Matthew 26:47, commentary and pictures

While He is yet speaking His warning about betrayal comes true at once, for Judas, one of the twelve, arrives leading those searching for Jesus with a great multitude, a large armed crowd carrying swords and staves, sent by the chief priests and elders of the people to seize Him. It takes place on Passover night under a broad full moon while the city lies hushed, as Jesus in company with His disciples makes His way to the garden of Gethsemane, a spot He had often visited for prayer but now enters with a heart full of sorrow in His last agony. He carries out his agreed part by coming close to Jesus as a familiar friend and identifying Him with the traitor's kiss, betraying Him with expressions of love, and Jesus answers with a voice trembling with sorrow, calling him Friend and asking why he has come, an appeal meant to rouse conscience that He meets without anger to the last moment. At His betrayal and arrest all His disciples forsake Him and flee, leaving Him alone to be taken to Annas, then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate, and the arrest begins the suffering that leads to His being treated as a criminal, crowned with thorns, and nailed to the cross with two thieves. Judas, though one of the twelve, illustrates how people who profess righteousness can betray their Lord into the hands of His enemies, and his course warns that those among God's professed followers who follow the same path of unchecked temptation and love of worldly gain may become open enemies of God's work.

Arrest in Gethsemane

It is Passover night under a broad full moon shining from a cloudless sky while the city of pilgrims' tents lies hushed into silence, and Jesus in company with His disciples slowly makes His way to the garden of Gethsemane. That garden is a spot He had often visited for meditation and prayer, but now He enters it with a heart full of sorrow in His last agony after earnest conversation with His disciples gives way to strange silence.

As He approaches Gethsemane He is visibly changed before His disciples, utterly sad and silent as they had never seen Him, with a strange sadness that deepened as He proceeded yet left them daring not to question its cause. His form sways as if about to fall, every step is taken with labored effort while He groans aloud under the pressure of a terrible burden, and He must twice be supported by His companions or He would have fallen to the earth. The disciples anxiously look for His usual place of retirement that He might rest.

Throughout His earthly life He had walked in the light of God's presence, doing always what pleased the Father and never left alone, but now He seems shut out from the light of God's sustaining presence. He is numbered with the transgressors and bears the guilt of fallen humanity, for the One who knew no sin has laid upon Him the iniquity of all. Sin appears so dreadful and the weight of guilt so great that He is tempted to fear being shut out forever from His Father's love, feeling the terrible wrath of God against transgression and exclaiming that His soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. After the Passover supper with His disciples He spends a night with neither food nor drink agonizing in the garden in conflict with satanic agencies striving to divorce Him from God, a conflict so terrible that great drops of blood come from the pores of His skin and moisten the ground, yet He will not yield.

While He is yet speaking His warning about betrayal comes true at once, for Judas, one of the twelve, arrives leading those searching for Jesus. The high priest follows closely behind him, and with him comes a great multitude, a large armed crowd and band of men and soldiers carrying swords and staves and spears, sent by the chief priests and elders of the people to seize Him. The leaders use secrecy and force because they fear the people would protect Him, and their role in the betrayal and death is driven by envy and jealousy, bearing responsibility for rejecting and putting to death an innocent man. He is seized at midnight and at night in Gethsemane and betrayed into the hands of His persecutors. As His enemies approach He tells His disciples to rise and go because His betrayer is near, and He steps forward to meet His betrayer with calm dignity, with no trace of His recent agony visible.

At His betrayal and arrest all His disciples forsake Him and flee, leaving Him alone to be taken to Annas, then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate. The arrest begins the suffering that leads to His being hurried from one tribunal to another amid mockery and violence and treated as a criminal, while the people and leaders reject the one who came to save them. That betrayal leads directly to Christ being taken, abused in His person, crowned with thorns pressed into His temples, caused all possible suffering, and nailed through His hands and feet to hang on the cross in company with two thieves.

Betrayer and Redeemer

Judas was one of the twelve disciples, close to Jesus, yet he came with the crowd sent by the chief priests and elders and the priests and rulers to seize and betray Him. He had been accepted among the disciples despite his faults so that Christ's teaching and example might help him recognize and correct them. Instead he cherished sin and resisted correction, yielded to temptation, and grew angry when reproved, betraying the One who had sought his good. His love of money grew into the ruling motive of his life, leading him to sell Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave.

His betrayal grew from divided loyalty, love of worldly praise and gain, and a shallow religion. It grew also from an unchecked spirit of superiority and failure to overcome temptation, which he carried out with a treacherous kiss. Though he worked with Jesus and had the same opportunity as the other disciples to learn, he failed to value and practice the lessons. He heard without doing, was a hearer but not a doer, and did not let his character be shaped by Christ's example.

He carried out his agreed part by coming close to Jesus, taking His hand as a familiar friend, and giving the traitor's kiss by which he had arranged to identify Him. He betrayed Him with expressions of love, with a kiss, adding to the insult, reproach, and humiliation He willingly bore that He was betrayed by one of His own followers and professed disciples. Jesus answered with a voice trembling with sorrow, calling him Friend and asking why he had come and whether he would betray the Son of man with a kiss, an appeal meant to rouse conscience and touch the heart. He met him without anger and continued to seek his salvation to the last moment, and did not reject the kiss, giving an example of forbearance, love, and pity without parallel.

Judas had given himself to Satan's control, so honor, fidelity, and human tenderness had utterly left him, leaving him bold and defiant with no desire to relent and no power to resist. His boldness in touching Jesus restored the courage of the awed mob, so they then laid violent hands on Jesus and bound the hands that had always been used in doing good. He had sold his Master to the priests and rulers expecting Jesus to escape capture by displaying divine power and not allow Himself to be taken. He eagerly expected Him to surprise His enemies by appearing as the Son of God and setting at naught all their plots and power.

When Jesus instead meekly submitted to abuse and trial and let Himself be tried and condemned to death, Judas understood the full weight of his betrayal and was smitten in heart. He kept Jesus in sight and realized the full extent of his crime in selling his divine Master to shame and death. He remembered how kind and considerate Jesus had always been to him, and in remorse and anguish despised the covetousness Jesus had reproved that had tempted him to sell the Saviour for a few pieces of silver.

Warning to Followers

Matthew 26:47 belongs to the future scenes Jesus opened before His disciples, showing Judas, one of the twelve, arriving while Jesus is still speaking, accompanied by a large armed crowd sent by the chief priests and elders to seize Him. Jesus foresaw His agony, betrayal, and crucifixion as a great trial that would test His disciples severely, and He prepared His true and faithful followers for that ordeal of humiliation, condemnation, and the hostility of a fickle crowd. Because He had so prepared them, they would not be wholly surprised when people who had followed Him turned against Him, and they could withstand the test.

He is seized at midnight in Gethsemane and betrayed into the hands of His persecutors, treated like a criminal and hurried from one tribunal to another amid mockery and violence. During these events one of His best-loved disciples denies Him with cursing and swearing, revealing Satan's power over human hearts. The example of Judas as betrayer stands contrasted with Peter's denial and with the faithful, selfless work of following Christ.

Judas, though one of the twelve, coming with a crowd sent by the chief priests and elders to seize Jesus, illustrates how people who profess righteousness can betray their Lord into the hands of His enemies. His unchecked spirit of superiority and failure to overcome temptation opened the way to betrayal carried out with a treacherous kiss, warning that people among God's professed followers who follow the same path may become open enemies of God's work. His betraying Christ shows that those who accuse fellow believers serve Satan in the same way, even if they do so unknowingly, for Satan remains active and those who do his work show his spirit. The betrayal, trial, and crucifixion reveal the pattern in which giving doubt and bitterness room lets a satanic spirit stir wrath and hatred into a mob spirit. A slight difference of opinion creates a frenzy of feeling, a tiny seed of doubt and questioning finds fruitful soil in hearts with no living connection with God that are hard and unimpressionable, base passions are stirred and a mob spirit is shown, the same way reformers were treated.

Christ being delivered into the hands of Caiaphas and Pilate is likened to evangelical Christians' loss of protection and the threat to their religious liberty. Judas's apparently friendly approach concealing deadly intent presents the image of the Judas hand, applied to the hand that shot President McKinley.