“So Judas took a company of soldiers and some temple police from the chief priests and the Pharisees and came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing everything that was about to happen to Him, went out and said to them, ‘Who is it you’re looking for?’ ‘Jesus the Nazarene,’ they answered. ‘I AM,’ Jesus told them. (literal translation). … When He told them, ‘I AM,’ they stepped back and fell to the ground. John 18:3-6 (adapted from the HCSB)
Behold the awesome and absolute, yet ever-so tempered, power of Yahweh under arrest. Borchert in his NAC commentary calls this the “terrifying mystery of the ultimate reality.” Indeed.
Further, at no point did God ever cease to be in control of the events surrounding His betrayal, arrest, unlawful prosecution, and execution–the ultimate acts of injustice to accommodate the ultimate act of justice (Is 53:5).
