Mark 14:43 Commentary and Bible Study

This is an astonishing day when Christ, the eternal Son of God, permitted himself, in apparent weakness, to be taken and arrested, and then subsequently tried and executed. ‘While he yet spake cometh Judas, one of the twelve.’ ‘One of the twelve’ – what a significant phrase! One of those who had been under the instruction of the Lord for some three years. One of those who had witnessed all, but a few, of the compassionate miracles. One of those who had been close up, in the front row as you would say, and had seen the mighty power of the Lord, when at a word he would heal, or at a touch as he chose. One of the twelve who had seen him read the thoughts of the disciples, who had heard the teaching of the Lord, who spoke like no other man. He had seen such amazing things! Christ’s exposition of the Scriptures, his teaching! Judas had heard constantly the repeated message of repentance and remission of sin. He had heard about the grace of God: that salvation, that forgiveness, comes not through works, not through any religious performances, not through a lifetime of study and application, but as a free gift from God, given instantly, and transforming the life. He had heard all this, and yet one of the twelve now betrays Christ! He had passed muster among the other eleven. They all thought him to be genuine. Not the Lord, of course; he knew all along what would be in Judas’ heart. ‘And with him a great multitude.’ A great multitude? He had the temple police, the levites with him. He had some of the chief priests. In those days there was not just one chief priest; there was a primary chief priest, acting for the year, but there were others also in the family of chief priests, and they took turns in rotation in a measure. They were all known as chief priests. Others were there – the rest of the clergy, the Jewish clergy of the time: the scribes and the Pharisees and the elders of the people. In addition, we are told (John 18:3), Judas was assigned a cohort of soldiers, presumably from the Antonia Fortress, adjacent to the temple. This means that the Sanhedrin Council, the rulers of the Jewish people, had negotiated with the Roman authorities, and had told them that something very serious was afoot. A trial was necessary; this supposed Son of God would have to be put to death. It spelled treason against Caesar, they had secured from the commander – so John’s Gospel tells us – a cohort of troops. A cohort was about 600 soldiers. One doubts whether they were all involved in this particular task: to arrest the Lord. There would have been some left on duty, surely, in the city and in the fortress. Maybe there were 300 or 400, out of the 600, enough for it to be described as a great multitude. Absolutely intimidating! The soldiers with swords, the levite priests – maybe 40 or 50 of them, with clubs, staves – and then the high priests and the clerical party. Elsewhere it says that there were chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, in the band (Luke 22:52), but the entire party were sent from the chief priests. It was their authority: the authority of the Sanhedrin Council, the leaders of the people. It was the clergy who did not believe in him. It was the clergy who ordered his arrest. It was the clergy who rigged the whole thing so that he would be found guilty of blasphemy and put to death. Of course, Christ could have prevented it at any moment. He had prevented it on numerous occasions up to this point, because the time was not ready, according to the plan of God. But now he allows it to take place.