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Great events develop man's true nature: this incident did Judas's in one direction, and Christ's in another. In this melancholy scene I behold five prominent pictures — some of them tinted with the hues of heaven, and others shaded with the blackness of hell.

I. A picture of THE SUBLIMEST SELF-POSSESSION. Christ did not retire into some deeper shade when the sanguinary band entered the garden. Guilt would have done so, but Innocence walked forth in conscious purity and power. Christ was the first to speak — He actually revealed Himself to the very men who were hired to shed His blood! What produced this holy calm?

1. Not ignorance of His true position.

2. Not weariness of life's scenes and labours.

3. But conscious innocence. Rectitude smiles at the storm, but there is no peace to the wicked. Guilt expects to confront a foe wherever it confronts a human being. Innocence is unsuspecting.

II. A picture of THE DIRECTEST SELF-CRIMINATION. "They went backward." Why?

1. Not because destitute of physical resources.

2. Not because they had seen a Being they did not seek. No apparition startled their nerves.

3. But because of conscious guilt. The ruffians saw themselves in contrast; they were embodied wrong, and Christ was embodied right. They felt the power of holiness as they had never felt it before, and realized the essential cowardice of guilt.

III. A picture of THE NOBLEST SELF-SACRIFICE. He, from whom these ruffians shrank, could have kept them prostrate.

1. Self-sacrifice is not retaliative. To Christ vengeance belongs — He had the power to avenge Himself, but forbore. Littleness demands measure for measure, but magnanimity promotes the right by patiently enduring the wrong.

2. Self-sacrifice is socially beneficent. Christ kindly said, "if therefore ye seek Me," &c. He sought no companionship in His suffering. He would tread the winepress alone! Fellowship might mitigate agony, but Christ would have no mitigation that occasioned pain in others.

IV. A picture of UNINTENTIONAL SELF-DEGRADATION. "Then Simon Peter," &c. Looking at this in the light of mere feeling we must pronounce it natural. Peter felt his obligations to the Being who was exposed to the most studied insult, and his soul burned with indignation against the degraded hirelings. Christ, however, gently rebuked him by healing the smitten foe. This may teach us —

1. That innocence has a sublimer defence than a sword. Innocence can do without the advocacy of steel. God is with the right, and to battle with Omnipotence is to be crushed into ruin.

2. That truth is not to be defended by physical weapons. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." The throne of Truth is established on the immovable basis of eternal Right and infinite Love.

3. That innocence desires not the punishment of individuals. Christ was not gratified in seeing Malehus smitten. His kingdom was not extended because a foe was punished. Christ would destroy the errorist by curing the error, consume the sinner by taking away the sin of the world.

V. A picture of INTELLIGENT LOYALTY TO DIVINE PURPOSES. "The cup which My heavenly Father," &c. Learn —

1. That the Divine Being mingles bitter cups. We are not to accept prosperity alone as a proof of God's paternity; even adversity may be the best expression of His Fatherly care and wisdom. God leads into Gethsemane as well as into Eden.

2. That men must sometimes drink bitter cups for the good of society. Christ's drinking was substitutionary. He drank the cup of death that we might drink the water of life. In our little degree we, too, must drain bitter cups, that those around us may have opportunities of improvement.

3. Happy the man who can connect the cup he drinks with His Divine Parent. Christ did so. He did not regard Judas and his confederates as givers of this cup. Behind the ruffian God may stand. Our business, therefore, is to ascertain who is the giver of the cup, and whether it is the reward of our folly, or an element in the outworking of the Divine purposes.

4. There is one point most noteworthy, viz., that Judas had no power to capture Christ till He had explained His real position. "Shall I not drink it?" Then Judas, &c. (vers. 11, 12). Then Christ was taken — but up to that moment they had no power against Him.

VI. PRACTICAL INFERENCES.

1. That the holiest men may be placed in the most painful position.

2. That Innocence is the best defensive weapon.

3. That society escapes through the sacrifice of Jesus.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

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KJV: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.

WEB: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.