Luk 22:51 | KingComments | STEP | As the Lord prepares His disciples for what is to come, a crowd comes. Someone is preceding the crowd to show the way. It is Judas. He is separate from the crowd. His crime is also much greater than that of the crowd. It is emphasized that he is “one of the twelve”. That’s what makes the whole betrayal so terrible. He knows where the Lord can be captured because he is familiar with His customs. After all, according to His custom, He is here ( ). Judas approaches the Lord Jesus to kiss Him. His hypocrisy and betrayal reach their climax here. His horrible kiss of betrayal is proverbial for falsity hidden in an expression of love. It has touched the Lord deeply that Judas betrays Him, the Son of Man, with a kiss. He could have prevented it, but allows it. The Son of Man undergoes every conceivable humiliation. The first humiliation was to be kissed by one of His twelve disciples, a kiss intended to put Him in the hands of His enemies. This expression of love is abhorrently abused to identify Him, Who is love, as a criminal. The Lord is surrounded by His disciples. In their love for Him they want to defend Him. They ask Him whether they will strike with the sword. They misunderstood His words about this. He did not gather them around Him to defend Him, but that they can learn from Him. Even before He has answered, one of them is so impulsive to strike with the sword. The only result is that he cuts off the right ear of the slave of the high priest. The doctor Luke has an eye for which ear it is. An application is that in our zeal to defend the Word of God, we should not cut off ears. In a spiritual sense, it means that we should not make people reluctant to listen to God’s Word by applying the Word to them in a harsh way. While everything around Him is in confusion and excitement, the Lord radiates rest. The fellowship with His Father in the garden of Gethsemane was followed by rest in His appearance to His environment full of enmity. In grace, He undoes the damage caused by Peter in his recklessness. He touches the slave’s ear and heals it. A healing process is not necessary. The use of violence was to be left to the crowd with swords and clubs. Christ continues to show mercy, even if He is surrounded by a crowd that’s trying to kill Him. After His beneficence to one of His enemies, He addresses the leaders of the crowd who have come to Him. They did not come with a need for a sick, but He has given healing. Nor have they come to hear Him, but He has a word for them. They have to listen to it first. He wants to show them their folly and injustice. Perhaps there is also someone in the crowd who is addressed in his conscience. Why did they go out as if He were a robber? Is He such a danger to society? No, He is not, but He is a danger to their position and in that sense to them He is a robber. They feel He is robbing them of their position among the people. Therefore He must be killed. The Lord makes it clear that not they, but He governs the events. They didn’t lay a hand on Him before, while He was with them daily in the temple. That was not because they didn’t want it, but because they couldn’t do it. That they can now stretch out their hands to Him is because they have received the power from God to do so. It is now their hour. They may do what they want because God’s time has come for the fulfillment of His plans. At the same time it is clear that they are completely in the power of darkness. How else could they come to capture Him as a robber, He, Who did only good to them?

‏ Luke 22:51

The Lord Is Captured

As the Lord prepares His disciples for what is to come, a crowd comes. Someone is preceding the crowd to show the way. It is Judas. He is separate from the crowd. His crime is also much greater than that of the crowd. It is emphasized that he is “one of the twelve”. That’s what makes the whole betrayal so terrible. He knows where the Lord can be captured because he is familiar with His customs. After all, according to His custom, He is here (Lk 22:39).

Judas approaches the Lord Jesus to kiss Him. His hypocrisy and betrayal reach their climax here. His horrible kiss of betrayal is proverbial for falsity hidden in an expression of love. It has touched the Lord deeply that Judas betrays Him, the Son of Man, with a kiss. He could have prevented it, but allows it. The Son of Man undergoes every conceivable humiliation. The first humiliation was to be kissed by one of His twelve disciples, a kiss intended to put Him in the hands of His enemies. This expression of love is abhorrently abused to identify Him, Who is love, as a criminal.

The Lord is surrounded by His disciples. In their love for Him they want to defend Him. They ask Him whether they will strike with the sword. They misunderstood His words about this. He did not gather them around Him to defend Him, but that they can learn from Him. Even before He has answered, one of them is so impulsive to strike with the sword. The only result is that he cuts off the right ear of the slave of the high priest. The doctor Luke has an eye for which ear it is.

An application is that in our zeal to defend the Word of God, we should not cut off ears. In a spiritual sense, it means that we should not make people reluctant to listen to God’s Word by applying the Word to them in a harsh way.

While everything around Him is in confusion and excitement, the Lord radiates rest. The fellowship with His Father in the garden of Gethsemane was followed by rest in His appearance to His environment full of enmity. In grace, He undoes the damage caused by Peter in his recklessness. He touches the slave’s ear and heals it. A healing process is not necessary. The use of violence was to be left to the crowd with swords and clubs. Christ continues to show mercy, even if He is surrounded by a crowd that’s trying to kill Him.

After His beneficence to one of His enemies, He addresses the leaders of the crowd who have come to Him. They did not come with a need for a sick, but He has given healing. Nor have they come to hear Him, but He has a word for them. They have to listen to it first. He wants to show them their folly and injustice. Perhaps there is also someone in the crowd who is addressed in his conscience. Why did they go out as if He were a robber? Is He such a danger to society? No, He is not, but He is a danger to their position and in that sense to them He is a robber. They feel He is robbing them of their position among the people. Therefore He must be killed.

The Lord makes it clear that not they, but He governs the events. They didn’t lay a hand on Him before, while He was with them daily in the temple. That was not because they didn’t want it, but because they couldn’t do it. That they can now stretch out their hands to Him is because they have received the power from God to do so. It is now their hour. They may do what they want because God’s time has come for the fulfillment of His plans. At the same time it is clear that they are completely in the power of darkness. How else could they come to capture Him as a robber, He, Who did only good to them?