The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus

183:3.1As this com­pany of armed sol­diers and guards, car­ry­ing torches and lanterns, ap­proached the gar­den, Ju­das stepped well out in front of the band that he might be ready quickly to iden­tify Je­sus so that the ap­pre­hend­ers could eas­ily lay hands on him be­fore his as­so­ciates could rally to his de­fense. And there was yet an­other rea­son why Ju­das chose to be ahead of the Mas­ter’s en­e­mies: He thought it would ap­pear that he had ar­rived on the scene ahead of the sol­diers so that the apos­tles and oth­ers gath­ered about Je­sus might not di­rectly con­nect him with the armed guards fol­low­ing so closely upon his heels. Ju­das had even thought to pose as hav­ing has­tened out to warn them of the com­ing of the ap­pre­hend­ers, but this plan was thwarted by Je­sus’ blight­ing greet­ing of the be­trayer. Though the Mas­ter spoke to Ju­das kindly, he greeted him as a traitor.

183:3.2As soon as Pe­ter, James, and John, with some thirty of their fel­low campers, saw the armed band with torches swing around the brow of the hill, they knew that these sol­diers were com­ing to ar­rest Je­sus, and they all rushed down to near the olive press where the Mas­ter was sit­ting in moon­lit soli­tude. As the com­pany of sol­diers ap­proached on one side, the three apos­tles and their as­so­ciates ap­proached on the other. As Ju­das strode for­ward to ac­cost the Mas­ter, there the two groups stood, mo­tion­less, with the Mas­ter be­tween them and Ju­das mak­ing ready to im­press the traitorous kiss upon his brow.

183:3.3It had been the hope of the be­trayer that he could, af­ter lead­ing the guards to Geth­sem­ane, sim­ply point Je­sus out to the sol­diers, or at most carry out the prom­ise to greet him with a kiss, and then quickly re­tire from the scene. Ju­das greatly feared that the apos­tles would all be pres­ent, and that they would con­cen­trate their at­tack upon him in ret­ri­bu­tion for his dar­ing to be­tray their beloved teacher. But when the Mas­ter greeted him as a be­trayer, he was so con­fused that he made no at­tempt to flee.

183:3.4Je­sus made one last ef­fort to save Ju­das from ac­tu­ally be­tray­ing him in that, be­fore the traitor could reach him, he stepped to one side and, ad­dress­ing the fore­most sol­dier on the left, the cap­tain of the Ro­mans, said, “Whom do you seek?” The cap­tain an­swered, “Je­sus of Naz­a­reth.” Then Je­sus stepped up im­me­di­ately in front of the of­fi­cer and, stand­ing there in the calm majesty of the God of all this cre­ation, said, “I am he.” Many of this armed band had heard Je­sus teach in the tem­ple, oth­ers had learned about his mighty works, and when they heard him thus boldly an­nounce his iden­tity, those in the front ranks fell sud­denly back­ward. They were over­come with sur­prise at his calm and ma­jes­tic an­nounce­ment of iden­tity. There was, there­fore, no need for Ju­das to go on with his plan of be­trayal. The Mas­ter had boldly re­vealed him­self to his en­e­mies, and they could have taken him with­out Ju­das’s as­sis­tance. But the traitor had to do some­thing to ac­count for his pres­ence with this armed band, and be­sides, he wanted to make a show of car­ry­ing out his part of the be­trayal bar­gain with the rulers of the Jews in or­der to be el­i­gi­ble for the great re­ward and hon­ors which he be­lieved would be heaped upon him in com­pen­sa­tion for his prom­ise to de­liver Je­sus into their hands.

183:3.5As the guards ral­lied from their first fal­ter­ing at the sight of Je­sus and at the sound of his un­usual voice, and as the apos­tles and dis­ci­ples drew nearer, Ju­das stepped up to Je­sus and, plac­ing a kiss upon his brow, said, “Hail, Mas­ter and Teacher.” And as Ju­das thus em­braced his Mas­ter, Je­sus said, “Friend, is it not enough to do this! Would you even be­tray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

183:3.6The apos­tles and dis­ci­ples were lit­er­ally stunned by what they saw. For a mo­ment no one moved. Then Je­sus, dis­en­gag­ing him­self from the traitorous em­brace of Ju­das, stepped up to the guards and sol­diers and again asked, “Whom do you seek?” And again the cap­tain said, “Je­sus of Naz­a­reth.” And again an­swered Je­sus: “I have told you that I am he. If, there­fore, you seek me, let these oth­ers go their way. I am ready to go with you.”

183:3.7Je­sus was ready to go back to Je­ru­sa­lem with the guards, and the cap­tain of the sol­diers was al­to­gether will­ing to al­low the three apos­tles and their as­so­ciates to go their way in peace. But be­fore they were able to get started, as Je­sus stood there await­ing the cap­tain’s or­ders, one Malchus, the Syr­ian body­guard of the high priest, stepped up to Je­sus and made ready to bind his hands be­hind his back, al­though the Ro­man cap­tain had not di­rected that Je­sus should be thus bound. When Pe­ter and his as­so­ciates saw their Mas­ter be­ing sub­jected to this in­dig­nity, they were no longer able to re­strain them­selves. Pe­ter drew his sword and with the oth­ers rushed for­ward to smite Malchus. But be­fore the sol­diers could come to the de­fense of the high priest’s ser­vant, Je­sus raised a for­bid­ding hand to Pe­ter and, speak­ing sternly, said: “Pe­ter, put up your sword. They who take the sword shall per­ish by the sword. Do you not un­der­stand that it is the Fa­ther’s will that I drink this cup? And do you not fur­ther know that I could even now com­mand more than twelve le­gions of an­gels and their as­so­ciates, who would de­liver me from the hands of these few men?”

183:3.8While Je­sus thus ef­fec­tively put a stop to this show of phys­i­cal re­sis­tance by his fol­low­ers, it was enough to arouse the fear of the cap­tain of the guards, who now, with the help of his sol­diers, laid heavy hands on Je­sus and quickly bound him. And as they tied his hands with heavy cords, Je­sus said to them: “Why do you come out against me with swords and with staves as if to seize a rob­ber? I was daily with you in the tem­ple, pub­licly teach­ing the peo­ple, and you made no ef­fort to take me.”

183:3.9When Je­sus had been bound, the cap­tain, fear­ing that the fol­low­ers of the Mas­ter might at­tempt to res­cue him, gave or­ders that they be seized; but the sol­diers were not quick enough since, hav­ing over­heard the cap­tain’s or­ders to ar­rest them, Je­sus’ fol­low­ers fled in haste back into the ravine. All this time John Mark had re­mained se­cluded in the near-by shed. When the guards started back to Je­ru­sa­lem with Je­sus, John Mark at­tempted to steal out of the shed in or­der to catch up with the flee­ing apos­tles and dis­ci­ples; but just as he emerged, one of the last of the re­turn­ing sol­diers who had pur­sued the flee­ing dis­ci­ples was pass­ing near and, see­ing this young man in his linen coat, gave chase, al­most over­tak­ing him. In fact, the sol­dier got near enough to John to lay hold upon his coat, but the young man freed him­self from the gar­ment, es­cap­ing naked while the sol­dier held the empty coat. John Mark made his way in all haste to David Zeb­e­dee on the up­per trail. When he had told David what had hap­pened, they both has­tened back to the tents of the sleep­ing apos­tles and in­formed all eight of the Mas­ter’s be­trayal and ar­rest.

183:3.10At about the time the eight apos­tles were be­ing awak­ened, those who had fled up the ravine were re­turn­ing, and they all gath­ered to­gether near the olive press to de­bate what should be done. In the mean­time, Si­mon Pe­ter and John Zeb­e­dee, who had hid­den among the olive trees, had al­ready gone on af­ter the mob of sol­diers, guards, and ser­vants, who were now lead­ing Je­sus back to Je­ru­sa­lem as they would have led a des­per­ate crim­i­nal. John fol­lowed close be­hind the mob, but Pe­ter fol­lowed afar off. Af­ter John Mark’s es­cape from the clutch of the sol­dier, he pro­vided him­self with a cloak which he found in the tent of Si­mon Pe­ter and John Zeb­e­dee. He sus­pected the guards were go­ing to take Je­sus to the home of An­nas, the high priest emer­i­tus; so he skirted around through the olive or­chards and was there ahead of the mob, hid­ing near the en­trance to the gate of the high priest’s palace.