Luke 22:51

After first mentioning the prayer of Christ, St. Luke goes on to speak of His betrayal wherein He is betrayed by His disciple, saying, And while he yet spoke, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas.

He says, he that was called Judas, holding his name as it were in abhorrence; but adds, one of the twelve, to signify the enormity of the traitor. For he who bad been honored as an apostle became the cause of the murder of Christ.

For just as incurable wounds yield neither to severe nor soothing remedies, so the soul when once it is taken captive, and has sold itself to any particular sin, will reap no benefit from admonition. And so it was with Judas, who desisted not from His betrayal, though deterred by Christ by every manner of warning. Hence it follows, And drew near to Jesus to kiss him.

Unmindful of the glory of Christ, he thought to be able to act secretly, daring to make an especial token of love the instrument of his treachery.

Now we must not depart from admonishing our brethren, albeit nothing comes of our words. For even the streams though no one drink therefrom still flow on, and him whom you have not persuaded today, peradventure you may tomorrow. For the fisherman after drawing empty nets the whole day, when it was now late takes a fish. And thus our Lord, though He knew that Judas was not to be converted, yet ceased not to do such things as had reference to him. It follows, But Jesus said to him, Judas, betray you the Son of man with a kiss?

It must be used I think by way of question, as if he arrests the traitor with a lover’s affection.

And He gives him his proper name, which was rather like one lamenting and recalling him, than one provoked to anger.

He says, Betray you with a kiss? that is, do you inflict a wound with the pledge of love? with the instruments of peace do you impose death? a slave, do you betray your Lord; a disciple, your master; one chosen, Him who chose you?

But He said not, “Betray you your Master, your Lord, your Benefactor,” but the Son of man, that is, the humble and meek, who though He were not your Master and Lord, forasmuch as He has borne himself so gently toward you, should have never been betrayed by you.

O great manifestation of Divine power, great discipline of virtue! Both the design of your traitor is detected, and yet forbearance is not withheld. He shows whom it is Judas betrays, by manifesting things hidden; He declares whom he delivers up, by saying, the Son of man, for the human flesh, not the Divine nature, is seized. That however which most confounds the ungrateful, is the thought that he had delivered up Him, who though He was the Son of God, yet for our sakes wished to be the Son of man; as if He said, “For you did I undertake, O ungrateful man, that which you betray in hypocrisy.

The Lord when He was betrayed first said this which Luke mentions, Betray you the Son of man with a kiss? next, what Matthew says, Friend, wherefore are you come? and lastly, what John records, Whom seek you?

Our Lord kissed him, not that He would teach us to dissemble, but both that He might not seem to shrink from the traitor, and that He might the more move him by not denying him the offices of love.

The disciples are inflamed with zeal, and unsheathe their swords. But whence have they swords? Because they had slain the lamb, and had departed from the feast. Now the other disciples ask whether they should strike; but Peter, always fervent in defense of his Master, waits not for permission, but straightway strikes the servant of the High Priest; as it follows, And one of them smote, &c.

He who struck, according to John, was Peter, but he whom he struck was called Malchus.

For Peter being well versed in the law, and full of ardent affection, knowing that it was counted righteousness in Phineas that he had killed the sacrilegious persons, struck the High Priest’s servant.

Now Luke says, But Jesus answered and said, Suffer; you thus far; which is what Matthew records, Put your sword up into its sheath. Nor will it move you as contrary thereto, that Luke says here that our Lord answered, Suffer you thus far, as if He had so spoken after the blow to show that what was done had pleased Him so far, but He did not wish it to proceed farther, seeing that in these words which Matthew has given, it may rather be implied that the whole circumstance in which Peter used the sword was displeasing to our Lord. For the truth is, that upon their asking, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? He then answered, Suffer you thus far, that is, be not troubled with what is about to happen. They must be permitted to advance so far, that is, to take Me, and so to fulfill the things which were written of Me. For he would not say, And Jesus answering, unless He answered this question, not Peter’s deed. But between the delay of their words of question to our Lord and His answer, Peter in the eagerness of defense struck the blow. And two things cannot be said, though one may be said and another may be done, at the same time. Then, as Luke says, He healed him who was struck, as it follows, And he touched his ear, and healed him.

For the Lord is never forgetful of His loving kindness. While they are bringing death upon the righteous, He heals the wounds of His persecutors.

The Lord in wiping away the bloody wounds, conveyed thereby a divine mystery, namely, that the servant of the prince of this world, not by the condition of His nature but by guilt, should receive a wound on the ear, for that he had not heard the words of wisdom. Or, by Peter so willingly striking the ear, he taught that he ought not to have a ear outwardly, who had not one in a mystery. But why did Peter do this? Because he especially obtained the power of binding and loosing, therefore by his spiritual sword he takes away the interior ear of him who understands not. But the Lord Himself restores the hearing, showing that even they, if they would turn, might be saved, who inflicted the wounds in our Lord’s Passion; for that all sin may be washed away in the mysteries of faith.

Or that servant is the Jewish people sold by the High Priests to an unlawful obligation, who, by the Passion of our Lord, lost their right ear; that is, the spiritual understanding of the law. And this ear indeed is cut off by Peter’s sword, not that he takes away the sense of understanding from those that hear, but manifests it withdrawn by the judgment of God from the careless. But the same right ear in those who among the same people have believed, is restored by the Divine condescension to its former office. It follows, Then said Jesus to them, Are you come out as against a thief with swords and staves? &c.

For they had come at night fearing an outbreak of the multitude, therefore He says, “What need was there of these arms against one who was always with you? as it follows, When I was daily with you.

Whereby He does not blame the chiefs of the Jews that they had not sooner prepared their murderous designs against Him, but convicts them of having presumptuously supposed they had attacked Him against His will; as if He says, “You did not take Me then, because I willed it not, but neither could you now, did I not of My own accord surrender Myself into your hands.” Hence it follows, But this is your hour, that is, a short time is permitted you to exercise your vengeance against Me, but the Father’s will agrees with Mine. He also says, that this power is given to darkness, i.e. the Devil and the Jews, of rising in rebellion against Christ. And shell is added, And the power of darkness.

As if He says, Therefore are you assembled against Me in darkness, because your power, wherewith you are thus armed against the light of the world, is in wherewith. But it is asked how Jesus is said to be addressing the chief priests, the officers of the temple, and the elders, who came to Him, whereas they are reported not to have gone of themselves, but to have sent their servants while they waited in the hall of Caiaphas? The answer then to this contradiction is, that they came not by themselves, but by those whom they sent to take Christ in the power of their command.

76. If it is supposed that God could not enjoin warfare, because in after times it was said by the Lord Jesus Christ, "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but if any one strike thee on the right cheek, turn to him the left also," the answer is, that what is here required is not a bodily action, but an inward disposition. The sacred seat of virtue is the heart, and such were the hearts of our fathers, the righteous men of old. But order required such a regulation of events, and such a distinction of times, as to show first of all that even earthly blessings (for so temporal kingdoms and victory over enemies are considered to be, and these are the things which the community of the ungodly all over the world are continually begging from idols and devils) are entirely under the control and at the disposal of the one true God. …

77. If our foolish opponents are surprised at the difference between the precepts given by God to the ministers of the Old Testament, at a time when the grace of the New was still undisclosed, and those given to the preachers of the New Testament, now that the obscurity of the Old is removed, they will find Christ Himself saying one thing at one time, and another at another. "When I sent you," He says, "without scrip, or purse, or shoes, did ye lack anything? And they said, Nothing. Then saith He to them, But now, he that hath a scrip, let him take it, and also a purse; and he that hath not a sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." If the Manichæans found passages in the Old and New Testaments differing in this way, they would proclaim it as a proof that the Testaments are opposed to each other. But here the difference is in the utterances of one and the same person. …

16. Next comes in a passage, which is given by Luke as follows: “When they which were about Him saw what would follow, they said unto Him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them smote the servant of the high priest,” as is noticed by all the four historians, “and cut off his ear,” which, as we are informed by Luke and John, was his “right ear.” More over, we gather also from John that the person who smote the servant was Peter, and that the name of the man whom he thus struck was Malchus. Next we take what Luke mentions, namely, “Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far;” with which we must connect the words appended by Matthew, namely, “Put up thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. …

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. …