THE ARREST

Matthew 26:51-56

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit

St. Matthew 26:51-56  [51] And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.  [52] But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  [53]  Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?  [54] How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”  [55] In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me?  I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me.  [56] But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”  Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled. 

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…Tonight we see the final scene in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Judas has done his dastardly work of betraying Christ, and now the armed multitude who followed him come forward to lay hands on Jesus and take Him into custody.

The unthinkable is happening.  Jesus is being arrested.  He has not passed through the midst of them as He had done before.  He has not used His divine power to escape. They actually have taken Him.  If you are one of the twelve, your faith is being attacked, for Jesus is the center of it.

Most creatures react in one of two ways when they are attacked: fight or flight.  And this applies to people too, evidently.  We see these two reactions from the disciples when Jesus is taken prisoner.  First we see the fight reaction.  Matthew tells us: “And suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.”

We learn from John’s Gospel that the one who took up the sword was Peter, and that the servant whom he struck was named Malchus.  We also learn that our Lord undid what Peter had done by healing it Malchus’ ear.

And Jesus rebuked Peter, saying to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?  How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”

Jesus’ rebuke of Peter is threefold.  First, he rebukes him because Peter has no authority to take up the sword.  Jesus said, “All who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  Why?  Because God has not given authority to individuals to kill to individuals, but to the government.  Peter felt a great wrong was being perpetrated by Judas and his band of soldiers.  But Peter was not the one to answer that wrong.  It was not his office to take up arms against sin and to punish an individual.  That is the office of public rulers, of government.

St. Paul writes about this in Romans 13: “…[the governing authority] does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”  In fact, by taking up his sword and striking Malchus, Peter was sinning against God and against the government God had put in place.  That is why our Lord warns that those who do so will also perish by the sword.

Jesus is not promoting some sort of “what goes around comes around” idea.  He’s talking about justice.  The government is put in place to bring the sword to bear against those who take up the sword themselves.  Again St. Paul says: “whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

The second reason Peter is rebuked is for his lack of faith.  Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels…”  Peter had seen Christ’s divine power at work.  He had seen miracles; he even saw the dead raised to life.  And he had seen the Lord escape from danger by God’s power before.

Was Christ now a failure?  Was God the Father powerless against these men who had laid hold of His Son?  Of course not.  So where was Peter’s faith in this striking out with the sword?

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You will recall when Peter argues that Christ should not be allowed to die, Jesus said to Him: “Get behind Me, Satan!  You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”  (Mt 16:23)  And so Peter is shown the futility of using his sword in defense of Jesus.

Our Lord also showed the armed multitude that their weapons would not be needed, saying: “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me?  I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me.  But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”

Jesus had shown previously that He was more powerful than they and could with a Word defeat them, knocking them all to the ground with the simple statement: “I AM”.  No, the only reason that they could take Him into custody was that He was willing to be taken so that He could complete His saving work and fulfill the promises of God made in the Scriptures.

And now, seeing their master taken, seeing that fighting would do no good, the disciples take the other option: Flight – as the last disturbing verse of our reading indicates: “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled,”

And here too we see unbelief at work, a lack of trust in the Father who would protect them, a lack of trust in the Scriptures that spoke of the goodness of Christ’s sacrifice, and pure mortal fear for their own lives in the face of persecution.

But fight or flight are not the only options when the faith comes under attack.  There is a third option, the one taken by Jesus: the option of bearing the cross.  There can be no doubt that this is the most difficult route to take, but also that it is the right one.  When acting in faith, one cannot take up the sword to defend the Faith unless, of course, a person is functioning as part of the government and thereby fulfilling the command given by God to uphold righteousness in the land.

As an individual we are not to defend our religion by force, but only by the Word of God.  Acting in faith, we cannot flee and forsake Christ either.  That is an easy path to follow, and chosen by many, but it is a way that leads to destruction and eternal torment.  For if we forsake Christ, then who will stand as your advocate on the day of judgment?  Who will declare you innocent of all sins?  Only Christ can do that, having become the payment for sin and having reconciled man to God.

The only faithful path to follow when faith is attacked is this: to bear the cross, suffer the attack, and trust God to care for you and bring you through it.

Our Lord suffered the cross.  The cross even brought Him death.  But through it all, He trusted His heavenly Father’s will.  He knew that what He suffered was for the good of all.  He trusted that He would rise from the dead, having such Divine power in Himself and having authority from the Father to use it.  He trusted that God would avenge Him in the day of judgment.  And so He suffered faithfully, and now has gained the prize.

We too must suffer attacks to our faith by acting faithfully and bearing our crosses.  We must not defend God’s Word by force, but by faithfully confessing that Word and trusting God to do His work through it.  If He will not accomplish His work through the Word, then no amount of force will do it either.  It is not only futile, but wrong to attempt it.

And we must not forsake Christ in the midst of persecution and attack, for then we would have no hope.  Rather, we commend ourselves to God and trust Him to act for us.  And He has promised to do so; He has promised to avenge those who have suffered in His name, and to judge those who have made them suffer.

And He will do it.  He has already defeated and judged our greatest enemies.  He has crushed Satan under the foot of the cross for us.  He had defeated death for us.  He has rendered impotent sin’s guilt and power over us.  And so we know that whatever comes to us in this life, we will endure in God-given faith. We know that our place is secure through Christ, who bore the cross for us.  And He did that in order that we might not taste God’s sword, but His blessing in eternal life and salvation.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.