LET US GO HENCE

READ IT AGAIN

By Professor E M Blaiklock MA DLITT

XXXVIII.
"LET US GO HENCE."

Please read John 14.

Was the withdrawal from the Upper Room to Gethsemane flight?
No.
Emil Ludwig has propagated such nonsense.
"In the dead of the
night they squeeze through the hedge surrounding one of the olive orchards watered by the Cedron on the western side of the hill, a cactus hedge doubtless, for these were the burghers' front gardens protected against thieves.”
Such "reconstruc-
tions," needless to say, has no justification in the Gospels. What did happen? It seems clear that the vital teaching of John 15 and 16 was given on that moonlight night between the Supper and the Garden. The Sermon of the Vine suggests that the words were spoken in the Temple Court, where a great sculptured vine, with gilded clusters six feet high, festooned the gate. The Temple court would be the last place His enemies would look for Him.
Judas would go to the Supper Room, and then to the Garden. Did Jesus, in last anxiety for the fruitful living of those He was so soon to leave behind, postpone this arrest in order to speak these immortal words for them, and for us? Having spoken them, He went to the garden where Judas would come to find Him, and where He knew He would meet the final act of the part He had come to play.