Jesus explains His arrest and the scattering of the disciples in terms of Zechariah 13:7-9, where Yahweh commands the sword, “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.”  This all happens at night (Matthew 26:31), the night that happens to be Passover.

Scripture records an earlier night strike at Passover: “I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments— I am the Yahweh” (Exodus 12:12).   There are multiple intertwinings in the three passages - Exodus, Zechariah, Matthew: Yahweh strikes in all three; a Shepherd-leader is struck in all three; there is a scattering; all but the Zechariah passages happen at night.

There are also striking discontinuities: In Exodus, it is Pharaoh and Egypt that get struck, while in Zechariah and Matthew it is Yahweh’s own hand-picked Shepherd.  Plus, Exodus talks about judgments being passed on the gods of Egypt.  That opens up some dimensions of the Passion story.

First, think about the connections between Exodus and Zechariah.  In addition to the links noted above, we might notice the odd comment in Zechariah 13:7: “I will turn my hand against the little ones.”  Why would Yahweh do that?  If Zechariah is alluding to the exodus, it comes clear, since the littles ones are precisely the members of the flock that get killed at Passover.  We might also note that earlier in Zechariah 13, Yahweh has threatened to cut off idols (v. 2), a link with the Exodus threat of judgment against the gods of Egypt.

Zechariah, however, has inverted the exodus story at a fundamental level.  In Exodus, it is Egypt, the enemy of Israel, that gets struck; Shepherd Pharaoh loses His firstborn, and many of the children of Egypt.  In Zechariah, it’s the Shepherd-king of Israel that gets struck.  That’s not difficult to manage: It is common for the prophets to see Israel as the new Egypt, Israel’s idols as the gods of the new Egypt, etc.  It is also quite common for the exile to be viewed as an exodus; those who are led out of Egypt-Israel are the true Israel who spend 70 years in the wilderness of Babylon, refined (as Zechariah says) like gold and silver to become the people of Yahweh.

Now we can go back to Matthew.  Jesus is Yahweh’s shepherd, but on this Passover night, Jesus is also the “firstborn” within the new Egypt.  He is struck, and His people scatter, but will be restored to Him in Galilee.  On Passover, Jesus doesn’t take the place of the rescued Israelite firstborns but of the struck Egyptian firstborns, or, alternately, the place of the Passover Lamb who substitutes for the Israelite firstborn.  Since Israel has become Egypt, Jesus as the Firstborn of His people will die.

Does the gospel night strike include a strike against the idols of the new Egypt?  In the wider context, Jesus has condemned the temple, predicting an abomination that brings desolation. Within the Passion narrative itself, there seem to be a couple of possibilities.  First, Jesus says that He will cause “stumbling” ( skandalizo ) when He is struck.  In the LXX, the noun form of this verb (the verb itself is never used in the LXX) is commonly associated with idolatry (Joshua 23:13; Judges 2:3; 8:27; Psalm 106:36).  Idols cause Israel to stumble and fall, but Jesus says that He will be the cause of stumbling.  He stands in the place of the idol.  Perhaps we are to understand that Israel has become so corrupted, so thoroughly at home with the idols of “Egypt” that Yahweh Himself, coming in flesh, is a strange and alien God.  Jesus causes stumbling because His Passion runs contrary to everything Israel has come to hope for.

Second, and more straightforwardly, we can see Israelite idolatry at work in the arrest of Jesus.  A mob comes for Him with clubs and swords, a sign that the Jews have become thoroughly corrupted by the idolatry of power.  Many Jews despise their Roman masters, but it is a mimetic rivalry, Romanized Jews despising their twins.  Even the disciples (at least one of them) is corrupted by the same idolatry, taking up His sword to defend Jesus.  In the Passion, the idols of “Egypt” are judged because the path of zealotry is put on trial and condemned, and the path of the cross offered as the path of faithfulness.  Again, this is related to the scandal that Jesus causes: The disciples are stumble and fall and flee when Jesus refuses to take up the sword in His own defense, when He denies Himself and takes the cross.