John 18-19: Questions Galore

So in our church's daily devotional reading plan, we're reading the Gospel of John. Reading it this time, I discovered that I had quite a few questions about things that I've never noticed before in the text. For example:

Cops Don't Normally Bow Before They Cuff You

I have read this story quite a few times, and I never saw this detail. It says, in John 18, when Jesus is arrested by the garrison.

"I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.

What? The cops bow down and fall to the ground? I don't imagine a garrison consisting of Roman Soldiers and Jewish servants (who hate Jesus) bowing down. This is a very strange detail. What is going on here?

• Is this a foretaste of "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess?"
  
• Did Jesus make them bow, as a way of showing that this whole situation is "allowed" by God?
  
• Did the guards hear something in Jesus' response that made their hearts quake in awe and fear of God, and is that similar to what would happen to Pilate later.

And just to be clear - I have no answers on this.

Accidentally Making My Case For Me

One thing that struck me this time reading John is that it's very well framed, from a literary perspective. It's filled with irony. Take, for example, the fact that people who are no friends of Jesus actually say things that are true. Dressing Jesus up like a King, and calling Jesus a king, for example.

1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.

This is just one of the little moments of irony that John records. Reading it reminded me of the Roman Centurian who was near Jesus at his death and also when Pilate puts an ironic sign over the head of Jesus that affirms his humble beginnings (from Nazareth) and his deity (King).

It's almost as though Gentiles are proclaiming Christ to be their King against their will, or unknowingly. Of course, later, Gentiles would do this in a vastly different way in a vastly different context (Acts 8, 10).

I See London, I See France

John actually spends a fair amount of time fixating on the undergarments of Jesus. In verse 23, it says

23When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24"Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it."

First of all, a bunch of grown dudes throwing dice over underwear is a bit odd.

And what's with the detail that John throws in that the garment is seamless. Is this just fantastic journalist detail and realism? Considering that genre of literature had not yet been invented, I doubt it. Was it symbolic to John, harkening to the "chiton" or the undergarment worn by the Jewish high priest? Was the fact that this undergarment was seamless unique? Did Jesus have high-end, well-tailored boxers? That's doubtful. Was it supposed to show Jesus' own seamlessness, in his life and interaction with God - his holiness? Did it represent to John the seamlessness of the community of God that would come about because of the death of Jesus (or that should come about and sometimes doesn't).

Life's Problems

Read a joke today. Went like this:

A pet-store delivery driver was traveling down the road. Everytime he came to a stoplight, he would get out of the truck and grab a two-by-four. Then he'd run to the back and start beating on the truck's back doors. This went on for several miles, and nobody could figure out what he was doing. Finally, the guy who had been behind him pulled alongside and just had to ask, "What are you doing?"

"This is only a two-ton truck," the truck driver said, "And I'm carrying four tons of canaries. I've got to keep two tons of them up in the air all the time."

*sigh*

Isn't that how life feels sometimes?