Saint Matthew - Chapter 26
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| The procession of Judas. J-J Tissot |
Rise, let us go: behold he is at hand that will betray me.
Rise, let us be going: behold, he hath come who will betray Me. He bids them rise, not in order to fly with Him, but to go forth to meet Judas. It is hence clear that Christ was heard in His last prayer; that, comforted of God by the angel, He had thrown off His sadness and sorrow, and went forth to meet Judas and the death of the cross with great and noble resolution. “For,” as Origen says, “He saw in the spirit Judas the traitor drawing nigh, though he was not yet seen by the disciples.” “He therefore in every way teaches His disciples,” says S. Chrysostom, “that this was not a matter of necessity or of weakness, but of a certain incomprehensible dispensation, for He foresaw that they were coming, and so far from flying, He went forth to meet them.”
Christ in thus going forth, as indeed in the whole of His Passion, left three points most worthy of notice,
1st. His innocence in boldly going forth to meet His enemies.
2nd. His majesty, forethought, and power, wherewith as God He orders and foretells the approach of His enemies, and so moderates their fury that they could do no more than He permitted and foreordained.
3rd. The readiness with which He voluntarily met Judas, to show that it was not from weakness or unwillingness, but with the highest dignity, condescension, and generous love that He suffered and died for us. “Rise, let us be going,” to meet Judas; and, as S. Jerome says, “let us go of our own accord to death.”
Morally: Christ here teaches us to arouse ourselves, and go forth to meet our sufferings. It is the act of an heroic mind to weaken by its own resolution the force of any imminent evil, and by voluntarily embracing it to overcome and subdue it. Great evils are more easily overcome by a great mind than minor evils by a small one. As says the poet, “Yield not to trials; boldly go to meet them, as a lion shuts its eyes when rushing on its foes” (Plin. N. H. viii. 16). The cross therefore pursues those who fly from it, and flies those who seek for it. As is said of honour.
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| Judas. J-J Tissot |
As he yet spoke, behold Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the ancients of the people.
And while He yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, &c. This is more fully set forth, John 18:2. The truth of His prediction and foreordaining was thus made good. He so interwove Judas’ sin and His Passion, that the whole action appeared to be partly permitted and partly ordained by Him.
Lo, Judas, one of the twelve. Lo is an expression of wonder. An unheard-of portent, a stupendous crime, that one of the Apostles was not only a thief and robber, but the traitor, and the leader of those who killed Christ! “He went before them,” says S. Luke.
A great multitude: of Roman soldiers, high priests’ servants, &c.
Staves: tipped with iron, as spears, &c., or not so tipped, as clubs. Observe here the folly and madness of Judas and the Jews. He knew that He was a very great prophet, nay, the Son of God, who could not be overcome by force, as the Jews well knew, and yet, maddened with avarice and fury, they bring armed men to use violence towards Him, to seize and bind Him. Dost thou wish, O Judas, to bind God, to seize the Almighty, to fight, O petty men, against your Creator, and compel Him to give Himself into your hands? “It was avarice,” says S. Chrysostom, “which inspired him with this madness, avarice which makes all its slaves cruel and fierce; for if the covetous man neglect his own salvation, what will he care for another?
From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)
Iscariot, the surname of Judas, has given rise to many different opinions. Some, amongst Eusebius and Saint Jerome, think that the traitor was born in the town of Iscarioth belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and that took his second name from it. Others affirm that he was of the tribe of Issachar and on that account was called Issachariotes, abbreviated Ischariots: but the more universally received, and certainly the most probable explanation is that the name of the betrayer was made up of the two Hebrew words: ish and carioth or Kerioth. Now Kerioth is a small town belonging to the tribe of Judah, so that the traitor was the only one of the Apostles of Judæan extraction, the others being all from Galilee, and related more or less nearly to one family. The surname of Judas has, indeed, been variously interpreted by the commentators on the Bible, and the following are some of the meanings suggested: gloomy presentiment, the usurer, the liar, the traitor, and the leathern apron, the last in allusion to Judas having carried the bag of money. Saint Jerome translates it with the sentence: "this was his reward", and it might also mean "the man who was hanged". The traitor, and those who were with him, left Jerusalem by the same gate as Jesus himself had done, that of Ophel; then going down the rapid descent leading to the brook Kedron, they crossed the bridge spanning it and went on to the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas was accompanied by numerous scribes and Pharisees, and he now again exhorted them to take every possible precaution to prevent the escape of Jesus. If He attempted to slip away and perceived, as it happened before on the brow of the hill above Nazareth, or still more recently in the Temple, they must be prepared to stone Him at once! Then, however, the Master had said "Mine at our is not yet come", whereas know the hour had come and Judas perhaps secretly wished, though he appeared to fear, the frustration of the plot his avarice had led him to engage in, but which could yield him no further advantage now. Judas was, however, to achieve complete success, and it may be that the ease with which his crime was accomplished was not the least count in his subsequent despair.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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