Preparing for Arrest and the Father's Will 

Thursday night, April 6, 30 CE, Jesus, his apostles, some Greeks, and other followers were camped at Gethsemane, a park just outside Jerusalem. Jesus planned to surrender that night to face his accusers and be put on trial. He had avoided capture for three years, but now his hour had come. He had done all he could to complete his mission, and it was time to terminate his incarnation.

Jesus’ greatest concern was not the ordeal of torture and death that he knew was coming; rather, he worried that his apostles would be arrested and killed. He had trained them for years to carry on after he was gone. If they perished, his mission to establish the kingdom of God on earth could fail. He needed to go apart from them so only he would be arrested. Eight of the apostles and most of the others were sleeping. Just before leaving, he suggested that the remaining apostles, Peter, James, and John, go to their tents for rest, but they were distracted by the arrival of two excited messengers asking for David Zebedee.

When the two messengers hurried into camp, a Greek watchman woke those in the vicinity, who came out of their tents, fully dressed and armed. All the camp was now aroused except the eight apostles who slept on. Peter wanted to call them, but Jesus forbade him. The messengers brought news only for David; there was no need for alarm, and the Master asked them all to return to their tents.

Jesus then walked down the hill toward an olive press near the entrance to Gethsemane Park. Although the three apostles, the Greeks, and the other camp members hesitated to follow him, his young friend and admirer, John Mark, hastened through the olive trees and hid in a small shed near the olive press.

Jesus hoped his apprehenders, when they arrived, would arrest him and him alone. He knew Judas, the betrayer, would be with the soldiers, and if his apostles happened to see Judas identify Jesus, they would attack Judas and resist the soldiers. Jesus sat down, alone, on the olive press, where he awaited the coming of the betrayer with the soldiers. He was seen at this time only by John Mark and an innumerable host of celestial observers.

When Peter, James, John, and others, still at the campsite, saw the soldiers at the bottom of the hill with their torches aglow and that Jesus was gone, they realized he was being arrested and rushed to the olive press. Some were armed, and the apostle Peter wanted to fight and free Jesus, but Jesus forbade it. Things worked out, so only Jesus was arrested, and John Zebedee was allowed to accompany him. He and John were taken to the home of the chief priest.

Jesus knew the plan for his arrest and death had its origin in the councils of the Jewish priests, but he was also aware that their schemes had the full approval of Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia. He knew these rebels would also be pleased to see all of the apostles destroyed by him. However, he managed it so that only he was arrested, tried, and executed.

Fifteen hours after his arrest, the Master was dead on the cross, Judas had killed himself, and the apostles were in hiding. Thirty-six hours after his death, Jesus rose from his tomb in his resurrected form and greeted Mary Magdalene and four other women. Later that day, he appeared to his apostles where they were hiding, in the same room where the Last Supper was enacted three days earlier.

It was the will of the Father that his Son should drink to the full the cup of mortal experience, from birth to death. But the Father in heaven had nothing whatever to do with instigating the barbarous behavior of those supposedly civilized men who tortured and heaped indignities upon the Master.

These inhuman and shocking experiences that Jesus was called upon to endure in the final hours of his mortal life were not in any sense a part of the divine will of God. The Father in heaven desired that Jesus finish his earth career naturally, just as all mortals must.

Ordinary men and women should not expect to have their last hours made easy by a special dispensation, and neither did Jesus. He elected to lay down his life in the flesh in the manner which was in keeping with the outworking of natural events. And he steadfastly refused to use his superhuman powers to avoid the cruel clutches of a wicked conspiracy of inhuman events which swept on with horrible certainty toward his unbelievable humiliation and ignominious death.

Every bit of the hatred and cruelty Jesus suffered was the work of evil men. God in heaven did not will it, neither did the archenemies of Jesus dictate it. Even Lucifer turned his face away from the excruciating horror of the scene of the crucifixion. However, Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia did everything in their power to ensure unthinking and evil mortals would reject Jesus. Their plans were, however, thwarted by the apostles and other believers who carried on after Jesus died and was resurrected.

Jesus’ mission to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth is still in progress; the will of God is still alive and working for the salvation of humanity. God loves all of his children, and nothing can stop the eventual triumph of that love.