Much has been preached and written about the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus praying there the night before His crucifixion. But last week as I was preparing to conclude a seven week study of the “I AM” statements of John with a focus on “I am He” in John 18:5, I came across a detail in John’s eyewitness account of the events that caught my eye and took me off on a fascinating rabbit trail. The Biblical writers, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, provide details for specific reasons. No detail is irrelevant and no relevant detail is omitted. II Timothy 3:16 tells us that “all scripture is inspired and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness”. Often times amazing insights can be gathered from the details – gold nuggets can be found if we just turn over a few stones!

In John 18:1 we are told that Jesus went out with His disciples across the Kidron Valley to the garden. Where is the Kidron Valley? Gethsemane is positioned on the slopes of the Mount of Olives directly west of the Temple and about one-fifth of a mile from the Temple. The Temple was the highest point in Jerusalem and it would be very much in view from the Garden. Between the Temple and the Garden was the Kidron Valley – a wadi ( a wash that was dry except for the heavy winter rains, when it could become a pretty wild river).

So what is the significance of Jesus walking through the Kidron Valley? The Old Testament tells us that during the period of the divided kingdom, there were at least three cleansings of the Temple and the Jerusalem rooftops to remove the altars of idols that have been erected during times of spiritual backsliding. The first was Asa (third king of Judah) who destroyed the idols and burned them in the Kidron Valley (I Kings 15:12-13). This would have been about 911 BC. A similar cleansing occurred roughly two hundred years later (716 BC), with King Hezekiah at the onset of his reign had the idols and other uncleanness removed and ‘carried out to the Kidron brook’ (2 Chronicles 19:16). Then about a hundred years later, Josiah in the eighteenth year of his reign (622 BC) shortly before the Babylonian captivity, had Hilkiah the high priest remove the idols and reduced them to dust in the Kidron Valley (2 Kings 23:6).

The afternoon before Passover (Thursday afternoon of the Passion week) would have been the sacrificing of the lambs on the altar of the temple. John MacArthur writes in Experiencing the Passion that “Historical records of Jesus’ time indicate that as many as a quarter-million lambs were slain in a typical Passover season, requiring hundreds of priests to carry out the task.” There would be a lot of blood from 250,000 lambs along with the water used in the ritual cleansings. Where does all that liquid go? Drains from the altar area carried it to . . . you guessed it . . . the Kidron Valley just outside of the Temple mount walls! In fact Kidron means “black brook” or “gloomy brook” perhaps named so because of the crimson-stained banks. When Jesus walked through the Kidron Valley, He couldn’t help but be moved by the symbolism that the valley held in terms of the sin of mankind, both the false idols and the sacrificial lambs’ blood. It was a fresh reminder of the cup he was about to drink and the purpose for which He came – to die as the perfect sacrificial lamb for our sins that we might be restored to having a relationship with God.

There’s one more reference to the Kidron. When Absalom attempted to usurp the throne from his father David, 2 Samuel 15:23 tells us that David fled Jerusalem and crossed the Kidron to the Mount of Olives and wilderness. It is there that he apparently wrote Psalm 3 and Psalm 41. Not only had his own son betrayed him, but so had his closest advisor Ahithophel. When Jesus spoke of Judas betraying him (John 13:18), he referenced that the prophecy of Psalm 41:9 – “He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.” Ahithophel, like Judas Iscariot, hung himself when the plan fell apart and Absalom was accidently hanged when riding his horse under a tree.

Now here is some interesting speculation on my part: Jesus, the heir of the Davidic throne, had this story of David’s betrayal on his mind in reference to Judas. Like David, the people whom he loved and served had rejected Him. David crossed the Kidron and prayed and worshipped. When Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, was He in the same spot that David had prayed? Did He perhaps pray through the scriptures of Psalm 41:1-13 as He was relinquishing His will to that of the Father? There is no clear indication of this, but it seems to fit.