Commentary on the Gospels

In the Garden

Matthew 26:36-56 and parallel passages
(Mark 14:32-54; Luke 22:39-54; John 18:1-13)

Jesus’ prayers to the Father

Entering the garden

After sharing the farewell meal commonly known as the Last Supper, Jesus and all of His disciples except Judas, who had forsaken them before the meal was finished, walked through the eastern gate of the city and followed the road that descended into the Kidron Valley bordering the eastern city wall. At the valley bottom they crossed a small river that John calls the brook Cedron (John 18:1) before they ascended the western slope of the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39). Not far above the valley they turned aside along a path taking them to a garden known as Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36; Mark 14:32). If the garden by this name which still exists today gives us a true picture of the one frequented by Jesus and His disciples, it was not a place of tall trees or luxurious greenery or abundant flowers. Rather, it mainly contained low-spreading olive trees with stout trunks covered with gnarled bark, all of them standing close together on a floor of bare dirt.¹

Apparently near the edge of the garden, Jesus left behind eight of His disciples in one place, admonishing them to sit there while He retreated into seclusion and devoted Himself to prayer (Matt. 26:36; Mark 14:32). Then, with Peter, James, and John, He penetrated deeper into the olive grove (Matt. 26:36–38; Mark 14:32–33).

He confessed to these men belonging to the inner circle of disciples that a huge weight of sadness was falling upon His soul (Matt. 26:37). To underscore the extremity of Jesus’ distress, the Gospel writers describe it with several strong phrases, as though one phrase alone could not convey the whole meaning—as though words failed them. Jesus was "sore amazed" (Mark 14:33); that is, the prospect of what He would soon endure left Him utterly astonished and frightened. He was "very heavy" (Mark 14:33) because His heart was now carrying an overwhelming burden. Also, He was "exceeding sorrowful" (Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:34), words picturing Him as surrounded by grief. As a result, His soul had descended "even unto death" (Matt. 26:38). Literally, His sorrow was great enough to be deadly.

Then after telling His companions to remain where they were, He withdrew to a place nearby. It was "about a stone’s cast" away from the main group of disciples (Luke 22:41). The three now left behind understood His purpose because He had already revealed it to them all. His purpose was to pray. He instructed them to "watch" with Him (Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:34). He evidently meant that instead of caving in to tiredness and falling asleep, they should stay alert, with their senses on the lookout for intruders in the Garden and with their thoughts focused on prayer.

First season of prayer

Walking on, Jesus soon reached a prayer closet open to the sky although hidden from man’s world. At once He knelt on the ground and began telling the Father the deepest longing of His heart. It was His wish to be spared from the cross (Matt. 26:39; Mark 14:35), for He knew that being crucified for the sins of mankind would inflict upon Him suffering enormously surpassing any other suffering endured by a human being. He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark 14:36). It was not that He lacked compassion for sinners doomed to hellfire. No, He desired their salvation, but with full comprehension of the grim price He must pay to redeem them, He asked the Father to allow another form of payment that would exempt His Son from the cross.

Second season of prayer

After a season of prayer lasting for a period that Jesus called "one hour" (Mark 14:37), which in the ancient world was comparable to one hour in the modern world,² He came back to where He had left the inner circle to watch, but instead of obeying His command, they were sound asleep. He wakened them and said to Peter, "Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak" (Mark 14:37–38; cf. Matt. 26:40–41 and Luke 22:40). What temptation was He warning them to avoid? Clearly He was not urging them to pray for the Father’s protection of Jesus, since it had been the Father’s plan from eternity past to secure man’s salvation through Jesus’ sacrificial death. Rather, He was urging them to pray for themselves. Why? Because they would soon face temptation on a scale far greater than any they had encountered before. When they saw Jesus arrested and condemned and nailed to a cross, they would be tempted to deny Him, lest they be counted as His followers who deserved to be seized and crucified like their Master.

By means of several references to the disciples in general (Matt. 26:40, 45; Luke 22:45), the Gospels imply that after Jesus roused the inner circle from sleep, He returned to the larger group of men and, finding them asleep also, wakened them before returning to His place of isolation. There, with a heart overwhelmed by the tortures He would soon endure, He again raised the same plea that He had presented earlier to the Father. "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done" (Matt. 26:42; cf. Mark 14:39). Then after what was doubtless another long portion of the night, He came back to His disciples and found them all asleep again. He wakened them and apparently asked why they were not watching and praying, a question they could not answer (Mark 14:40). But He did not chide them, for, as the Gospel writers inform us, they were so overcome by weariness that their eyelids were too heavy to keep open (Matt. 26:43; Mark 14:40). Jesus, however, was not sleepy. Far from it. His divine understanding of what was soon going to happen kept Him wide awake. Indeed, as the moment of His arrest drew closer, His soul sank deeper into distress.

Third season of prayer

He went back to His solitary place in the trees (Matt. 26:44; Luke 22:41) and began to pray even more fervently, saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). His inner revulsion at the prospect of His coming ordeal became so intense that it was life-threatening. For His protection, an angel was sent to give Him the strength necessary to live through His night of agony before the day appointed for His death (Luke 22:43).

Besides His mental anguish, Jesus also suffered life-threatening physical anguish. "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). The cause of this medical condition known as hematidrosis is emotional stress, leading to dilation of the capillaries in the sweat glands under the skin. A mild form of this reaction is blushing. If the stress is severe enough, the capillaries may burst, and blood may ooze out of the sweat glands onto the skin. A helpful description of hematidrosis is provided by T. W. Hunt: "Whenever hematidrosis occurs, the skin is so sensitized that the slightest touch is painful. As the skin oozes blood, the skin becomes fragile and tender. The process of sweating blood also produces marked weakness and shock."³ The author of Hebrews helps us to understand more fully the intensity of the stress that Jesus suffered while praying in the garden. "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:7).

What was the reason for the acute mental pain that made Jesus sweat blood? As we said before, it was dread of the cross. No doubt He was still raising essentially the same prayer that had been on His lips throughout this dark night in the garden.

35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

Mark 14:35–36

To understand this prayer, we must know the meaning of two words.

1. What is the hour He refers to? It is not a literal sixty minutes. Rather, it is the period of time framing the accomplishment of Christ’s redemptive work. It is the same hour that is mentioned in other texts foreseeing the dark period of suffering and grief just before His death. They speak of it as the hour when He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners (Mark 14:41), as the hour when men would lay hands upon Him with the intent of putting Him to death (John 7:30 and 8:20), and as the hour when He would be like a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, an act of self-sacrifice that would result in His glorification (John 12:23-24).
2. What is the cup? This also should not be taken literally, but as a symbol. It is most often used in the Old Testament and in Revelation to represent the judgment and wrath of God upon sin. One text refers to the cup of the wine of the Lord’s wrath (Rev. 14:10). Yet "the cup" can also represent suffering, as when Jesus told James and John that they would drink of the same cup that He drank of, a reference to the suffering that they would undergo for His sake (Mark 10:38–39). According to this text, they also would share in Christ’s baptism, which Scripture frequently uses as a symbol of death. For example, when we go through the waters of baptism, the meaning is that we are identifying ourselves with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12).

The cup that Jesus had to drink was a unique experience in the world of mankind. In four respects it was dreadful beyond measure.

1. Though holy and pure in His divine nature, He became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24). Our sin became His own, as if He were guilty of every sin that men have committed. The reason is that He took upon Himself the identity of every sinner. He became Jack the Ripper, Hitler, even Judas, even the Antichrist. Imagine the horror in this experience endured by the Righteous One, who hated sin to the full extent of an infinite God’s capacity for hatred.
2. Upon the cross He became the object of the Father’s unmitigated wrath toward sin, even so far as living through every man’s punishment in hell (Isa. 53:4–5; Heb. 2:9).
3. He was cut off from His own Father, to whom He had been eternally bound in love of a magnitude and perfection that could exist only between persons who were both infinite deity. While praying to the Father in the Garden, He pleaded, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark 14:36). The word "Abba" used here and in a few other texts in the New Testament (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6) is an Aramaic word that Jews used as a term of affection within the family circle, a term comparable to our word "Daddy."⁴ But the unimaginably strong bond between Father and Son within the same Godhead would be broken while Jesus hung on the cross. The Father would, under compulsion of His own uncompromising holiness, sever all ties with the man who had taken upon Himself the full load of our sin. For the first time in eternity, the Son would be cut off from the Father, so that "at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34).
4. On the cross Jesus would suffer not only immeasurable anguish in His divine spirit, but also immeasurable pain in His physical body. In our later discussion of crucifixion, we will show that it was the form of execution favored by the cruel Romans precisely because it was the most painful ever invented. For a victim suspended above the ground, each moment was horrific, and the torture did not abate as moment followed moment until this cruel parade of time had dragged on for many hours. Some have argued that Jesus’ anguish in the Garden was strictly a loathing for the sin He would bear on the cross, that He did not in fact shrink from the terrible pain of crucifixion. Yet such an interpretation minimizes the humanity of Christ. He was a real man, and consequently He had as much fear of pain as we do.

Therefore, we may say in summary that when Jesus pleaded that this cup be taken away (Mark 14:36), He was asking the Father that He might be delivered from all the tremendous agonies that were in store for Him if He went to the cross. Did that request show weakness or lack of resolve on Jesus’ part? Wanting to save men and wanting to go to the cross are two different things. Wanting to go to the cross would be a suicidal desire. What this prayer reveals is that indeed Jesus did not want to go there. The act of redemption involved suffering that He would naturally wish to escape. But did He not wish to save the souls of men? Most certainly He did. That is why He came, but the cost for Him was immeasurably great. The scene in the garden gives us a small glimpse of how great it actually was. His willingness to pay this enormous cost in order to give us life forever was the greatest possible demonstration of how much He loved us.

Yet there was another reason He endured the cross. Despite His own desires, Jesus always placed His own will in total submission to the will of the Father (Mark 14:36; John 18:11; Heb. 5:8).

Jesus’ arrest

Waiting for the mob

After the turmoil in His heart finally gave way to a peace that would enable His mind and will to meet the terrible events of the coming day, Jesus came back to His disciples a third time and again found them all asleep (Matt. 26:45; Mark 14:41; Luke 22:45). This time He did not waken them, but allowed them to continue resting until the evil mob led by Judas arrived. His reason for not disturbing their sleep was pity. He perceived that they had sunk into sleep because all their prayerful thoughts had been overwhelmed by a single thought—a sense of sorrow so strong that it shut down their minds into sleep (Luke 22:45).

What happened next is not stated by the Gospel writers, but apparently Jesus stayed at the outer rim of their place in the garden and either continued His own prayers or contemplated His role in coming events. Yet it is evident that He was also waiting for signals that the time had come to arouse His followers and make them ready to confront His enemies. Whether it was through His physical senses or through the voice of the Holy Spirit that He realized that His enemies were approaching, we do not know. But at that moment, He strongly admonished all His disciples to wake up, saying, "Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation" (Luke 22:46). In other words, "The moment has arrived when your loyalty to me will be put to the test. Go to God and plead for His grace so that you will do what is right instead of caving in to soul-damning fear." Then a short while later, when Jesus sensed that a contingent of Jewish police were just moments away, He said, "Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand" (Mark 14:42).

Judas’s arrival

The stillness of the garden was broken by the growing noise of a large company, even a multitude, coming from Jerusalem. Who were they? They were "men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees" (John 18:3). The word "men" is speira, the Latin translation of the Greek word for a cohort, a military unit that might have about 600 men.⁵ The word for "officers" is uperetes, which literally means "rower," but more generally refers to a servant or attendant such as a low-ranking officer.⁶ The same two words occur in John 18:12, where speira is translated "band,"⁷ but now John says that "the band and the captain and the officers took Jesus, and bound him, and led him away to Annas first." The word for "captain" is chiliarchos,⁸ a term which originated in the Greek world and referred to a commander of a thousand soldiers,⁹ but in the Roman world designated a military officer with the rank of tribune.¹⁰ A man of this rank was the leader of a cohort.¹¹ During Paul’s final visit to Jerusalem, he was rescued from a mob in the Temple by a chiliarch and his spirea (Acts 21:31-32).¹² The headquarters of this officer was at the Fortress Antonia, which bordered the Temple on its north side.

Yet for many reasons it is very improbable that the men who came to arrest Jesus were simply a troop of Roman soldiers.

1. It is likely that to retain the respect of their followers, the high priests managed Jesus’ arrest so that it would be seen as an exercise of their authority.
2. Matthew, Mark, and Luke use no terms and make no comments suggesting that the crowd of men descending on Jesus were Romans. Matthew says they were "a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders" (Matt. 26:47). Mark uses the same words and adds that they were also from the "scribes" (Mark 14:43). Luke calls them merely "a multitude" (Luke 22:47).
3. Matthew says that besides the men who came with swords, there were others who had no more than staves; that is, wooden clubs.13 Such weaponry is hardly what we would expect in a troop of professional soldiers.
4. All the Gospel writers testify that one man in the forefront of the multitude was not a soldier, but a servant of the high priest (Matt. 26:51; Mark 14:47; Luke 22:50; John 18:10).
5. Although John mentions a chiliarch, he does not appear on the scene until Jesus has been taken into custody.

A scenario that better fits our sources is that although some Roman soldiers did accompany the men who came to arrest Jesus, they came only as observers. John Hopkins has observed concerning the chiliarch (or Tribune) seen in the Garden, "He may have been present at the arrest simply as a political observer, and the soldiers simply a bodyguard for the Tribune."¹⁴ John’s account says that speira came to the Garden with the multitude, but it is doubtful that the term necessarily indicates the presence of all the soldiers stationed in the local fortress. Why would they send a contingent of about 600 to arrest a religious teacher and a few of his followers? Thus, the Roman soldiers called speira at the forefront of the mob were probably few in number. The placement of the chiliarch in John’s narrative suggests that he did not come to the forefront until after Jesus was arrested. Why was he there? Jewish leaders brought him and some of his troops probably in the hope that Jesus and His disciples would resort to violence and show themselves to be not only a public nuisance, but also a threat to law and order. If such behavior could be attested by Roman observers, Jewish leaders would found it much easier to gain Pilate’s consent to Jesus’ crucifixion.

Who were the Jews in the multitude that swarmed into the Garden? No doubt some were Temple guards. Yet since many were armed only with clubs, it appears that the Jewish leaders also brought whatever riffraff they could assemble at the last minute. Besides many underlings, the company also included "chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders" (Luke 22:52). No doubt these men of high authority were walking at the rear of the mob to assure that their underlings would press on until the job was completed and also to keep away from any dangerous fighting that might take place when their subordinates met Jesus and His disciples. Furthermore, they probably wanted to verify that the man arrested was truly Jesus.

One reason the authorities employed a large force bearing lamps and torches is that more than once in the past, attempts to attack or arrest Jesus had failed because He was able to slip away unnoticed (Luke 4:29–30; John 8:59). They were trying to illuminate and cut off every possible avenue of escape. Leading the whole contingent was the twelfth disciple, Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed Jesus to the authorities (Luke 22:2–6; Matt. 26:47–56; John 18:1-13). Why did they hire Judas? For two reasons.

1. He knew where they could find Jesus when He was not surrounded by masses of Jewish people. What the Jewish leaders specifically wanted to know was where He retreated at night. If they could arrest Him at that time, they could quickly try and condemn Him before most Jews in the city learned that His life was in danger, and they could execute Him before His followers could stir up any effective opposition.
        They especially wanted to arrest Him during the night of the fourteenth. If they waited until the next day, it would have been too late to try and execute Him before the extended Feast of Unleavened Bread. Why was this a concern? The Jews felt strongly that diversion of public attention to brutal justice was inappropriate during a sacred festival set apart by God for joyful celebration. Some days earlier when the authorities were planning how to eliminate Jesus, they decided that He should be executed "not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people" (Mark 14:2). The word "day" in italics is not in the original text. They were speaking not about Nisan the fourteenth when the Passover lambs were slain, but about the whole feast of Unleavened Bread, which ran from the fifteenth to the twenty-first. For ordinary Jews, celebration of the feast did not begin until they gathered for the Passover meal on the evening after the lambs were slain. By Jewish reckoning, the transition to a new date on the calendar took place at sundown. Therefore, a Passover meal marked the beginning of a new day, the fifteenth. What the authorities wanted was to arrest and crucify Christ on the fourteenth, the day preceding this meal.
2. Also, the authorities expected Judas to be their chief witness against Jesus when He came to trial.¹⁵ In a Jewish court proceeding, witnesses also served as prosecutors. The role they wanted Judas to fulfill was to stand up and tell all the reasons why Jesus deserved to be executed. Realizing that it would be difficult to bring a strong case against a man like Jesus, who never did anything truly wrong, they saw an actual close associate and disciple of Jesus as the most credible witness that they could bring against Him. Yet, as it turned out, Judas never appeared as a witness when, on the next day, Jesus stood trial before both Jewish and Roman authorities. Why not? The Gospels report that right after Jesus was condemned, Judas heard the news and, seized with guilt, committed suicide (Matt. 27:3-10). Perhaps the guilt began to rise in his heart soon after Jesus was arrested, and his response was to withdraw from the scene rather than cooperate as a witness.

When Judas and his troop of armed men entered the garden and approached the place where Jesus and His disciples were spending the night, Jesus did not run away or even back away. He actually walked toward them and placed Himself in their path. As they drew closer, He stood there strong and resolute, maintaining a tall regal presence which demonstrated that He was no ordinary man.

Judas, leader of the whole troop, saw Jesus and came to Him directly. He had told the armed multitude following him that he would personally identify the man to be arrested by giving Him a kiss. Judas must have assumed that he would find Jesus and all the disciples sound asleep. After all, the Garden of Gethsemane is where they often slept overnight. It would therefore be possible to kiss Jesus before He or any of His followers realized that a hostile mob was only a few steps away. But Jesus was not asleep. He was standing wide awake with the majestic but somber look of a king with a grieving heart. But under the pressure of what he had already agreed to do, Judas set aside doubts and fears and stepped forward, saying, "Hail, master" (Matt. 26:49; Mark 14:45), and he gave Jesus a kiss (Matt. 26:49; Mark 14:45; Luke 22:47). A kiss on the cheek between two men or two women who were good friends was a customary Jewish greeting,¹⁶ but the word that Matthew and Mark use for Judas’s greeting of the Lord does not refer to an ordinary kiss. It describes one that is unusually emotional, such as between two friends who are reuniting after a long time or who face a long time of separation (Matt. 26:49; Mark 14:45).¹⁷ Yet the meaning of the lengthy kiss that Judas gave His Lord was quite different. He was making sure that the mob behind him would see it.

How did Jesus respond? Did He kiss Judas? No. Hardly would He suggest that Judas stood in the sunshine of God’s favor. Rather, He spoke words intended to pierce Judas’s heart with guilt. He said, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" (Matt. 26:50). There was no sarcasm or rebuke in His voice. There was only sadness. He wished to remind Judas of all the moments they had spent in close fellowship and to prick his heart with remorse (Luke 22:48). He wanted Judas to repent before death would sweep him away from all possibility of repenting, before his name would sink to the lowest infamy of all names. By reminding this wayward disciple of their close relationship in the past, He was giving Judas a chance to be sorry. Jesus was in this way demonstrating who He is. Who but a God perfect in love could reach out in friendship to such a traitor at the very moment of his betrayal?

Jesus’ arrest is indeed one of history’s most vivid pictures of human folly. Men came to arrest God. Can you believe it? Moreover, in their imbecilic pride, they came to condemn God as an evildoer and a criminal. Yet it was they whose hearts were filled with bitter poison. In Jesus’ heart there was only sweet goodness. He was always gentle and harmless and full of a love equal to His own command that we should love even our enemies (Matt. 5:44).

When Jesus said to Judas, "wherefore art thou come," He was encouraging this wayward disciple to admit His betrayal of Christ, since an open admission of his treachery could ignite flames of guilt and drive him to repentance. To drive a sense of guilt even deeper into the hardened heart of Judas, Jesus added, "Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:48).

Confrontation with the mob

But none of these appeals to the man’s conscience succeeded at this moment in the course of events. Judas stepped aside with the expectation that the mob would now rush forward and seize His Savior and Lord. But Jesus took the initiative and confronted them with words that stopped them in their tracks. He said, "Whom seek ye?" (John 18:4). In the general gloom of a garden enveloped by darkness, many probably did not recognize the speaker, so they shouted back at Him, "Jesus of Nazareth" (John 18:5). He replied, "I am he" (John 18:5). These were not casual words. Nor were they spoken in an ordinary voice. They were a thunderous declaration of His identity as God in the flesh. His reply did not actually include the word "he." He spoke just two words—the words "I AM"—but these were words of profound meaning far transcending the world of man. Jesus was declaring His identity as their Creator. Now in the garden as He stood before His enemies was not the first time that He used this name to identify Himself. Also in the Temple a few months earlier, He had announced that He is "I AM" (John 8:58). Since His hearers were well-schooled in the Old Testament, they understood fully who He was claiming to be. The first record of God telling mortal man that He is "I AM" is in the Book of Exodus, when He first appeared to Moses (Exod. 3:14). What is the meaning of this mysterious and soul-stirring name? Fundamentally, it means that He is the Being who is eternally self-existent—that solely through His own will and power, He never has been and never will be capable of nonexistence. In using this name for Himself, Jesus was therefore announcing to those seeking to arrest Him that they were like a few mosquitoes trying to darken the sky or a few raindrops trying to quench the sun.

The impact of His words was no doubt greatly magnified by the impact of His voice. Its sound must have had a thunderous dimension, a deep undertone that filled space both near and far away, an edge of raw strength that penetrated the hearts of all hearers. What happened when He spoke? No one present could resist its power, for they all stumbled backward and fell to the ground (John 18:6). Here was a touch of extraordinary divine mercy. Jesus was allowing these men who threatened Him with swords to discover their foolishness. Perhaps His gesture of divine love did not immediately bear fruit, since they were all in the midst of completing an assigned task, but we can be sure that it left them all with a deep and raw conviction of wrongdoing that, in the lives of some at least, ultimately led to repentance and embrace of the gospel.

Again He asked them whom they were seeking, but now He apparently removed any shattering force from His question so that they were able to respond. They again replied, "Jesus of Nazareth" (John 18:7). Continuing to speak on their level, yet with an authority that they now feared to contradict, He again stated that He was the man they were seeking, but He also sternly instructed them to let His disciples go their way without arrest (John 18:8). Since the men confronting Him, the leaders as well as their underlings, were now very hesitant to oppose this man with such a commanding presence, they were indeed willing to let His followers go free. We see now one major reason why Jesus had given them a taste of His divine power. He was assuring that they would cooperate when He spoke in defense of His disciples. He was protecting His disciples not only from arrest, but perhaps also from being condemned and crucified.

Words added by John confirm our interpretation: "That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none" (John 18:9). The saying John is referring to is something Jesus had said just a few hours earlier, during His final prayer before He and the disciples crossed the brook outside the city and climbed up to the garden. "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled" (John 17:12). We noted earlier that during the Last Supper, when Jesus affirmed that His betrayal by a close disciple was foreseen by prophecy, He pointed directly to Psalm 41:9. In the Old Testament, we learn even more about Judas’s treachery and damnation in Psalm 109:1–20.

Peter’s defense of Jesus

The armed mob now moved forward and took hold of Jesus (Matt. 26:50; Mark 14:46). Although Jesus had secured for His disciples an opportunity to run away, they refused to take it. No doubt His demonstration of divine power had emboldened them to step forward and defend their Master. More than one cried out, "Lord, shall we smite with the sword?" (Luke 22:49). Simon Peter even drew out his sword and began to use it. However, the worst he could do in the midst of darkness and confusion was to take a wild swing that only succeeded in cutting off the ear of Malchus, servant of the high priest (Matt. 26:51; Luke 22:50; John 18:10). Malchus was probably the man holding on to Jesus. A blow along a slightly different track might have been fatal, but God in His Providence was protecting both Peter and his victim. He was protecting Peter from the charge of murder and his victim from death.

Jesus quickly rebuked Peter for his impulsive act of violence. He said, "Put up again thy sword into his place" (Matt. 26:52; cf. John 18:11). Then, in the space of just a few words, He gave Peter four conclusive arguments why he should not resort to violence.

1. "For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matt. 26:52). This saying presents one of His Beatitudes in negative form. He had pronounced a blessing on peacemakers, saying that they would be counted the children of God (Matt. 5:9). Now He pronounces a curse on the violent, saying that they would bring destruction upon themselves. He was not only affirming a general principle, but He was also giving a specific warning to all of His followers in the future, including you and me. He was telling us that we are called to show the world God’s love. Therefore, we should spread our religion not by the use of force, but by loving and self-sacrificing ministries. These may encounter violent opposition, but overall they will build a world whose people would include many Christians committed to living at peace with their neighbors. Jesus’ words served as a specific warning to Peter. In his future days as leader of the church, he should never consider armed resistance when he or his followers faced persecution. Some would go to a martyr’s death, but far more would die if they defended themselves with swords rather than with prayer. A few centuries later, Christian faith would prevail throughout the Roman world. Its ultimate victory would come not by conquest, but by evangelism seeking conversion of lost souls.
2. "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11). Throughout the night He had been beseeching the Father to release Him from the ordeal of drinking this cup, but at last He had seen His death on a cross as the only bridge from the damnation of all men to the salvation of many. His words to Peter leave no doubt that He had now come to a perfect and unwavering resolve in His own heart that He would finish the work of salvation. They also rebuke Peter for foolishly daring to challenge this resolve.
3. "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matt. 26:53). A Roman legion normally consisted of at least five thousand soldiers.¹⁸ His words do not imply that the heavenly host is limited to about sixty thousand angels. Rather, He was affirming that our Heavenly Father was so mighty that He could, if He wished, dispatch no less than a legion of angels to defend each of the twelve men now under attack. Besides Himself, there were also His eleven disciples. He was showing Peter how puny and pointless his sword-swinging was in comparison to divine protection. The more general lesson is that whenever we need protection, the best source can be obtained by prayer rather than by any collection of human devices.
4. "But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" (Matt. 26:54). In other words, everything that His followers were undergoing that night was absolutely unavoidable. Mere human beings cannot override a course of events foretold and engineered by God Himself.

Malchus had probably let go of Jesus when Peter attacked him, but now, probably while Jesus was speaking to Peter, Jesus drew close to Malchus and looked him in the eye with a fixating authority that caused the man to stand there quiet. It seems likely that Jesus did this just as He was commanding Peter to put up his sword. No doubt Malchus, as a servant of the high priest, had often seen Jesus in the Temple. No doubt he had heard His teaching, which perhaps had touched his heart both with conviction and with a growing respect for the teacher. He had joined the party coming to arrest Jesus only because he had to obey orders. Therefore, when he saw Jesus, he watched Him and listened to Him with great respect. Jesus said to Malchus, "Suffer ye thus far" (Luke 22:51). It seems likely that these words preceded His further rebuke of Peter. Scholars have long debated what they mean. Probably He was telling Malchus that instead of striking back at Peter, he should accept and suffer his present level of pain. Why? From Jesus’ reassuring words, Malchus was doubtless able to perceive that Jesus was going to help him. What help did Jesus provide? Did He pick up the bloody ear that Peter had severed from the head of Malchus and reattach it to the man’s head? Some have imagined this scenario, but Luke’s wording points to a much greater miracle. "And he touched his ear, and healed him" (Luke 22:51). In other words, Jesus touched the wounded remains of an ear on the side of his head and suddenly a new and perfectly healthy ear appeared in place of the torn skin. He created a new ear.

By this miracle, Jesus was obviously protecting Peter from bad consequences of his foolish attack. We understand why He was protecting His beloved disciple Peter, but why was He helping Malchus? As a servant of the high priest, he was likely a devout Jew who would in the future understand that Jesus was his Messiah. Perhaps we are told his name because we will meet him in heaven. We find a strong signal of his spiritual promise in how Jesus treated him, for He allowed this man to derive personal benefit from Jesus’ display of power and compassion to a degree that can only be achieved by God.

Jesus’ rebuke of the leaders

After being smitten to the ground by Jesus’ voice earlier in the confrontation between officers and disciples, the whole force of men sent to arrest Him were probably hanging back in fear. By now, the Jewish leaders had also reached the place of confrontation. So Jesus stood there larger than life and rebuked these leaders with somber words of warning. "Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:52–53; cf. Matt. 26:55; Mark 14:48–49). The Gospels record one occasion when the Jewish leaders did send Jewish soldiers to arrest Jesus when He was teaching in the Temple.

14 Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

15 And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? . . . .

28 Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.

29 But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me. . . . .

31 And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?

32 The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. . . . .

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. . . . .

40 Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. . . . .

45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?

46 The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.

47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?

48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?

49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.

50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,

51 Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?

52 They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.

John 7:14–15, 28–29, 31–32, 37–38, 40, 45–52

In fulfillment of the orders given them, the Jewish soldiers went to the precincts of the Temple where Jesus was teaching the people, but they failed to arrest Him. Instead, they stopped and listened to what He was saying, and the impact of His voice and of His words was overwhelming. Although they surely had the ability to seize Jesus and haul Him away even though He was surrounded by many who admired Him, they felt a strong sense that they dare not touch this man. Why? Because they recognized that He was somebody special. His voice was not only resonant and soul-stirring like thunder, but His words quickened in their hearts a deep fear of God. They went back and told their superiors, "Never man spake like this man." Were they disciplined by the Jewish leaders? Not at all. Some of the Pharisees were angry that Jesus remained free because they saw Him as spreading false interpretations of the law. The chief priests, however, apparently did not rebuke the soldiers. One probable reason is that they saw what would have been the likely outcome if the soldiers had dragged Jesus away. He had won so much sympathy and support for His claim to be the Messiah that any such crackdown by Jewish leaders would have stirred up a huge wave of popular unrest, perhaps to the extent of violent opposition to their leadership, perhaps even to the extent of civil war. They decided that a much safer course was to arrest Jesus at night when His supporters were dispersed and asleep.

When Jesus asked why they were treating Him as a thief, He was rebuking their decision to seize Him without adequate cause. He had never done anything contrary to Jewish or Roman law. He had never tried to stir up opposition to Jewish leaders. He also asked why they did not take Him into custody when He stood in the Temple. The purpose of this question was to help them recognize that any fear to arrest Him in public was irrational if He was not the Messiah. The authorities had never failed through public action to put down false pretenders in the past. So, although their fear may have rested in some measure on how the masses might respond, this was not the basic cause. The true reason why they did not stop Him when He spoke in God’s House is that His penetrating voice and His authoritative words awakened a horrible sense in their corrupt hearts that God Himself was speaking. They were afraid of Him primarily because they could not escape from a deep conviction that He was God. It was therefore only natural that such men would, as a much safer course, choose to seize Him at night when He was outside the Temple and outside the Holy City. As Jesus said to them when they arrived, "but this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53); literally, "But this is your hour and the authority of the darkness."¹⁹ In essence He was telling them that they were arresting Him at night because they were servants of Satan, the king of darkness, rather than servants of God, the king of light.

Matthew and Mark add words of explanation for God’s willingness to permit such abuse of His own Son. "But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled" (Mat. 26:56; cf. Mark 14:49). What was horrific beyond human conception was also wonderful beyond human conception. The Creator of all chose to suffer the entire penalty for our sin so that we might receive the entire joy of living forever as God’s children.

Everyone’s departure from the scene

As soon as the disciples saw Jesus in the hands of the Temple soldiers, they all "forsook him, and fled" (Matt. 26:56; Mark 14:50). In running away from Jesus, who was now under arrest, they were not guilty of any wrongdoing, for He had commanded the religious authorities to let His followers go their way (John 18:8). By this loud statement He made it clear to His disciples that they should not attempt to remain close to Him. It was God’s will that they should hastily depart from the ugly spectacle of Jesus being dragged away by His enemies. As noted earlier, the reason is that Jesus wanted to protect them from being condemned and executed alongside their Master.

Since none of the eleven disciples were arrested, it seems that the Temple soldiers, wrapped in trepidation after being smitten to the ground by Jesus’ voice, complied with His command to let them go. Yet certain "young men" did attempt to bring into their custody another person who had come to the Garden with Jesus. Like those grabbing hold of him, he was also a young man (Mark 14:51). It is probable that this incident took place on the sidelines and was initiated not by any men in the regular detail of soldiers, but by some youthful hangers-on, perhaps coming along in pursuit of some excitement. Why did the young follower of Jesus ignore his Master’s instruction to leave the scene? Because he was young, perhaps he thought that the soldiers would overlook him. Or perhaps he was too dazed and fearful to take any action at all. But he soon found himself in the hands of other men. He escaped from their grasp, however, because they were holding onto little more than the linen cloth covering his body. So, he was able to yank himself free from this clothing and run away naked (v. 52).

Who was the young man who escaped arrest? The only Gospel writer who tells his story is Mark. A common view of Bible students down through the centuries has been that the young man who was so anxious to flee from the soldiers that he left his cloak behind was probably Mark himself. If he was not, why does this Gospel writer digress to record such a minor incident, a brief encounter on the sidelines with no bearing on the profound work of Christ? If you remember what we said earlier, a traditional view of Christians has been that the Upper Room where Jesus held the Last Supper belonged to Mark’s family. A reasonable scenario is that Mark witnessed that whole event and afterward joined Jesus and His disciples when they went to the Garden. His motive was surely to remain close to Jesus and hear more of His teaching, perhaps also to provide help the next day.

Why does Mark speak about his frightening experience after the soldiers arrived? Here we can only speculate, but it seems most likely that he includes this brief account as a humble way of identifying himself as the author of the second Gospel; in other words, as a way of signing a book of the New Testament. Like the other Gospel writers, he stays in the background of his work, never openly claiming to be the source. The choice of these men not to display their names as if they were supersaints shows how fully they recognized their complete unworthiness as sinful men to tell the life story of the sinless Son of God. In the Gospel of Mark, the way he maintains a humble presence is by referring to himself only as a young man who fled away naked when the authorities seized his Master and ushered Him back into the city for trial and condemnation.

After taking Jesus into custody, the soldiers who found Him in the Garden escorted Him to His first appearance before Jewish leaders.