"Violence Marks the Arrest of Jesus"

 

Matthew 26:50-51: But Jesus said to him, Friend, why have you come? 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.

Each of the gospels offers a different slant on the scene of Judas betrayal. Matthew is the simplest account, and it is not his purpose to provide much detail of this low point in the life of Christ. Matthew strikes the pathos of the moment by quoting Jesus' simple question: Friend, why have you come? All of you who have been betrayed by someone close to you must know how that must have hurt Jesus. In His humanity, which Matthew emphasizes, we see our Savior brought just one rung lower as Judas, the bounty hunter, brings that mob from the chief priests to catch Jesus.

Matthew's account of the arrest does not name the one who attempted to split the head of the high priest's servant open. His aim was bad, and all he got was one ear. In thinking of all the disciples, could it be the same one that interrupted the Transfiguration by joining in the conversation? Yes, indeed. It is Peter. John 18 gives the most detailed account of the betrayal, and in verse 10 identifies Peter as the one with the sword. John even names the servant of the high priest--Malchus. Because John's emphais is on Sesus as God, he brings up something very significant left out of the Synoptics--that when the mob came into the garden and asked if indeed He was Jesus of Nazareth, he answered I AM. That statement caused them all to draw back and fall to the ground. I AM is the precise Name of God as given to Moses in Exodus 14. Jesus uses the power of that Name to identify Himself, and the reaction is indeed strong.

A snapshot of our Lord from four different angles is a gift to us from the Holy Spirit. We see a four dimensional picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, Our faith is not based on little hints or meaningless details in a history book. It is based on a Person, and that Person is so clearly revealed in each of the Gospel accounts as well as throughout the Word of God. Read your Bible today, read it as if your life depended on it. It does.