Sometimes we read a short text in Scripture that we've never paid attention to before, and it fairly jumps out at us!
Such was the case in Matthew 27:2, where the arrest of Jesus is described: "and when they had bound Him, they led Him away, and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate."
We know how Christ was cruelly crucified, nailed to a cross, tortured and murdered and buried in the grave for us.
But just those few words, "when they had bound Him," captured my attention.
Of course Jesus had the right and power to reject such handling by His creatures. Often they had tried to seize Him, but He just stepped away from them. Soldiers who were sent to take Him returned emptyhanded, and gave as their explanation, "never a man spoke like this man!"
But when the time of His death came, He submitted Himself to their hands. One of His disciples attempted to drive off the mob that night, but Jesus gently rebuked him. Don't you know, Jesus asked him, that He could pray to His Father, and a host of angels would come and rescue Him?
"But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be thus?"
All this was done, that the scriptures might be fulfilled.
In John's gospel, additional details are provided, proving that Christ had the power to stop His own arrest, but He chose not to exercise that power. When He told them Who His was, they all fell back on the ground!
All their "power" over Christ was only because Christ refused to deploy either power, or commands, to stop them. In fact, Jesus deliberately went to Gethsemane to be taken by Judas Iscariot, because He knew Judas would come there to find Jesus.
Jesus only used His words to protect His people from being arrested! |
