Jesus was exposing how wrong this arrest was. They came at night with weapons, as if hunting a violent outlaw, against a man who had taught openly among them every day (Luke 22:53). Barnes, on the parallel in Matthew 26:55, says the word means "Rather a 'robber.' This was the manner in which they would have sought to take a highwayman of desperate character, and armed to defend his life." Gill describes Jesus as one "who never did any injury to any man's person or property." The question answers itself: they had no honest reason for swords and staves. Luke has already shown the real reason. They "feared the people" (Luke 22:2), and Judas had promised to deliver Jesus "in the absence of the multitude" (Luke 22:6).

No answer from the leaders is recorded. Jesus continued, "When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53). Their reply was action: "Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest's house" (Luke 22:54). Mark adds Jesus' words, "but the scriptures must be fulfilled" (Mark 14:49), and Matthew records that "all the disciples forsook him, and fled" (Matthew 26:56).

The word translated "thief" is lestes. Thayer defines it as "a robber; a plunderer, freebooter, brigand," and notes it is not to be confused with kleptes, a thief who takes property by stealth. So Jesus was asking whether they took Him for a violent bandit.

The "captains of the temple" (strategos) were, in Thayer's words, "the commander of the Levites who kept guard in and around the temple." They were the temple's own police, and Judas had already made his deal with them and the chief priests (Luke 22:4). Luke notes that the chief priests and elders themselves were among those who "were come to him" (Luke 22:52), while Matthew and Mark say the crowd came "from" them (Matthew 26:47; Mark 14:43).

Jesus names the moment for what it is: "this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53). Matthew Henry reads this as Christ submitting to the time His Father had appointed, and as comfort that the reign of evil is limited. In his shorter commentary he says "the hour and the power of darkness were short." Gill takes "the power of darkness" to mean the powers of hell allowed, for a time, to set themselves against Christ.

Earlier that same night Jesus had said, "this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors" (Luke 22:37). Now He is hunted like a robber, and before long He will be crucified between two malefactors (Luke 23:32-33). The leaders thought they were in control. The text shows Jesus allowing what God had said would happen.