Matthew 26: 36 – 56
Lack of support
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” 47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. 50 Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” 55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
Reviewing this chapter, I’m wondering, why are the people closest to us the very last to support us when you really need them?
When the people you love the most don’t support you, I think it’s because you didn’t choose the path they thought was “right”. Many people hold onto your past, subconsciously use it against you, and project those things into your future.
So, the question we need to ask ourselves is ‘How do we handle lack of support by our loved ones?
We must understand that we can only influence how people view us, but we cannot control them. Sometimes I don’t think our loved ones realize how much their words and personal involvement impact us. Even if they’re not saying anything negative, sometimes the lack of encouragement is negativity within itself.
I believe people’s lack of support has more to do with them than it has to do with you.
To gain victory we need to stop and gain control of our thoughts and not let our thought control us.
You need to put your thoughts on The Lord Jesus Christ Who loved you and gave His life for you. You are special to Him no matter what you achieve in life. When you realize that you are in good stead with Him what does all this earthly success really mean in the long run?
In today’s teaching we are going to see that our Lord Jesus Is not going to be supported by the men who were closest to Him. The Lord Jesus and His disciples arrive in Gethsemane. We who know what to expect recognize that the crucial hour has come, but it is beneficial to recognize that prior to His ordeal our Lord Jesus finds it necessary to pray. Aware of something of what lies ahead His prayer is agony as He seeks to ensure that what He is facing is really His Father’s will. As with His not knowing the time of His coming (24.36) it is a sign of His true humanity that He must verify the path that He is treading because of how awful it will be. And He does it hoping that He might be wrong in His recognition of the path that He must take, that even at this eleventh hour it might prove not to be necessary. But despite all His thoughts and fears He is determined to obey the will of His Father. We should note that the resources that He calls on as He faces His cup of suffering are only those available to any man. His anguish too is like theirs. And in that Garden, unlike one who had failed in a previous Garden (Genesis 3), He prays through until ‘He is heard for His godly fear’ (Hebrews 4.7). Then at last He can cease praying, with His soul at rest. He has prayed through to victory. Gethsemane means ‘the oil press’. It was a suitable name for what He would endure.
The fact that previously we have not been introduced to the emotional life of Jesus serves to underline the nature of it here as His emotions are laid bare. The very soul of Jesus is, as it were, being torn apart as He faces the cup of suffering.
The pattern is simple. Jesus arrives with His disciples, Jesus goes apart with the inner three to pray, Jesus returns to His disciple.
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
His opening words are preparatory. He must face this alone. ‘You sit here while I go over there and pray’. They will not be further involved until He returns to them at the end. But it is then quite clear that they should have been praying and were not. Had they been they might not have fallen into the temptations and betrayed Him.
37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
He now took the inner three apart with Him. It is quite clear that He feels in need of their company to support Him in what lies ahead. These are the three He usually takes with Him in unusual situations
And even as the three moves away from the others it is seemingly apparent to them that Jesus is ‘sorrowful and sore troubled’. The agony of the night is upon Him. The words used are expressive of great emotion. They recognize that something unusual is happening. They are not used to seeing Jesus in such an emotional state.
38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.
Then, reaching a second point He leaves the three, speaking of His anguish which is so great that He feels almost that He will die, and calling on them to remain there and watch with Him. He wants their support in His agony. In His grief of soul, He possibly has in mind Psalms 42 to 43, with their threefold, ‘why are you cast down, O My soul? And why are you disquieted within me?’ (42.5, 11; 43.5), and there we also find the words, ‘All your waves and your billows have gone over Me’ (42.7), which are so descriptive of what He was enduring, the very billows of God. But it will be clear in the end that He obtains little support from His disciples, and the purpose of their failure is to bring out how Jesus must bear His burden alone. What had to be experienced that night was beyond the strength and commitment of ordinary men, even those who loved Him.
Passover became ‘a night of watching to YHWH’ (Exodus 12.42) because of the victory that He had achieved. These disciples were to watch with Him to seek to attain victory in what lay ahead, for they now ‘knew’ about the new Passover which was to involve the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood, and He longed for their support. All He asked was that they keep awake and watch, although He no doubt expected them also to watch with prayer. His concern was that they be alert to the urgency of the hour and have a sympathetic part in it. He wanted to know that they were with Him in His trial.
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then He moved on further and, falling on His face He prayed. His attitude of prayer emphasizes the desperateness of the situation. He had never as far as they knew prayed in this attitude before. ‘My Father.’ It is a prayer from Son to Father, from the One Who is alone known of the Father, to the Father Whom He knows so well (11.25-27). It is the intimacy of the Godhead. ‘If it be possible.’ In His mind the question is still open. He is aware from the Old Testament prophecies of the depth of suffering ahead. The only question is, is it necessary? ‘Let this cup pass from Me.’ The cup is a regular Old Testament symbol for suffering and reception of wrath. In Isaiah 51.17. it is the cup of the Lord’s anger, the cup of the righteous wrath of God against sin, and it is the one that He is being called on to drink to the full. But in the past, such a cup had been taken out of the hand of His people once God had felt that they had drunk enough (Isaiah 51.22) and Jesus possibly hoped that this might now be possible for Him. ‘Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’ But only if it was within the will of His Father. He had no hesitation about doing His Father’s will. All He wanted to be sure of was, that what He was about to endure really was His Father’s will. For a full hour He prayed and had still not reached certainty. What He was to face was not, He knew, an anguish to be entered lightly. And the agony in His soul continued unrelenting.
The point here is not that Jesus was afraid to die, even by the terrible torture of crucifixion. The cup that He was being called on to drink went much deeper than that. It had to do the antithesis between holiness (total set apartness to God) and sin. It had to do with experiencing everything that was the very opposite of what He was, experiencing what was contrary to His whole Being. He was to be ‘made sin for us, He Who knew no sin’ (2 Corinthians 5.21). He was the One to Whom the very thought of sin was totally abhorrent, and He was to be drenched in the filth of mankind. His very soul revolted at the idea. But if necessary He was willing to see it through.
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.
Taking a brief respite from His agony He returns to the inner three, possibly in the hope of enjoying something of their spiritual support, but only to find them asleep. Even Peter, who had been so vociferous in his promises not to deny Him, was fast asleep. If this was not denial, what then was it? It was denial of a kind. And from a heart disappointed and stirred, and very concerned, He cries, ‘What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?’ Note that the words are said to all three.
As we read these words we have to stop in wonder, and ask why it was that three men, who had in the past regularly known the rigors of being at sea all night, were comparatively young and healthy, were used to the hardships of the road from which they had had at least a week’s rest, and were enjoying a festal celebration on which many would remain awake through much of the night, could not themselves remain awake, and that in spite of the fact that they were aware that their beloved Master was going through an ordeal such as they had never seen before, and had asked them to remain awake with Him. And yet despite all their best efforts they could not. This was a night on which they seemed to be able to do nothing right. It was a night when, in all but One, flesh triumphed over spirit.
We must not, of course, underestimate the tensions of the previous week. They had necessarily been busy protecting Jesus from the pressing crowds, they had been continually aware of the now constant and unceasing hostility of the Chief Priests and Elders, probably also the continued surveillance of the Temple police, and certainly the harassment of the Scribes and Pharisees, from which there was little let up in religious Jerusalem. All this must have drawn on their nervous energy and have been found exhausting. And they may well during that time also themselves have been engaged in different forms of ministry (we must not assume, because nothing is said about it, that all they did was go around after Jesus). But this is not sufficient to explain their failure.
Perhaps verse 41 and Luke 22.31, 53 supply the clues. It was a night of unparalleled activity by ‘the power of darkness’, and the disciples did not at this stage have the power to resist it. It was certainly later seen as a night in which Satan was very much active (Luke 22.3, 31, 53; John 13.2, 27). This makes the words that follow even more poignant.
41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus, knowing how very important it is for them, tells them that they must not only ‘watch’ but must also ‘pray’. Testing lies ahead for them, testing of a supreme kind (Luke 22.31-32), and He longs that they may be saved from it. Even during His own agony His heart reaches out to His disciples, and He is aware how great their need is to engage in prayer. His tenderness is also revealed in that He recognizes the vain struggles that they have made as they have fought to stay awake. He knew that the cause of their failure did not lie in their lack of spirit, it arose because of the weakness of the flesh, and because in their humanness they were facing forces that they were unable to counter.
The spirit is that part of a man which is the very center of his self-awareness (1 Corinthians 2.11) and can be illuminated by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2.14). It is the Godward part of man (‘the image and likeness of God’), and here clearly includes the determined spiritual heart and will. The flesh is the wholly human and animal aspect of man with all its physical weaknesses and proneness to self-interest and lack of interest in spiritual things, and lack of will towards anything that is good. It is controlled by fleshly weaknesses and fleshly desires (not all necessarily sinful) and wants nothing but to satisfy them. We may surmise that the weakness of their flesh here was partly due to the activity of Satan (who had desired to have Peter - Luke 22.31). Only such pressure would help to explain why men like these could not keep awake despite their determination. Much that happened on that night can only be explained in terms of his activity. He was trying every trick he knew. He probably actually thought that he had a chance of winning. He just did not understand what he was up against, for, despite having been defeated by Him, he still could not bring himself to the certainty that it was really true that God had emptied Himself to this extent and had really become this seemingly weak and frail man. It was outside his totally selfish and deceitful understanding.
The contrasts here must not be overlooked. There was only One present Whose spirit was strong enough to take Him through the physical and spiritual perils of that night. Even these brave men whom He had spent so much time in training could not cope with them. There was only One, Who in His aloneness had to represent the whole of mankind, Who was able to stand firm against the spiritual powers of darkness. Other men would one day finally overcome what man had once fallen prey to in a previous Garden, because One was here Whose spirit was strong enough to do so in this situation, in order that He might become a life-giving spirit (see 1 Corinthians 15.45), the One Who bore not the image of earth but the image of Heaven (1 Corinthians 15.49). The seed thought to all this is found here. Here was The One Man on Whom the whole world now depended.
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
Then Jesus moves away again and His words reveal that He is still fighting His way through to full understanding of His Father’s will, which He now senses that He has almost reached. ‘If this cannot pass away except I drink it, your will be done.’ This sums up His whole attitude as He prays. For Him His Father’s will is primary. And it was vital that it should be so (Hebrews 10.5-10). It was necessary that He be a willing and ready sacrifice. The cup of God’s ‘wrath’ (aversion to sin) must be drunk to the full of His own free choice. But it was not going to be easy.
The writer to the Hebrews puts it, ‘He learned obedience by the things that He suffered’ (Hebrews 5.8), that is, He learned in experience what the pathway of obedience fully involved in its most difficult manifestation. None other could ever learn that lesson, for no other could ever reach the point where it was required. They would fall at the first hurdle in the same way as the disciples had. We benefit from His full and unreserved obedience (Romans 5.19).
Here indeed we find the distinction between sovereignty and free will at its greatest. The One Who Is Sovereign over all things and Is one with His Father in the predetermining of His death, must here yet freely choose to die.
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.
And once again He returns to the three and finds them asleep, for their eyes just would not stay open. Their weakness of flesh was constantly overcoming their spirit.
44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
The same pattern is repeated, but Matthew feels that he has already said enough to convey the essence of what happened. Unlike Luke he does not bring out the growing intensity of Jesus’ anguish. He has packed all the obvious anguish into the first prayer. He does, however, want us to know that it has not gone away, and that it endures, for he writes, ‘He said the same words’, (and note the repetition of ‘again’). He wants us to know that the same anguish is continuing right to the end. There is no respite for Jesus. In His humanness He had looked for support from His human friends, but now He has come to recognize that He must carry the burden Himself. He must enter the darkness alone.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.
After more prayer, His course now made clear, His soul is at peace, and He returns to the eleven. All are asleep emphasizing His aloneness. But now He sympathetically tells them to sleep on. Their prayers can accomplish nothing for Him now, and it is too late for them.
For the hour has drawn near of which the Scriptures had prophesied. The One Who alone is truly human in His obedience to God, ‘the Son of Man’ in contrast to those who lack such obedience, is betrayed into the hands of ‘sinners’, which in Matthew signifies those who are disobedient to the Law. Probably in mind are the ‘wild beasts’ of Daniel 7 who oppose those who observe His Law (Daniel 7.25). Here in Old Testament ideology is the antithesis between flesh and spirit. The nations were depicted as wild beasts who followed their own animal desires. They followed the flesh. They did their own will. They were ‘sinners’, lawbreakers. And now that the One has come Who in the end was the only true ‘Son of Man’ in terms of how God had originally created man, He is to be delivered over to the wild beasts for the indulgence by them of the flesh, so that He might be demonstrated as free from the grip of the flesh. It was necessary in order that through His victory some of the children of the flesh might be redeemed and become children of the Spirit (children of promise - Romans 9.8). It was through this that the disciples, who had after all demonstrated that they were still largely but children of the flesh, with their spirits weak, would become strong as children of the Spirit (Galatians 4.29). This idea that God’s strengthening purposes come about through tribulation and suffering is constant in both the Old and the New Testaments (Romans 5.2-5). It is tribulation and suffering that weakens the hold of the flesh and turns men’s thoughts towards God. ‘When His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness’ (Isaiah 26.9).
46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
We do not know how long Jesus then waited there for His disciples to enjoy their rest, but inevitably the moment came when He looked up and saw the torches of a large crowd of men coming up the mountain towards them, moving with ominous precision. As a consequence, He turned to His disciples, and waking them, cried, ‘Arise, let us move into action. Look the one who delivers me over (the Betrayer) is at hand.’
The verb for ‘going forward’ regularly indicates going forward into military action. This is a call to be ready for what is about to happen. He knows that in contrast to Judas they are all with Him in heart, and He makes them a part with Him in these final moments. This is how God’s people must always face betrayal, by going forward to meet it, confident in God.
The traitor arrives with a great crowd of armed men, and Jesus makes clear that He is now ready to drink of the cup. He rejects any suggestion of rescue, and indeed points out that if He wished to be rescued He had the available means at hand. But it could not be, because the Scriptures must be fulfilled. The will of His Father must be done. He now had no doubt about His destiny.
47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.
The description is both awesome and contemptuous at the same time. Awesome because it depicts a great crowd, armed to the teeth with swords and staves, descending on the relatively unarmed small party at night, and one that was coming as representing those who saw themselves as the power in the land (apart from Pilate). But contemptuous because of what it contained when considered more carefully. First there was Judas, ‘one of the twelve’. The unnecessary additional description is stressing the enormity of his betrayal. (‘My own familiar friend in whom I trusted, the same has lifted up his heel against me’). Then there was the ‘great crowd’. Matthew deliberately and contemptuously adds ‘great’. So many to deal with so few. And what do their swords and staves suggest if nothing less than a band of criminals? (1 Samuel 17.43). A motley crew indeed. It was as though Matthew was saying, ‘this was all that could be expected of those chief priests and elders. None of the first three Gospels mention the Roman guard standing at the back in case of trouble. They do not want to so dignify this rabble.
Matthew may have been seeking to draw out that it is the Jewish people, backed by the Jewish leadership, who are arresting Jesus (a ‘great crowd’ often surrounded Jesus, usually representing the lost sheep of the house of Israel). Their armaments then draw attention to their belligerence in total contrast to the usual crowds. This is the other side of the Jewish nation. Their belligerence can be compared to Jesus’ quiet response. What a contrast between the two parties.
48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.”
We now learn of the arrangement that Judas had made. There was a fear that in the dark, and among a group of people, all with beards, and with their heads covered, the wrong person might be arrested. In the circumstances that would be disastrous for news would then reach the pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem that a failed attempt had been made on Jesus, making the possibility of His arrest even more difficult. If they were to do it they had to get it right the first time. And the arresting party would not necessarily know Jesus well.
The sign to be used, a kiss, possibly illuminates Judas’ thoughts. A kiss between men, except between those who were related, was usually used by a higher to a lower, a Rabbi to his student, the father to the prodigal son. Perhaps the iron had entered Judas’ soul and he intended to indicate, as a reply to Jesus’ earlier indication that He knew what he was about, that he had gained the mastery.
But a kiss was also occasionally used between special friends (1 Samuel 20.41). And it may be that it had become a token of brotherhood among Jesus and the disciples in accordance with 12.50, as it would be later among Christians
Whichever way it was it would indicate friendship, esteem and affection rather than the opposite. In the same way as Judas had eaten with Jesus from the same dish, a token of friendship, so did he feel free to kiss Jesus. It goes with his callous words, “Whoever I kiss, that is he. Take him.” He had little scruples and little sense of honor, something which must be remembered when we feel like sympathizing with him. Even rogues can have a sense of honor, but Judas had none until it was too late. John alone omits mention of the kiss. He probably saw it as so heinous that he could not bear to bring it to mind.
‘Take Him.’ That is, ‘lay hold of Him’. He did not want there to be any possibility of Jesus escaping lest he lose his reward or be shamed.
49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.
As Judas arrived on the scene he went immediately to Jesus and kissed him. There was no hesitation. And he said to Him, ‘Hail, Rabbi’. In Matthew the title Rabbi is reserved for Judas’ lips, probably to indicate that he was still of the old Israel. His disciples called Him ‘Lord’. The aim behind his apparent peaceable approach was probably to disarm Jesus and His disciples until it was too late. But he knew very well that he was marking Jesus down for death.
The words ‘Kissed Him’ is intensive and signifies kissed effusively. This may have in mind Proverbs 27.6, ‘’the kisses of an enemy are profuse’. But it clearly sickened Matthew. His point was that Judas was not just betraying Jesus. He was enjoying it.
50 Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.
Jesus’ reply is equally significant. He only uses ‘friend’ of those who are in a doubtful position and as used by a superior to an inferior. Perhaps this tie in with what we saw about the kiss above. Perhaps He is reminding Judas of his place. For He knows perfectly well why Judas is here and He will not pretend. But He still by it leaves open the possibility of repentance.
‘Do what you are come for.’ Literally it is ‘friend, for what you have come’. But it is more probable that we are expected to add something, ‘I know what you have come for’. it is certainly an indication that Jesus will not interfere with his purpose.
51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
But things did not go quite so smoothly as they had hoped, for one of Jesus’ disciples drew a sword, probably with the intention of getting Jesus momentarily released so that He could slip away. (He hardly expected to defeat the whole crowd). He probably had the wild hope that they could then smuggle Jesus away in the dark, while he and one or two others (at least one other had a sword - Luke 22.38) held the crowd back, giving their lives in the attempt. It was typical of the impetuosity of Peter, so that we are not surprised elsewhere to be told that it was him (John 18.10). It is a reminder that he was ready to die for Jesus on the impulse. Where he failed was when the circumstances had altered.
How skilled a swordsman Peter was we cannot be certain, although it is doubtful if he would carry a sword unless he felt that he could use it. But the night was dark, and the target may well not have stood still. The actual cutting off of the ear was probably accidental (fortunately for the High Priest’s slave). We note that Matthew is only interested in the fact, for he does not mention the healing. He probably therefore has in mind that the Chief Priests were deaf to the words of Jesus, so that this was poetic justice.
Some have questioned this claiming if he had done this the disciple would also have been arrested, and in fact perhaps he would have been if Jesus had not instantly acted, although even that is doubtful. They wanted the bigger fish. For men in those days were used to violence, and a slave’s ear meant little, while it was the arrest of Jesus that was important. Once Jesus had obliterated the evidence, those who had seen it probably shrugged it off, or even began to doubt whether they had actually seen it happen, for it was all over in a flash. And there was by then no evidence of a case to answer. (It would have done Jesus’ case no harm at all if they had said, ‘this disciple cut this man’s ear off, and Jesus healed it’. The problem was that they would have been laughed out of court).
52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Jesus then turned to His disciple and said firmly, “Return your sword into its place, for all those who take the sword will perish with the sword.”
It was a timely warning that the sword had no place in what He had come to do. It was an instrument of death, not an instrument of life, whereas their responsibility would be to take out life to men. Jesus was not talking about war or self-defense. He was talking about aims and attitudes in religious matters. And His words were just commonsense. The sword is not something to be used lightly, and not at all in the affairs of God, for violence simply breeds violence, and leads to death not life.
53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
Then He reminded His disciples that they were not so see what happened to Him as evidence of His failure to achieve His aims. Had they not realized Who He was? Did they not remember that He had said that angels were subject to His command? Did they not yet appreciate that He had only to call on His Father and would then be sent twelve legions of angels, a far more effective force than He and the eleven disciples all acting together? After all even Elisha had been surrounded by angelic forces (2 Kings 6.17). How much more therefore was Jesus? So, they must see that this was not happening to Him because He was powerless, but because it was a necessary step in the purposes of God.
54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”
For if angels (or even puny men) intervened, how could the Scriptures be fulfilled which said that this had to happen (Isaiah 50.6)? This emphasis of the fulfilment of Scripture to the full is common in Matthew. Note the element of divine necessity. The occurrence of this treatment that He was receiving had been long known to Him and had been recently confirmed to Him in Gethsemane.
55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me.
Matthew wants it to be clear what these men are doing. Those who would have proudly represented themselves as being described within the term a ‘son of man’ (observers of the Law and faithful to the Temple) were in fact behaving like wild beasts towards One Who was the true Son of Man and had been teaching that very Law in the Temple. How inappropriate it all was. Israel were rejecting the godliest Teacher of Israel that they had ever known and trying to treat Him as though He was a fierce robber who could only be arrested at night, when His only crime had been to teach among them quite openly in the Temple, using no violence and available to them without violence. And why? Because they were afraid of what the people would do if they arrested an innocent man. And now their swords and their staves witnessed against them. They marked them for what they were, crooks coming at night to arrest the One Who had only sought to bring them to God, treating Him as though He were a robber, because they were frightened that if they arrested Him by day the common people would react against them. Let them consider what kind of people this revealed them to be, men who surreptitiously used violence to achieve their ends, (and that against One Who had shown no violence), sneaking around in the dark for the purpose so that they could do it without anyone knowing. (All they could therefore surely expect was to perish by the sword, as one day they would when Jerusalem was destroyed).
56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
‘Then all the disciples left Him and fled.’ They had still been hovering there courageously, but in the end it was all too much for them. Jesus was clearly resigned to His fate, and it appeared to leave them with little to do, and with Jesus bound and taken it seemed to be the wisest course. Perhaps also, with Jesus securely bound, they were conscious that eyes were also beginning to look around for other victims. To hang around would have been not smart. So, they ran.
