Jesus Arrested and Bound
Scripture Reading — John 18:1-14
The detachment of soldiers … arrested Jesus. They bound him …
—John 18:12
When I was fifteen years old, my brother and I were in a truck traveling from one farm to another. I was driving, and I decided to see if we could pass a car before the double lanes ended. In the process, a police officer saw us speeding. Out of fear I tried to outrun the officer because I did not have a license. We successfully hid the truck behind a barn, but eventually the police found us. Once I was caught, the officer bound me with handcuffs.
Though I was bound for breaking the law, Jesus was completely innocent when he was arrested and bound by soldiers and officials who had come looking for him. This was prefigured in Israel’s history long before, when God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Though he must have been heartbroken, Abraham was obedient to God. In Genesis 22, we read that after a three day journey to Mount Moriah, Isaac was bound by his father Abraham to be offered as a sacrifice. But an angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from killing his son, and God provided a ram caught in a thicket to sacrifice in his place.
To pay the price of sin, God offered up his own Son, Jesus, to be sacrificed in our place. He bore the curse of God’s wrath so that we could be free of sin and live in communion with the Lord forever.
Father God, thank you for the great gift of your only Son, who paid the price of sin in our place. Now, clothed in his righteousness, we can live with you in blessing and peace forever. In Jesus, Amen.
About the author — John Kuperus
Since he was young, John Kuperus has had a passion that everyone would know Jesus. Spreading the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15) is very important to him. To be better equipped for missions, John attended Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He applied these skills with marketplace evangelism in a business he started in Sussex, New Jersey. This calling continued to follow him, so John attended seminary and became a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, serving a church in Ontario for eight years. Currently he serves as a missionary for Youth with a Mission (YWAM). He witnesses Jesus changing lives as people walk out of the darkness into the light. John is married to Helen, and they have seven children.
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