Paid In Full: An In-depth Look at the Defining Moments of Christ's Passion (11 page)

As blood poured from the side of Malchus’ head and dripped from the blade Peter held in his hand, Jesus asked the soldiers, “...Suffer ye thus far…” (Luke 22:51). This was the equivalent of saying,
“Let Me just do one more thing before you take Me!”

Then Jesus reached out to Malchus and “…touched his ear, and healed him.” Rather than allow Himself to be taken away while Peter was still subject to arrest, imprisonment, and possible execution, Jesus stopped the entire process to fix the mess Peter made that night.

The Bible says that Jesus “touched” the servant. The Greek word for “touch” is
aptomai,
a word that means
to firmly grasp
or
to hold tightly
. This is very important, for it lets us know that Jesus didn’t just lightly touch Malchus; He firmly grabbed the servant’s head and held it tightly.

Why is this so significant? Because it tells us the tenacity with which Jesus prayed. When He laid His hands on people, they
knew
that hands had been laid on them!

The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Jesus touched the stump that remained from the severed ear and grew a new ear or grabbed the old ear from the ground and miraculously set it back in its place. Regardless of how the miracle occurred, however, the word
aptomai
(“touched”) lets us know that Jesus was aggressive in the way He touched the man.

As a result of Jesus’ touch, Malchus was completely “healed” (v. 51). The word “healed” is the Greek word
iaomai,
which means t
o cure, to restore
, or
to heal.
Jesus completely restored Malchus’ ear before the soldiers bound Him and led Him out of the Garden.

That night in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ very words knocked 300 to 600 soldiers off their feet and flat on their backs. He didn’t need Peter’s help. He didn’t request Peter’s intervention. Nevertheless, Peter suddenly jumped in the middle of God’s business and tried to instigate a revolt. Yet rather than walk off and leave Peter in the mess he had made by his own doings, Jesus stopped everything that was happening and intervened on His disciple’s behalf. Jesus took the time to heal Malchus’ ear for two primary reasons: 1) because He
is
a Healer, and 2) because He didn’t want Peter to be arrested for his impulsive actions.

The next time you think you are too busy or too important to get involved in a friend’s problem, remember this example that Jesus gave us on the night of His arrest. That night Jesus had a lot on His mind, but He still stopped everything to help a friend. He could have said,
“Peter, you’ve made this mess by yourself; now you can fix it by yourself.”
But it was clear that Peter would never get out of this trouble without assistance, so Jesus stepped in to help Peter get things back in order again.

When you are tempted to be judgmental about other people’s self-imposed problems, it would be good for you to remember the many times God’s mercy has intervened to save you from messy situations that you created yourself. Even though you deserved to get in trouble, God loved you enough to come right alongside you and help you pull things together so you could get out of that mess. Now whenever you see others in trouble, you have the opportunity to be an extension of God’s mercy to them.

Put everything on hold for a few minutes so you can reach out to a friend in trouble; then do whatever you can to help restore the situation. If this was important enough for Jesus to do, then you have time to do it as well. Make it a priority today to be a faithful friend to the end, just as Jesus was to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane!

The only thing more frustrating and painful than making a mistake or going through a difficult time is watching someone you care about go through difficulty — particularly when it’s a situation of his or her own design. There are times when people need someone to step in and help them get their lives in order again.

Can you think of a time when you were in trouble and someone helped you fix your situation without smothering you in judgment for what may have been a self-imposed problem? How did that person’s intervention affect you then, and how does his or her example of love continue to influence you today?

Usually when a person needs your help the most, it isn’t convenient for you to step in. Jesus was in the midst of an intense spiritual battle in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Peter’s actions only further complicated the situation. Notice that Jesus put His own pain on pause to correct the chaos as He brought healing to Malchus and help to Peter.

How do you respond to others around you when, in the midst of trying to deal with your own personal dilemma, you see someone making a mess in his or her life or observe someone suffering? Does your response mirror the way that Jesus responded to Peter?

Jesus is a faithful Friend. Every day His mercy is available to intervene in your life — pulling you out of problems, pulling your life together. Are you honoring the sacrifice Jesus made for you by receiving His merciful intervention in your life? Take some time to think about that, and then consider how you can be an extension of God’s mercy to someone else today.

Chapter 12:
Twelve Legions of Angels

How much strength do you think one angel possesses?

To answer that question, I want you to consider the full impact of Jesus’ words in Matthew 26:53, where He said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”

To fully understand the magnitude of what Jesus said here, we need to know:

1. What is a “legion”?
   
2. How many angels would there be in 12 legions?
   
3. What would be the combined strength of this number of angels?
   

It is important to answer these questions, because the answers reveal the full might that was available to Jesus had He requested supernatural help in the Garden of Gethsemane. Actually, when we take into account the power that was already demonstrated in the Garden and then add the potential assistance and impact of 12 legions of angels, it becomes obvious that there was no human force on earth strong enough to take Jesus against His will. The only way He was going to be taken was if He
allowed
Himself to be taken! This is why Jesus later told Pilate, “…Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above...” (John 19:11).

Let’s begin with our first question:
What is a “legion”?
The word “legion” is a military term that was taken from the Roman army. A legion denoted a group of at least 6,000 Roman soldiers, although the total number could be higher. This means that anytime we read about a legion of anything, we can know it always refers to at least 6,000 of something.

An amazing example of this is found in Mark 5:9, where the Bible tells us that the demon-possessed man of the Gadarenes had a legion of demons. That means this man had an infestation of at least 6,000 demons residing inside him!

Let’s now contemplate the second question:
How many angels would there be in 12 legions?
Since the word “legion” refers to
at least
6,000, it means a legion of angels would be at least 6,000 angels. However, Jesus said the Father would give Him “more than” 12 legions of angels if He requested it. Because it would be pure speculation to try to figure out how many “more than” 12 legions would be, let’s just stick with the figure of 12 legions to see how many angels that entails.

One legion is 6,000 angels, so if you simply multiply that number by 12, you’ll discover that 12 legions of angels would include a minimum of
72,000 angels
. But Jesus said the Father would give Him
more than 12
legions of angels. Therefore, you can conclude that there were potentially many additional thousands of angels available to Jesus the night He was arrested!

Finally, let’s look at our third question:
What would be the combined strength in this number of angels?
Angels are powerful! In fact, Isaiah 37:36 records that a single angel obliterated 185,000 men in one night. So if a single angel had that kind of power, how much combined strength would there be in 12 legions of angels?

Since a single angel was able to obliterate 185,000 men in one night, that means the combined strength in a legion of 6,000 angels would be enough to destroy 1,110,000,000 men (that is, 1 billion, 110 million men) — and that’s just the combined power in
one
legion of angels!

Now let’s multiply this same number 185,000 by 12 legions, or at least 72,000 angels, which was the number of angels Jesus said was available to Him on the night of His arrest. When we do, we find that there was enough combined strength at Jesus’ disposal to have annihilated at least 13,320,000,000 men (that is, 13 billion, 320 million men) — which is more than twice the number of people living on the earth right now!

Of course, this is assuming that the angel spoken of in Isaiah 37:36 had maxed out his power at 185,000 men (which is unlikely). Simply put, angels are
powerful
, and Jesus had a
huge
number of angels at His disposal!

Jesus didn’t need Peter’s little sword that night.
Had He chosen to do so, Jesus could have summoned 72,000 magnificent, mighty, dazzling, glorious, overwhelmingly powerful angels to the Garden to obliterate the Roman soldiers and the temple police who had come to arrest Him. In fact, the combined strength in 12 legions of angels could have wiped out the entire human race! But Jesus
didn’t
call on the supernatural help that was available to Him. Why? Because He knew it was time for Him to voluntarily lay down His life for the sin of the human race.

Jesus didn’t call on the supernatural help that was available to Him. Why? Because He knew it was time for Him to voluntarily lay down His life for the sin of the human race.

Learn a lesson from Jesus and from the apostle Peter. Jesus didn’t need Peter’s undersized, insignificant sword to deal with His situation. What good would a single sword have been against all the troops assembled in the Garden that night anyway? Peter’s actions were a perfect example of how the flesh tries in vain to solve its own problems but cannot. Jesus had all the power that was needed to conquer those troops.