There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12
Four men. Four choices. One chapter. Each faced with the question: Will I follow what I feel, or will I follow what I know?
Two pursued what seemed right to them and moved toward death. Two, in very different ways, surrendered their own way and chose life.
Judas: My Way
Jesus knew what was in Judas’ heart. At the supper, after identifying Judas as the betrayer, Jesus told him, “What you are doing, do quickly” (John 13:27).
I’ve sometimes wondered whether Judas believed, at least somewhere along the way, that he could force events forward and “hasten” the coming Kingdom. Scripture doesn’t tell us Judas’ reasoning, so we can’t know. What it does tell us is sobering enough: Judas had walked with Jesus, heard His teaching, witnessed His works, and yet ultimately chose his own course.
And Jesus was not indifferent to that choice. When speaking of His coming betrayal, He was “troubled in spirit” (John 13:21).
Judas chose the way that seemed right to him. Catching a glimpse of the horror of what he had done, he told the chief priests and elders, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). But instead of running to the Savior he had betrayed, despair drove him to death (Matthew 27:5).
There is a devastating lesson here: regret over past choices and surrender to God are not necessarily the same thing. Paul later distinguishes between “godly sorrow” that produces repentance and “the sorrow of the world” that produces death (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Caiaphas: God’s Will Accomplished Through a Man Resisting It
When the Jewish leaders told Pilate, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death” (John 18:31), this wasn’t the whole truth. The political and legal situation was more complicated than that statement alone might suggest. Acts, for example, records the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:54–60), so I couldn’t help but wonder what might be a secret motivation held by Caiaphas for wanting crucifixion as opposed to a mere stoning?
Consider that Deuteronomy 21:22–23 declared that one whose body was hung on a tree was “under God’s curse”. Although scripture never says that Caiaphas reasoned this way, it is possible that crucifixion offered him something especially useful: Jesus would not merely die, but could appear before the people as one publicly rejected and accursed.
If so, the irony is profound. Caiaphas would have been seeking a form of death that discredited Jesus, while unknowingly helping bring about the very redemptive purpose foretold in Scripture. What appeared to demonstrate that Jesus was cursed would, in Christian understanding, become the means by which Christ “became a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
And John adds a striking detail. The religious leaders would not enter the Praetorium because they feared becoming ceremonially defiled and therefore being unable to eat the Passover (John 18:28). Consider the irony here as well: they were meticulously concerned with ceremonial cleanliness while delivering Jesus to His death. They were guarding their ability to eat the Passover while rejecting the One toward whom the Passover ultimately points.
Jesus would have heard the shofar being blown as they opened the temple gates for the sacrifice. And in the very moment when they were killing the sacrificial lamb, Jesus was breathing his last breath on the cross. Paul would later call Christ “our Passover” who had been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).
We too can be very serious about religion and still completely miss the heart of God.
Peter: Surrendering the Way That Seems Right
Then there is Peter.
My heart goes out to him in this chapter because Peter really does love Jesus, but love doesn’t automatically mean understanding. It is possible to love Jesus sincerely and still misunderstand what faithfulness to him requires. Love may move us to act, but unless our love is shaped by his teaching, we may passionately defend the very thing he asks us to surrender, or resist the very thing he asks us to accept.
When Jesus had previously explained that He must suffer and die, Peter protested:
“God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” Matthew 16:22
That must have seemed right to Peter. How could allowing the Messiah to die possibly be God’s plan?
So when the soldiers arrive in John 18, Peter acts. He draws his sword and strikes the high priest’s servant (John 18:10).
He’s defending Jesus. He’s fighting evil. He’s protecting the Messiah. Surely God must be on his side, right? But then Jesus tells him to put the sword away:
“The cup which the Father has given Me, am I not to drink it?” John 18:11
Peter had to confront an incredibly difficult truth: something can feel courageous, loyal, and even righteous while still opposing what God is doing.
And Peter still had more breaking ahead of him. Before the chapter ends, the man who insisted he would lay down his life for Jesus denies Him three times, exactly as Jesus had foretold (John 13:37-38; 18:15-18, 25-27).
But Peter’s failure was not the end of Peter’s story. In John 21, Jesus restores him. Peter learns that life is not found in persuading Jesus to follow Peter’s plan. Life is found in hearing Jesus say, “Follow Me,” and following (John 21:19).
Jesus: “Yet Not as I Will”
And finally, Jesus.
John 18 begins with Jesus making the choice to visit His Father in a place he loved: the garden. It was a place Judas knew because Jesus had often met there with His disciples (John 18:1-2). John moves quickly to the arrest, but the other Gospels let us see what happened in that garden before Judas arrived.
Matthew tells us:
“He began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.’” Matthew 26:37-38
This is one of the most remarkable pictures of Jesus’ humanity. Jesus knew the Father’s will, yet obedience did not mean the absence of anguish. He did not pretend the cup was easy to drink. He brought His agony honestly before His Father:
“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Matthew 26:39
Notice the hinge:
Yet.
But.
We know that Jesus’ distress was not sin because scripture tells us He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Pay attention here! What this is teaching us is that temptation is not the same thing as sin. The presence of temptation can become the very place where faith and obedience arise.
We all have our “yet/but” moments.
This is what I want… yet…
This way seems right to me… but…
Father, this is painful… yet not as I will, but as You will.
He surrendered His will to the Father.
And in doing so, Jesus chose the path through death that leads to life, not only for Himself in resurrection, but for everyone who belongs to Him:
“I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies.”
John 11:25
Four Men. Two Ways.
Judas chose what seemed right to Judas. Caiaphas chose what seemed expedient to Caiaphas. Peter initially fought for what seemed right to Peter, but through failure, grace, and restoration, he learned to follow Jesus instead.
And Jesus, in the deepest anguish of His soul, said:
“Not as I will, but as You will.”
Every one of them had a will. Every one faced a choice.
And so do we.
Proverbs warns us that there is a way that seems right to us but ends in death. The danger is precisely that the wrong way often does seem right. It may even feel logical, religious, or necessary.
Jesus shows us another way. The way of life is not getting God to bless my will. The way of life is surrendering my will to His.
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