At Gethsemane the Lord
literally held a night-long prayer, as He thought of having to drink the horrific
cup of sin and God’s wrath that sin deserved. He had brought His three closest
disciples with Him with the hope to draw support from them. But alas that was
not to be! They were overtaken by their weakened flesh and far too sleepy to be
counted on. The Lord having been empowered to face the death that sin demands, yielded
to the will of God. He woke up His three sleepy disciples, and went forward to
face His betrayal and His ultimate death.
In these nine verses we
see three things emphasized. Firstly was the kiss of Judas Iscariot. Just
imagine the Sovereign Lord willingly submitting Himself to His betrayal. Judas
came accompanied by a crowd belonging to the Jewish leaders. Armed with swords
and clubs, probably expecting to encounter violence, they came to where Jesus
was. And here the diabolical scheme of Judas had reached its zenith. He had
already schemed to point out the Lord with a kiss. Just imagine using an
expression meant to convey deep love to betray the one he had professed to love
so dearly. What an irony! Mark used a word that meant a prolonged kiss or a
romantic kiss. Verse 45 tells us that he approached the Lord, addressed Him and
planted his prolonged kiss. Immediately they laid hands on Him and seized Him.
Secondly, we are told
that the disciples resisted. One of them, John 18:10 tells us it’s Peter, drew
out his sword and fought back. He cut off the ear of a slave of the high
priest. John tells us that the name of the servant was Malchus. Luke in his
account in chapter 22 and verse 51 tells us that the Lord touched Malchus’ ears
and healed him. Can you see the heart of Jesus? Even here He compassionately
reached out to a man who came to arrest Him. Aren’t we like Peter at times? We try to do ministry
with our own effort. Instead of helping, our efforts only lop off people’s
ears, figuratively speaking. Let’s think for a little while to something more
pleasant. What would Malchus mostly likely be talking about at breakfast
table the next morning? Would he be singing the praises of the compassionate
Lord, or would he be cursing Peter for his unfortunate experience?
Finally, the third thing that happened was that all His disciples fled
from the scene. It was likely that they all had expected the Lord to fight
back. The fact that they brought swords and resisted, tells us that they had
misunderstood the Lord altogether. And when told to put their swords away they
were probably disillusioned and disappointed with Him. So they all fled and
deserted Him. In the midst of explaining this, we find an unusual description
of a man who fled naked. This young man who was following Him covered only with
a linen sheet, escaped naked when the crowd tried to seize Him. Most commentators
said that this was John Mark’s way of saying “I was at the scene and I witnessed
it all.
Lessons
such as being watchful so that we will not betray the Lord by our conduct, or
be faithful and stay with the Lord till the end, could be said. But one key
lesson for us should be this: we may not be expected to drink that cup of wrath
but we are called to live in total submission to the Lord. We need to depend on
Him and respond in love as our Lord did. As we do His ministry, we need to
adopt the mind of Christ. We must not adopt a vengeful attitude. He calls us to
love even when we have been wronged. Let’s not approach ministry with a drawn sword
looking to lop off ears to inflict wounds.
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