Part 12 (1/2)
Three Evangelists tell that one of the disciples struck a servant of the high priest and cut off an ear. Luke the physician says it was the right ear, and that Christ touched it and healed it. John gives the disciple's name, which it was not prudent for the other Evangelists to do when Peter, who struck the blow, was still living. He also preserves the name of the servant, Malchus--the last one on whom he saw the Great Physician perform a healing act, showing divine power and compa.s.sion. John records the Lord's reproof to Peter, ”Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Can this firm voice be the same which an hour ago, a stone's cast from these two disciples, said beseechingly, ”O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pa.s.s from Me.” Yea, verily, for He had added to the prayer, ”Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”
Thus does John's record concerning Peter testify to the triumph of his Lord. But he also notes the immediate effect of Peter's mistaken zeal.
The captain and officers ”bound Him.” That was a strange, humiliating sight, especially in connection with the Lord's words to Peter while returning the sword to its sheath, ”Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech My Father, and He shall even now send Me more than twelve legions of angels?” Wonderful words! fitting to be the last of the Lord's utterances to a disciple in Gethsemane. With burning and just indignation at His being bound, Jesus turned to His captors, saying, ”Are ye come out as against a robber, to seize Me?” As they closed around Him His disciples were terrified with the fear of a like fate.
”And they all left Him and fled.” Prophecy was fulfilled; the Shepherd was smitten; the sheep were scattered.
Without the voice of friend or foe, the garden of Olivet was silent. One had left it who, outliving his companions, gives us hints of his lone meditations. The beloved disciple cherished memories of joyous yet sad Gethsemane. He it was who longest remembered, and who alone preserved the prophecy in the Upper Room, so soon fulfilled--”Ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone.”
In George Herbert's words we hear the Master cry,
”All My disciples fly! fear put a bar Betwixt My friends and Me; they leave the star Which brought the Wise Men from the East from far.
Was ever grief like Mine!”
_CHAPTER XXV_
_John in the High Priest's Palace_
”And they that had taken Jesus led Him away to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together.”--_Matt._ xxvi. 57.
”Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. That disciple ... entered in with Jesus into the court of the high priest; but Peter was standing at the door without. So the other disciple ... went out ... and brought in Peter.”--_John_ xviii. 15, 16.
”Everywhere we find these two Apostles, Peter and John, in great harmony together.”--_Chrysostom._
”Bow down before thy King, My soul!
Earth's kings, before Him bow ye down; Before Him monarchs humbly roll,-- Height, might, and splendor, throne and crown.
He in the mystic Land divine The sceptre wields with valiant hand.
In vain dark, evil powers combine,-- He, victor, rules the better Land.”
--_Ingleman.--Trans. Hymns of Denmark._
”It is probable that St. John attended Christ through all the weary stages of His double trial--before the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities--and that, after a night thus spent, he accompanied the procession in the forenoon to the place of execution, and witnessed everything that followed.”--_Stalker._
We know not what became of nine of the disciples fleeing from Gethsemane; whether they first hid among the bushes and olive-trees, and escaped into the country; or took refuge in the neighboring tombs; or stole their way to some secret room where the goodman of the house furnished them protection; or scattered in terror each in his lonely way.
The captive Lord was dragged along the highway where Peter and John had been for a single hour the Heralds of the King. Over the Kidron, up the slope of Moriah, through the gate near the sacred Temple, along the streets of the Holy City, He was led as a robber to the high-priestly palace.
Three Evangelists tell us, ”Peter followed afar off.” But love soon overcame his fears. He was not long alone. John says, ”Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple.” We cannot doubt who was Peter's companion as he turned from his flight. They ”went both together,” as two days later they ran on another errand. In the shadows of the olive-trees along the roadside, or of the houses of the city, they followed the hurrying band which they overtook by the time it reached the palace gate. John did not ”outrun Peter,” who was probably the leader. But at the gate they were separated.
We must not think that this palace was like an American house. The entrance to it was through a great arched gateway. This was closed with a large door or gate, in which there was a small entrance called a wicket gate, through which people pa.s.sed. These gates opened into a broad pa.s.sage or square court. Around it on three sides the house was built. All rooms upstairs and down looked into it. One large room, forming one side, was separated from it, not by a wall, but by a row of pillars. Being thus opened it was easy to see what was pa.s.sing in the room or the court.
”That disciple,” who accompanied Peter to the gate, ”was known unto the high priest and entered in with Jesus into the court of the high priest.
But Peter was standing at the door without.” John was doubtless familiar with the place and the servants, and went in with the crowd. He kept as near as he could to his Master during the dark hours of His trial, as he was to do during the yet darker hours at the cross.
But the disciple within could not forget the one without. They must not be separated in their common sorrow. Peter too must show by his presence his continued love for his Master. He must have opportunity to show in the palace something of the faithfulness of which he had boasted in the Upper Room, though it had faltered in Gethsemane.