The history of our Lord's last moments begins after the words that He
addressed to His Father. We shall find even in this part of it, the general
character of that which is related in this Gospel (according to all that we
have seen in it), that the events bring out the personal glory of the Lord.
We have, indeed, the malice of man strongly characterised; but the
principal object in the picture is the Son of God, not the Son of man
suffering under the weight of that which is come upon Him. We have not the
agony in the garden. We have not the expression of His feeling Himself
forsaken by God. The Jews too are put in the place of utter rejection.
The iniquity of Judas is as strongly marked here as in chapter 13. He well
knew the place; for Jesus was in the habit of resorting thither with His
disciples. What a thought-to choose such a place for His betrayal! What
inconceivable hardness of heart! But alas! he had, as it were, given
himself up to Satan, the tool of the enemy, the manifestation of his power
and of his true character.
How many things had taken place in that garden! What communications from a
heart filled with God's own love, and seeking to make it penetrate into the
narrow and too insensible hearts of His beloved disciples! But all was lost
upon Judas. He comes, with the agents employed by the malice of the priests
and Pharisees, to seize the Person of Jesus. But Jesus anticipates them. It
is He who presents Himself to them. Knowing all things that should come
upon Him, He goes forth, inquiring, "Whom seek ye?" It is the Saviour, the
Son of God, who offers Himself. They reply, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus says
unto them, "I am he." Judas, also, was there, who knew Him well, and knew
that voice, so long familiar to his ears. No one laid hands on Him: but as
soon as His word echoes in their hearts, as soon as that divine "I am" is
heard within them, they go backward, and fall to the ground. Who will take
Him? He had but to go away and leave them there. But He came not for this;
and the time to offer Himself up was come. He asks them again, therefore,
"Whom seek ye?" They say, as before, "Jesus of Nazareth." The first time,
the divine glory of the Person of Christ must needs display itself; and now
His care for the redeemed ones. "If ye seek me," said the Lord, "let these
go their way"-that the word might be fulfilled, "Of those whom thou hast
given me, I have lost none." He presents Himself as the good Shepherd,
giving His life for the sheep. He puts Himself before them, that they may
escape the danger that threatens them, and that all may come upon Himself.
He yields Himself up. All is His own free offering here.
Nevertheless, whatever might be the divine glory that He manifested, and
the grace of a Saviour who was faithful to His own, He acts in obedience,
and in the perfect calmness of an obedience that had counted the whole cost
with God, and that received it all from His Father's hand. When the carnal
and unintelligent energy of Peter employs force to defend Him, who, if He
would, had only needed to have gone away when a word from His lips had cast
down to the ground all those who came to take Him, and the word that
revealed to them the object of their search deprived them of all power to
seize it. When Peter smites the servant Malchus, Jesus takes the place of
obedience. "The cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"
The divine Person of Christ had been manifested; the voluntary offering of
Himself had been made, and that, in order to protect His own; and now His
perfect obedience is at the same time displayed.
The malice of a hardened heart, and the want of intelligence of a carnal
though sincere heart, have been brought to view. Jesus has His place alone
and apart. He is the Saviour. Submitting thus to man, in order to
accomplish the counsels and the will of God, He allows them to take Him
whither they would. Little of all that took place is related here. Jesus,
although questioned, says scarcely anything of Himself. There is, before
both the high priest and Pontius Pilate, the calm though meek superiority
of One who was giving Himself: yet He is condemned only for the testimony
He gave of Himself. Every one had already heard that which He taught. He
challenges the authority which pursues the inquiry, not officially, but
peacefully and morally; and when unjustly struck, He remonstrates with
dignity and perfect calmness, while submitting to the insult. But He does
not acknowledge the high priest in any way; while at the same time He does
not at all oppose him. He leaves him in his moral incapacity.
The carnal weakness of Peter is manifested; as before his carnal energy.
When brought before Pilate (although because of truth, confessing that He
was king), the Lord acts with the same calmness and the same submission;
but He questions Pilate and instructs him in such a manner that Pilate can
find no fault in Him. Morally incapable, however, of standing at the height
of that which was before him, and embarrassed in presence of the divine
prisoner, Pilate would have delivered Him by availing himself of a custom,
then practised by the government, of releasing a culprit to the Jews at the
passover. But the uneasy indifference of a conscience which, hardened as it
was, bowed before the presence of One who (even while thus humbled) could
not but reach it, did not thus escape the active malice of those who were
doing the enemy's work. The Jews exclaim against the proposal which the
governor's disquietude suggested, and chose a robber instead of Jesus.
