The Betrayal of Jesus

It was in the garden of Gethsemane, shortly after midnight on Friday morning, that the Lord Jesus endured the ultimate temptation (14:32–42). He staggered as he gazed into the cup he must drink, for taking it meant he would drink our sin to the full and would drink the wrath of God which our sin deserved.

Casting himself to the ground in passionate night-long prayer empowered Jesus to go in sovereign submission to meet death. It was in the garden where Jesus experienced the ultimate betrayal. Unmoved in His obedient submission to the Father’s will (v. 36), the faithful Son of God resolutely set His face toward the cross. He did not hide or attempt to escape when the soldiers arrived to arrest Him. Instead, He boldly went out to confront them, knowing they had been guided there by the betrayer.

The arrest of the Lord Jesus set into motion a rapid-fire series of events that culminated in His crucifixion later that same day. In a matter of mere hours, Jesus would stand trial before multiple magistrates, including the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Roman governor Pilate, and Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee (Luke 23:6–12).

After he was sentenced to death, He would be tortured by Roman soldiers,

paraded through the streets to Golgotha,

then executed by being nailed to a wooden cross.

By about 3:00 that afternoon, the Man of Sorrows would be dead, having completed His atoning work as the one true and sufficient Passover Lamb.

The events of Jesus’ Passion Week climaxed at His crucifixion.[1]

For now, the struggle in Gethsemane ended with Jesus admonishing his sleepy disciples, “Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (vv. 41, 42). From here on, Jesus’ steeled humanity willingly took all that our sin could heap on him.[2]

Jesus’s Submission and the Betrayal of Judas

Mark 14:43 (ESV) 43 And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

In the middle of a spring nigh the Passover moon would be full. It was probably cloudless, for it was a cold night (John 18:18). The ancient olive trees were casting eerie shadows across the encampment. Beyond the ravine lay the sparse, scattered lights of Jerusalem where Judas had earlier made his rendezvous with a detachment from the Roman cohort (Matthew 26:47).

Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas and his arresting entourage reached the garden.

The once placid isolation of the night was now abruptly shattered by the sudden appearance of a menacing mob. The soldiers were fully armed, each carrying a short sword. With them came the Jewish Temple guards with their clubs.

Jews and Gentiles were united for once in a common cause. It must have been a chilling sight from Gethsemane as the mob exited Jerusalem and its flickering torches moved down to the Kidron and up the slopes of Olivet.

The plan was perfect. There would be no riot on this night, and if there was resistance, they were more than ready.

Because the religious leaders feared the crowds, and because they needed Rome’s permission and assistance to execute Jesus, the Jewish rulers had enlisted the help of Roman troops.

Having been convinced by the Jews that Jesus was a dangerous revolutionary like Barabbas (Mark 15:7), the Romans came with an overwhelming show of force.

At full strength, a cohort consisted of six hundred to one thousand soldiers, though a smaller group of two hundred soldiers (known as a maniple) may have been dispatched on this occasion. The short, double-edged swords of the Romans, along with the wooden clubs of the temple police, meant that this crowd was well-trained and well-armed. According to John 18:3, they also carried torches and lanterns.[3]

These men come prepared for armed resistance from one they suppose is a messianic revolutionary—because they had interpreted Jesus’ act in the temple in terms of the cultural categories of their day, rather than in terms of the rest of his teaching.[4]

The Duplicitous Traitor

Mark 14:44–46 (ESV)

44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” 45 And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 46 And they laid hands on him and seized him.

The word used for kiss here is not the usual word (phileo), but an intensive form (kataphileo), which the Greek lexicon defines as “to kiss fervently, kiss affectionately.”

It is the kind of kiss one gives to someone one loves. Judas’ kiss drips with horror, for it is a calloused prostitution of one of humanity’s most sacred symbols. Judas was a deicide (a god-killer) and a suicide, for Judas was dying at his own hand.[5]

Who is the God man in the midst of this most severe treatment by one of the 12. This betrayal was easily the most hurtful and grievous in human history, but Jesus was not conquered by it, nor was he taken captive by personal hatred.

Matthew 26:50 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.

In fact, by calling, Judas “friend,” he was still reaching out to him. Here we must not be easy on ourselves with rationalizations about him being divine and us human. We are called to do the same thing. Have we ever been betrayed? Even worse, has it been with a kiss? Do we feel that we are entitled to hatred? Jesus says we are not! Moreover, his example teaches that if we saturate our hearts in prayer and submission, we can even reach out to the offender[6]

Judas in the account apart from the essential fact that Jesus was handed over to the Sanhedrin through his agency. He is not mentioned in Mark’s Gospel after this point.[7]

Jesus’ Sovereign Submission and Arrest

Mark 14:46 (ESV)

46 And they laid hands on him and seized him.

Since Jesus was unarmed and offered no resistance, he was quickly apprehended. The grounds upon which the legality of the arrest was justified are difficult to ascertain.

Charges of blasphemy (Ch. 2:7),

violation of the Sabbath (Chs. 2:24; 3:2–6),

or the practice of magic and sorcery (Ch. 3:22) all at which were at various times were charges they brought against Jesus, but no one is specified in the account.

In spite of that, The legality of Jesus’ arrest cannot be questioned. The body of men who seized him were authorized to do so by the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court in the land.

If a written warrant for the arrest was required by law (cf. Acts 9:2), it may be assumed that one had been prepared and was in the possession of the leader of the task force. In the Roman provinces, the enforcement of the civil code, and to a large degree criminal law, among the non-citizen classes was normally relegated to the local authorities.[8]

The Impulsive Disciple

Mark 14:47 (ESV) 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

Mark records a single feeble attempt at resistance by an unnamed disciple who struck off the ear of the servant of the high priest with his sword.

According to Jn. 18:10, the assailant was Peter, whose action seems to have been impulsive, and the servant he wounded bore the name Malchus.[9] Peter used one of the two swords the disciples had in their possession for emergency defense and self-protection (Luke 22:38).

Undoubtedly aiming for the head, the fisherman missed his mark and only severed an ear when Malchus ducked (cf. Luke 22:50).

It’s likely that Peter’s reckless actions were motivated by a desire on his part to prove his unfaltering courage and loyalty to Jesus (cf. Mark 14:29; Luke 22:33).[10]

In the scuffle Peter managed to get away. He was not pursued because the incident must have seemed of trifling importance once the leader of the whole movement was in their hands.[11]

The Glorious Christ

Mark 14:48–49 (ESV) 48 And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.”

Seeing the formidable, well-armed, and highly trained force that had assembled to arrest Him, Jesus said to the Jewish leaders who stood before Him (Luke 22:52), “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber?”

In the midst of the chaos, Jesus stood with majestic tranquility, posing a reasonable question to His captors.

Since He was not a violent criminal, why was it necessary to bring an excessive military force to apprehend Him? A robber(from the Greek noun lēstēs) normally referred to an armed bandit or brigand who would violently resist arrest and try to escape.

And Jesus had not been hiding from them. As He went on to state, “Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me.” No place in Jerusalem was more public than the temple. His statement exposed their hypocrisy and cowardice. If He truly was the dangerous threat to Rome they accused Him of being (John 19:12), why had they not arrested Him in the temple earlier that week?

His question exposed their fear that the people, enamored with Jesus, would turn against them (Luke 22:2). To avoid the possibility of a public reaction, they waited to arrest Him, doing so outside of the city, under the cover of darkness, and

accompanied by military force.

Though it did not reduce the guilt of their wicked actions, the Lord acknowledged that the events surrounding His arrest were taking place to fulfill the Scriptures.

Everything was running according to the Father’s perfect schedule. Even in their hostility toward Christ, the apostate leaders of Israel were fulfilling the redemptive plan of God, as predicted by the Old Testament prophets and by Jesus Himself.

God sovereignly used their wicked schemes to accomplish His eternal purposes (cf. Gen. 50:20).

No matter how many soldiers accompanied them, the Jewish leaders could not have taken Jesus unless He surrendered Himself into their custody.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus’ enemies had repeatedly tried to take His life, but without success because those attempts were not in keeping with the Father’s timetable. The Lord Jesus would lay down His life, but not until His hour had come. As....

He declared in John 10:17–18, “I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” Even in His death, everything Jesus did was under His control and in perfect accord with the Father’s will.[12]

The Cowardly Apostles

Mark 14:50–52 (ESV) 50 And they all left him and fled. 51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.

After an initial display of bravado, in which Peter flashed his sword, all eleven disciples left Jesus and fled. The Lord had earlier instructed them to keep watch and pray (14:38; cf. Luke 22:40), but instead they had fallen asleep. When the moment of temptation arrived, they were woefully unprepared. Thus, all reacted with fear. Just as the Lord had predicted they would (cf. 14:27), the disciples quickly fled the scene, realizing that Christ was unwilling to resist His attackers, and that if they stayed, they too would be arrested (cf. John 18:8).

Mark closes his account of Jesus’ arrest in the garden with a striking illustration of one man’s cowardice. As Mark reports, A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked.

Because this detail is unique to Mark’s gospel, some interpreters have suggested that perhaps the young man was Mark himself. But nothing in the text indicates who the man was, making attempts to identify him entirely speculative.

Clearly, the man’s identity is irrelevant to Mark’s purpose for including this shocking detail in his historical record.

Mark’s point was likely to emphasize the complete isolation Christ experienced in that moment. The huge crowds who had heard Him teach in the temple were nowhere to be found. The only crowd that gathered around Him that night was there to take Him captive.

His apostles, each of whom promised they would never desert Him, had all abandoned Him. \

When everyone else ran away, the Lord Jesus made no attempt to escape. The Man of Sorrows was left alone, surrounded by no one but His adversaries. From Gethsemane, He would be escorted back into Jerusalem, to the house of the high priest, where a mock trial against Him would commence shortly[14]

Closing

Even in His capture, Jesus moved toward the cross with triumphant confidence.

He knew the redemptive purposes of God would be accomplished.

Old Testament prophecies about His betrayal and abandonment had already come to pass (cf. Pss. 41:9; 55:12–14; Zech. 11:12; 13:7).

Additional prophecies would be fulfilled later that day, as He offered Himself as the final sacrifice for sin (cf. Heb. 7:27).

Though He had been placed under arrest and bound by the soldiers (John 18:12), the Lord Jesus nonetheless went willingly, compelled by a submissive love for His Father, saving love for His redeemed, and steadfast pursuit of His own glory (Heb. 12:2).

Jesus was absolutely alone as he submitted himself to the Cross.

The faithful resolve of Jesus through prayer in Gethsemane wrought the most amazing results in his life.

• He went forth intrepidly to meet his end.

• He received the terrible kiss of betrayal, and responded with love.

• He submitted to the arrest of the mob.

• He refused the exercise of natural strength.

• He depended upon the Father and his angels.

• He did it all alone.

If you are a partaker of the life of Christ, realize there is only one acceptable posture—submission to him who gave himself for us.[15]

[1]MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (p. 308). Moody Publishers. [2]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 2, p. 173). Crossway Books. [3]MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (pp. 310–311). Moody Publishers. [4]Keener, C. S. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament(Mk 14:43). InterVarsity Press. [5]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 2, p. 174). Crossway Books. [6]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 2, p. 175). Crossway Books. [7]Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark (p. 525). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [8]Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark (p. 525). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [9]Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark (pp. 525–526). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [10]MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (pp. 313–314). Moody Publishers. [11]Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark (p. 526). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. [12]MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (pp. 315–316). Moody Publishers. [13]MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (pp. 316–317). Moody Publishers. [14]MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 9–16 (pp. 316–317). Moody Publishers. [15]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 2, p. 177). Crossway Books.

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