It was Charles Spurgeon who shared that Judas proves the futility of knowledge apart from sincerity, and that familiarity with the holy can still produce a traitor. Just before Judas betrays Christ with a kiss, the Gospel of John records: “When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and they crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side was a garden, and he and his disciples entered in it” (John 18:1).

It is Easter at this point in the gospel story, when Jesus would be crucified. (The term “Passover” is applied to this week much later in history.) As John Rushdoony pointed out, there would sometimes be as many as a quarter of a million people celebrating Passover in Jerusalem. Those were many sacrifices made in the Temple. Sacrifices whose blood was applied to the altar, symbolic of the transfer of sin from the worshiper to a substitute lamb, a lamb that was the shadow of Christ. The blood of the sacrifices needed to be washed from the Temple, so the Jews had made an irrigation system that cleaned the blood from the floor of the Temple. The blood and water mixed as the floor was diluted, another grim image of Christ’s sacrifice as John records: “One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, and suddenly blood and water gushed out” (John 19:34).

The Kidron Valley where Jesus crossed to be arrested by 600 soldiers had quite a history. King David crossed this valley on his way out of Jerusalem to avoid a deadly confrontation with his son. 2 Kings 23:4 records another king returning to God and ordering the hidden idols to be destroyed and then thrown into this same valley, along with the ashes of the demonic sacrifices to Baal. In essence, over the years the Kidron Valley became a place of waste and garbage. However, John records a seemingly insignificant geographical reference when he says that Jesus crossed this valley.

As stated above, a quarter of a million sacrifices created a lot of blood. The water washed the blood from the floor of the Temple, which then flowed into a ravine, and the blood and water then poured into the Kidron Valley. If you had been there on Pesach, you would have seen the blood and water flow into the valley. When Jesus crossed this same area, he too would have seen sacrificial blood and water, an indication of his coming death.

He crossed the Kidron, the place of refuse and garbage, of blood and water, of the remains and ashes of sacrifices, for you and me, he be the sacrifice, to enter the dark and dirty places of the world to rescue people who were blind and lost. He crossed the Kidron to enter our lives as the one whose blood would be shed to cleanse the world of sin, so that people would no longer have to live in the valley of death.

Don’t miss the significance of this valley, whose name means “dark,” the very place the Lamb would willingly walk for us so we could be safe and clean.