The Betrayal by L. E. SUFFICool

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Aug 17, 1911

The Betrayal

By L. E. SUFFICool

L. E. SUFFICool

“And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus oftimes resorted thither with his disciples.” John 18:2. By prayer our High Priest consecrates himself as the great sacrifice to God the Father. He is bent on nothing so much as completing his sacrifice. Accordingly, “when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.” From the gate of the city, a slight declivity conducts to the brook Kedron, which Jesus now crosses, even as his father David had crossed it a thousand years before, in bitterness of spirit, flying from persecution and treachery. Of all the disciples, the evangelist John alone makes mention of this stream, perhaps to guide the reader to the typical bearing of that ancient history. Read 2 Sam. 15:23-30.

We would not infer that by the act of withdrawing from the city our divine Lord was seeking to avoid his enemies. Rather, well knowing that his hour is come, he repairs to this accustomed haunt in humble submission to his Father’s will. The beloved disciple mentions the fact that Judas “knew the place;” this he does not only to prepare us for the apprehension which immediately follows, but to reveal the interesting circumstance that the garden of Gethsemane was a favorite resort of the Saviour and his disciples during the time of their sojourn in Jerusalem. Though his nights were spent in Bethany, the early hours of the evening may have been passed in converse or prayer beneath the cedars of Gethsemane. How it must have aggravated the bitterness of the hour, that Judas should avail himself of the knowledge which his discipleship supplied to betray our Saviour.

How terrible! Here where they oftentimes sat in “sweet counsel,”—here where the Master taught him to pray,—the traitor comes now to apprehend him. From the writings of the other apostles we gather that he chose the very hour of prayer itself as the most certain for the execution of his purpose. Behold the terrible indignity which was thus offered the Creator of the universe, he who to-day is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the “express image of his person”! Who knows to what depths Satan will lead the soul that departs from the side of the divine Son? Let the daily prayer of the heart be—“Closer to thee, my Father, draw me, I long for thine embrace.”

Hagerstown, Md.