Temple Guards Can't Arrest Jesus (J30)

The crowds talked about Jesus in a way
That the Pharisees knew they had to act;
They convinced the priests to send guards that day,
To arrest Jesus and to bring Him back!
While Jesus spoke, guards would not interrupt,
But listened spellbound, as if in a trance;
He cast an aura they could not disrupt—
A shield, that caused men with badges to blanche!
The high priest snarled, “Are you from Galilee?”
When the guards returned and empty-handed;
“There’s something about Him that men can’t see;
Our power fell short of that demanded!”
He who created man, heavens, and earth,
Even as a man, exuded too much worth!

Scripture Quoted John 7:31-32(NIV)
“Still many of the crowd put their faith in him. They said, ‘When Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?’ The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.”

Scripture Quoted John 7:45-52(NIV)
“Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why didn’t you bring him in?’ ‘No one ever spoke as this man does.’ the guards declared. ‘You mean he has deceived you also?’ the Pharisees retorted. ‘Has any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.’ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ‘Does the law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.’ “

Commentary on John 7:31-52: Evidently the Pharisees and priests, even Nicodemus, were all eager to condemn Jesus on the false but easy correctable premise that Jesus was born in Nazareth; that is the town where He was raised, but He was born in Bethlehem—exactly where prophecy said the Messiah would be born. Nicodemus was a believer in Jesus. but he was afraid to fight the condemnation juggernaut alone. He was risking much with his one question.

There was a “presence” about Jesus that prevented the temple guards from arresting Him. Knowing this undoubtedly led the chief priests to solicit the services of Judas Iscariot, an apostle, to lead them to Jesus late at night in the garden of Gethsemane, paying him 30 pieces of silver to betray Him at a later time. The presence of a large crowd of common Jews was a circumstance they could not afford to risk.

It seems incredible that the commonly believed falsehood that Jesus was “out of Galilee” carried so much weight in the thinking of those leaders against Jesus. It would have been a simple matter for a teacher of the law of the time, say, for instance, Gamaliel, to have verified the hundreds of prophecies of Hebrew scripture about the coming Messiah that were every one fulfilled by Jesus; had that been done, though, God’s plan of grace would have gone awry.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that Jesus raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)