It is a secluded place in the darkness of the middle of the night. Jesus and his disciples are on the Mount of Olives. They have been told that they were all going to fall away tonight. Jesus has spent this time preparing with prayer. The disciples have spent this time sleeping. But now the moment has arrived. As Jesus tells his disciples that his betrayer is near, Judas is coming forward. But Judas is not alone. Judas is not coming to rejoin the disciples. Judas is not coming to rejoin his Master whom he has followed for the past three years. Judas is coming with a large crowd. Is Judas coming with a large crowd who want to hear Jesus’ teaching? Is Judas coming with a large crowd with a new set of potential disciples? No. A large crowd is coming with Judas and you can imagine them carrying torches into the darkness of this mountain. But it is not a friendly group as we are told in Matthew 26:47 that this large crowd is carrying swords and clubs. These are people who are ready for a fight. What we are going to see are three different responses in this moment. This is the hour of trial. This is the moment Jesus has predicted and prepared for. What will be the response of those who are in Jesus’ sphere of influence?
Betrayed (Matthew 26:47-50)
As we begin, we are truly looking at a shocking scene. Jesus is with his disciples. Judas is approaching Jesus with a large crowd who are carrying swords and clubs. As this large crowd is approaching they have been told to watch for Judas’ signal. They have been told to seize the man that he goes up to and kisses on the cheek. You will notice that Judas does not waste any time. Verse 49 says that Judas immediately went right up to Jesus. This betrayal is so shocking. Judas goes right up to Jesus and says, “Greetings, Rabbi!” Then he gives him a kiss on the cheek, a traditional ancient Near Eastern greeting. Do you know how you feel when you know someone is being fake toward you? You were able to find out that someone is your enemy for some reason. But then when they come up to you, they act like you are still friends. This is what is happening right now. It is a disgusting, fake moment. It is a true betrayal to the end. Judas is pretending to be Jesus’ friend all the way through this moment. He pretends with his words and with his greeting with a kiss.
What would you want to say in this moment? Jesus has a very simple response to his betrayer. “Friend, do what you came to do.” What a penetrating response to Judas! Jesus called him his friend. Jesus did not call him his friend from ignorance about what is happening. Jesus calls him his friend and then tells him to go ahead and do what he has planned. Jesus does not yell at him. Jesus does not call him out. Jesus does not make a spectacle out of him. Jesus does not physically respond to him. Jesus does not push him away or hit him. Nor does Jesus try to run. Instead, Jesus tells Judas to finish what he has started.
Abandoned (Matthew 26:51-56)
This moment now begins the scuffle. As the large crowd with swords and clubs approach to seize Jesus, the disciples react. One of the disciples grabs his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. You can imagine that this disciple took a full swing at the high priest’s servant, carrying enough force to slice off his ear as he attempted to move away from the blow. The Gospel of John tells us that Peter did this. Peter along with the rest of the disciples proclaimed that they were ready to die with Jesus (Matthew 26:35).
But Jesus did not come for a physical battle. Jesus did not come to start a fight. He is not going to give into the moment or get caught up in what is going on around him. Even in the heat of this moment, Jesus is still teaching his disciples and all who will listen to him. Jesus tells Peter to put his sword away. The first reason why is because “all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Violence and retaliation is not the way of a Christian. We do not kill people. This goes all the way back to the beginning and Jesus appears to be saying something similar. Listen to what God said early on in the scriptures.
Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed, for God made humans in his image. (Genesis 9:6 CSB)
Aggression, violence, and fighting are not the way for Jesus’ followers. This is the first reason Jesus gives to his disciples as to why the sword needs to remain at their sides and not drawn.
Second, Jesus says that he does not need his disciples to defend him. Look at verse 53. Jesus asks if he is able to call on his Father and have more than twelve legions of angels sent to him. Does Jesus need our physical defense? No, he does not. A Roman legion consisted of 6000 soldiers. So Jesus is saying that he could have more than 72,000 angels here in a second if he wanted that. One angel would be enough for this moment. Remember that an angel of the Lord destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in the days of King Hezekiah (cf. 2 Kings 19:35).
Finally, Jesus says in verse 54 that this is how this all had to go so that the scriptures were fulfilled. This painful moment was predicted in the scriptures.
Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. (Psalm 41:9 ESV)
Now it is not an enemy who insults me — otherwise I could bear it; it is not a foe who rises up against me— otherwise I could hide from him. But it is you, a man who is my peer, my companion and good friend! We used to have close fellowship; we walked with the crowd into the house of God. (Psalm 55:12-14 CSB)
This is exactly what God said would happen. This stinging betrayal is exactly part of God’s salvation plan. The scripture must be fulfilled. But Jesus is not done teaching. Not only does he teach his disciples but he is teaching the crowd that has come to seize him in the middle of the night with swords and clubs. He asks them to think about this moment. Think about how you have come to capture me. I have been sitting in the temple every day teaching and was not seized. Why have you come in the middle of the night? Why have you come like I am a criminal? Why have you come with swords and clubs? All that I did was teach you. But know this: all this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures.
But do not pass quickly over how this moment concludes. “Then all the disciples left him and fled.” If the betrayal was not bad enough, the rest of the disciples ran away into the darkness of the night. The disciples who just said hours earlier that they would never abandon him and never fall away this night left him and ran away. The disciples who disputed that the sheep would not scatter when the shepherd was struck, scattered when Jesus was seized (cf. Matthew 26:31).
Rejected (Matthew 26:57-68)
The large crowd that arrested Jesus take him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the rest of the Jewish leaders were awaiting. After running away with the rest of the disciples, Peter has returned and was following Jesus at a distance, even going into the courtyard of the high priest. Peter goes in and takes a seat among the guards to see what the outcome would be. We will come back to Peter in our next lesson. But I want you to focus your attention on verse 59. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death. Please think about this. They have not gathered to find the truth. They are not interested in figuring out who this Jesus is. They are looking for a reason to reject Jesus. They are looking for a reason to kill Jesus. They will even take witnesses whose testimony are clearly false. Someone say something against Jesus so we can kill him!
But look at verse 60. They could not even get false testimony against Jesus. Many false witnesses came forward but remember that you need to have two or three witnesses to sustain a charge. But they cannot even get false witnesses to agree. But the Jewish leaders are not deterred at all. Tonight is the night and they are not going to let this opportunity go. Two people came forward and testified that Jesus said he is able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. We can read Jesus teaching this in John 2, yet this physical temple was not what he was referring to. But the high priest takes it and challenges Jesus in verse 63. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God!
Jesus does not deny it. Jesus confirms that he is the Christ, the Son of God with a very clear answer. Sometimes people read this and think that Jesus never said he was the Son of God. But this is a very real misunderstanding of how Jesus responded. First, Jesus did not say that he wasn’t the Son of God but confirmed his answer. Second, Jesus calls himself the Son of Man which is a direct messianic reference from Daniel 7:13-14. The Son of Man is described as going to God the Father and receiving all glory, power, and rule in an everlasting kingdom. Jesus is calling himself that person. Not only is he calling himself that person, he is telling Caiaphas that Jesus is going to be the one to judge him and the nation. He will come on the clouds of heaven in judgment, something that was visibly seen in 70 AD. Their rejection of Jesus was sealing their fate of judgment. Finally, it clear that Jesus takes deity on himself because Caiaphas’ response to Jesus is that he has uttered blasphemy and is worthy of death.
But the rejection of Jesus was not enough. Look at how this scene concludes in verses 67-68. They spit in his face. They beat him with their fists. They slapped him in the face. Then they mocked him, telling him to prophesy who hit you since you are the Christ. I want you to be amazed at Jesus. Jesus says nothing and does nothing to this mistreatment. He is not going to respond in kind. Justice will come later. Jesus submits to their actions.
Responding to Jesus
I stated at the beginning of the lesson that we are going to see three different responses to Jesus. First, we looked at Judas who was a pretender. Judas pretended all the way to the end. Friends, there are many who fake a relationship with Jesus. They look like they are walking with Jesus for years. They know where Jesus is and they know what Jesus taught. They will say all the right words just like Judas did. But I hope we would consider how sad the life of Judas was. How sad to see all that Jesus did and heard all that Jesus taught and never move beyond a fake relationship! Judas called Jesus his teacher and friend. But it was not true. I think it has become easy to think that a relationship with Jesus is nothing more than going to church for a couple hours. But I want to challenge you that is only a shallow, false relationship. What is the point of having a fake relationship with God? You know it is fake. God knows it is fake. Push for more. Draw near to God and truly get to know him today.
Second, we looked at the disciples who abandoned Jesus at the end. They thought they would be strong. They claimed that they would be able to withstand any difficulty and any trial only to fail when put to the test. This is another challenging warning. We might be real but there is the threat to give out for fear. Friends, it is possible to follow Jesus faithfully only to let fear keep us from finishing our walk with him. We might be afraid of what others might say, might think, or might do to us. There is no doubt that what these disciples experienced as a frightening situation. Our faith will be tested in the face of fear. We will talk more about fear in our next lesson.
Finally, we looked at the Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus to the end. They predetermined to be against Jesus without giving any chance to evaluate him or his teachings. They were not looking for the truth. They were not interested in God’s will. They just wanted Jesus dead so that they could continue doing what they wanted to do without interference or resistance. This might be the most frightening positions of all that we have looked at. Can you imagine someone telling you that they do not like a book that they never read? Someone says to you that they do not like a book you like. You might ask them if they read the book. They say no but they say that they have heard what other people said about it. I think we would rightly say that it is not fair to evaluate the book until you read it. Do you know how many people have made a decision about Jesus without reading what he said? They have heard what other people think but they haven’t read what Jesus said and did for themselves. Can I challenge you if you are in that situation to not let others tell you about this book and you read it for yourself? Will you read a gospel account and see Jesus for yourself? These religious leaders predetermined to reject everything Jesus said and did, regardless of the evidence.
Will you with Jesus pretend to the end? Will you abandon him at the end? Will you reject him to the end? Will you follow him to the end?