And Jesus said unto him,
Friend, why are you come?
Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
All Commentaries on Matthew 26:50 Go To Matthew 26
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And Jesus said unto Him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? If thou comest to betray Me, why givest thou Me this friendly kiss? But if thou comest as a friend, why bringest thou so many enemies against Me? "Thou kissest Me," says S. Augustine, "and layest snares for Me. Thou pretendest to be a friend, though thou art a traitor." Hence Luke adds that Christ said, "Judas, why betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" And such words, full of majesty and love, ought to have wounded his stony heart, unless he had hardened it like iron.
It was a wondrous instance of Christ"s gentleness and patience, that He tolerated Judas for three years, and deprived him not of his Apostolate, or disclosed to any one his sin. Teaching us to overcome our wrongs by love.
The Saints in this matter imitated Christ, S. Martin especially in his treatment of Brice, one of his clerks, who was constantly calumniating him. And when blamed for it, he said, "Christ bore with Judas the traitor, and should not I bear with Brice my calumniator?" By this gentleness he so won upon him, that he amended his ways, became a Saint, and succeeded S. Martin as Bishop, as S. Martin had foretold (Sulp. in Vit. S. Martin).
The passage, John xviii4 , should here come in, in the regular course of the narrative. To harmonise S. John with the other Evangelists the order of the history is as follows:—Judas preceded the crowd by a few steps, so as not to seem to be one of them; and then, when he had kissed Christ, he drew back into the crowd again, and when Jesus boldly confronted the crowd, Judas was standing with them. Jesus thus boldly asked them, "Whom seek ye?" and on Jesus saying that He was Jesus of Nazareth whom they were seeking, they were thunderstruck, and fell to the ground; not on their faces, but backward, so as to make it clear that they were struck down by His power. He allowed them, however, to rise up again, and on their saying again that they were seeking Christ, He replied, "I told you that I am He; if, therefore, ye seek Me, let these go their way," showing that He cared more for them than for Himself.
Observe (with S. Chrysostom and S. Cyril) that the eyes of the soldiers were miraculously blinded, so that they could not discern, and much less lay hold on Christ. (S. Augustine thinks otherwise.) They gather this from the reply, "We seek Jesus of Nazareth," as though they knew not it was He. S. Chrysostom and others suppose that even Judas did not recognise Him. But he seems to have withdrawn rather from horror at his crime. For Christ cut him off from the Apostolic band, "Begone, 0 traitor; thou art not worthy of the companionship of Me and Mine," and then struck him and the whole band to the earth. This was the first miracle which Christ wrought when He was seized, to manifest His Divine majesty and omnipotence, and that the Jews might learn that they would have come in vain against Him with the armed band, had not He given Himself gracefully and willingly into their hands. The Sodomites were struck with a like blindness ( Genesis 19:11). "Seest thou His surprising power, that though standing in their midst He struck them blind?" says S. Chrysostom and S. Cyril. "The divine power of Christ shone forth in that, though He presented Himself to those who sought Him, He was not recognised." Symbolically S. Augustine in John xviii. The eternal day was so hid by human form,4 as to be sought for with lanterns and torches, in order to be slain by the darkness.
2. His second miracle was His striking them to the ground by the single word, "I am He." "That word, "I am Hebrews ," struck them down like a thunderbolt," says S. Leo. "Where was their cruel conspiracy? where their glowing anger? where their array of weapons? The Lord saith, I am Hebrews , and at His voice the multitude of the ungodly falls prostrate. What will His Majesty do hereafter in judgment, when His humility, though about to be judged, had such power?"
Though "I am He" means only "He whom ye seek," yet Rupertus explains it, "I am that I am" ( Exodus 3:14). And S. Jerome (Ep. cxl. ad Principium) thinks that Christ struck down these guards with the heavenly splendour of His countenance, for otherwise the Apostles would not have followed Him, nor would those who came to lay hold on Him have fallen to the earth.
Allegorically: This fall of Judas and his followers signified the comparable fall of the Jews, who would be obstinate in their unbelief, and well-nigh incapable of salvation. "Their fall is an image of all those who oppose Christ." S. Cyr. Alex. in John 18. and S. Augustine in loc. "Where is now the band of soldiers, the terror and defence of weapons? A single word, without a weapon, struck down, smote, laid prostrate that crowd, fierce in hatred and terrible in arms. For God was veiled in flesh. What will He do when He comes in judgment, who wrought this when He came to be judged?
Tropologically: Here is represented the fall of the reprobate, for they fall on their back so that they cannot arise; but when the elect sin, they fall on their face, because they are soon touched by God, and rise up in penitence. "We fall on our face," says S. Gregory (Hom. viii. in Ez.), "because we blush for our sins, which we remember to have committed." And also (Mor. xiii10), "To fall on the face is for every one to acknowledge his own faults in this life, and to bewail them with penitence. But to fall on the back, where we cannot see, is to depart suddenly out of life, and to know not to what punishment we are brought."
Again, "The righteous fall on their face, as looking on those things that are before; but sinners fall on their back, as seeking for those things which are behind and pass away, and are soon gone." "For everything which passes away," says S. Gregory (Mor. xxxiii23), "is behind, while everything which is coming and is permanent is before."
3. The third miracle, as S. Chrysostom and S. Augustine remark, was that which He wrought by His all-powerful providence and the efficacy of His word. "Let these go their way," that the Jews laid hands on none of the disciples. He offered Himself alone to death, as a good shepherd laying down His life for the sheep.
4. The fourth, the instantaneous healing of Malchus" ear. But how great was their blindness and malice, who, after they had seen so many miracles, dared to lay hands on Him!
Then came they and laid hands on Jesus, and took Him. The order is here inverted, for before they could take Him Peter smote off Malchus" ear, and it was only when Jesus had healed it that He gave Himself up to be taken and bound.
