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1. When the grand and lengthened discourse was concluded which the
Lord delivered after supper, and on the eve of shedding His blood for
us, to the disciples who were then with Him, and had added the prayer
addressed to His Father, the evangelist John began thereafter the
narrative of His passion in these words: "When Jesus had so
spoken, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron,
where was a garden, into the which He entered, and His disciples.
And Judas also, who betrayed Him, knew the place; for Jesus
oft-times resorted thither with His disciples." What he here
relates of the Lord entering the garden with His disciples did not
take place immediately after He had brought the prayer to a close, of
which he says, "When Jesus had spoken these words:" but certain
other incidents were interposed, which are passed over by the present
evangelist and found in the others; just as in this one are found many
things on which the others are similarly silent in their own
narratives. But any one who desires to know how they all agree
together, and the truth which is advanced by one is never contradicted
by another, may seek for what he wants, not in these present
discourses, but in other elaborate treatises; but he will master the
subject not by standing and listening, but rather by sitting down and
reading, or by giving his closest attention and thought to one who does
so. Yet let him believe before he know, whether he be able also to
come to such a knowledge in this life, or find it impossible through
some existing entanglements, that there is nothing written by any one
evangelist, as far as regards those who have been received by the
Church into canonical authority, that can be contrary to his own or
another's equally veracious narrative. At present, therefore, let
us look at the narrative of the blessed John, which we have undertaken
to expound, without any comparison with the others, and without
lingering over anything in it that is already sufficiently clear; so
that where it is needful to do so, we may the better answer the
demand. Let us, therefore, not take His words, "When Jesus had
spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook
Cedron, where was a garden, into the which He entered, and His
disciples," as if it were immediately after the utterance of these
words that He entered the garden; but let the clause, "When Jesus
had spoken these words," bear this meaning, that we are not to
suppose Him entering the garden before He had brought these words to a
close.
2. "Judas also," he says, "who betrayed Him, knew the place;
for Jesus oft-times resorted thither with His disciples." There,
accordingly, the wolf, clad in a sheep's skin, and tolerated among
the sheep by the profound counsel of the Father of the family, learned
where he might opportunely scatter the slender flock, and lay his
coveted snares for the Shepherd. "Judas then," he adds, "having
received a cohort, and officers from the chief men and the Pharisees,
cometh thither with lanterns, and torches, and weapons." It was a
cohort, not of Jews, but of soldiers. We are therefore to
understand it as having been received from the governor, as if for the
purpose of securing the person of a criminal, and by preserving the
forms of legal power, to deter any from venturing to resist his
captors: although at the same time so great a band had been assembled,
and came armed in such a way as either to terrify or even attack any one
who should dare to make a stand in Christ's defense. For only in so
far was His power concealed and prominence given to His weakness,
that these very measures were deemed necessary by His enemies to be
taken against Him, for whose hurt nothing would have sufficed but what
was pleasing to Himself; in His own goodness making a good use of the
wicked, and doing what was good in regard to the wicked, that He
might transform the evil into the good, and distinguish between the
good and the evil.
3. "Jesus, therefore," as the evangelist proceeds to say,
"knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and saith
unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus saith unto them, I am . And Judas also, who betrayed Him,
stood with them. As soon then as He had said unto them, I am He,
they went backward, and fell to the ground." Where now were the
military cohort, and the servants of the chief men and the Pharisees?
where the terror and protection of weapons? His own single voice
uttering the words, "I am ," without any weapon, smote,
repelled, prostrated that great crowd, with all the ferocity of their
hatred and terror of their arms. For God lay hid in that human
flesh; and eternal day was so obscured in those human limbs, that with
lanterns and torches He was sought for to be slain by the darkness.
"I am ," He says; and He casteth the wicked to the ground. What
will He do when He cometh as judge, who did this when giving Himself
up to be judged? What will be His power when He cometh to reign,
who had this power when He came to die? And now everywhere through
the gospel Christ is still saying, "I am ;" and the Jews are
looking for Antichrist, that they may go backward and fall to the
ground, as those who have abandoned what is heavenly, and are
hankering after the earthly. It was for the very purpose of
apprehending Jesus that His persecutors accompanied the traitor: they
found the One they were seeking, for they heard, "I am ." Why,
then, did they not seize Him, but went backward and fell, but just
because so He pleased, who could do whatever He pleased? But had
He never permitted them to apprehend Him, they would certainly not
have done what they came to do, but no more would He be doing what He
came to do. They, verily, in their mad rage, sought for Him to put
Him to death; but He, too, in giving Himself to death, was
seeking for us.
Accordingly, having thus shown His power to those who had the will,
but not the power, to hold Him; let them now hold Him that He may
work His own will with those who know it not.
4. "Then asked He them again, Whom seek ye? And they said,
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am .
If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way: that the saying
might be fulfilled which He spoke, That of those whom Thou hast
given me I have lost none." "If ye seek me," He says, "let
these go their way." He sees His enemies, and they do what He bids
them: they let those go their way, whom He would not have perish.
But were they not afterwards to die? How then, if they died now,
should He lose them, were it not that as yet they did not believe in
Him, as all believe who perish not?
5. "Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the
high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. And the servant's
name was Malchus." This is the only evangelist who has given us the
very name of this servant, as Luke is the only one who tells us that
the Lord touched his ear and healed him. The interpretation of
Malchus is, one who is destined to reign. What, then, is signified
by the ear that was cut off in the Lord's behalf, and healed by the
Lord, but the renewed hearing that has been pruned of its oldness,
that it may henceforth be in the newness of the spirit, and not in the
oldness of the letter? Who can doubt that he, who had such a thing
done for him by Christ, was yet destined to reign with Christ? And
his being found as a servant, pertains also to that oldness that
gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. But when healing came, liberty
also was shadowed forth. Peter's deed, however, was disapproved of
by the Lord, and He prevented Him from proceeding further by the
words: "Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father
hath given me, shall I not drink it?" For in such a deed that
disciple only sought to defend his Master, without any thought of what
it was intended to signify. And he had therefore to be exhorted to the
exercise of patience, and the event itself to be recorded as an
exercise of understanding. But when He says that the cup of suffering
was given Him by the Father, we have precisely the same truth as that
which was uttered by the apostle: "If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us
all." But the originator of this cup is also one with Him who drank
it; and hence the same apostle likewise says, "Christ loved us, and
gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God of a
sweet-smelling savor."
6. "Then the cohort, and the tribune, and the officers of the
Jews, took Jesus, and bound Him." They took Him to whom they
had never found access: for He continued the day, while they remained
as darkness; neither had they given heed to the words, "Come unto
Him, and be enlightened." For had they so approached Him, they
would have taken Him, not with their hands for the purpose of murder,
but with their hearts for the purpose of a welcome reception. Now,
however, when they laid hold of Him in this way, their distance from
Him was vastly increased: and they bound Him by whom they themselves
ought rather to have been loosed. And perhaps there were those among
them who then fastened their fetters on Christ, and yet were
afterwards delivered by Him, and could say, "Thou hast loosed my
bonds." Let this be enough for today; we shall deal, God willing,
with what follows in another discourse.
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