SURRENDER VS. SACRIFICE

John 18:1-9
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.

Jesus Is Betrayed and Arrested

1 After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. 2 Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. 3 The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.

4 Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.

5 “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied.

“I Am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) 6 As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! 7 Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

8 “I told you that I Am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” 9 He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”


You might call it semantics but I see a significant difference between surrender and sacrifice. You surrender in the face of a more powerful and overwhelming opponent. No way does that fit the contingent Judas brought to the garden. With the spoken Word, they found themselves flat on their backs.

Jesus sacrificed Himself that night so that His disciples would not be taken. It was these to whom Jesus was passing the torch, to carry on the ministry of grace He was bringing to the world. Jesus arrest was part of the plan, as was the disciples freedom. This night was the first step toward the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the Cross.

There was no surrender to Satan … only sacrifice for humankind.