Jesus passion 2

 Passion of Jesus

The deed had been done, the signal had been given; Jesus could now submit to whatever was to follow. The plan of Judas had succeeded; Jesus had clearly been deceived. His success gave the rabble courage; Judas now could disappear and leave the rest to them. At once the silence of the night was broken; the mob that till then had been held in check, first by Judas, then by Jesus, now resumed its noisy clamour, that clamour that turns cowards into mock heroes. They came up and pressed upon Jesus of Nazareth; they laid their hands upon Him, and this time He showed no inclination to escape. At last His magic power was gone; the kiss of the traitor had undone Him, as the caresses of Delilah had undone the mighty Samson. Now in His presence they could be very brave indeed:

" They then came up

And laid hands on Him

And held Him."

But for the companions of Jesus this was indeed a new situation. Let it be remembered that, for most of them at least, the action of Judas need not have appeared as anything strange. He had gone out from the supper-room, as they had presumed ,upon an errand, some commission given to him by Jesus. He had come back to them here in the garden;he had gone to salute his Master, and tell Him the commission had been done,nay more, he had owned Him before this threatening crowd. It was a noble act , a good act, a brave act; as before they had always tended to follow the lead of Judas, so they would follow it now. They , too, would renew their courage and be brave. Now they remembered that at the Supper Jesus had forewarned them that they should have swords in readiness for what was to happen that night; and they had said that they would go with Him even to death. Against all these odds they would fight for their Master. On other occasions He had tested their courage , and blamed for their want of faith and trust ; it might be that He was only testng them now. Simon Peter especially; he had been tried before as none of the others , rewarded for his faith and trust as none of them. That night he had committed himself further than the rest, protesting that he would not deny his Lord, that he would die with Him; he must be their leader in courage now.

" And they that were about him 

Seeing what would follow

Said to him

Lord

Shall we strike with the sword ?

Then one of them that was with Jesus

Simon Peter

Stretching forth his hand

Drew his sword

 And striking the servant of the High Priest

Cut off his right ear

And the name of the servant was Malchus."

A few hours before, in the supper-room, the disciples had been discussing among themselves who should  be the foremost in the kingdom;during all that week, since  the Sunday 's triumphal

march, they had been telling themselves that at last the kingdom was at hand. Now was their opportunity to show their prowess; kingdom must be won by battle. It was true they had but two swords among them.

Simon Peter drew the first sword. He struck, it did not matter how or where; he struck one in the vanguard of the crowd , and official in the high priest's household. The blow was partly averted; it cut off the man's right ear.We are told that the man's name was Malchus; if we may judge from other cases, we may conclude that m

Malchus was later a disciple of Peter, a member of the Christian Church.