Jesus Betrayed and Arrested

John 18:3-11; Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-52; Matthew 26:47-56; In the accounts of the betrayal, arrest, and trial of Jesus we see the value of four authors recording the same events. Each recitation is inspired, but each tells only part of the happenings; one account is written to appeal to one group of readers and another to a different group; taken together they recount in a better way than one author alone could do the series of events which took Jesus to that death out of which came life.

John 18:3-11; Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-52; Matthew 26:47-56; As to his betrayal and arrest, Matthew recites that Judas came with "a great multitude" sent by the chief priests and elders; Mark adds the scribes to the list of senders; John says the Pharisees also were involved and adds that Judas was guiding "a band of men and officers." Matthew and Mark say the arresting multitude carried swords and staves; Luke is silent as to any armaments involved, while John says they carried weapons and also lanterns and torches.

John 18:3-11; Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-52; Matthew 26:47-56; Matthew and Mark reveal that Judas had agreed beforehand to plant the traitor's kiss. Matthew says Judas' instructions were, "hold him fast," while Mark records them as, "Take him, and lead him away safely." Each of the three synoptists recounts that Judas planted the kiss, while John does not mention a kiss in any connection.

John 18:3-11; Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-52; Matthew 26:47-56; After the traitor's kiss, Jesus said, according to Matthew, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" Mark is silent as to any response, and Luke quotes the Lord as saying, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" Following the betrayal, John alone has Jesus step forth and ask, "Whom seek ye?" and then admit freely that he was Jesus of Nazareth whom they sought. John, also, is the sole recorder of the fact that the multitude went backward and fell to the ground, apparently unable to exercise power over Jesus unless permitted to do so. Thereupon, as John alone recounts, Jesus again asked, "Whom seek ye?" He was again told and again identified himself. He then invited the soldiers to take him, asking them to let his disciples go, that, as John alone editorializes, "The saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none."

John 18:3-11; Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-52; Matthew 26:47-56; At this point Matthew and Mark tell of the actual arrest, and Luke alone records that the apostles asked, "Lord, shall we smite with the sword?" Matthew and Mark note that one of the disciples drew the sword and smote off the ear of the servant of the high priest. From Luke and John we learn it was the right ear, while John only names the impulsive defender as Peter and the servant as Malchus.

John 18:3-11; Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-52; Matthew 26:47-56; Matthew then records Jesus statement: "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," but makes no mention (nor does Mark) of any healing of the wounded servant. Matthew is the sole preserver of Jesus' declaration: "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" John, however, preserves a different part of Jesus' response to Peter, "Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" and Luke only tells of the restoration of the severed ear.

John 18:3-11; Luke 22:47-53; Mark 14:43-52; Matthew 26:47-56; At this point John's account ceases, but Mark and Luke record, as seemingly occurring at this point, Jesus' objection to the illegality of his arrest. They preserve his taunting statement to the arresting officers for not taking him when he taught openly in the temple. Mark has Jesus explain that his arrest was arranged to fulfill the scriptures, while Luke records his somewhat ironical conclusion, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Matthew, however, seems to place Jesus' comments about his arrest somewhat later, "In that same hour," apparently after the multitude increased; and he too preserves the comment about fulfilling the scriptures. Matthew and Mark then recite that the disciples forsook Jesus and fled, and Mark alone adds an illustration showing the necessity of such flight. An unnamed young man (perhaps Mark himself) escaped arrest by leaving the linen cloth that covered him and fleeing naked into the night.

John 18:3. Judas guided a small army well supplied with weapons. A band consisted of some six hundred Roman soldiers with a tribune at their head. The Roman overlords were taking no chance on an uproar during the week of the Passover. Accompanying the soldiers was a "great multitude," perhaps thousands in number. This was no secret arrest, no private kidnapping; all Jerusalem would be aware of the taking into custody of the city's most noted inhabitant. Probably Judas would have led the entire "army" to the site of the Upper Room and not finding Jesus and the disciples would have guided them on to Gethsemane, for "Judas knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples." (John 18:2.)

Luke 22:48. Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?] A more traitorous token could not have been chosen. Among the prophets of old, among the saints of that day, and even among the Jews, a kiss was a symbol of that love and fellowship which existed where pure religion was or should have been found. When the Lord sent Aaron to meet Moses, he found him "in the mount of God, and kissed him." (Exodus 4:27.) When Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to a banquet but withheld the courtesy and respect due his guest, our Lord condemned him by saying, "Thou gavest me no kiss." (Luke 7:45.) Paul's counsel to the early brethren was, "Salute one another with an holy kiss." (Romans 16:16.) Judas, thus, could have chosen no baser means of identifying Jesus than to plant on his face a traitor's kiss. Such act not only singled out his intended victim, but by the means chosen, desecrated every principle of true fellowship and brotherhood.

Matthew 26:52. They that take the sword shall perish with the sword] Not every person who wages war is killed; war has its victors as well as its vanquished. Rather, 'They who foment and cause war have decreed their own spiritual death; they shall perish everlastingly because they loosed the sword of evil among their fellows.'

I. V. Mark 14:53. Healed the servant of the high priest] Facing a frenzied mob, in the presence of a Roman band, and without reference to the faith of Malchus, Jesus restores to that servant his ear. Jesus was being arrested for "falsely" claiming to possess the power of God. Here, as in the past, however, he manifests that very power before them. One wonders what outpouring of divine power it would take to impress their sin-saturated souls with his divine status.