47 While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” 49 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. 56 But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
From the seclusion of the Garden the story now moves into the open, and into the feverish atmosphere of brutal soldiery and fickle crowd. One senses the acceleration of tempo, as if, the essential issue having been decided in the Garden, all that now remains is its outworking in the course of events about to take place. Jesus is utterly in command of the situation, and is alone calm and self-possessed in the midst of the rising passions of men. He is not disturbed by the traitor's kiss, but we think that the traitor himself must have been discomfited by the greeting he received from the Son of God who, even thus late, was prepared to call him 'Friend'. Christ's reaction to the instinctive defensive move by one of the disciples (does it not seem astonishing that one of them should have been wearing a sword?) is an indication that the kind of interpretation placed on the Garden scene in the three previous Notes is a right one (53, 54). For He clearly indicates the voluntary nature of His self-giving, He has accepted the role prepared for Him by the Father, and is not prepared to be diverted from it by any well-meaning but misguided efforts to extricate Him from the crisis-situation. Indeed, so far from being the hapless victim of a wicked and cunning plot, it is He who is on the initiative in allowing Himself to be taken by them. Not otherwise, He indicates, can the Scriptures be fulfilled. If we do not see this, we have not grasped the real point and significance of the gospel message.