Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

We see in these verses the cup of our Lord Jesus Christ's sufferings beginning to be filled. We see him betrayed by one of his disciples, forsaken by the rest, and taken prisoner by his deadly enemies. Never surely was there sorrow like his sorrow. Never may we forget, as we read this part of the Bible, that our sins were the cause of these sorrows! Jesus was "?delivered was delivered for our offences.?" (? Romans 4:25).

Let us notice for one thing in these verses what gracious condescension marked our Lord's intercourse with his disciples.

We have this point proved by a deeply touching circumstance at the moment of our Lord's betrayal. When Judas Iscariot undertook to guide the multitude to the place where his Master was, he gave them a sign by which they might distinguish Jesus in the dim moonlight from his disciples: he said, "?Whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he.?" And so, when he came to Jesus, he said, "?Hail master, and kissed him!?" That simple fact reveals the affectionate terms on which the disciples associated with our Lord. It is a universal custom in eastern countries, when friend meets friend, to salute one another with a kiss (?). It would seem therefore, that when Judas kissed our Lord, he only did what all the apostles were accustomed to do when they met their Master after an absence.

Let us draw comfort from this little circumstance for our own souls. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a most gracious and condescending Saviour. He is not an "?austere man,?" repelling sinners and keeping them at a distance; he is not a being so different from us in nature that we must regard him with awe rather than affection: he would have us rather regard him as an elder brother, and a beloved friend. His heart in heaven is still the same that it was on earth: he is ever meek merciful and condescending to men of low estate. Let us trust him, and not be afraid.

Let us notice for another thing how our Lord condemns those who think to use carnal weapons in defense of him and his cause. He reproves one of his disciples for striking a servant of the high priest "?He bids him put up his sword into its place,?" and he adds a solemn declaration of perpetual significance, "?all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.?"

The sword has a lawful office of its own. It may be used righteously, in the defense of nations against oppression; it may become positively necessary to use it to prevent confusion plunder and rapine upon earth; but the sword is not to be used in the propagation and maintenance of the Gospel. Christianity is not to be enforced by bloodshed, and belief in it extorted by force. Happy would it have been for the church if this sentence had been more frequently remembered! There are few countries in Christendom where the mistake has not been made of attempting to change men's religious opinions by compulsion, penalties, imprisonment and death. And with what effect? The pages of history supply an answer. No wars have been so bloody as those which have arisen out of the collision of religious opinions: often, mournfully often, the very men who have been most forward to promote those wars have themselves been slain. May we never forget this! The weapons of the Christian warfare are not carnal, but spiritual (2 Cor.10:4)

Let us notice for another thing how our Lord submitted to be a prisoner of his own free will. He was not taken captive because he could not escape; it would have been easy for him to scatter his enemies to the winds if he had thought fit. "Thinkest thou," he says to a disciple that I cannot pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be??"

We see in those words the secret of his voluntary submission to his foes. He came on purpose to fulfill the types and promises of Old Testament Scriptures and, by fulfilling them, to provide salvation for the world. He came intentionally to be the true Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb. He came voluntarily to be the scapegoat on whom the iniquities of the people were to be laid. His heart was set on accomplishing this great work. It could not be done without the "?hiding of his power,?" for a time: to do it he became a willing sufferer. He was taken, tried, condemned and crucified entirely of his own free will.

Let us observe this: there is much encouragement in it. The willing sufferer will surely be a willing Saviour. The almighty Son of God, who allowed men to bind him and lead him away captive when he might have prevented them with a word, must surely be full of readiness to save the souls that flee to him. Once more then let us learn to trust him and not be afraid.

Let us notice in the last place how little Christians know the weakness of their own hearts until they are tried. We have a mournful illustration of this in the conduct of our Lord's apostles. The verses we have read conclude with the words, "?Then all the disciples forsook him and fled." They forgot their confident assertions made a few hours before; they forgot that they had declared their willingness to die with their Master; they forgot everything but the danger that stared them in the face. The fear of death overcame them: they "?forsook him and fled.?"

How many professing Christians have done the same! How many, under the influence of excited feelings, have promised that they would never be ashamed of Christ! They have come away from the communion table, or the striking sermon, or the Christian meeting, full of zeal and love and ready to say to all who caution them against backsliding, "?Is thy servant dog, that he should do this thing??" And yet in a few days these feelings have cooled down and passed away: a trial has come and they have fallen before it. They have forsaken Christ!

Let us learn, from this passage, lessons of humiliation and self-abasement. Let us resolve, by God's grace, to cultivate a spirit of lowliness, and self-distrust. Let us settle it in our minds that there is nothing too bad for the very best of us to do unless he watches, prays and is held up by the grace of God; and let it be one of our daily prayers. "?Hild thou me up, and I shall be safe.?" (? Psalm 119:117).

We read, in these verses, how our Lord Jesus Christ was brought before Caiaphas, the high priest, and solemnly pronounced guilty. It was fitting that it should be so. The great day of atonement was come: the wondrous type of the scapegoat was about to be completely fulfilled. It was only suitable that the Jewish high priest should do his part, and declare sin to be upon the head of the victim, before he was led forth to be crucified (? Leviticus 16:21). May we ponder these things and understand them. There was a deep meaning in every step of our Lord's passion.

Let us observe in these verses that the chief priests were the principal agents in bringing about our Lord's death. It was not so much the Jewish people, we must remember, who pushed forward this wicked deed, as Caiaphas and his companions, the chief priests.

This is an instructive fact, and deserves notice. It is a clear proof that high ecclesiastical office exempts no man from gross errors in doctrine, and tremendous sins in practice. The Jewish priests could trace up their pedigree to Aaron, and were his lineal successors; their office was one of peculiar sanctity, and entailed peculiar responsibilities. A nd yet these very men were the murderers of Christ.

Let us beware of regarding any minister of religion as infallible: his orders however regularly conferred are no guarantee that he may not lead us astray, and even ruin our souls. The teaching and conduct of all ministers must be tried by the Word of God: they are to be followed so long as they follow the Bible, but no longer. The maxim laid down in Isaiah must be our guide: "?To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.?" (? Isaiah 8:20).

Let us observe in the second place how fully our Lord declared to the Jewish council his own Messiahship and his future coming in glory.

The unconverted Jew can never tell us at the present day that his forefathers were left in ignorance that Jesus was the Messiah. Our Lord's answer to the solemn aduration of the high priest is a sufficient reply: he tells the council plainly that he is "?the Christ, the Son of God?". He goes on to warn them that though he had not yet appeared in glory, as they expected the Messiahs would have done, a day would come when he would do so. "?Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven?." They would yet see that very Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had arraigned at their bar, appear in all majesty as King of kings (? Revelation 1:7).

It is a striking fact which we should not fail to notice, that almost the last word spoken by our Lord to the Jews was a warning prediction about his own second advent: he tells them plainly that they would yet see him in glory. No doubt he referred to?seventh chapter of Daniel in the language that he used. (Dan.7:13) But he spoke to deaf ears. Unbelief, prejudice, self-righteousness covered them like a thick cloud: never was there such an instance of spiritual blindness. Well may the Church of England litany contain the prayer, "?From all blindness, and from hardness of heart, Good Lord, deliver us.?"

Let us observe in the last place how much our Lord endured before the council from false witness and mockery.

Falsehood and ridicule are old and favorite weapons of the devil. "?He is a liar, and the father of it.?" (? John 8:44). All through our Lord's earthly ministry we see these weapons continually employed against him. He was called "?a glutton a winebibber, and a friend of publicans and?sinners.?'?" He was held up to contempt as "?a Samaritan?." The closing scene of his life was only in keeping with all the past tenor of it. Satan stirred up his enemies to add insult to injury: no sooner was he pronounced guilty than every sort of mean indignity was heaped upon him: "?they spit in his face and buffeted him, they smote him with the palms of their hands. They said mockingly,?Prophesy unto us, thou Christ. Who is he that smote thee??'?

How wonderful and strange it all sounds! How wonderful that the Holy Son of God should have voluntarily submitted to such indignities to redeem such miserable sinners as we are! How wonderful, not least, that every title of these insults was foretold 700 years before they were inflicted! Seven hundred years before, Isaiah had written down the words, "?I hid not my face from shame and spitting?" (? Isaiah 50:6).

Let us draw from this passage one practical conclusion. Let it never surprise us if we have to endure mockery, ridicule and false reports because we belong to Christ. "?The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord.?" (? Matthew 10:24). If lies and insults were heaped upon our Saviour, we need not wonder if the same weapons are constantly used against his people. It is one of Satan's great devices to blacken the characters of godly men and bring them into contempt: the lives of Luther, Cranmer, Calvin and Wesley supply abundant examples of this. If we are ever called upon to suffer in this way, let us bear it patiently. We drink the same cup that was drunk by our beloved Lord. But there is one great difference: at the worst, we only drink a few bitter drops; he drank the cup to the very dregs.

These verses relate a remarkable and deeply instructive event: the apostle Peter's denial of Christ. It is one of those events which indirectly prove the truth of the Bible. If the Gospel had been a mere invention of man, we should never have been told that one of its principal preachers was once so weak and erring as to deny his Master.

The first thing that demands our notice is the full nature of the sin of which Peter was guilty.

It was a great sin. We see a man who had followed Christ for three years, and been forward in professing faith and love towards him—a man who had received boundless mercies and loving kindness and had been treated by Christ as a familiar friend. We see this man denying three times that he knows Jesus! This was bad. It was a sin committed under circumstances of great aggravation: Peter had been warned plainly of his danger and had heard the warning; he had just been receiving the bread and wine at our Lord's hands, and declaring loudly that though he died with him, he would not deny him! This also was bad. It was a sin committed under apparently small provocation: two weak women made the remark that he was with Jesus. They that stood nearby say, "?Surely thou art one of them?". No threat seems to have been used, no violence seems to have been done, but it was enough to overthrow Peter's faith: he denies before all. He denies with an oath: he curses and swears. Truly it is a humbling picture!

Let us mark this history, and store it up in our minds: it teaches us plainly that the best of saints are only men, and men encompassed with many infirmities. A man may be converted to God, have faith, hope and love towards Christ, and yet be overtaken in a fault, and have awful falls. It shows us the necessity of humility: so long as we are in the body, we are in danger. The flesh is weak, and the devil is active. We must never think, "?I cannot fall.?" It points out to us the duty of charity towards erring saints. We must not set down men as graceless reprobates because they occasionally stumble and err; we must remember Peter and "?restore them in the spirit of meekness.?" (? Galatians 6:1).

The second thing that demands our notice is the series of steps by which Peter was led to deny his Lord.

These steps are mercifully recorded for our learning. The Spirit of God has taken care to have them written down for the perpetual benefit of the church of Christ. Let us trace them out one by one.

The first step to Peter's fall was self-confidence he said, "?Though all men should be offended, yet will I never be offended. The second step was indolence: his Master told him to watch and pray; instead of doing so he slept. The third step was cowardly compromising: instead of keeping close to his Master, he first forsook him, and then "?followed him afar off.?" The last step was needless venturing into evil company: he went into the priest's palace and "?sat with the servants,?" like one of themselves. And then came the final fall: the cursing, the swearing and the three-fold denial. Startling as it appears, his heart had been preparing it: it was the fruit of seeds which he himself had sown. He ate the fruit of his own ways.

Let us remember this part of Peter's history: it is deeply instructive to all who profess and call themselves Christians. Great illnesses seldom attack the body without a previous train of premonitory symptoms; great falls seldom happen to a saint without a previous course of secret backsliding. The church and the world are sometimes shocked by the sudden misconduct of some great professors of religion; believers are discouraged and stumbled by it; the enemies of God rejoice and blaspheme; but if the truth could be known, the explanation of such cases would generally be found to have been private departure from God. Men fall in private long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it is often not discovered till it is down on the ground.

The last thing which demands our notice is the sorrow which Peter's sin brought upon him. We read at the end of the chapter, "?He went out and wept bitterly.?"

These words deserve more attention than they generally receive. Thousands have read the history of Peter's sin, who have thought little of Peter's tears and Peter's repentance. May we have an eye to see, and a heart to understand!

We see in Peter's tears the close connection between unhappiness and departure from God. It is a merciful arrangement of God that in one sense holiness always brings its own reward. A heavy heart and an uneasy conscience, a clouded hope and an abundant crop of doubts will always be the consequence of backsliding and inconsistency. The words of Solomon describe the experience of many an inconsistent child of God: "?The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.?" (? Proverbs 14:14). Let it be a settled principle in our religion that if we love inward peace we must walk closely with God.

We see in Peter's bitter tears the grand mark of difference between the hypocrite and the true believer. When the hypocrite is overtaken by sin, he generally falls to rise no more: he has no principle of life within him to raise him up. When the child of God is overtaken, he rises again by true repentance, and by the grace of God amends his life. Let no man flatter himself that he may sin with impunity because David committed adultery, and because Peter denied his Lord. No doubt these holy men sinned greatly: but they did not continue in their sins. They repented greatly; they mourned over their falls; they loathed and abhorred their own wickedness. Well would it be for many if they would imitate them in their repentance as well as in their sins! Too many are acquainted with their fall but not with their recovery. Like David and Peter, they have sinned, but they have not, like David and Peter, repented.

The whole passage is full of lessons that ought never to be forgotten. Do we profess to have a hope in Christ? Let us mark the weakness of a believer and the steps that lead to a fall. Have we unhappily backslidden and left our first love? Let us remember that the Saviour of Peter still lives. There is mercy for us as well as for him: but we must repent and seek that mercy if we would find it. Let us turn unto God and he will turn to us: his compassions fail not. (? Lamentations 3:22)