced “ego ami” — I am He. Perhaps the most religious in the crowd caught the similarity to the name of God revealed in the story of Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked God His name, God responded “I am that I am.”

If the priest and scribes had understood Jesus’ claim to deity in those words it may have caused them to take a step backward, perhaps even to stumble. But no explanation other than the power of the Word is available for why the hundreds who came to arrest Jesus were all driven back, stumbling and falling to the ground (John 18:6).

‘Word made flesh’

Jesus is, after all, the “Word made flesh” (John 1:14). His words healed the sick, fed the hungry, drove out demons and opened spiritually blind eyes to the love of the eternal God. Perhaps the experience at Gethsemane was but a foretaste of what is to come. In 2 Thessalonians 2:8 the writer foretells of a time when “the lawless one” will be overthrown by the breath from the mouth of the Lord Jesus.

There was more to make the mob fearful. As they rose from their mishap one of Jesus’ followers — John’s Gospel says it was Peter — drew a sword and swung at the head of Malchus, a man who worked for the high priest. If seizing Jesus was the high priest’s doing as everyone expected, then Peter was going for the high priest’s representative.

Malchus may have been quicker than Peter anticipated for Peter’s blade missed its target but he did manage to cut off the man’s ear. Peter’s rash actions resulted in a scolding. Jesus told him to put away his sword and asked if Peter was trying to keep Him from accomplishing the purpose for which He came. Then Jesus touched Malchus’ ear and it was healed.

This was the man the mob was sent to arrest; a man who healed a wound with His touch; a man whose words drove them to the ground. No wonder they scurried to bind Him before some other display of His power kept them from accomplishing their sinister purpose.

So here Jesus stood bound and dragged along by a chain around His neck. Israel’s history offers faint sounds of another whose enemies bound him hand and foot. The Philistines even gouged out Samson’s eyes. They gloated at their triumph over their enemy much as the religious leaders gloated at binding Jesus in the dark of night. Before the people who had hailed Jesus with cries of “Hosanna” earlier in the week could rouse from their sleep, the scheme of the religious leaders would be carried out and Rome would crucify Him.

Someone should have remembered that Samson got the last laugh. At the height of the Philistines’ celebration of their victory, Samson pulled down the columns of the Philistine temple causing the whole structure to collapse. Judges 16:30 says Samson killed more Philistines in his death than he did during his entire life up to that point.

Not Caiaphas, the high priest, nor Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas and himself a former high priest, nor any other religious leader had any inkling of the ultimate end of the actions they put in motion that night at Gethsemane.

The later chapters of Genesis tells of one who went from being bound for ruin only to rise to reign. The boy Joseph was bound by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery. The man Joseph was condemned by false charges, bound and thrown into an Egyptian prison. But the providence of God raised Joseph up to reign over Egypt.

The one bound that night outside the walls of Jerusalem was intended for ruin too. But in the providence of God, Jesus would be raised up to reign. In a matter of hours Jesus would tell Pilate, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact for this reason I was born” (John 18:37).

Jesus added that His kingdom was “not of this world.” His was a spiritual kingdom and would last forever.

Jerusalem’s religious elite may have scoffed at Jesus’ claims. They had one more bind to wrap around Him — death. Once in the grave they would be rid of Him forever. The only catch was to make sure He died at the hands of Rome as a criminal or seditionist and not from Jewish stones as a religious martyr.

How proud of themselves Caiaphas, Annas and the others must have been as they watched their scheme unfold one event after the other. What they failed to notice was Jesus’ words, “You have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11).

Ropes and chains were not the bonds that held Jesus that fateful night. He was bound by an eternal plan in place before creation itself, a plan to provide a way of escape for sinful humanity. It was the love of God that bound Jesus to the altar of sacrifice and atonement as “He became obedient … even unto death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8).

Jesus willingly went to His death as a sacrificial lamb for sinners declaring “no one takes My life from Me but I lay it down of My own accord” (John 10:18).

Not even death could bind Jesus for just as He said He laid down His life, He declared He would take it up again and He did.

As the sun began to rise on the Sunday following His crucifixion there was a great earthquake. The Roman guards watching the tomb once again fell to the earth quaking in fear and trembling. The stone blocking the entrance to Jesus’ tomb was rolled away not to let Jesus out but to let humanity in. The empty grave testified that the bonds on death itself were broken forever.

The apostle Paul says Jesus “was declared with power to be the Son of God through the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).

Jesus conquered sin and death. Jesus reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And He did it all because He was bound not by ropes and chains, but by love and obedience to offer Himself a sacrifice for all who believe on His name.