Three Evangelists tell that one of the disciples struck a servant of the high priest and cut off an ear.  Luke the physician says it was the right ear, and that Christ touched it and healed it.  John gives the disciple’s name, which it was not prudent for the other Evangelists to do when Peter, who struck the blow, was still living.  He also preserves the name of the servant, Malchus—­the last one on whom he saw the Great Physician perform a healing act, showing divine power and compassion.  John records the Lord’s reproof to Peter, “Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Can this firm voice be the same which an hour ago, a stone’s cast from these two disciples, said beseechingly, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.”  Yea, verily, for He had added to the prayer, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

Thus does John’s record concerning Peter testify to the triumph of his Lord.  But he also notes the immediate effect of Peter’s mistaken zeal.  The captain and officers “bound Him.”  That was a strange, humiliating sight, especially in connection with the Lord’s words to Peter while returning the sword to its sheath, “Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech My Father, and He shall even now send Me more than twelve legions of angels?” Wonderful words! fitting to be the last of the Lord’s utterances to a disciple in Gethsemane.  With burning and just indignation at His being bound, Jesus turned to His captors, saying, “Are ye come out as against a robber, to seize Me?” As they closed around Him His disciples were terrified with the fear of a like fate.  “And they all left Him and fled.”  Prophecy was fulfilled; the Shepherd was smitten; the sheep were scattered.

Without the voice of friend or foe, the garden of Olivet was silent.  One had left it who, outliving his companions, gives us hints of his lone meditations.  The beloved disciple cherished memories of joyous yet sad Gethsemane.  He it was who longest remembered, and who alone preserved the prophecy in the Upper Room, so soon fulfilled—­“Ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone.”

In George Herbert’s words we hear the Master cry,

“All My disciples fly! fear put a bar
Betwixt My friends and Me; they leave the star
Which brought the Wise Men from the East from far. 

        Was ever grief like Mine!”

CHAPTER XXV

John in the High Priest’s Palace

“And they that had taken Jesus led Him away to the house of
Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were
gathered together.”—­Matt. xxvi. 57.

“Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple.  That disciple ... entered in with Jesus into the court of the high priest; but Peter was standing at the door without.  So the other disciple ... went out ... and brought in Peter.”—­John xviii. 15, 16.

“Everywhere we find these two Apostles, Peter and John, in great
harmony together.”—­Chrysostom.