It was on the night of the Jewish Passover at Jerusalem, Nisan 14 of 33 C.E. Jesus had just celebrated the Passover supper and thereafter had inaugurated the Lord’s Supper (or, Evening Meal), and was now on his way with his eleven faithful apostles to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. At this point we read the record:

²⁸ “Then Jesus said to them: ‘All of you will be stumbled in connection with me on this night, for it is written, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered about.”

Matthew 26:31, 32; Mark 14:27, 28.

29. (a) In awaking against Jesus Christ, how was it that the sword was awaking against Jehovah’s Shepherd as “the able-bodied man who is my associate”? (b) Why could Jehovah have confidence in Jesus Christ when calling for the sword to awake against him?

²⁹ Did the Great Prophet Jesus make a true application of the words taken from Zechariah 13:7? Shortly afterward that same Passover night the “sword” of warfare did awake against Jehovah’s true Shepherd, even against the able-bodied man who was His earliest and closest associate, Jesus Christ his Son. This was his only-begotten Son, “the firstborn of all creation,” “the beginning of the creation by God.” (John 3:16; Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14) Before his birth as a human creature, he had enjoyed spiritual life with Jehovah God in heaven and had associated with his heavenly Father when He created all other things, Jehovah using his only-begotten Son as his agent in doing so. (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16-18) Therefore, Jehovah had the fullest confidence in his Son, even when he was a perfect, able-bodied man on earth. He was convinced that his Son would keep his integrity under warfare by the enemy. In this assurance he called for the martial “sword” of the enemies to “awake” against his Son.

30. Why did Jesus quote Zechariah 13:7 as if Jehovah were doing the striking, and why did Jesus not resist being struck?

³⁰ Since it was Jehovah who prophetically issued the command to “strike the shepherd,” it was as if He himself were striking the shepherd. Hence Jesus could quote the prophetic words of Zechariah 13:7 as if his heavenly Father were saying: “I will strike the shepherd.” (See the Greek Septuagint translation in The Septuagint Bible, by Charles Thomson.) The crowd that came that Passover night under the guidance of the betrayer Judas Iscariot did come with literal swords and clubs. Jesus did not try to resist the fulfillment of the prophecy. If his heavenly Father had given the command for Jesus now to be struck, then he would submit to it.

31. What question did Jesus ask after telling Peter to sheathe his sword that had been drawn in defense, and what further part of Zechariah 13:7 now came true?

³¹ So, when the apostle Peter tried to defend Jesus with a sword, Jesus told him to return the sword to its sheath and commented: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father to supply me at this moment more than twelve legions of angels? In that case, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must take place this way?” Then after Jesus had asked the crowd why they had come out against him, a peaceful, public preacher, “with swords and clubs as against a robber,” he added: “But all this has taken place for the scriptures of the prophets to be fulfilled.” At this point the scripture of Zechariah was not all fulfilled. A further part came true, when, as the record states: “Then all the disciples abandoned him and fled.” In that way “those of the flock” were scattered.​—Matthew 26:51-56; Mark 14:47-50; John 18:1-9.

32. Who were “those who are insignificant,” and how did Jehovah turn his hand back upon them, according to Zechariah 13:7?

³² Jesus had correctly applied the prophecy. That night when he as the Fine Shepherd was struck with the “sword,” his sheep did become scattered, thus being stumbled in connection with him.