Sermon Tone Analysis

The Betrayal of Jesus

Mark 14:41–52

The Setting

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?”