https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/21/obama-administration-was-corrupt/
https://nypost.com/2018/05/27/obamas-spying-scandal-is-starting-to-look-a-lot-like-watergate/
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
arresting GOD
15
The Traitor’s Kiss
(26:47–56)
And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one
of the twelve, came up, accompanied by a great multitude with swords
and clubs, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he
who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, “Whomever I shall
kiss, He is the one; seize Him.” And immediately he went to Jesus
and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. And Jesus said to him,
“Friend, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid
hands on Jesus and seized Him. And behold, one of those who were with
Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the
high priest, and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your
sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall
perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My
Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve
legions of angels? How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that
it must happen this way?” At that time Jesus said to the
multitudes, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me
as against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching
and you did not seize Me. But all this has taken place that the
Scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.” Then all the
disciples left Him and fled. (26:47–56)
Besides Jesus, the participants in this narrative are
the mixed crowd that came to arrest Him, the traitor Judas, and the
eleven disciples. The crowd attacked Jesus, Judas betrayed Him with a
kiss, Peter presumptuously tried to defend Him with a sword, and the
disciples defected from Him in terror. But amidst those tragic
activities, all of which appeared to work toward Jesus’ disgrace
and defeat, the undaunted majesty and triumph of the Savior continued
to manifest themselves as God’s prophetic Word was unerringly
fulfilled.
The Attack of the Crowd
And while He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one
of the twelve, came up, accompanied by a great multitude with swords
and clubs, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
(26:47)
While Jesus was still speaking to the eleven
disciples in the garden, admonishing them to be spiritually vigilant
and announcing to them His imminent betrayal (vv. 45–46), behold,
Judas, one of the twelve, came up.
It seems strange and inappropriate that Judas
would still be called one of the twelve while he was in the
very act of betrayal. One would think Matthew would have been loath
to refer to him in such a way. By the time the gospels were written,
Judas’s name had long been a byword among Christians, a synonym for
treachery and infamy. Why, we might wonder, was he not referred to as
the false disciple or the one who counted himself among the twelve?
But, in fact, all four gospel writers specifically speak
of Judas as “one of the twelve” (Matt. 26:14, 47; Mark 14:10, 20,
43; Luke 22:47; John 6:71), whereas no other disciple is individually
designated in that way. The writers clearly identify Judas as the
betrayer of Jesus, but they do not speak of him with overt disdain or
hatred. They are remarkably restrained in their descriptions and
assessments of him, never using derogatory epithets or fanciful
episodes, as did many extrabiblical writers.
The apocryphal writing The Story of Joseph of
Arimathea taught that Judas was the son of the brother of the
high priest Caiaphas and that he was sent by Caiaphas to infiltrate
the disciples and discover a way to destroy Jesus.
According to another apocryphal writing, The Acts of
Pilate, Judas went home after the betrayal and found his wife
roasting a chicken. When he told her he was planning to kill himself
because he was afraid Jesus would rise from the dead and take
vengeance on him, she replied that Jesus would no more rise from the
dead than the chicken she was cooking would jump out of the fire and
crow-at which instant the chicken was said to have done just that.
An ancient manuscript called Coptic Narratives of the
Ministry and Passion maintained that Judas’s wife was
exceedingly greedy and that he was nothing more than the pawn of a
manipulative wife. In the ancient Near East, to accuse a man of being
subjugated to a dominating wife was considered highly slanderous.
A twelfth-century writing called The Legendary Aura
claimed that Judas’s parents threw him into the sea when he was an
infant, because even at that early age they supposedly sensed he was
diabolical and deserved to be destroyed. Somehow he managed to
survive and grow to adulthood, and, according to the legend, soon
after marrying a beautiful older woman, he discovered she was his
mother.
Such bizarre accounts are common in extrabiblical
literature. They are concocted to demonstrate the vileness of Judas
and to reveal the contempt with which he was viewed. The gospel
writers, by contrast, simply call him one of the twelve.
Rather than minimizing the heinousness of Judas’ treachery, this
heightens the insidiousness of his crime more than any list of
epithets could do.
When the traitor came to the garden, he was accompanied
by a great multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priests
and elders of the people. This great multitude was not the
typical spontaneous crowd of admirers that often sought Him out. It
was rather a carefully-selected group brought together for the sole
purpose of arresting Him and putting Him to death.
The multitude included officers of the Temple
(Luke 22:52), who were granted limited police powers by the Romans in
matters concerning Jewish religion and society. This group was
probably armed with clubs. The multitude also included a
cohort of Roman soldiers (John 18:3), which, at full strength,
comprised 600 men. Because they had to have Roman permission to
exercise the death penalty, the Jewish leaders had requested Roman
soldiers to join in the arrest. These soldiers from Fort Antonia in
Jerusalem, and perhaps some of the Temple police as well, were armed
with swords. The soldiers probably were also included because
on a previous occasion when the Temple police were sent to arrest
Jesus, they came back empty handed (John 7:32, 44–46).
Apparently the Jewish leaders had intended for some time
to accuse Jesus of rebellion against Rome. In that way His death
could be blamed on the Roman government, and they themselves would be
safe from reprisal by the many Jews who as yet still admired Him. In
order to take advantage of the opportunity, the chief priests and
elders must have hurried to Pilate to request the immediate use
of his troops. Or perhaps they previously had arranged with the
governor to have the soldiers available on short notice. Under
intimidation because he did not want to risk another insurrection,
especially in the midst of an important Jewish feast (see Mark
15:6–7), the Roman governor granted the request.
When he left the upper room, Judas must have rushed to
meet with the Jewish leaders and inform them that the propitious time
they had been waiting for was at hand. Although Judas’s original
arrangement had been only with the chief priests and other Temple
officials (Luke 22:4), the Pharisees also became involved in the plot
(John 18:3), as did the Sadducees and the entire Sanhedrin (Mark
15:1; Acts 23:6). And because the multitude not only included
representatives from the chief priests and elders but the
chief priests and elders themselves (Luke 22:52), those leaders
obviously wanted to make sure Jesus did not overpower them or slip
through their fingers again. When all four gospel accounts are
compared, it becomes evident that the total number of men who came
with Judas to the garden may have been as high as a thousand.
That mixed multitude was a prophetic portrait of the
world’s treatment of Christ, a vivid illustration of its
wickedness, mindlessness, and cowardice. Instead of humbly welcoming
the Son of God, embracing their long-awaited Messiah, and falling at
His feet in adoration and worship, they arrogantly came to put Him to
death.
Their wicked intent was manifest first of all in the
gross injustice of their accusations and actions, which had no
relation to truth or justice. Jesus had broken neither Mosaic nor
Roman law. He had committed no immoral or illegal act. His only
offense was in not recognizing or obeying the man-made, legalistic
rabbinical traditions. Pilate had no love or respect for Jesus, but
he acknowledged He was not guilty of breaking any Roman law, much
less of inciting a rebellion (John 19:4). Yet to protect his own
position with Rome and to keep from arousing the discontent of the
Jewish leaders, he was perfectly willing to allow an innocent man to
be executed.
Second, the multitude not only was unjust but mindless.
The majority of them probably had little idea of what they were doing
or of the reasons for it. The Roman soldiers, of course, were simply
obeying orders as they were trained to do, without questioning the
purpose or propriety. Most of those in the multitude had no personal
grudge against Jesus, and some of them probably had never heard of
Him before. Yet they had no compunction about participating in His
arrest. In their spiritual darkness they had no ability to recognize
Jesus as the very source and incarnation of truth and righteousness.
In any case, they cared little for truth, righteousness, or anything
else of spiritual value, but only for their personal welfare. Most of
them were hirelings who were indifferent to the justice of what they
did as long as they were paid and did not get into trouble with their
superiors.
That multitude has had counterparts in every age of
church history. Countless millions have been incited against the
cause of Christ without having the least notion of who He is or of
what He taught. They become willing victims of someone else’s
ungodly prejudice and join in causes that are patently unjust.
A third characteristic of the multitude in the garden
was cowardice. Not only the leaders, but probably the soldiers and
Temple police as well, preferred to arrest Jesus in this dark,
isolated place rather than in the streets of Jerusalem in broad
daylight. A riotous mob can be intimidating even to armed men. And
despite the advantages of darkness and isolation, the cowardly,
apprehensive leaders felt it necessary to bring a thousand men,
including several hundred armed soldiers, to arrest a dozen men who
were known to be peaceful.
A guilty conscience always produces cowardice. The
wicked fear they may receive justice for their injustice and
therefore seek protection in numbers and in darkness. They are afraid
of exposure and opposition, and they take no public stand or action
unless the odds are overwhelmingly in their favor.
The multitude was also profane. What an unbelievable
sacrilege was committed that night by the murderous, sinful men who
dared to lay hands on the sinless Son of God!
The unbelieving world has always disdained the name of
God, the Word of God, and the things of God. No pagan deity is so
openly blasphemed by mankind as is the Lord Jesus Christ. Few
evidences testify more boldly that the world is now in the hands of
Satan than the fact that it is the true God who is most often
blasphemed and mocked.
The Kiss of the Traitor
Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign,
saying, “Whomever I shall kiss, He is the one; seize Him.” And
immediately he went to Jesus and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed
Him. And Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you have come for.”
(26:48–50a)
Judas had left the upper room after dark (John 13:30)
and gone directly to the chief priests, with whom he had already
consummated the agreement to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver
(Matt. 26:14–16). He had been looking for “a good opportunity to
betray Him to them apart from the multitude” (Luke 22:6), and now
was the ideal time. Judas rightly surmised that Jesus would later go
to the Garden of Gethsemane (see John 18:2), which was well away from
the crowds of Jerusalem. Pilgrims thronged the streets throughout
most of the night during this high time of Passover week, when the
two days of sacrifice overlapped (see chap. 12 of this volume). Only
in darkness and in such a remote place as this could they take Jesus
captive without arousing attention.
Judas was severely disappointed that Jesus did not turn
out to be the kind of Messiah he expected. Jesus did not overthrow
Rome or even the powerful Jewish religious leaders, and consequently
He had acquired no positions of prestige and power with which to
reward His disciples. Instead of teaching them how to conquer and
control, Jesus taught them how to submit and serve. Instead of
Judas’s being richer than when he began to follow Jesus, it is
quite likely he was poorer-except for the money he stole from the
group’s treasury (John 12:6).
Judas was already possessed by Satan (Luke 22:3), and
therefore what he did was no longer under his control. Yet it was
under the compulsion of his own unbelief, greed, and ambition that he
had opened himself to Satan’s presence.
Delivering up Jesus was in the mind of Satan, the mind
of Judas, the minds of the Jewish religious leaders, and in the mind
of Rome. But it was in the “predetermined plan and foreknowledge of
God” ages before it entered the mind of Satan or the minds of those
godless men (Acts 2:23). Even while doing Satan’s business, Judas
and his co-conspirators were being used to fulfill a divinely
ordained plan that would result in the salvation of sinners like the
very ones set on killing Him.
Because it was dark and because many in the multitude
probably did not know Jesus by sight, Judas, the one who was
betraying Him, had prearranged a sign, saying, “Whomever I
shall kiss, He is the one; seize Him.”
Kiss is from phileĊ, a verb referring to
an act of special respect and affection, much as is still displayed
today in many Arab cultures and even among some Europeans. In the
ancient Near East such a kiss was a sign of homage.
Because of his lowly status, a slave would kiss the feet
of his master or other notable person, as would an enemy seeking
mercy from a monarch. Ordinary servants would perhaps kiss the back
of the hand of the one they greeted, and those above the level of
servant would sometimes kiss the palm of the hand. To kiss the hem of
a person’s garment was a sign of reverence and devotion. But an
embrace and a kiss on the cheek was the sign of close affection and
love, reserved only for those with whom one had a close, intimate
relationship. A kiss and embrace were an accepted mark of affection
of a pupil for his teacher, for example, but only if the teacher
offered them first.
Therefore, of all the signs Judas could have selected,
he chose the one that would turn out to be the most despicable, not
because of the act itself but because he perverted it so
hypocritically and treacherously. He could have pointed out Jesus in
countless other ways that would have been just as effective. For
whatever debauched reason he may have had, Judas chose to feign his
innocence and affection before Jesus and the disciples to the very
end. It is hard to imagine that even so wicked a person as Judas
could have flagrantly displayed his treachery in the very face of the
one who had graciously taught and befriended him for three years. But
Satan, who filled him, knows no embarrassment and has no restraint on
his wretchedness.
The raucous cries of the crowd to crucify Him must have
been painful to Jesus’ ears. He had taught them, healed them, and
offered them the very bread of life, and yet they had turned against
Him in contempt and derision. Even the hatred of the chief priests,
elders, Pharisees, and Sadducees was painful to Him, because He loved
and would have redeemed even those wicked men. The brutality of the
soldiers who would beat Him, spit on Him, and place a crown of thorns
on His head was painful to Jesus’ spirit as well as His body. Even
the cowardly indifference of Pilate would wound Jesus’ heart,
because He came to forgive and to save even that pagan Gentile.
But Judas must have wounded Jesus more grievously than
all the others together, because he had been a disciple and friend,
an intimate with whom Jesus unreservedly had shared His love, His
companionship, and His truth. It is impossible to imagine what our
Lord must have felt when Judas brashly approached Him and said,
“Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. Yet His grief was not for
Himself but for this man who was so engulfed by greed and self-will
that he would stoop to betray the dearest Friend he ever had or could
have.
Kissed translates an intensified form of the verb
used in verse 48 and carries the idea of fervent, continuous
expression of affection. It was the word used by Luke of the woman
who came into the Pharisee’s house and kissed Jesus’ feet, wiping
them with her hair and anointing them with perfume (Luke 7:38, 45).
It was also used by Luke to describe the father’s reception of the
repentant son in the parable of the prodigal (15:20) and of the
grieving Ephesian elders on the beach near Miletus as they bade
farewell to their beloved Paul (Acts 20:37). It was just such intense
affection that Judas feigned for Christ.
Judas was so caught up in his deceitful display that
even Jesus’ sobering words, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of
Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48) did not deter him. It is probable
that Judas was now so much under Satan’s domination that his
actions were no longer voluntary.
In deep sadness, but with perfect composure in the face
of Judas’s perfidy, Jesus said simply, “Friend, do what you
have come for.” The Lord did not use the usual word (philos)
for friend, which He used of the Twelve in John 15:14. Instead
He addressed Judas merely as hetairos, which is better
translated “fellow,” “comrade,” or “companion.” Jesus had
offered Himself to be Judas’s friend, and more than that, to be his
Savior. But the opportunity for salvation had passed, and in light of
Judas’s unspeakable treachery, even fellow was a gracious
form of address.
Do what you have come for was Jesus’ farewell
statement to the son of perdition. For Judas those were the last
words of Christ, and one can imagine that the words will ring as a
torment in his ears throughout all eternity in hell. Judas exposed
himself outwardly as the enemy of Christ he had always been inwardly,
and until the end of history his name will be synonymous with
treachery.
Judas’s betrayal not only reflected the wickedness of
the sinful world but the wretchedness of the false disciple. He is
the epitome of a sham believer, the quintessence of a spurious
Christian.
A false Christian is first of all motivated by
self-interest, which for Judas was exhibited most obviously in his
greed, because he was a thief (John 12:6). But it is likely that he
also craved prestige, glory, and power, which he expected to share
with Jesus when He overthrew Rome and established His earthly
kingdom. He sought to use Jesus for his own sinful ends, and when he
discovered that the Lord would not be so used, he turned on Him in
open rejection and betrayal. He was like the seeds planted in rocky
soil that spring up for a little while but wither when exposed to the
heat of the sun (Matt. 13:5–6). When disappointment and testing
came, he fell away (see vv. 20–21). He is the fruitless branch that
is cut off and burned (John 15:6).
Second, a false disciple is also marked by deceit and
hypocrisy. He masquerades in the guise of devotion to Christ, His
Word, and His church. He is like a tare planted among wheat; only God
can with certainty distinguish him from the real thing. He pays
homage to Christ on the outside but hates Him on the inside. Like
Judas, his outward signs of affection for the Lord cover a heart that
despises Him.
But when a false believer is confronted with a price to
pay for his association with Christ, his superficial interest in the
church and the things of God invariably withers, and he is exposed as
the impostor he has always been.
Judas’s particular act of betrayal and its direct
consequences were unique, but his basic attitude toward Jesus is
characteristic of every false believer. Every age has found Judases
in the church, those who outwardly feign allegiance to Christ but who
at heart are His enemies. They identify themselves with the church
for many different reasons, but all of the reasons are self-serving.
Whether it is to get ahead in business by appearing respectable, to
gain social acceptance by being religious, to salve a guilty
conscience by means of pretended righteousness, or to accomplish any
other purpose, the underlying motive always is to serve and please
self, not God.
Judas is the archetype of Christ rejecters and the
supreme example of wasted privilege and opportunity. He is the
picture of those who love money, having forsaken the priceless Son of
God for thirty pieces of silver (cf. Matt 13:22). He is the classic
hypocrite, who feigned love and loyalty for Christ even as he
delivered Him up for execution. He is the supreme false disciple, the
son of Satan who masquerades as a son of God.
The Presumption of Prayer
Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized
Him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew
out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and cut off
his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its
place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the
sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will
at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”
(26:50b–53)
As soon as He was identified by Judas, the soldiers came
and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him. When they saw their
Master being arrested, the disciples asked, “Lord, shall we strike
with the sword?” (Luke 22:49). But one of those who were with
Jesus did not wait for a reply but reached and drew out his
sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
As we might guess, this act was performed by the
impulsive and volatile Peter (John 18:10), who obviously was one of
the two disciples who had armed themselves (Luke 22:38). It may have
been that the synoptic writers did not identify Peter because their
gospels were written earlier than John’s, when Peter could have
been in danger of reprisal from the Jewish authorities.
John also informs us that the man Peter struck was named
Malchus (John 18:10), who, because he was in the forefront of the
multitude, was probably a high-ranking slave of the high priest.
Peter doubtlessly had aimed for Malchus’s head but cut off
only his ear when the man ducked. Peter probably was
emboldened by the fact that a few moments earlier when Jesus told the
multitude who He was, “they drew back, and fell to the ground”
(John 18:6). Seizing that time of vulnerability, Peter perhaps
thought he would kill as many as he could before he himself was
slain. Or perhaps he assumed he was invincible, thinking that Jesus
would not allow Himself or His disciples to be harmed.
As was often the case, however, Peter reacted in the
wrong way. When the Lord had told the disciples, “Let him who has
no sword sell his robe and buy one” (Luke 22:36), He was speaking
of spiritual, not physical, preparedness. As Jesus had made clear
many times, and as Paul later declared to the Corinthian church, “The
weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful
for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor. 10:4).
The church has never made advances by physical warfare,
and every time it has tried, the cause of Christ has been severely
harmed. There are no holy wars. Every war fought in the name of
Christ has been utterly unholy, contradicting and undermining
everything His Word teaches. The kingdom of God does not advance with
fleshly weapons or by fleshly strategy. The battleground is
spiritual, and it makes no sense to fight with physical weapons.
Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.
If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting,
that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My
kingdom is not of this realm” (John 18:36). Wars such as the
Crusades that are fought in the name of Christ are an affront to
Christ. In reality, they are crusades against the very One who is
claimed to be served.
Jesus gave Peter two important reasons that explain why
the use of physical weapons cannot be used to defend, much less
extend, His kingdom. First of all, to do so is fatal. “Put your
sword back into its place,” Jesus told Peter; “for all
those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.” Jesus
was not philosophizing by declaring that everyone who takes up arms
will himself be killed by arms or that a person who uses violence
will be killed violently. His point was that those who commit acts of
violence to achieve personal ends will face punishment by civil
authorities, the sword representing a common means of
execution in the ancient world. He was simply reiterating the divine
standard set forth in Genesis: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man
his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man”
(9:6). To protect the sanctity of human life, God declares that the
one who wantonly takes the life of another person is subject to
capital punishment.
God has given human government the right to execute
murderers. “It does not bear the sword for nothing,” Paul said;
“for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the
one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4). The apostle willingly applied
that law to himself. In his defense before Festus he said, “If then
I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do
not refuse to die” (Acts 25:11).
In telling Peter to put his sword back into its place
Jesus was saying, in effect, “No matter how wicked and unjust my
arrest is, you have no right to take vigilante action. If you take a
life while doing that, your own life will justly be forfeited as
punishment.”
Jesus’ arrest and subsequent trials were clearly
unjust, but they were nevertheless carried out within the framework
of the legal systems of that day. Although it exercised its power
only by the permission of Rome, the Sanhedrin was a civil as well as
religious governing body in Israel. Pilate was the duly appointed
Roman governor. Jesus’ point was that personal violent action
against even an unjust governing body is wrong. God has the sovereign
right to overrule human governments, as He has done frequently
throughout history, but no individual has such a right.
Jesus was not speaking about self-defense or the defense
of loved ones or friends from an attacker. Nor was he talking about
fighting in the armed forces of one’s country. He was referring to
violently taking justice into one’s own hands. Under no
circumstances does a Christian or anyone else have the right to
dispense personal justice, even to defend Christ’s name or Word.
Second, trying to defend Christ and His kingdom by
physical force is foolish. “Do you not think that I cannot
appeal to My Father,” Jesus said, “and He will at once put
at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” Trying to
defend Christ with a sword not only is morally wrong according to
God’s law but is also pointless. After having seen Jesus’ divine
power demonstrated hundreds of times, why did Peter think his Lord
needed the puny help of one sword, or even a thousand swords?
A full Roman legion was composed of 6,000 soldiers. More
than twelve legions of angels therefore would be in excess of
72,000. If a single angel of God could slay 185,000 men in one night,
as with the Assyrian troops of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35), the power
of 72,000 angels is unimaginable. Jesus explained to his impetuous
disciple that He had immediate access to supernatural forces that
easily could destroy the entire Roman army, not to mention the mere
cohort of 600 soldiers (John 18:3) they now faced. Peter’s
demonstration of self-willed bravery was therefore unnecessary and
absurd. The Lord’s battles are won in His power alone, and any
human efforts on His behalf that are not made in submission to His
divine will and strength are presumptuous and futile.
The Fulfillment of Prophecy
“How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that
it must happen this way?” (26:54)
For Peter to violently oppose Jesus’ arrest was also
to oppose the fulfillment of God’s prophesied plan of redemption.
According to God’s own Scriptures, He reminded Peter again
that “it must happen this way.” On at least three other
occasions (see Matt. 16:21; 17:22–23; 20:18–19; cf. 12:40; 17:9,
12) He had told the disciples that it was necessary that He suffer,
die, and be raised from the dead.
As David predicted, a close and trusted friend would
betray the Messiah (Pss. 41:9; 55:12–14). Isaiah foretold that He
would be “despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief; … smitten of God, and afflicted.… pierced
through for our transgressions, … crushed for our iniquities; …
[chastened] for our well-being … [that] by His scourging we are
healed.” He would be oppressed, afflicted, and slaughtered like a
lamb that does not cry out. “The Lord was pleased to crush Him,
putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt
offering.” He “will justify the many, as He will bear their
iniquities” (Isa. 53:3–5, 7, 10–11).
Because Peter boasted too loudly, prayed too little,
slept too much, and acted too fast, he seemed invariably to miss the
point of what Jesus was saying and doing. The Lord therefore had to
explain to him again that what was happening was in God’s perfect
plan. “Put the sword into the sheath,” He said; “the cup which
the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). Then,
in the only instance recorded in Scripture of Jesus’ healing a
fresh wound, “He touched [Malchus’s] ear and healed him” (Luke
22:51). In a sovereign act of miraculous grace, Jesus undid Peter’s
damage.
The Defection of the Disciples
At that time Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have
you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as against a robber?
Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize
Me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets
may be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left Him and fled.
(26:55–56)
With an overtone of sarcasm Jesus pointed up the
subterfuge and cowardice of the multitudes who now confronted
Him in the garden. “Am I so dangerous,” He said to them, “that
you had to come out in such great numbers and with swords and
clubs to arrest Me as against a robber? Am I so elusive that you
had to capture me by stealth in the dead of night? You know very well
that every day I used to sit in the temple teaching. Why did
you not seize Me then?”
Jesus knew that no amount of truth or logic would
dissuade His enemies from executing their plot against Him. They knew
their charges were spurious and unjust and that they had had
countless opportunities to arrest Him publicly. But when evil men are
determined to have their way, they will not be deterred by such
considerations as truth, justice, legality, or righteousness.
Jesus then told the crowd what He had just reminded
Peter of: All this has taken place that the Scriptures of the
prophets may be fulfilled. “Whatever your personal reasons and
motivations may be,” He was saying, “you are unwittingly
accomplishing what your own Scriptures have said through the
prophets that you would do to your Messiah. Completely apart from
your own evil intentions, God is sovereignly using you to accomplish
His righteous and gracious purposes. And in doing so, He will
demonstrate that His infallible Word through the prophets will
be fulfilled.”
Those words obviously gave little comfort or courage to
the disciples. At last it dawned on them that their Lord was finally
a captive of His enemies and that He would neither do anything
Himself nor allow them to do anything to interfere. Although the
leaders of the multitude had said they sought only Jesus (John 18:5),
the disciples were fearful they would be arrested as accomplices, and
therefore all the disciples left Him and fled.
The “little faith” disciples did not trust Jesus to
save them and were afraid to risk suffering and perhaps even dying
with Him. Just as He had predicted earlier that evening, when the
Shepherd was struck the sheep scattered (Matt. 26:31).
It is easy to criticize the disciples for their
faithlessness and cowardice. But every honest believer knows that at
times he has run from possible embarrassment, ridicule, or mockery
because of his association with Christ. We have to confess that we,
too, have left our Lord and fled when the cost of discipleship has
seemed too high.
Just as there are common marks of false disciples there
are common characteristics of defective disciples, as the eleven
proved to be on this occasion. First of all, they were unprepared.
All of them, including the three Jesus chose to accompany Him into
the garden, had fallen asleep at this time of Jesus’ great
struggle. Because they confused good intentions with spiritual
strength, they were powerless when testing came. They were
overconfident and felt no need of prayer. Had they taken to heart the
Lord’s marvelous promises in the Upper Room discourse (John 13–17),
they would have had the divinely provided wisdom and strength to meet
the crisis.
But because they had paid little attention to Jesus’
teaching and had neglected prayer, the disciples discovered they were
unprepared and inadequate. It is an absolute spiritual law that a
believer who neglects the study of God’s Word and neglects
fellowship with Him in prayer will be unprepared (cf. Matt. 26:41).
When testing comes he will be weak, afraid, unfaithful, and
ineffective.
A second mark of a defective disciple is impulsiveness.
The eleven disciples, and Peter in particular, reacted on the basis
of emotion rather than revelation. They did not look at the situation
from the perfect perspective of God’s truth but from the imperfect
and distorted perspective of their own understanding. Therefore,
instead of acting on the basis of God’s Word and in the promised
power of His Spirit, they reacted on the basis of their emotions and
in the weakness of their own resources.
The believer who fails to saturate himself in God’s
Word and to have fellowship in God’s presence becomes a captive of
circumstances. His thinking is based on the emotions of the moment,
and his actions are based on the impulses of the moment.
A third mark of a defective disciple is impatience.
Because the disciples refused to take Jesus’ truth and promises to
heart, they became anxious and impatient when things did not go as
they thought they should. They could not wait for the Lord’s
deliverance and so devised their own.
Many Christians take the easy route of fleeing from
trouble rather than trusting God to see them through it. Instead of
trusting the Savior to deliver them, and in so doing to demonstrate
His grace and power, they try to avoid trouble at any cost and
thereby bring reproach upon Him.
A fourth mark of a defective disciple is carnality. The
disciples, typified by Peter, depended wholly on their own fleshly
power to protect them. Because he refused to trust His Lord’s way
and power, Peter had nothing to rely on but his sword, which was
pathetically inadequate even from a human perspective.
When believers lose their fleshly weapons or discover
those weapons are ineffective, they sometimes simply flee in
desperation.
The major participant in this garden scene was Jesus
Himself, and in Matthew’s account we see His triumph even while His
enemies were taking Him captive. Through their evil plot to put Him
to death He would accomplish the divine plan for giving men eternal
life.
All of His disciples deserted Him, and one betrayed Him,
yet the divine work of redemption continued to be fulfilled on
schedule, precisely according to God’s sovereign and prophesied
plan. As the disciples’ faithfulness decreased, Jesus’
demonstration of power and glory increased. As the plans of His
enemies seemed to prosper, the plan of God prospered still more in
spite of them.
It is not clear exactly when it happened, but perhaps
right after Judas’s kiss, Jesus took the initiative and confronted
the multitude. To assure His enemies that He was not trying to hide
or escape, and perhaps to strip Judas of any credit for identifying
Him, He said, “Whom do you seek?” When they replied, “Jesus the
Nazarene,” He said, “I am He,” and at that those words “they
drew back, and fell to the ground” (John 18:4–6). “I am He”
translates egĊ eimi, which literally means “I am,” the
covenant name of God (see Ex. 3:14).
The exact reason for the multitude’s temporary
immobility is not revealed, but doubtless it was caused by the
overwhelming power of Christ. Although the Jews in the group would
have associated Jesus’ words with the name of God, on a previous
occasion when He claimed that name for Himself they were enraged
rather than fearful and tried to stone Him to death (John 8:58–59).
And that name would have had no significance at all to the 600 Roman
soldiers. In addition, it seems almost certain that many of the men
in that huge crowd could not hear what Jesus was saying. Therefore
their instantly and involuntarily falling to the ground as one man
was not caused so much by fear as by a direct, miraculous burst of
the power of God. It was as if the Father were declaring in action
what He had previously declared in words: “This is My beloved Son”
(Matt. 3:17; 17:5). The multitude was able to rise only when God’s
restraining hand was lifted.
Perhaps while they were still lying dazed and perplexed
on the ground, Jesus again “asked them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ ”
and they again replied, “Jesus the Nazarene” (John 18:7). He then
said, “I told you that I am He; if therefore you seek Me, let these
go their way” (v. 8), referring to the disciples.
The multitude that night reacted to being cast to the
ground much as the homosexuals of Sodom reacted to being struck
blind. Those wicked men were so consumed by their sexual perversion
that even in blindness they persisted to the point of exhaustion,
futilely trying to satisfy their lust (Gen. 19:11). In a similar way
the men who came to arrest Jesus were so bent on their ungodly
mission that they crawled up out of the dirt as if nothing had
happened, determined at all costs to carry out their wicked scheme.
Though not to the degree of being indwelt by Satan as was Judas, the
entire multitude was subservient to the prince of this world.
Jesus had already unmasked the duplicity and cowardice
of the leaders of the multitude when He asked why they had not
arrested Him earlier in the week. He not only had been in Jerusalem
every day but had been the focus of public attention on several
occasions, most notably when He entered the city triumphantly and
when He cleansed the Temple of the money changers and sacrifice
merchants.
In His confrontation with Judas, the Lord also
demonstrated His majesty and His sovereignty. He not only had
predicted Judas’s betrayal but had declared that even that vile act
would fulfill God’s prophecy (Matt. 26:21, 24). When the moment of
arrest came, He faced it without resistance, anger, or anxiety. He
was as perfectly confident of following His Father’s plan and of
being under His Father’s care at that moment as when He performed
His greatest miracles or was transfigured on the mountaintop.
In His confrontation with Peter and the other disciples,
Jesus demonstrated His perfect faithfulness in face of their utter
faithlessness. While they demonstrated their absence of trust in the
Son, the Son demonstrated His absolute trust in His Father.
And
Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they,
and laid hands on Jesus, and took him [Matt. 26:49–50].
A
kiss can either be a sign of acceptance or rejection (see Ps. 2:12).
In this instance Judas bestowed a kiss of betrayal upon the Lord
Jesus, and it was one of the most despicable acts of man. Some
theologians contend that Judas was predestined to betray Jesus and
could do nothing else. If this were true, Judas was nothing more than
a robot. I believe Judas made up his own mind to betray our Lord and
had every opportunity to change his plans. You may say, “Yes, but
it was prophesied that he would betray Jesus.” I have to agree with
you. It was prophesied, and our Lord marked him out as the man.
However, after Judas had fulfilled the prophecy, after Jesus was
betrayed, Judas could have repented. Jesus gave Judas one final
opportunity to repent and accept Him. Even after he gave Jesus that
hot kiss of betrayal, Jesus called him, “Friend.” Later, when
Judas went to the temple and threw down the silver given to him to
betray the Lord, he could have changed his mind. As the priests were
taking Jesus to Pilate, Judas could have fallen down before Him and
said, “Forgive me, Lord, I did not know what I was doing.” The
Lord would have forgiven him.1
The
arrest achieved (vv. 47–56). Jesus knew that Judas and
the arresting officers were near, so He awakened the sleeping
disciples and prepared them for what was coming. The fact that this
band of soldiers and temple guards carried weapons and lanterns shows
that Judas did not really understand Jesus. Judas thought they would
have to search for Him in the Garden and fight off His disciples in
order to arrest Him. But Jesus came to them and calmly surrendered.
It would not even have been necessary for Judas to betray Jesus with
a kiss, for Jesus told the soldiers who He was.
It is tragic to see how Judas cheapened everything that
he touched. His name means praise (Gen. 29:35), yet who would
name a son “Judas” today? He used the kiss as a weapon, not as a
sign of affection. In that day, it was customary for disciples to
kiss their teacher. But in this case, it was not a mark of submission
or respect. The Greek verbs indicate that Judas kissed Jesus
repeatedly.
At this point, some of the other disciples asked, “Shall
we strike with the sword?” When He was with them in the Upper Room,
Jesus had talked to them about swords (Luke 22:31–38). Jesus was
preparing them for a different kind of life. They would need to use
whatever means He provided for their care and safety. They would be
in a hostile world, and He would not always perform miracles to help
them.
The problem was, the disciples misunderstood what He
taught them. As usual, they took Him literally. “ ‘Lord,
look, here are two swords.’ And He said to them, ‘It is enough’ ”
(Luke 22:38, nasb). Peter had argued with the Word, denied the Word,
and disobeyed the Word (when he went to sleep). Now he ran ahead of
the Word. In his zeal to help Jesus, Peter cut off Malchus’ ear
with a sword. He did not wait for the Lord to tell him what to do,
but (like Moses in Egypt, Ex. 2:11–15) Peter rushed ahead and
trusted the arm of flesh. Had Jesus not healed the ear of Malchus,
there probably would have been four crosses on Calvary!
The fact that the guards had not arrested Him in the
temple indicates that there was a divine timetable controlling His
life. These things were not happening by accident, but by
appointment. It was all part of God’s plan, yet evil men were
responsible for the deed. “This Man, delivered up by the
predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by
the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23, nasb).
Of course, they had no right to arrest Jesus. He had
broken no laws, He had committed no crimes. They were treating Him
like a common thief—and yet it was Judas who was the thief!
The disciples who bravely promised to deliver Him deserted Him.
“Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that you shall be
scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and yet I
am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32). Later,
even the Father would leave Him!
Each of us must decide: Will it be the sword or the cup?
Will I resist God’s will or submit to God’s will? The cup usually
involves suffering, but that suffering ultimately leads to glory. We
need not fear the cup, for it has been prepared by the Father
especially for us. He knows how much we can take, and He mixes the
contents in wisdom and love.2
121
JESUS’ ARREST
Matthew 26:47–56
I have noted that the placement of
verses and chapters in Scripture frequently makes little sense, as
narratives are sometimes divided at crucial points where there is no
pause in the action. I am perhaps now guilty of the same practice I
have criticized, having ended the previous chapter and begun this one
at a point where there is no cessation whatsoever in Matthew’s
account. Matthew writes, And while He was still speaking (v.
47a), referring to the words of Jesus that we examined at the end of
the previous chapter: “Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is
at hand” (v. 46). Even as Jesus spoke those words, Judas appeared.
So, please understand that even though we are beginning a new
chapter, the events of Jesus’ passion were rushing forward, and
there was virtually no temporal lapse between the conclusion of His
anguished prayer in the garden of Gethsemane and the arrival of those
sent to arrest Him.
Matthew tells us, behold, Judas, one of the twelve,
with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief
priests and elders of the people (v. 47b). Judas came to the
garden. We know Judas had been looking for an opportunity to betray
Jesus (v. 16), and we know that he was familiar with Gethsemane, for
John writes, “Judas … also knew the place; for Jesus often met
there with His disciples” (18:2). Thus, Gethsemane was a likely
place for Judas to look.
Judas did not come alone. Neither did he appear with a
small committee or a couple of officers sent out from the Sanhedrin
to place Jesus under arrest. Rather, he came with a huge multitude of
people bearing swords and clubs. It appears that the entire temple
guard came to the garden of Gethsemane to arrest one person. The
religious leaders of the Jews were not taking any chances. They
wanted to make sure Jesus would not escape. This concern to make no
mistake was why they had been willing to pay Judas thirty pieces of
silver. They wanted someone who could identify Jesus in the darkness,
even in the deep shadows under the olive groves, so that they would
not arrest the wrong person when the time came.
Of course, they were also acutely aware of the
extraordinary power Jesus had manifested on more than one occasion.
Perhaps they recalled that occasion when an angry mob in Nazareth was
prepared to throw Jesus off a cliff, but “passing through the midst
of them, He went His way” (Luke 4:30). Even more likely they had in
mind the time when they themselves were prepared to stone him, but
“Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the
midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:59). From the perspective
of the authorities in Jerusalem, sending a mob to arrest Jesus was
not overkill.
The Kiss of Death
Matthew continues: Now His betrayer had given them a
sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him.”
Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and
kissed Him (vv. 48–49).
So much is wrong with this picture. First, Judas came up
to Jesus, saying, “Greetings, Rabbi!” then kissed him. In the
ancient Jewish world, there were certain protocols that were observed
in the rabbi-student relationship, and these rules were never to be
disobeyed. One of those rules was this: If ever a rabbi met one of
his students on the street, the rabbi was to speak first, extending
his greetings to his student, because the student was not above the
master. It was considered exceedingly rude, presumptuous, and
arrogant for a student to speak to his rabbi before the rabbi spoke
to him. The rabbi was supposed to initiate the greeting. In the midst
of his treachery, Judas violated this fundamental rule of courtesy.
Second, Judas made a show of affection for Jesus by
kissing Him. But Matthew tells us there was no affection involved;
the kiss was merely Judas’s prearranged sign by which he identified
Jesus for those in the mob who were not familiar with His appearance.
It is from this episode that we have the expression “the kiss of
death,” by which someone’s recommendation or praise for another
actually works to that person’s destruction. If ever there was an
occasion when love was faked, it was in this episode when our Lord
was greeted with the kiss of death.
We see this practice all the way through sacred
Scripture. The greatest and most damaging enemies of the righteous
are often the ones closest to them—friends, relatives, or
disciples. The same is true in church history. The heroes of
Christendom have often been killed by arrows in their backs, struck
down by those they least suspected.
Of course, I am not counseling an attitude of distrust
of family members and of brothers and sisters in Christ. But we do
have to be on our guard in a sense. For instance, we all know that
the Bible tells us to speak the truth to one another in love (Eph.
4:15), but I have often observed that when one Christian goes to
another and says, “I’d like to tell you something in love,”
what he has to say is not really meant in love. Rather, while he is
smiling and extending a sugarcoated greeting, hidden are the unkind
words he will soon extend. So, if someone comes to you and says, “Let
me tell you something in love,” hear him out, but be on your guard.
Of course, Jesus was not deceived by Judas’s
expressions of love. He already knew what Judas was going to do and
had told him so (Matt. 26:25). He had announced at the Last Supper
that He was going to be betrayed (v. 21), and he had dismissed Judas
to carry out the deed (John 13:27, 30). In the shadows of Gethsemane,
when Jesus saw Judas and his horde of soldiers, he knew exactly what
was happening. The kiss that Judas put on His cheek did not fool Him.
We see Jesus’ awareness of Judas’s purpose in the
words He spoke to him. Matthew goes on, But Jesus said to him,
“Friend, why have you come?” (v. 50a). The word that is
translated here as “friend” does not carry the meaning of
closeness and affection, but merely acquaintance. Even though Judas
had been with Him for three years, Jesus knew there was no affection
in his heart. Furthermore, the fact that the New King James Version
renders these words of Jesus as a question does not mean Jesus did
not know why Judas had come. Other versions translate this statement
along these lines: “Friend, do what you came to do” (ESV). Do you
see the irony in Jesus’ words? He knew Judas was no friend and He
knew why he had come.
The Arrest of Jesus
Then Matthew tells us: Then they came and laid hands
on Jesus and took Him. And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus
stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the
high priest, and cut off his ear (vv. 50b–51). No doubt this
exchange between Judas and Jesus occurred very quickly. As soon as
Judas kissed Jesus, the mob surged forward and seized Jesus. He was
placed under arrest.
At that moment, one of the disciples took action. He
drew His sword and prepared to fight for his master. Matthew does not
tell us who it was, but John states that it was the ever-impetuous
Peter. He was ready to stand for Jesus all by himself against the
temple guard. Of course, he was a fisherman and not a soldier. He
swung his sword in the direction of the high priest’s servant,
whose name was Malchus (John 18:10), but it was a poorly guided
thrust. He missed the servant’s vital parts, and the blow glanced
off the side of his head and cut off one of his ears.
So, Jesus had to rebuke Peter once again: But Jesus
said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the
sword will perish by the sword” (v. 52). There was no point in
Peter’s resisting; besides the fact that the odds were
overwhelming, resistance was counterproductive. As we have seen, and
as Jesus was to reiterate shortly, what was happening had to
happen, for it was the Father’s will and Jesus’ destiny. He told
Peter that His disciples were not to fight for Him and His kingdom
with the sword. Then, according to Luke, Jesus touched Malchus’s
wound and healed him (22:51). This was His last act of healing before
His incarceration.
Jesus went on to say: “Or do you think that I
cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than
twelve legions of angels?” (v. 53). Jesus was telling Peter
that if He wanted to escape, it would be simplicity itself. He needed
only to ask the Father to send help, and more than twelve legions of
angels would be there in a moment. A legion was the basic unit of the
Roman army, composed of several thousand men. All Jesus had to do was
call to His Father in the silence of His heart, and thousands upon
thousands of mighty angels would be at His command, far more than
enough to overcome the motley crew that had been sent to arrest Him.
This comment from Jesus reminds me of Elisha and his
servant at Dothan. The king of Syria was attempting to capture Elisha
because he was warning the king of Israel about Syrian troop
movements. One morning, Elisha’s servant went out and discovered
that a Syrian army had surrounded the city in the night. In a panic,
he woke Elisha and cried: “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
Elisha calmly prayed, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may
see.” When the servant looked again, we read, “behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”
(2 Kings 6:8–17). Myriads of angels were there to guard the Lord’s
prophet. If such a heavenly host was available for Elisha, how much
more were the angels available to defend Jesus.
I am also reminded of Jesus’ experience of temptation
at the hands of Satan. The devil took Him to the pinnacle of the
temple in Jerusalem and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God,
throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels
charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you
up, lest you dash your foot against a stone’ ” (Matt. 4:6).
However, Jesus knew He did not have to jump off the temple to
discover that angels were watching over Him. He would not yield to
the devil’s temptations. In frustration, Satan departed from Him.
Then what happened? “And behold, angels came and ministered to Him”
(v. 11). They were there all the time. Likewise, the angels were with
Him in Gethsemane, and He could have called to the Father to send
them to His aid.
But Jesus chose not to call for a very important reason:
“How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen
thus?” (v. 54). Time and time again throughout Matthew’s
Gospel, we have seen him emphasizing how Jesus’ words and actions
fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. We have even seen Jesus
consciously acting to fulfill prophecies, especially when He insisted
on riding a donkey into Jerusalem at His triumphal entry (21:1–5).
Now we see Him preventing Peter from taking a course of action that
would have gone against the Old Testament prophecies that said the
Messiah must suffer and die. Jesus knew that the cross must
happen. God had decreed it and made it known through His prophets,
and those prophecies had to be fulfilled lest God be found to be a
liar. When God in His sovereignty decrees that something will come to
pass, not only will it come to pass, it must come to pass.
This is a wonderful thing, because it is true not only
for the bad news that the prophets give us, but also true for every
promise that God gives to His people. The Lord’s promises will be
fulfilled without fail. For instance, Jesus is in heaven right now,
preparing a place for us, if our faith is in Him, so that when we
die, we will be there with Him (John 14:2–3). This must
happen. Jesus promised it, which means that God has decreed it.
Before He was led away by the mob, Jesus spoke to them.
Matthew writes: In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have
you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me?
I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize
Me. But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might
be fulfilled” (vv. 55–56a). What He said was perfectly
obvious. He had not been trying to elude the authorities; He had been
out and about in public places. He could have been arrested anytime.
Now, however, He was being arrested under cover of night. Why the
stealth? As Jesus noted once again, things were progressing just as
Scripture had foretold (see Psalm 22; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 12–13).
It was almost as if He was reminding the temple guards that they were
only playing a part in a great drama that had been written out ages
before.
At that point, all the disciples forsook Him and fled
(v. 56b). Here, yet another prophecy was fulfilled, just as Jesus had
said it would be (v. 31). Though the events recorded in this passage
are sad in and of themselves, we are given glimpses of God’s hand
at work behind the scenes, guiding all things toward His desired
end—the atonement of His people.3
26:47–50.
Judas (v. 47) came with a large crowd with swords and clubs. Jn 18:3
says that a “cohort”—about 600 Roman soldiers when full—was
sent “from the chief priests and Pharisees” presumably with
Pilate’s approval, and included some Jewish officials (v. 51). A
cohort was garrisoned in the Antonia Fortress adjacent to the temple
complex, making their dispatch to Gethsemane uncomplicated. The sign
of a kiss, and the greeting (vv. 48–49) were necessary because many
of the soldiers would have been unfamiliar with Jesus. Judas may have
gone ahead of the larger group to give them the cues. The betrayal in
Gethsemane afforded the Jewish leaders an ideal opportunity to
apprehend Jesus sooner than they planned but without Jerusalem
knowing it (26:3–5, 14–16). Friend means “companion,” though
not always with a sense of warmth, or “comrade.” John 18:3 says
that they came “with lanterns and torches,” making it likely that
Jesus could see their approach from a distance. He showed remarkable
courage. A twenty-minute walk up the Mount of Olives, a couple miles
down the opposite slope, and He would have been in the Judean
wilderness with a good possibility of escape.
26:51–54. John 18:10 names Peter as the
disciple who cut off the ear of the slave of the high priest
(v. 51) and names the slave (Malchus). Only Luke (22:51) records that
Jesus healed the slave. All those who take up the sword shall
perish by the sword (v. 52) is less a slogan supporting pacifism
than it is a proverbial statement about how violence in a fallen
world tends to breed more violence. If Peter had persisted in his
fierce reaction, the soldiers would have killed him. Verse 53
indicates, among other things, that Jesus did not need Peter’s
help. Twelve full Roman legions would have contained
72,000 soldiers. Angels will participate in eschatological
events (13:41; 24:31), but Jesus, who here functioned as the
sovereign director of this sad scene, kept them off stage. It is
difficult to say which Scriptures were being fulfilled
(vv. 54, 56) by Jesus’ ordeal, but cf. Zch 13:7 in Mt 26:31; Ps
22:1 in Mt 27:46; Is 52:13–53:12 (especially Is 53:9, 12 in Mt
27:38, 57–61).
26:55–56. Jesus rebuked the soldiers and Jewish
officials (v. 55). He taught openly in the temple, implying
that He had nothing to hide. The leaders did not move to incarcerate
Jesus during Passion Week (I used to sit in the temple teaching
and you did not seize Me, v. 55), adopting that strategy to avoid
incensing the people who favored Jesus. But in the privacy of
Gethsemane there was no longer any need to restrain themselves. They
accosted Him as if He were a terrorist (a better translation than the
word robber) though He was not, and came blanketed by darkness
to conceal their obscene conspiracy from the masses. Ironically, they
were the ones guilty of duplicitous behavior. But their conduct did
fulfill the Scriptures (v. 56), and Jesus was clearly aware of
God’s supervision of these events.4
1
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru
the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 14-28)
(electronic ed., Vol. 35, pp. 170–171). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
2
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The
Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 97–98).
Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
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