Matthew 26:56

But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled,.... Some have thought these to be the words of the evangelist, making this remark upon what was said and done; but by

And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. For the exposition, see the notes at John 18:1-12.

Ver. 55,56. Mark hath the same, . Luke, ,53 hath it thus: 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. What our evangelist reports as spoken to the rabble, Luke reports as spoken to the chief priests and captains of the temple, (that is, of the soldiers, who at that time were the guard of the temple), some of which, it should seem, came along with the rabble, to whom our Saviour directeth his speech. I sat daily with you teaching in the temple. I observed before, that it was their usual manner for those that taught in the temple to sit while they taught, to testify their authority; Christ, when he came up to the passover, was wont to teach in the temple. And ye laid no hold on me: I did not hide myself, nor go about to raise a party to defend myself, but quietly taught in the temple. If I had been guilty of any crime, you might easily have taken me; why are you now come out against me as against a thief, upon whom you had need to raise the country? Why come you against me with swords and staves, as if you thought I would make some resistance to defend myself? You never saw any such thing in me as should give you a jealousy of such a thing. But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled, the many scriptures which spake concerning the sufferings of Christ. Luke addeth, but this is your hour, and the power of darkness, that is, this is that which God hath determined. Wicked men and persecutors of Christ and his gospel have their hour. There is a time which God in his wise counsels hath set and determined, when, for the trial of his people’ s faith and patience, he suffers the devil, by vile and wicked men, who are his instruments, to imprison and otherwise vex and molest his people. That such a time is their hour, and what they do is by the permission and according to the counsel of God, and but an hour, a determined and short time, are great arguments to persuade us to the exercise of faith and patience. And the power of darkness; a time when the prince of darkness is putting forth his power: or, the power of darkness, that is, a time of exceeding great darkness, of affliction to me and my disciples. Wicked men’ s hour is always to Christ’ s disciples the power of darkness. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. Probably all of them fled at first, though Peter and another came back again: or, all here signifieth the most of them.

56 But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. Ver. 56. That the Scriptures, &c.] Which yet were no more the cause of the Jews’ cruelty than Joseph was of the famine, than the astrologer is of the eclipse, or Tenterton steeple of the ebbing and flowing of the sea. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled] Then, when there was no such need or danger to enforce them, Christ having capitulated with the enemy for their safety. They had leave to go free before; what stayed they for then? or why flee they now? This was the fruit and punishment of their former sleeping, Matthew 26:43. Had they watched and prayed then, they had not now thus entered into temptation.

(56) But all this was done.—Better, but all this has come to pass. The words, though they agree in form with those of Mar 1:22, are, as we see from Mark 14:49, not a comment of the Evangelist’s, but our Lord’s own witness to the disciples and the multitude, that the treachery and violence of which He was the victim were all working out a divine purpose, and (as in Matthew 26:54) fulfilling the Scriptures in which that purpose had been shadowed forth. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.—We read with a sorrowful surprise of this cowardly abandonment. Better things, we think, might have been expected of those who had professed their readiness to go with Him to prison and to death. Yet we may remember (1) the weariness and exhaustion which had overcome them, making the resolve and courage, to say the least, more difficult; and (2) that they had been told not to resist, and that flight might seem to them the only alternative to resistance. We have to fill up St. Matthew’s record with the strange episode of the “young man with a linen cloth cast about his naked body” of Mark 14:51, where see Note.

Verse 56. But all this was done] This is probably the observation of the evangelist. See Clarke on Matthew 2:23. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.] O what is man! How little is even his utmost sincerity to be depended on! Jesus is abandoned by all! - even zealous Peter and loving John are among the fugitives! Was ever master so served by his scholars? Was ever parent so treated by his children? Is there not as much zeal and love among them all as might make one martyr for God and truth? Alas! no. He had but twelve who professed inviolable attachment to him; one of these betrayed him, another denied him with oaths, and the rest run away and utterly abandon him to his implacable enemies! Are there not found among his disciples still, 1st. Persons who betray him and his cause? 2dly. Persons who deny him and his people? 3dly. Persons who abandon him, his people, his cause, and his truth? Reader! dost thou belong to any of these classes?

56. all this was done, &c.] These are probably the words of Christ, and not a reflection by the Evangelist (cp. Mark 14:49); if so, they were, for most of the disciples, their Master’s last words.

56. But all this was done — Mark puts words somewhat similar to these into the mouth of our Lord; but it is plain that these are the words of the evangelist.