Luke 22:53, commentary and pictures

Jesus had taught openly in the temple day after day where he could have been seized, yet no hand was laid on him until his enemies came by night with a mob and weapons to take him as a criminal. This was his arrest in Gethsemane after his agony there when Judas betrayed him to an armed band, and the hour named is the appointed time when his opponents were permitted to act and the evil power behind them was given sway. In that hour as humanity's substitute and surety he bore the sin of the world, enduring the curse of the law and separation from his Father to vindicate divine justice, magnify the law and settle its controversy forever. His keenest suffering was mental anguish under the sense of the Father's displeasure and forsakenness, pressed down by Satan and legions of evil angels while holy angels were held back, yet yielding nothing to the foe. That same power of darkness still works against the truth and the church through evil angels and human agents, to be met by divine presence, prayer and discernment and overcome by the power pledged in baptism.

Arrest and Appointed Hour

Day after day Jesus had been with the leaders in the temple teaching openly, giving them full opportunity to lay hands on Him there, yet they stretched forth no hands against Him. Instead they came against Him by night with a mob bearing swords and staves and weapons, as if seizing a criminal. Their choice of the night suited their purpose, and being confronted with His open daytime teaching it exposed their hypocrisy and the unjust purpose of the arrest.

The saying belongs to His arrest in Gethsemane on the night of His final agony, after His anguish there when Judas betrayed Him and a band of armed men came to take Him. Your hour identifies their appointed time and opportunity to act, when His opponents were permitted to seize Him and their authority to do so had come. Though He could have delivered Himself, He did not. The power of darkness identifies the evil power at work in that seizure, so that their appointed action stood under the power of evil.

Bearing Sin Alone

He went to his suffering willingly and was not forced, having contemplated the coming struggle beforehand and known the baptism of suffering that awaited him, and he announced to his disciples that the hour of his enemies and the power of darkness had come. He volunteered to lay down his life to save the world because the claims of God's government had been misapprehended through deceptive words and works, and the need of a mediator was seen and felt. That hour was the coming of the great antitype of all the sacrificial offerings, when type met antitype and the substance which all the sacrifices symbolized was offered in his surrender of his spotless soul as a living sacrifice. In that hour, as humanity's substitute and surety, he bore the sin of the world, endured the curse of the law, vindicated the justice of God, and underwent separation from his Father as the punishment for transgression, in order to magnify God's law and testify to its immutability and to settle forever the controversy over the changeless character of that law.

At his arrest he was bearing the guilt of humanity as one numbered with transgressors, though he had committed no sin. The disciples expected him to establish an earthly kingdom and had not imagined that his own nation would reject him, condemn him, and crucify him, and he was sad as he prepared them for the coming conflict as darkness approached to have power against him. He foresaw the trying ordeal of betrayal, agony, condemnation, humiliation, and crucifixion when the power of darkness would prevail and even professed followers would turn from him in his trouble, and knew who among his followers were unbelieving and weak in faith. He therefore deliberately brought an earlier crisis to sift out the faint-hearted and undecided while he was still present to comfort, strengthen, and prepare his chosen few, so that when the multitude who had hailed him as king hissed, reviled, and cried for crucifixion and the hooting rabble scorned him as doomed, the faithful would not be overwhelmed with surprise, sunk by fear, grief and disappointed hopes, or carried away by the example of apostates, having already tested the inconstant favor of the world.

On the evening before his transfiguration he already saw that prevailing hour ahead while leading Peter, James and John up the mountain, and prayed for strength to endure the test in behalf of humanity and to gain a fresh hold on omnipotence so he could contemplate the future, and prayed for his disciples that their faith would not fail when it came. After standing as a mighty conqueror who at each step had gained victory over the powers of darkness, claimed oneness with God, poured out praise, and spoken to his disciples in courage and tenderness, in Gethsemane he was beaten and bent like a reed in an angry storm, his wonted calm broken, appearing weak and overwhelmed with superhuman anguish and human cries instead of triumph. The time in Gethsemane was the last fearful conflict with Satan as prince of the power of darkness, who after being conquered in the wilderness had left for a season and had prepared during the three years of ministry for this return.

He feared that his human nature, without calling his divinity to his aid, would be unable to endure the coming conflict, and everything was at stake, for if he failed the human race would be irrecoverably lost, Satan would be victor, and the earth would be his kingdom, while if Satan failed his hope of mastery was lost and the kingdoms of the earth would finally become Christ's, who would bind the strong man and cast him out. The powers of darkness pressed upon him with irresistible force and bowed him to the earth, while they also paralyzed the disciples and left them asleep when they should have been watching. He faced this conflict determined to conquer the prince of darkness so that humanity would not remain bound in hopeless despair, acting as humanity's representative who bore the griefs and iniquities of others and bridged the gulf opened by sin. As he bore the sins of the world and suffered the Father's anger against sin in humanity's place, God's light and presence receded from his vision, and he passed into the hands of those powers.

The sins of the world rested on him, and the curse of sin made him feel separated from his Father's love, under his Father's displeasure and forsaken, with his Father's face hidden and no ray of light to brighten the future, bringing such agony that he doubted his oneness with his Father. That spiritual anguish of separation was mental and not bodily pain alone, far greater than bodily pain and unlike the suffering of martyrs, with bodily pain only a small part of his agony, and his sense of the Father's displeasure was his keenest anguish. In that hour he was oppressed and enshrouded by legions of evil angels and struggled with the power of Satan, who claimed Christ was in his hands and superior in strength and that God had disowned him and no longer favored him. Evil angels surrounded him while holy angels were bidden not to break their ranks to fight the taunting foe nor to minister to him.

Even in bitterest anguish he yielded nothing to the foe until the cry of forsakenness was wrenched from him. It was an awful crisis when everything was at stake and the mysterious cup trembled in the Sufferer's hand as he drank the bitter draught of imputed transgression to the very dregs without being spared one pang of anguish. Heavenly help strengthened him to drink the cup fully rather than removing it, with the mighty angel who stands in God's presence, from which Satan fell, coming to his side not to take the cup from his hand but to strengthen him as divine-human suppliant to drink it with assurance of the Father's love. The angel gave him power by pointing him to the open heavens and telling him of the souls that would be saved as the result of his sufferings, assuring him that his Father is greater and more powerful than Satan, that his death would result in the utter defeat of Satan, that the kingdom of this world would be given to the saints of the Most High, and that he would see the travail of his soul and be satisfied in seeing a multitude of the human race saved, eternally saved.

Though surrounded by the darkness of betrayal as Satan's power whose conflict with Christ threatened the human race with loss, in Gethsemane he faced the penalty of human sin and the Father's displeasure yet chose to endure the sacrifice and penalty rather than escape it, so that humanity could receive everlasting life. His arrest took place during a real battle, with Satan following him and seeking to defeat him through temptation and to ruin the human family. The same hour and power covered his arrest and condemnation at the choice between Jesus and Barabbas, when the people rejected him and spared the guilty murderer, with Satan and his angels acting through the crowd and its leaders to drive this reversal from earlier praise, showing humanity acting under satanic influence while he endured the humiliation of the world he came to save.

Power of Darkness Today

The hour and power of darkness is the working of evil angels against the preaching of truth, holding their ground until angels of God draw very near and drive them back, so that where the Spirit of the Lord is present in the meeting they give way, ground is gained, and minister and people are moved to weeping and freedom. It is the same united force against the truth that seemed ready to triumph, bringing fear that it would prevail and driving to prayer for assurance of divine presence, as in the experience of Luther before the Diet. Those powers still move to overcome the church by crafty opposition at a time when its sacred trusts are at stake.

The conflict with the prince of darkness is a real struggle met in baptism, where a person pledges to die to the world and live in obedience to Christ, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit supply power for victory in every such conflict. That power can operate amid confusion and through people who profess conversion, so those who serve God need spiritual understanding and keen discernment to recognize it. It is the rule of evil seen when drink drives out reason and people come under the control of passion and a power from beneath, making crime possible. It is also the force that leads people to suspect one another and to stand apart as critics, hindering the work of the Holy Spirit.