The Arrest: Conspiracy, Secrecy, & Betrayal
Article #7 on the Passion of Jesus Christ
(Matt. 26:47-56, Mk. 14:43-52, Lk. 22:47-53, Jn. 18:2-11)
“He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” - John 1:11
Upon the arrival of a crowd of sinners to the Garden to make the arrest, Jesus Christ relinquished Himself to them in a dazzling display of sovereign power (Jn. 18:6, Matt. 26:53). The Lord of Glory was of one mind, and nothing could turn Him aside. Everything was settled in the night watch of the Garden. Now that “the hour” had come, there was no turning back (Matt. 26:45, Mk. 14:41, Lk. 22:53, Jn. 18:11-12).
“And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” – Luke 22:47-48
“Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” - Luke 22:52-53
Everything happened exactly as planned (Jn. 7:30, 8:20; Matt. 26:55, Lk. 22:52-53). According to prophecy, it was foretold that Christ would be betrayed for blood-money (Zech. 11:12, Matt. 26:14-15) by a “friend” (Ps. 55:12-14, 41:9, Zech. 13:6, Matt. 26:49-50), while the unsuspecting disciples forsook Him (Zech. 13:7, Matt. 26:56, Mk. 14:27).
“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.” – Matt. 26:31 (Zech. 13:6-7)
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Isa. 53:6
The sheep being scattered from the Shepherd at the arrest in the Garden was sad to see, but from the Son of God’s perspective only one thing was weighing heavily upon His heart. Jesus was moved to speak of it while on the way to the Garden with the disciples in Matthew 26:30-36. The Smiting! The Lord of Glory was anticipating what was about to happen, and thus He quoted Zechariah 13:7.
“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My Fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.” – Zech. 13:6-7
This was the awakening of the sword of divine justice for the smiting of Jesus Christ! Why? Because of the imputation of sin at the Garden. Of course, this was something everyone else couldn’t see at the time. They were too preoccupied with the earthly events. Had they been watchful and prayerful about the things they were being told by the Messiah, perhaps the disciples would not have been blind to what was taking place from Heaven’s perspective. Jesus told them what must be accomplished! He even quoted from Isaiah 53:12 in Luke 22:37, while they were on the way to Gethsemane.
“For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in Me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning Me have an end.” - Luke 22:37
“Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” – Isa. 53:12
Isaiah 53:1-12 enlarges upon the vision presented in Zechariah 13:7. The divine smiting of the Son of God is emphasized in Isaiah 53:4 & 10, while the scattering of the sheep is rehearsed in Isaiah 53:6. The message is harmonious. The vision is clear. Spurgeon saw this correlation. In speaking about what Isaiah saw in the forthcoming events of the Passion, Spurgeon said the following:
“He [Isaiah] looks beyond the Roman spear and nail, beyond the Jewish taunt and jeer, up to the Sacred Fount, from where all things flow and traces the crucifixion of Christ to the breast of Deity. He believes with Peter– ‘Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.’ We dare not impute to God the sin, but at the same time the fact, with all its marvelous effects in the world’s redemption, we must ever trace to the Sacred Fountain of Divine love. So does our Prophet. He says, ‘It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him.’ He overlooks both Pilate and Herod and traces it to the heavenly Father, the first Person in the Divine Trinity. ‘It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.’” – C.H. Spurgeon, The Death of Christ
Therefore, everything that transpired from here on out was neither random, accidental, nor coincidental; nor was it a chaotic process of angry sinners who were freely seeking revenge at will. The physical and emotional impact of every despiteful word and action directed toward Jesus Christ was spiritually felt and unimaginably painful. The physical beating that Christ endured at the hands of sinners – in every blow – was simultaneously felt as a spiritual beating of divine wrath. Herein, every bruise, cut, wound, and stripe was of eternal weight and significance. The prophet Isaiah makes this abundantly clear in Isaiah 53, in an unparalleled chapter of Messianic Prophecy that depicts exactly what Jesus Christ was spiritually experiencing.
“Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the Arm of the LORD revealed?” – Isa. 53:1
Amazingly, at around ≈700 BC, Isaiah foresaw the fine details of this unprecedented situation. The spiritual realm was opened before Isaiah, and thus he described the vertical situation that developed between the Son & the Father. Specifically speaking, the prophet beheld how the legal imputation of sin into the body of Jesus Christ would suddenly alter the relationship of the Son & the Father, thus making every experience of suffering and death that followed this moment lawfully vicarious and substitutionary. In other words, all the personal suffering of Jesus Christ that followed was feelingly or passionately perceived to be a manifestation of divine wrath.
By prophecy, Isaiah was merely looking into the things that were clearly visible to Jesus Christ for the entire duration of time from Gethsemane to the Cross. Therefore, in speaking about what he was seeing, Isaiah emphatically declared the reason for the despite, rejection, oppression, sorrow, grief, travail, imprisonment, judgment, condemnation, affliction, bruising, wounding, stripes, smiting, chastisement, slaughter, and death; namely, how that it was all substitutionary on behalf of sinners.
“What saith Isaiah? “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” If you carefully read through that fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, you will notice that, several times, in so many distinct words, the sin of Christ’s people is said to have been transferred to Him, and borne by Him.” – C.H. Spurgeon, Our Lord’s Substitution
Furthermore, the personal vantage point of the Messiah in the suffering was confirmed by Christ in the Gospel of Matthew, where the perspective of the Son before the Father was clearly depicted in the prophecy, “I will smite the Shepherd” (Matt. 26:31); this was a prophetic declaration in Scripture that was spoken by the Father, and then it was quoted by Christ, as the Son of God was expecting to soon undergo the smiting of God the Father from Gethsemane to the Cross (Zech. 13:7, Isa. 53:10).
