THE SCRIPTURES.........

Mark 14:49 But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.

Jesus could have gotten away when the band tried to arrest him in the garden. We know from the Gospel of John that the men literally fell back when Jesus first spoke to them, no doubt because of the authority that emanated from him. This is not the first time that the guards had tried to arrest Jesus. Another time when he was teaching in the temple courts, the religious leaders had sent them to arrest him. But they came back empty handed. When asked why, they replied: “No one ever spoke the way this man does” (John 7:46). Even now Jesus could have ordered them away.But the Scriptures must be fulfilled. With that statement Jesus closes his escape hatch. Jesus must fulfill what was spoken of him. Don’t misunderstand him, though. Jesus was not a man trapped by his destiny, but embolden by it. He was not a Frodo bemoaning that the cup of sacrifice had to be born by him. "The Scriptures must be fulfilled" was not a curse, but rather a motto that carried him on into the sufferings he must endure to be a ransom for man’s sins. The Scriptures that had given hope to generations after generations would be fulfilled in him. With that knowledge he could submit to this puny band of men who did not know what they were doing or with whom they were dealing.