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Wednesday 6 March 2013

Mark 14:43-52 - The Arrest

Mark gives no details of how Judas betrayed Jesus, he just mentions that Judas turned up with guards. These "guards" were auxiliary servants of the court and had been sent by the religious leaders.
Judas then betrayed Jesus with a kiss. It seems strange that they needed to be shown who  Jesus was, given that He was so well known. There are two things that we need to remember. First pictures of Jesus would not have been plastered all over the place, as would happen today, so His appearance would not actually be as well known as that of celebrities is today. Secondly, the religious leaders wanted to spread the blame, they wanted to be able to say that one of His own number had betrayed Him.
One of the disciples drew his sword  and cut off the ear of one of the servants of the high pries. We read elsewhere that this was Peter. Since Peter was a primary source for Mark he did not want to draw attention to himself, and certainly did not want anyone getting the idea that this was actually a good action and one to be followed.
Jesus remains calm, He knew that all this was happening to fulfil the Scriptures. Then everyone, including the disciples fled, thus fulfilling Jesus' earlier words.
The young man who fled may have been John Mark, the author of this gospel. This incident is not mentioned in any of the other gospels.

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