28
A Traitorous Kiss for the Triumphant Savior
(Luke 22:47–53)
While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.” (22:47–53)
The previous section of Luke’s gospel described the Lord Jesus Christ’s agonizing experience of temptation in the garden of Gethsemane (see the exposition of 22:39–46 in chapter 27 of this volume). In this scene the Man of Sorrows faced another deeply painful experience, being betrayed into the hands of His enemies by one of His disciples. The narrative of this event is so dramatic, tragic, and in the end triumphant that it appears in all four Gospels.
The previous Saturday, six days before this scene in Gethsemane, Jesus had arrived in Bethany, a little village just east of Jerusalem. He stayed overnight there, most likely at the house of His friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and on Sunday taught the many people who came there to meet Him. Monday saw His triumphal entry into Jerusalem when He was hailed as the Messiah by the fickle crowd, who would on Friday scream for His blood.
On Tuesday Jesus returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, where He spent each night (22:39) with the apostles in seclusion and safety. Then He attacked the heart of the apostate Judaism of His day by assaulting the corruption in the temple for the second time in His ministry (cf. John 2:13–16), again infuriating the religious leaders. Jesus then spent the rest of the day teaching the people who were in Jerusalem for Passover.
After spending the night on the Mount of Olives, He came back into the city on Wednesday for one final day of teaching as well as confronting and condemning the religious leaders. At the end of the day He returned again to the Mount of Olives with the disciples, where He instructed them on elements of the lengthy interval between His first and second comings.
Thursday was a private day spent with the disciples, and culminating in the final official celebration of Passover and the inaugural celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus also taught the disciples for the last time before His death (John chapters 13–16) and prayed a prayer reflecting His role as believers’ high priest (chapter 17). Having exposed Judas, now fully under Satan’s control (Luke 22:3), as the betrayer, the Lord dismissed him. Judas then left to make the final preparations with the religious leaders to arrest Jesus.
Late Thursday night or shortly after midnight on Friday morning, Jesus and the eleven remaining disciples left the upper room and went to the garden of Gethsemane. The Lord left eight of the disciples at the entrance and took Peter, James, and John a little further in. He then separated a short distance from them and prayed by Himself. Agonizing in prayer, Christ triumphed over the devil, whose effort to tempt Him to avoid the cross failed. Returning to the disciples, Jesus found them not praying, as He had repeatedly admonished them to do, but sleeping. As He rebuked them one final time, the crowd arrived to arrest Him.
The best way to examine the ensuing scene is to examine the characters involved. We witness first the arrival of the crowd, then the kiss of the traitor, the rebuke of the disciples, and finally the triumph of the Savior.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE CROWD
While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; (22:47a)
While Jesus was still speaking to disciples and rebuking them for sleeping when they should have been praying (v. 46), the crowd arrived, with Judas preceding them as their guide. All three of the Synoptic Gospels record the abrupt transition from Christ’s solitary time in prayer to His confrontation with a large group of people (Matt. 26:47; Mark 14:43).
At the head of the crowd was the one called Judas. He was further identified as one of the twelve (cf. 22:3; Matt. 26:14, 47; Mark 14:10, 43) apostles who had been with Jesus for all three years of His ministry. Daily Judas had heard His teaching and witnessed His miracles. He had the same privilege, honor, and inestimable opportunity to walk with the incarnate Son of God that the other apostles did. Judas was not an outsider; he was an insider.
If there is a more ugly and repulsive word than “traitor,” it is the proper name synonym—Judas. As heinous and repulsive as Judas’s act of betraying Jesus was, the gospel writers are restrained in their references to him. There is nothing of the vituperation and scorn that the writers of later non-biblical, apocryphal works heaped on him. For instance,
The apocryphal writing The Story of Joseph of Arimathea taught that Judas was the son of the brother of the high priest Caiaphas and that he was sent by Caiaphas to infiltrate the disciples and discover a way to destroy Jesus.
According to another apocryphal writing, The Acts of Pilate, Judas went home after the betrayal and found his wife roasting a chicken. When he told her he was planning to kill himself because he was afraid Jesus would rise from the dead and take vengeance on him, she replied that Jesus would no more rise from the dead than the chicken she was cooking would jump out of the fire and crow—at which instant the chicken was said to have done just that.
An ancient manuscript called Coptic Narratives of the Ministry and Passion maintained that Judas’s wife was exceedingly greedy and that he was nothing more than the pawn of a manipulative wife. In the ancient Near East, to accuse a man of being subjugated to a dominating wife was considered highly slanderous.
A twelfth-century writing called The Legendary Aura claimed that Judas’s parents threw him into the sea when he was an infant, because even at that early age they supposedly sensed he was diabolical and deserved to be destroyed. Somehow he managed to survive and grow to adulthood, and, according to the legend, soon after marrying a beautiful older woman, he discovered she was his mother.
Such bizarre accounts are common in extrabiblical literature. They are concocted to demonstrate the vileness of Judas and to reveal the contempt with which he was viewed. The gospel writers, by contrast, simply call him one of the twelve. Rather than minimizing the heinousness of Judas’s treachery, this heightens the insidiousness of his crime more than any list of epithets could do. (John MacArthur, Matthew 24–28, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1989], 182–83)
After being exposed (Matt. 26:25) and dismissed (John 13:30) by Jesus as the betrayer, Judas went directly to the Jewish religious leaders. He had already made his deal with them (Matt. 26:3–16), and was now ready to consummate it. He knew that when Jesus and the remaining eleven disciples left the upper room, they would go to Gethsemane. Judas was eager to take advantage of the darkness and Jesus’ isolation from the crowds to have Him arrested there.
Judas felt a sense of urgency because there were details that had to be attended to before they could seize Jesus. He had to find some of the religious leaders in the middle of the night, who could gather the rest. Then it was necessary to convince the commander of the Roman garrison at Fort Antonia that Jesus was an insurrectionist who posed a threat to Rome. Since Pilate was in Jerusalem at the time, the commander no doubt sought permission from him to provide the troops the Jewish leaders requested. Finally, they all had to enter Gethsemane, identify Jesus, and capture Him before He could escape.
The crowd consisted of several groups, including those listed in verse 52: the chief priests (who ran the temple enterprises), the officers of the temple (the temple’s police force), elders (members of the Sanhedrin), scribes (Mark 14:43), and a detachment of Roman troops from the cohort stationed in Jerusalem. It is unlikely that the entire cohort (600-1000 men) would have been dispatched, since that would have left Jerusalem unguarded during Passover, when nationalistic feelings ran high. Yet enough troops (possible a maniple, consisting of about 200 men) were sent to warrant their commanding officer accompanying them (John 18:12). Always sensitive to the threat of insurrection (especially, as noted above, at Passover), the Romans came in overwhelming strength, armed (v. 52) and ready for trouble. John 18:3 notes that they carried lanterns and torches. The lights were not necessary to guide them to Gethsemane, since there was a full moon at Passover. They no doubt anticipated that Jesus would attempt to flee, and that they would have to search for Him in the darkness. The crowd came prepared to arrest Jesus as if He were a dangerous insurrectionist, like Barabbas (Mark 15:7).
The arrest of Jesus reveals several features about the crowd. First, it was unjust. Christ had committed no crime, either against God, Judaism, or Caesar. They were unjust, unfair, evil murderers, just like their father, the devil (John 8:44).
The crowd was also was mindless. The majority had no legitimate reason for hating Jesus. He had healed the sick, fed the poor, cast out demons, raised the dead, taught the truth of God’s kingdom, and upheld His glory, law, and word. But the majority of the crowd was seduced by the hatred of the leaders.
Third, the crowd was cowardly. They came fully armed to seize a humble Galilean, who was unarmed and undefended. A guilty conscience makes a coward; wickedness fears it may get what it deserves.
Finally, the crowd was profane. They had no reverence for the sacred Son, but sought to lay murderous hands on the holy Lord of glory.
The evil world still treats Jesus just as unjustly, mindlessly, cowardly, and profanely as the crowd did that night in Gethsemane.
THE KISS OF THE TRAITOR
and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (22:47b–48)
Although as noted earlier there was a full moon, the dense grove of olive trees in Gethsemane would have obscured much of the moonlight. Further, Jesus was surrounded by eleven men, and Judas may have feared that one of them would pretend to be Jesus while the rest hustled Him away to safety. Therefore he “had given them a signal, saying, ‘Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard’” (Mark 14:44). After arriving at Gethsemane, he approached Jesus to kiss Him. So brazenly confident was Judas in his hypocrisy that he imagined that no one would suspect him of treachery.
Out of the various ways he could have done so (e.g., on the feet, the back of the hand, the palm, the hem of the garment), Judas chose the embrace and kiss on the cheek normally reserved for those with whom one had a close friendship. There could not have been a more despicable way for him to have pointed out the Lord than by treacherously and hypocritically pretending to be a devoted, loyal companion of His by expressing the most intimate sign of affection.
Of course, Jesus knew his evil heart and every detail of his wicked plan. After his cynical greeting, “Hail, Rabbi” (Matt. 26:49), but before he could kiss Him, Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” Undeterred, Judas fervently and affectionately embraced and kissed Him, thus fulfilling his signal. Jesus accepted the kiss and submitted to the shame of Judas’s betrayal, telling him, “‘Friend (“fellow”; “man”), do what you have come for.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him” (Matt. 26:50).
When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him. (22:49–51)
At last the situation became clear to those who were around Jesus (i.e., the eleven apostles). They saw the large crowd, many of them armed, with Judas in the lead, and realized what was going to happen. The apostles, no doubt remembering Christ’s statement in Luke 22:36, “Whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one,” said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” They had also just witnessed another incredible display of Christ’s divine power, recorded in John 18. When the crowd arrived, Jesus calmly went to meet them (v. 4). He asked them who they were seeking (i.e., who they had orders to arrest), and they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” The Lord replied by using the divine name, “I am” (v. 5; cf. John 8:24, 28, 58), which caused the entire crowd to fall to the ground (v. 6).
After they picked themselves up, Jesus again asked them, “Whom do you seek?” making them affirm again that they only had authority to arrest Him. He then demanded that they let the apostles go, “to fulfill the word which He spoke, ‘Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one’” (v. 9). The Lord knew that being arrested would prove too much for their faith, and protected them (cf. 1 Cor. 10:13).
Emboldened by that display of Christ’s power, the disciples eagerly asked Him, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” Impetuous as ever, Peter did not wait for the Lord to reply, but instead launched a one-man assault on the detachment (John 18:10). He struck the slave of the high priest (Malchus), who was no doubt standing in the front rank next to his master. Peter unsuccessfully aimed for his head, but only managed to cut off his right ear.
But Christ’s kingdom was not a worldly one, and hence His followers did not need to fight to protect Him (John 18:36). The Lord immediately halted Peter’s heroics with the stern rebuke, “Stop! No more of this,” and then graciously touched Malchus’s ear and healed him. He then gave three reasons for stopping the battle and rebuking Peter:
First, because “all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (Matt. 26:52). Armed resistance could prove fatal, since murder is a capital offense. Jesus upheld the biblical principal of capital punishment, and affirmed that the government has the right to take the lives of those who commit murder (Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:4).
Armed resistance was also foolish. “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father,” the Lord told them, “and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53). Since one angel killed 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kings 19:35), the power of the tens of thousands of angels Christ could have called upon is inconceivable. He did not need any help from the apostles and their two small swords.
Finally, armed intervention by the apostles disregarded the necessity that the Old Testament prophecies regarding Christ’s death (e.g., Ps. 22; Isa. 53) be fulfilled (Matt. 26:54; cf. v. 24; Luke 24:25–26, 44–46).
After the Lord’s rebuke, in fulfillment of another Old Testament prophecy concerning His death, “all the disciples left Him and fled” (Matt. 26:56; cf. Zech. 13:7). On the human level, their failure to watch and pray (Luke 22:46) had left them unable to cope with the trial that was at hand.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE SAVIOR
Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.” (22:52–53)
After the disciples fled, Jesus confronted the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him and asked them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me.” If He was the dangerous threat and rival to Caesar that they accused Him of being, why did they fail to arrest Him earlier in the week? The answer is that they feared the people’s response (Luke 22:2). Only in the dark, isolated location of Gethsemane with an overwhelming force accompanying them, did they dare to arrest Him.
Jesus then gave the reason that they were unable to seize Him until this moment: it was this hour that God had sovereignly ordained to be theirs in association with the power of darkness (cf. Acts 2:22–23).
Throughout history there have always been people who, like the crowd, reject Jesus. There have also been false disciples, like Judas, who outwardly profess affection and loyalty to the Lord, but inwardly hate Him. Still others, like the eleven apostles, genuinely love Him, but are weak and vacillating. But towering over them all is the triumphant Savior, who surrendered Himself into the hands of sinners and willingly drank the cup of suffering, guilt, and bearing of sin that the Father gave Him so that sinners can be redeemed.