I am NOT Spartacus

 

When they were at the great stone that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them.  Now Joab was wearing a soldier's garment, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath fastened on his thigh, and as he went forward it fell out.  And Joab said to Amasa, "Is it well with you, my brother?" And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.  But Amasa did not observe the sword that was in Joab's hand.  So Joab struck him with it in the stomach and spilled his entrails to the ground without striking a second blow, and he died.  --2 Samuel 20:8-10a

In the 1960 film Spartacus there is a dramatic scene near the end of the movie.  An insurrection against Rome has been put down, and the title character played by Kirk Douglas has been captured along with his fellow slave/insurrectionists.  A Roman general addresses the group, asking them to identify their leader, so that he can be executed.  Kirk Douglas stands and declares, "I am Spartacus," bravely sealing his own fate and ostensibly saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.  In a grand show of unity, his friend Antonius, played by Tony Curtis, stands up and says, "I am Spartacus!"  In response, all of the prisoners stand one by one, each declaring, "I am Spartacus," each assuring the others that he is willing to die along with their leader.

Near the end of Jesus's life on earth, there was a similar scene with a very different outcome.  A group of Roman soldiers, along with chief priests, scribes and elders (all the sworn enemies of Jesus) came to the Garden where Jesus and His disciples had been praying.  If they had called out, "Who among you here is Jesus?  Send Him to us and you will live," I am sure that Jesus would have stood up and identified Himself to them.  Unlike the movie Spartacus, however, that is not what happened.

And immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas came, one of the Twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.  Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I will kiss is the man.  Seize him and lead him away under guard."  And when he came, he went up to Him at once and said, "Rabbi!"  And he kissed Him.  And they laid hands on Him and seized Him.  But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.  And Jesus said to them, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me?  Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.  But let the Scriptures be fulfilled."  So they all left Him and fled.  And a young man followed Him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body.  And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.  --Mark 14:43-52

None of the disciples were willing to stand up and say, "I have dedicated my life to this Man--if you take Him, you must arrest me also."  Instead, they all fled.  Of the twelve that Jesus had hand-picked to follow Him, one betrayed Him to the authorities who would arrest Him and eventually kill Him, and the others all ran for their lives.

In the melee, one tried to stand up and fight.  He drew a sword and took a swipe at somebody in the arresting party, cutting off his ear.  Mark doesn't tell us who this is, but John 18:10 says it was Peter.  Luke 22:51 says that Jesus healed the man's ear.  Again in John 18:10 we learn that the man's name was Malchus, and that he was the servant of the high priest.  This might mean that Jesus healed the very one that was leading the raid to arrest Him.  What a merciful act of compassion.  

Malchus may have led the posse sent to arrest him, but Malchus was not in charge.  Judas may have led the group to where Jesus was, but Judas was not in charge, either.  Luke 22:3 says, "Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the Twelve."  Judas was working the in spirit of the antichrist, influenced by Satan himself.  Yet ultimately, Satan was not in charge, either.  

Jesus said in John 6:38, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me."  God is ultimately in charge.  He had decreed it from old that Jesus would come and live among us and die for us, becoming the ultimate sacrifice for us.  Jesus acknowledged this when He said, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me?  Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.  But let the Scriptures be fulfilled."  Jesus may have been thinking about Psalm 88:8, "You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them." (NIV)

Judas had been close enough to Jesus to come and greet Him with a friendly kiss.  The kiss as an act of betrayal and even death has become known as "the kiss of death" or "the Judas kiss."  As we see in 2 Samuel, this was not the only time in the Bible that a kiss was a prelude to a murder, as we saw David's trusted general Joab approach Amasa, an officer who had allied himself with a pretender to the throne.  Joab kissed Amasa and then ran him through with a sword.  Judas called Jesus "master" or "teacher", then kissed Him and turned Him over to be arrested.

Satan, who had entered Judas and controlled his actions, was acting like a Sioux warrior.  In American history, Sioux warriors gained their status by being brave in battle.  One way this was done was called "counting coup."  What these warriors tried to do was to get close enough to the enemy to touch them without getting injured or killed.  It was one of the traditional ways of showing bravery in the face of an enemy and involved intimidating him and, it was hoped, persuading him to admit defeat without having to kill him.  Jesus knew that Satan had entered Judas.  In getting close enough to kiss Him, Satan may have been trying one last time to tempt Jesus into avoiding the cross.

What might have happened if Jesus had lashed out against the betrayer?  He certainly would have been justified in killing Judas right there.  Then it would have been more than just the disciples battling against the priests and scribes and elders.  Surely God would have sent a host of angels to do battle against Satan and his army of demons.  The end of the world as we know it might have happened right then and there, but then God's redemptive plan would have been thwarted, and the sacred prophecies left unfulfilled.  That's why it is important to recognize that Jesus "humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:8).

So they all left Him and fled, even Peter who had said, "I will die for you" dropped his sword and ran.  There is an unnamed man in in verse 51 that showed up in his pajamas.  He was wearing only a linen garment, which may have been used for sleeping.  Some commentators say this may have been the owner of the garden, who was awakened from sleep by the sound of the fracas going on between the soldiers and the disciples.  Most Bible scholars, however, agree with Church tradition that this was actually Mark, the one who is named as the author of this particular Gospel.  Like Spike Lee making a cameo appearance in the movies based on Marvel superheros, they say Mark inserted these two verses to affirm "I was here."

Acts 12:12 says that the disciples used to meet at the home of Mark's mother, so it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that the Last Supper occurred at Mark's home.  It may be that Judas first led the arresting party to Mark's home since that was the last place Judas had seen them.  Mark, then, could have gone out in his bedclothes to try to warn Jesus.  As he approached, the soldiers may have thought him to be one of the close followers of Jesus and tried to detain him.  Like the others, he fled, leaving his linen cloth covering in the hands of the soldier.

When we stand before God on the day of judgment, we will stand naked before Him.  If we are not covered by the blood of Jesus, we will be held in shame and dishonor, and be cast out into utter darkness.  All our pretenses will be stripped away, with nowhere to hide.  Thankfully, Jesus did humble Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.  He bore our shame, and if we believe in Him and trust wholly in His work and Word, we will be covered by His righteousness.  We will be unable to speak on Judgment Day, unable to say, "I am a Christian."  Thankfully Jesus will be there at the right hand of God, and will say, "This one is Mine."  Better to hear those words than, "Depart from me, I never knew you."