Incidents of our Lord's Arrest.
Note:
I. The Arrival upon the scene of Judas and his companions. His very name has often come to the memory like a shock. When the soldiers, under his direction, not knowing Jesus, asked him for some sign by which He might be distinguished, he said, "Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He; hold Him fast." Of all preconcerted signals possible, this was the one selected; as if to show what sin has in it, and what sin can do; as if to show its impudence, its brass, its black ingratitude, its hell-fire. In Judas the sin of humanity culminates; in him sin reaches its high fever of crime; and if it had not been for him we should not have known the depth of degradation to which through sin the soul can sink.
II. The Panic. The Lord, clothed though He was in the garment of mortality, was still the Lord. Arrest Him, Judas and your company; place Him at the bar; nail Him on a cross. Not without His will. His object is not to strike you back blasted; this is but a thrill from His life, a momentary play of His latent Omnipotence; though it shakes you down flat it is a touch, merely just as a commentary on, in confirmation of His own royal word: "No man taketh My life from Me;" and just to show that if arrested, it is not in consequence of your mastery, but by the permission of His own will.
III. The Capture. The kiss of Judas removed whatever awe might have stricken the soldiers, and whatever reluctance they might have felt to going on with their task. They instantly laid their hands on Him who had been thus indicated, and began to bind Him in their own merciless fashion.
IV. The Great Forsaking "Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled." He who forsakes Christ forsakes perfection. It was not out of calm, set, deliberate purpose that they forsook their Lord. They were in a brief madness, and knew not what they did. Their souls were suddenly stormed, and the strength by which they had hitherto been kept was for the moment, and for their eventual good, withdrawn. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
C. Stanford, Evening of Our Lord's Ministry,p. 191.
References: Mark 14:50-52. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 469. Mark 14:53-65. H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man,p. 334.Mark 14:54-72. W. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth,p. 469.