"Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, ‘Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?’" [Jn 18:10-11]
Hundreds of years before Jesus “emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,” [Phil 2:7] He spoke through the prophet Isaiah and said,
“I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For The Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be put to shame: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” [Isa 50:6-7]
Jesus was at all points unwilling to depart from The Father’s will. He had set His face like a flint toward the cross, and for our sakes, determined to accomplish The Father’s glorious salvation for which He had come, would not back down. Jesus said to Peter, “the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” [Jn 18:11] Jesus was zealous to drink that cup, no matter how foul it may have seemed to the flesh. According as He had said earlier in John, proclaiming His steadfastness, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” [Jn 12:27-28] The attitude that Jesus had before the garden was not changed by the immediacy of the situation; the hour indeed had come and was staring Him in the face, and yet, in zealous pursuit of God’s glory and our salvation, to Peter He said,
“Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” [Mt 26:52-54]
Indeed, we have a glorious Savior, who does not shrink back. But though our Dear Savior’s faithfulness is for us an everlasting encouragement, we might focus on another aspect of this passage also and find grace in time of need.
We see in Peter’s heart, as well as the other disciples, a strong desire for the kingdom to be established. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples asked Him, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” [Acts 1:6] But before it, the truth that Christ had to first suffer and die before the kingdom would come was “hid from them, that they perceived it not…” [Lk 9:45, c.f., Mk 9:9-10, 31-32, Lk 18:31-34] Peter especially, because after hearing “how that [Jesus] must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things…and be killed, and be raised again the third day…took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” [Mt 16:21-22] And so here again, in John, we see Peter’s zeal flare up, and ignorance of what was necessary to happen, when he cut off Malchus’ right ear; but Jesus, with compassion, “touched his ear, and healed him.” [Lk 22:51]
What’s interesting here is the meaning of Malchus’ name. It means “king” or “kingdom.” This provokes one to thought; why would The Holy Spirit want us to know the name of the servant? To what purpose is his name? I see here a picture; in the same way that Jesus would be “cut off,” [Isa 53:8] and eventually “raised again the third day,” [Mt 16:21] to eventually establish the kingdom, so too here Malchus’, whose name means kingdom, right ear is cut off and restored.
Remember that when Peter rebuked Jesus for speaking of His eventual death, Jesus said sternly, “Get thee behind me, Satan;” [Mt 16:23] and how in Corinthians we are told “the princes of this world…crucified the Lord of Glory.” [1 Cor 2:8] See then, that just as Satan, in a furious rage, cut off Christ, only to provoke His rising again and own destruction; so too here, Peter, in the spirit of Satan, and in a fury, sought to cut off the ear of Malchus (the kingdom), only to provoke Christ to restore it to perfect health once again. And in this we are reminded of the futility of evil and sin: though sin and evil rage and fight against what is good, yet Christ will have the last say, having been raised up, and who will come again and restore the kingdom, even as He restored Malchus’ ear.
Click here to see other posts in Daily Meditations on The Glory of Jesus, Vol I