Monday
Monday
The Betrayal by Judas
Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.
Matthew 26:50
We tried the week before last to penetrate into the motivation of Judas. Today we watch the unfolding of his plot to betray Jesus. The whole story illustrates the interweaving of divine purpose and human action in the providence of God.
Coming out of his ordeal in the olive grove of Gethsemane, Jesus is clear in his mind that there is no alternative to the cross and is surrendered to it in his will. “What shall I say?” he asks. “‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27). So Jesus is ready for the next stage in the drama. A detachment of armed soldiers, sent by the chief priests and led by Judas, arrives at the garden, for Judas was familiar with this rendezvous. He had also given them the prearranged signal of a kiss. Jesus’s only protest was that he was not leading a rebellion but had been teaching daily in the temple courts, where they could have arrested him.
But Peter was in no mood to submit to Jesus’s arrest. As at Caesarea Philippi, so here he still rejected the concept of a Messiah who would suffer and die. This time he did not only expostulate; he took impetuous action. He drew his sword and slashed the right ear of the high priest’s servant Malchus. Jesus told him to sheathe his sword and added, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matt. 26:53–54).
It is most impressive to see Jesus deliberately putting himself under the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. He must be betrayed, arrested, rejected, condemned, and ultimately killed. Why must these things take place? Because the Scriptures said so.
For further reading: Matthew 26:47–56