THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
Lesson 92, Chapter 26 Continued 4
When we left off last time in Matthew 26, Yeshua had just been identified by
Judas and betrayed to the Temple authorities. It was nighttime, a short time after
the Last Supper, and so it occurred within the first few hours of the day of
Passover, Nisan 14
th
. Let’s re-read the short section where the arrest happens.
Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26.
RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 26:47 – 56
Matthew describes a crowd that came with Judas leading them to arrest Christ.
The Apostle John describes this crowd as consisting not of ordinary Jewish
citizens but of military-like people, no doubt the Temple police. These were not
Roman soldiers, but rather a militia of Jews (probably Levites) loyal to the Jewish
religious authorities and formally employed to help control the many people, Jews
and gentiles, that came to the Temple, and to arrest violators of religious laws.
We’re told that some chief priests along with elders were among the group. The
chief priests were senior priests (Temple representatives) but not the High
Priest. The elders were representatives of the Synagogue system so both ends
of the Jewish religious leadership spectrum were present and very likely these
men were all members of the Sanhedrin and would be part of the council
convened to condemn Jesus.
When Yeshua is grabbed hold of by the Temple police one of the men with Him
(one of His 12 disciples) reacts instinctively, pulls out a sword, and cuts off the
ear of one of the police in the crowd. Matthew doesn’t name the disciple with the
sword or the man whose ear was amputated, however John does.
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CJB
John 18:10
10
Then Shim'on Kefa, who had a sword, drew it and struck
the slave of the cohen hagadol, cutting off his right ear; the slave's name
was Melekh.
John supplies the information that it was Peter (what a surprise) that was the one
that acted impulsively, and that it was a servant of the High Priest whose ear was
severed… his name was Melekh (in Hebrew it means “king”). John wants us to
notice that Peter didn’t just swing his sword at random, but rather picked out the
High Priest’s household representative that was present. It shouldn’t fly by us
that Peter was armed and dangerous, which seems a little odd after all of
Jesus’s teachings about being passive, or at least peaceable, in the face of evil
or oppression. Clearly Peter saw danger in being Christ’s disciple, and also saw
himself as Christ’s personal bodyguard.
Jesus instantly chastises Peter for his action and completes His statement with a
saying that has become famous at least in the world of Western Christianity: “for
everyone who uses the sword will die by the sword”. This is neither a promise
nor a new divine law pronounced by Christ; rather it is a proverb. A proverb is a
general truism or wisdom saying that doesn’t necessarily apply in every situation
nor does it always turn out that way; but it is a good rule of thumb. I want to take
a moment to discuss this slightly more because I think due to this scene,
especially, Yeshua is sometimes characterized by Christians as an adamant
pacifist.
We are dealing here with a very specific set of circumstances. First, Yeshua by
His nature was not a violent man. Jewish Holy men, Tzadikim, were, within their
divine calling, healers, miracle workers, diplomats, and teachers. Second, Jesus
knew (in His later adult life) that mistreatment, brutalization, and then execution
was His God-ordained fate and thus to do anything that would subvert or delay
that would be to go against His Father’s will. Third, it is God’s general will for His
followers to always seek peace on earth and goodwill towards all men, and
Yeshua exemplified that… to a point. Paul made a midrash (an interpretation) on
this concept that itself is more proverb than command, in the Book of Romans.
CJB
Romans 12:17-21
17
Repay no one evil for evil, but try to do what
everyone regards as good.
18
If possible, and to the extent that it depends
on you, live in peace with all people.
19
Never seek revenge, my friends;
instead, leave that to God's anger; for in the Tanakh it is written, "ADONAI
says, 'Vengeance is my responsibility; I will repay.'"
20
On the contrary, "If
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your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to
drink. For by doing this, you will heap fiery coals [of shame] on his
head."
21
Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good
Paul recognizes in Christ’s teachings that we are (generally speaking) to
approach our fellow man as peaceably as possible, but sometimes it’s not up to
us. Thus, there is a fine line to walk in order to carry this instruction out. Jesus,
for instance, is not depicted as being attacked during His arrest; only led away by
government officials. But the idea that a Believer is never to act in self-defense
against a violent criminal aggressor is not part of the concept. Rather, it is to
understand that there are going to be many times in our lives when our options
are limited, life hangs in the balance, or justice is not done on earth; and yet we
are not to become vigilantes to try to extract justice as we see fit (that’s what
revenge amounts to). Rather God will make right the wrongs in the world to
come.
At the same time, we have witnessed Yeshua taking on the deceived and corrupt
Jewish religious establishment using strong and even offensive terms that He of
course knew would provoke a strong backlash that could (and would) eventually
lead to violence. Fourth, just as the Law of Moses prescribes, Jesus doesn’t ever
speak against soldiers killing the enemy in battle, or against someone protecting
their homes or families against aggressive criminals bent on physical harm. The
Torah defines those defensive actions as proper, and is labeled as justifiable
killing (which is not a sin).
Things change however, as concerns Jesus, when the Son of Man returns. The
same One preaching non-violence (for the time being) transforms into God’s
unstoppable avenger. Much of the population of planet Earth will be killed by Him
and those Believers (and angels) that He leads as an army to execute God’s
wrath against the irredeemably wicked.
So, we should not make Jesus into the type of Joan Baez pacifist who once said
that even if a killer was standing over the crib of her infant child, bent on killing it,
she would do no more than beg him not to. She would assert no physical action
to stop him, whether by fighting with him or by using a weapon. Rather, in the
case of Christ’s ministry and arrest, all His passiveness was intended for Him to
arrive at a pre-destined purpose; going to the cross for you and for me.
Then in verse 53 Yeshua says something that simply drips with interesting
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implications. He says that the reason Peter should not attack those arresting Him
is that if Yeshua intended on stopping it, all He had to do was to ask His Father to
send a dozen (12 is what the Greek says) armies of angels to help Him. The first
thing we should take from this is that Jesus was well aware that he had a choice;
He wasn’t a programmed robot…He had a free will. He could have averted the
humiliations and the crucifixion if He wanted to. The second thing to notice is that
once again the hierarchy of divine authority is highlighted. Yeshua doesn’t call
angels to help Him on His accord; He must ask His Father to send them. So
Yeshua’s level of authority is always junior to the level of His Father’s authority.
Third, while calling upon angels to protect Him would subvert His purpose in this
His first coming (which was to die as a sin offering for humanity), in His return
angels will indeed be called upon. This current conflict that He is experiencing is
meant to keep its location firmly earthbound; Jerusalem. Only later will this great
spiritual battle spill over to include the cosmos. Fifth, Holy War has always been
part of God’s arsenal. Holy War is what Joshua waged on God’s behalf to claim
the Holy Land, and angels are regularly part of Holy War. Yeshua’s current
situation would not see Holy War employed because the time for it wasn’t yet at
hand. When He returns in the future, it is Holy War that will be fought at a level
never seen before nor will it ever again. And finally notice that the number 12 is
used; 12 legions of angels corresponding to the 12 tribes of Israel. Then in verse
54, Jesus explains why He has chosen to allow Himself to be tortured and killed.
He asks Peter a rhetorical question as regards calling on angels to rescue Him:
“…if I did that, how could the passages in the Tanakh be fulfilled that say it has to
happen this way?”
So, Jesus is following the determined path He is on, knowingly allowing evil to
overcome Him, in order that the full listing of OT prophecies about Him are
checked off. None can be skipped. I have heard atheists and even some religious
Jews argue that because Yeshua admitted He was doing these many things with
the intent and purpose to publicly fulfill the writings of the biblical prophets, then
this means He was but a somewhat deranged man contriving His own demise so
that many might think He must be the subject of these OT prophecies, when in
fact any other would-be Messiah (with sufficient grit and courage) could have
done the same. I would only argue that for the many centuries before Yeshua
showed up, no one (at least none I’ve ever heard of) attempted to do what He
did. Perhaps the better way to think of what Yeshua was doing is that it was
much less choreographing His own death, than merely allowing Redemption
History to take its God-ordained course without resisting it. Besides: there is no
credible way that anyone, no matter how intelligent or courageous, could have
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willed all the many elements and people and decisions involved to happen in a
perfectly coordinated manner and arrive at the same place at the same moment
as we see unfolding.
David Stern did a good job of listing several of the Old Testament Prophecies
that Jesus was fulfilling, and I’ll highlight a few.
Isaiah 49:7 says that at first He’ll be hated without reasonable cause, yet later
the nations will applaud Him.
Zechariah 11:12 says that He’ll be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.
Zechariah 13:7 prophecies that when He’s been struck down, His sheep (His
followers) will abandon Him.
Isaiah 53 perhaps has the most to say about Him. He was a plain man; nothing
special with His appearance. People avoided Him and many despised Him. Like
any other human being, He suffered sorrow and pain. He would be crushed and
wounded not for anything wrong that He did, but for all the wrong that we have
done. He would be buried in the grave of a rich man. His ordeal will make many
men righteous before God. While being condemned as a great sinner, He
actually is interceding on the behalf of true sinners. There’s more, but this alone
is sufficiently sobering and amazing as the accuracy of it in hindsight boggles the
mind.
After rebuking Peter, Jesus proceeds to rebuke the Jewish religious authorities
who have come after Him. He essentially denies that He is any sort of rebellion
fomenter or leader. But, they approach Him in the dark of the night, with many
men equipped with swords and wooden clubs, as though He was a dangerous
person that had to be apprehended with utmost caution. He points out that His
actions were but teaching in the Temple courts… hardly something a rebel leader
would do…so if His teachings are the problem, why not arrest Him there? Of
course, that question was already answered a few sentences earlier. The High
Priest and others feared that publicly arresting this popular Galilean Holy Man on
the occasion of Passover would cause riots… for which the High Priest would be
held responsible by Rome. He repeats to the cadre of the Temple guard the
same thing He just told Peter: all this is happening to fulfill the prophets. In other
words, He is making all them participants and facilitators of prophecies
concerning the Messiah.
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Isn’t it odd that no one seems to ask: which Prophets? What prophecies? Just as
what is coming soon at the mock trial of Jesus, there is no truth seeking going on.
This is a political witch hunt perpetrated by the elite of the Jewish religious
system of that day. Personal ambitions, their fierce guarding of the religious
power structure that benefited them so luxuriously, and probably a growing
hatred of this man that they may not have been able to explain, is at the core of
their determination that Yeshua had to go. What God wants and what is right
never seems to enter the picture. What we see happening is truly the mystery of
how biblical prophecy becomes fulfilled. These fulfillments are a mixture of
unexpected circumstances, along with inexplicable levels of human desires or
fears or hatreds, that just seem to erupt out of nowhere. As a prophetic fulfillment
unfolds none of the involved, the wicked or the righteous, have any idea that they
are but instruments in the Master’s hands. And I promise you that in
the 21
st
century, as we proceed at jet speed towards the End of Days, all those
yet to be fulfilled prophecies will play out just like that. We think we won’t be
surprised because we’re so ready and wary of current events; but we will be. All
prophecies have come about in this same pattern. We should approach this
conundrum not by thinking “then what’s the use of knowing the prophecies”. But
rather like we would knowing hurricane season is coming. We in the south know
that sooner or later we’ll get hit; we just don’t know when (and it certainly
doesn’t happen every year). We get warning, but occasionally it’s a surprise as
a hurricane blows up suddenly or changes its track. If we’re knowledgeable and
prepared, surprise or not, we’re OK. If we’re ignorant and not prepared,
however it happens, it is going to be potentially very harmful to us. In Matthew’s
Gospel we see regular warnings by Yeshua to His followers to be alert and be
prepared for the Day of Lord. Not so much so that they can see it coming, but
because they probably won’t.
The final words of verse 56 are so very sad and in some ways ought to be a bit
terrifying for us. It says that when after Yeshua had dressed-down everyone
present, the 11 remaining disciples deserted Him. I cannot stress enough that
what is happening here is not merely some frightened men running off to hide.
The entire point is a loss of faith. Back in verses 34 and 35 Yeshua predicted that
all of them would disown Him… not just run away because they got scared. I think
the speculation is fair to say that once their Master got arrested, they figured their
movement was over. They had been mistaken and had tied their hopes and
future to the wrong man. If those 12 disciples would either betray or renounce
Jesus when things got tough, what might we do when things get tough for us?
Can we be so naïve as to think that their loss of faith wasn’t also loss of
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salvation? If it’s not, then faith as the condition for our salvation has no meaning.
Let’s read some more of Matthew.
RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 26:57 – 68
What comes next is sometimes called the Trial of Jesus. Yet, similarly attempting
to understand exactly what the Last Supper was in Jewish tradition, so it can be
as challenging to figure out what was really going on when Yeshua was taken
before a group of men at the home of Caiaphas, the High Priest.
The panel of men gathered at Caiaphas’s house was no doubt some or most of
the Sanhedrin (the High Priest was always the President of the Sanhedrin). So,
some thought and organization had gone into finding Christ, arranging to arrest
Him, bringing Him to a pre-designated place, and then having these men already
assembled to quickly pass a verdict on Him… without a nosy public being aware.
We are meant to notice that expected Jewish justice was not being done here. It
was not allowed for the Sanhedrin to meet at night and hold a trial. Instead, what
we have is a group of men meeting with the full intent to do wrong; but to do it
under the false cover of the authority of the biblically ordained justice system.
Religion of every manner, at all stages of history, has been misused to do
intentional injustice and harm for a wide array of purposes and wicked intentions.
This is because flawed human beings are the leaders and officials of every
religion. So, in that sense, nothing unusual or unique is happening here at
Caiaphas’s home… except that unbeknown to these members of the Sanhedrin,
their rotten deed is being used by the God they claim to know and worship to
achieve a goal different from theirs.
We’re told that Peter followed the procession of the posse to Caiaphas’s house,
even into the courtyard. Next he went and sat down with the guards (almost
certainly the same Temple guards who had just arrested Jesus), because he was
curious as to what would happen next. For whatever reason these guards didn’t
associate Peter with Jesus and seemed fine with him sitting there, waiting along
with them.
Matthew makes the intent of the Sanhedrin, as a single-minded assembly, quite
clear. They have no good legal reason to do anything to Jesus and they know it;
so, they seek false evidence so that they can contrive a reason to kill Him. What
is happening is not a trial at all; it is a meeting of conspirators that are plotting
murder. They are searching for something… anything… to charge Yeshua with to
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try to make the killing of Him seem justified. It must necessarily be something that
rises to the level of the death penalty and there was only a tiny handful of crimes
that could be punished as capital offenses. Remember: what they had to find was
not something criminal in the civil sense of it, but rather the breaking of a Jewish
religious law. Criminal offenses were tried under the authority of Rome; in Roman
courts under Roman law. As verse 60 points out, what must have been a very
frustrated court trotted out a string of liars, but the judges still couldn’t come up
with an offense that even remotely approached a death sentence. Finally,
however, 2 men were brought in who said that Jesus had said that He could tear
down the Temple and build it again in 3 days. In Jewish tradition, saying anything
against the Temple was considered as bad as saying something against God.
As regards the timing of this event, it had to have been on Nisan 14
th
, Passover,
because Nisan 15
th
was the first day of Unleavened Bread and thus a special
festival sabbath, so there is no way that Caiaphas would have been able to
convene any type of assembly on a sabbath. As wicked as were these men,
Jewish tradition still ruled their thoughts and they weren’t about to do something
that (ironically) they thought would get them in trouble with God.
Caiaphas latched onto this hope of a finally finding a suitable crime and bellowed
at Yeshua to respond to the accusation; Yeshua stood silent and refused to
answer. Clearly this accusation wasn’t going to go anywhere so Caiaphas tried
something different. By refusing to answer, Jesus even facilitated Caiaphas
moving on to something that not only gave Jesus an opening to announce to the
Jewish religious authorities who He really was, but also would be the nail in the
coffin so to speak, that could finally move this process along of getting Him to the
cross. Caiaphas says that He puts Christ under oath to answer if He is the
Messiah, the Son of God. What is really sort of fascinating is that the question
Caiaphas has put to Jesus is the entire point of the Gospel. Are you the Messiah,
the Son of God He says to Yeshua? Yeshua responds that the words are your
own; it is a Jewish expression of affirmation. Caiaphas got it right! But, Yeshua
didn’t stop there. He also makes a prophecy that the Sanhedrin recognized as
indicating a divine connection. He says that one day they will see the Son of Man
sitting at the right hand of Power. And that they will also see Him “coming” with
the clouds of heaven.
Yeshua has shifted His reference point from the present to the future; to the End
Times when judgment falls. The court full well understood the Son of Man
reference as found in Daniel and saw it as messianic in nature, but not
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necessarily as divine. It was the “sitting at the right hand of Power” and “coming
with the clouds of heaven” part that enabled Caiaphas to charge Jesus with
blasphemy. Power (or better The Power) was another designation for God.
Coming with the clouds of heaven is an interesting statement to deal with. For
Caiaphas this was Jesus associating Himself with the divine. But how should we
take it? Should we take the clouds as literal or even somewhat figurative clouds
(the white fluffy kind that floats in the sky… in the heavens) or might the “clouds of
heaven” refer to legions of angels alongside perhaps myriads of Believers that
had, earlier, been resurrected and/or raptured to Heaven and are now returning
to earth from Heaven to fight a Holy War alongside Messiah Yeshua? While I
can’t dismiss the latter, I think it is too much part of Daniel’s prophecy of the
Son of Man coming in the clouds to stretch this to mean clouds of Believers and
angels coming back with Jesus. For Jews the Son of Man primarily represented
judgment. The thought of clouds as revivified Believers came much later in
Christian thought. So, at the least it certainly didn’t mean that to the Sanhedrin.
There’s a couple of other notions included in Christ’s claim. The “you will see”
doesn’t so much mean the men sitting in that chamber, but rather it is a general
and panoramic “you”, probably meaning “everyone”. It conjures up the thought
of the general resurrection to come when both the wicked and the righteous shall
arise from their graves, and so perhaps being witness to Christ’s return. “From
now on” definitely frames this as a future event, but it could be the near or very
far future. This is a rather cryptic statement that for the Sanhedrin didn’t impart a
lot of specific information other than that Yeshua was definitely saying that He
was indeed Israel’s Messiah, and Daniel’s Son of Man, and that He is in some
manner divine. More than enough for Caiaphas to cry: “Blasphemy!”. I suspect
for him that cry more meant: “Victory!”. Yeshua had just condemned Himself. In
Jewish law a suspect that confesses negates the need for two corroborating
witnesses. Blasphemy was the most serious breaking of the Law of Moses and it
was a capital offense. That they didn’t immediately execute Him says they
couldn’t; they didn’t have the authority to do it. They’d have to wait until they
could get in touch with Pilate in the morning and ask for Yeshua’s execution. The
members of the Sanhedrin are said to agree that He was guilty and that death is
the proper sentence. They are now equally and fully liable for sending God’s Son
to the execution stake.
We’re told that they spit in His face and hit Him with their fists, and mocked Him
by saying to prophesy, which of them hit Him. Spitting was to put shame upon the
one who was receiving their spittle.
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Let’s re-read the remainder of chapter 26.
RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 26:69 – end
The focus returns to Peter, somewhat representative of the entire 12 disciples
(and in a deeper sense, all of us). He is still sitting in the courtyard of Caiaphas’s
house when a house servant says that she recognizes him as having been with
Yeshua from Galilee. We’ve spent much time emphasizing that when reading
the New Testament and especially the Gospel accounts we need to be able to
draw a necessary distinction between the Jews of the Galilee and the Jews of
Judea. Each not only had a number of different traditions concerning the
observances of various holidays, but they had a general difference in style of
living and in underlying values. Nearly all nations have such divisions. For
example: in the USA we have recognizable differences in values and styles of
living between people of the Northeast versus the South, and from the Midwest
versus the West Coast. We can recognize different accents, notice outgoing
versus more reserved behavior, different modes of dress, and there are
numerous other indicators that reveal where someone might be from. And in this
modern polarized world, there can be outright dislike and disrespect from people
living in one region towards people living in another. This is what life was like in
the Holy Land in the 1
st
century. Judeans generally considered themselves more
sophisticated and pious than that Galileans, which they looked down upon as
inferior. The Galileans looked at the Judeans as snooty and hypocritical self-
righteous people.
Immediately upon the accusation, Peter denied He even knew what the girl was
talking about. He made his denial in front of numerous people meaning denial of
His faith was as public as was His initial profession of faith; the current profession
erasing the first. As he begins to try to slink away from this girl who recognizes
him, he moves to a further outward area where a girl confronts him because
she’s not buying it; despite his denial she knows its him. She announces to no
one in particular that Peter was with Yeshua of Nazareth. Peter resorts to
swearing… that is, making an oath that necessarily in the Jewish world invokes
God’s name… that He doesn’t know this man Yeshua. Some bystanders now
approach Peter… probably after overhearing this servant girl… and say that Peter
must be “one of them” because his accent gives him away. Yes, the Galileans
had a known accent that was different from the Judean accent. Now Peter goes
all in and even invokes a curse on himself (if he’s not telling the truth) and insists
he doesn’t know Jesus.
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In Jewish thought of that era, just as saying or doing something positive 3 times
denotes sincerity and eagerness to do right, so does saying or doing something
negative 3 times denote sincerity and eagerness to do wrong. Peter went to full
length to deny any knowledge of, and therefore any faith in, Jesus Christ. He had
3 opportunities to recant his renunciation, but he didn’t. Peter no longer
confessed the Lord. Peter no longer acknowledged even knowing who the man
was. Peter had only hours ago boasted that he was willing to die with the Lord if
necessary; but when he wasn’t even threatened with death, only perhaps being
punished in some small way, it was enough for him to lose courage.
The cock crowed and it served as a reminder that Yeshua had told him that this
is exactly what was going to happen. Jesus’s prophecy is repeated: “Before the
rooster crows you will disown me 3 times”. Peter had saved himself from any
kind of jeopardy; but it was a soul-destroying decision. He wept bitterly. I don’t
want to sound overly dramatic; however, we ought to consider that Peter’s
sudden loss of salvation happened before Christ’s death and resurrection. When
Peter made the decision to renounce Christ the proof of who Yeshua is, which
lies mainly in the cross and the empty tomb, hadn’t yet happened. Perhaps
that’s why Yeshua was so willing to anticipate that He would meet up with this
same group of reformed deserters back in the Galilee. But what of everyone
since after His death and resurrection? We have the knowledge of it; the many
witnesses; it is history and not prophecy. To my mind, it is an even greater
condemnation of one’s character at this point in history to deny Him, or (maybe
worse) to know Him and then walk away from Him, than it was for Peter and the
disciples.
I think Peter’s bitter weeping is that first step towards his repentance. He has
failed, utterly. He knows it. He has to face now who he really is. And when we
approach Christ that way, it is all the more humbling to know that God so loves
us that He sent His only Son, an innocent man, to die for us. And that His Son,
who could have chosen otherwise, followed through. I’ve always enjoyed
Matthew’s Gospel because he tries the least of them all to put a happy face on
the character and behavior of the 12 disciples, including Peter. We have the
opportunity to learn from Peter. The lesson is that we must take care and take
precautions at all times, and not think too greatly of ourselves or believe that
somehow that new nature God has given us has wiped away the old that remains
dangerously active within.
New Testament authors repeatedly warn us that we are always in danger of
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falling away from our Savior Jesus as did Peter. James gives us the good news
of hope that it doesn’t have to be our end story:
CJB
James.5:19-20
19
My brothers, if one of you wanders from the truth, and
someone causes him to return,
20
you should know that whoever turns a
sinner from his wandering path will save him from death and cover many
sins.
On the other hand, the anonymous writer of the Book of Hebrews warns of the
ominous consequences of turning our backs on Christ:
CJB
Hebrews 10:26-27
26
For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving
the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for
sins,
27
but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will
consume the enemies.
We’ll open chapter 27 to begin our next lesson.
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