Have you come out with swords and clubs to capture me as against a robber?

 

Have you come out with swords and clubs to capture me

as against a robber?

 

Matthew 26:55-56『In that same hour Jesus said to the multitudes, Are you coming out as against a thief with swords and staves to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and you laid no hold on me. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.』

Jesus told the Jewish leaders, including the priests, that he was the Son of God and that the temple would be destroyed and that he would rebuild it in three days. According to the Bible, during the age of the law, the old temple (death on the cross) had to be destroyed and a new temple (resurrection) from heaven would be built. Jesus performed numerous miracles, healed the sick, freed them from sin, and raised the dead, which were clearly works that could only be done by God. The Jews confessed that Jesus was the Son of God. However, the Jewish leaders did not. Why did the Jewish leaders decide to kill Jesus? The God they believed in and the God Jesus called his Father were different Gods.

They read the writings of the prophets and knew that the Messiah would come, but they did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. The Jewish leaders looked only to God based on legalism, thinking that sins against God could be resolved by simply following formal procedures, and that the Messiah would come from the group of priests designated by the law. This was because the high priest was the highest position that received authority from God as designated by the law. The high priests, scribes, and Jewish leaders were in fact sitting in the place of God. They did not know God and were ignorant of sin. They were those who took up swords in the name of God. “Have you come out with swords and clubs to capture me as against a robber?” Jesus compared the Jewish leaders to robbers with swords and clubs. A robber is someone who uses force (power) such as a sword to take what others have.

Today, we can see many pastors in the church community who speak the name of Jesus, sit in the place of God, and pour out sharp words from their mouths. They seize power under the system they created, and with that power, they kill the true Jesus with a sword, and put a fake Jesus they created in his place. The cross has become a symbol of the power of the church community, and like a jewel that decorates, it has become a symbol of authority. Depending on how you look at the cross, it will be the difference between sitting in the place of God or repenting, recognizing your sins, and dying with Jesus.

John 8:19-20 『Then they said unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.』 His time is the death of the cross, when the lamb is led to the slaughter, as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah. In John 19:10, “When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

God's love for the restoration of Israel and for all mankind was to have His Son bear the sin by dying on the cross. However, the Jewish leaders were determined to kill Jesus and were desperate to find his weakness. Is this a coincidence? The root of sin is opposing God. In the world, when a child attacks his parents in a parent-child relationship, the parents embrace the child to cover up the sin. When the angels who committed a crime in the kingdom of God oppose God, God confined their spirits in the earth and made them repent and return, but humans entered into endless sin. In the end, God resolved the sins of humans by personally covering them with His own heart, as a father.

The cross-bearing of Jesus, the Son of God, was planned before the creation of the world and was prophesied through the prophets. Many prophets prophesied the coming of the Messiah, and in particular, the prophets Isaiah and Zechariah prophesied the death of the Messiah. The Jewish leaders did not seek to kill Jesus, the Son of God, simply because their spiritual eyes were closed. Rather, all people in the world, because they sit in the place of God, have the desire to kill Jesus, the Son of God. The root of sin is the desire to become like God (greed), and this is what causes one to oppose God. God becomes a human being, dies on the cross, realizes his sins, and unites with Jesus to bring those who die to return to the kingdom of God.

The Bible says that Jesus was crucified on the charge of blasphemy for resisting a group of priests during the Roman era, and that this was not simply a historical event, but a death of atonement for humanity, and that this was already prophesied by the prophets. The Jewish leaders themselves could not stand to hear that a young man from Nazareth, who was insignificant, was the Son of God, because they believed that he was the only one who could sit in the position of the Son of God.

The prophecy is in Isaiah 53, which describes in detail the situation of Israel at that time. Good news of peace was delivered to the devastated Israel under the rule of foreign nations. The news was that God was ruling. However, the news made those who heard it fall silent. The reason those who heard the news fall silent is because it was news they had never heard before and because they saw and realized something they had never experienced before. The Israelites who were taken to Babylon had lived with pride as God’s chosen people and arrogance as those entrusted with the law, but during those years, they had actually hurt God’s heart, lived in idolatry, and their souls were becoming sick and worn out.

As a result, Israel realized that they had been taken captive to Babylon. They began to reinterpret the law that they had stubbornly disobeyed and to look back on their past history of constantly rejecting God. The conclusion they came to was very heartbreaking, but they recognized that it was God’s judgment on their fallen self. Since then, they have been desperately waiting for the grace and presence of God who gives justice and salvation, and the hand of salvation.

Israel was helplessly taken to Babylon. They could not escape the power of Babylon by their own ability, and in a situation of severe suffering, they could not even take a deep breath, and it was a frustrating and frustrating time. So the long-awaited Messiah was naturally portrayed as a hero. They imagined the appearance of a powerful Messiah who would show the power of God who raises the lowest and most humble. Just imagining walking with the Messiah while the kings of the world bow down and kneel would have been a pleasure that would make their current suffering less painful. The priests and Jews of the Roman era also thought about the Messiah in this way.

However, contrary to their expectations, the Messiah who appeared to them was shabby and unappealing. To the people of Israel who were expecting a powerful Messiah and were greatly mistaken, the prophet Isaiah explained a completely different Messiah. Isaiah 52:2-3 "For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness; and when we saw him, there was no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering. As one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not." In order for Israel to be restored, a clear resolution to the sins of the past had to come first. Thus, Isaiah testifies that the Messiah sent by God is the Messiah who must take responsibility for the sins that must be resolved.

Zechariah 13:7, “Thus says the Lord Almighty: ‘Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is my fellow. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; but I will stretch out my hand against the little ones.’” This verse is a description of Christ’s suffering. Jesus applies this prophecy to himself. God commands the sword to awaken and strike his shepherd, his fellow. The sword represents the power of the judiciary, and it is also a representative word for the means of taking life. It symbolizes God’s justice in judging sin. The sword is mentioned, and God’s justice is expressed by the symbol of the sword, and his love for his only begotten Son is revealed by calling the Messiah “my shepherd.”