Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
Ver. 31. All ye shall be offended because of me] Why? what had that righteous one done? Nothing but that his cross lay in their way, whereat they stumbled shamefully, and left him to wonder that he was "left alone,"Isaiah 63:5. Adversity is friendless (αφιλον το ουστυχες), saith one heathen (Ovid); Et cum fortuna statque caditque fides, saith another. Job found his friends like the brooks of Tema, which in a moisture swell, in a drought fail. Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.
For it is written, I will smite] This our Saviour purposely subjoineth, for their support under the sense of their base deserting him. A foul sin it was, but yet such as was long since set down of them; not without a sweet promise of their recollection, "I will turn my hand upon the little ones," Zechariah 13:7; or, I will bring back my hand to the little ones (At reducam manum meam ad parvulos), as Tremellius readeth it.