MARK 14:43-72 Lesson # 43
DESERTION, INJUSTICE AND BETRAYAL
I. Greetings:
II. Introduction: There are many who are angry at God because things have not gone well. Things have gone wrong, these people have been deeply mistreated, and at times it has been by Christians. Thus, the question asked is, “Where is God?” It is a good question, worth asking. He is there. He is not only there, He has been where you are now, He has been to the cross. The way Jesus went to the cross is very similar to what some of you are experiencing today.
God has allowed human beings to have free will, therefore He has allowed the possibility of evil, great evil, in this world. As Charles Williams has reminded us, He came to His world and faced what the humans had become. He faced the results of giving us our free will, God took His own medicine. He faced a cruel, free choosing race, and we humiliated and murdered Him. God came to earth and we brutalized Him. He knows what you face! He chose to know!
III. Jesus’ Desertion and Arrest: Mark 14:43-52.
A. The Desertion of His men.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 14:43-50.
Q How did they know which one was Jesus?
An = It was by a kiss. It was late at night at a place with no lighting. Thousands of pilgrims were in the city, so it would be easy to lose Jesus. Judas used a kiss, a customary greeting to give to a rabbi. Then Judas called Him, “my master”. Judas used two actions meant to show respect and honor to betray his lord.
Note: Jesus had to face the awful gut-wrenching fact that He has been betrayed by one of His own closest associates. Watch what else Jesus had to face besides betrayal….
Q What did the disciples do?
An = They fled. They deserted Jesus. All those closest to Him abandon Him. When hardship comes, it is hard to be alone.
Q Did any disciple do anything else?
An = Yes, in 14:37 one of them cut an ear off.
>>>> Have someone read John 18:10.
Note: That someone was Peter.
B. The Strange Addition.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 14:51-52.
Q Why are these two verses here?
An = This could have been Mark. It was written only in Mark’s Gospel because it refered to Mark himself. This passage is in no other Gospel and could be Mark’s way of saying that he was there and possibly overheard, as a young man, much of went on in the Garden of Gethsemane. Nevertheless, he fled too. The only one left, calmly left, is Jesus. He is in control and though the one arrested, He is asking the questions.
>>>> Have someone read Isaiah 53:12.
IV. Injustice: the Sanhedrin Trial: Mark 14:53-65.
A. The First Legal Maneuver.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 14:53-59.
>>>> Re-read Mark 14:54.
Note: 14:54 describes Peter’s warming himself at the fire, but this is told to us in the midst of Jesus’s trial before the Sanhedrin. You might wonder why the author put this notice about Peter at this place in the story.
Most scholars agree this is an attempt to let the reader know that 14:66-72 (the Sanhedrin trial) and 14:55-65 (the story of Peter’s denial) happened simultaneously (Lane, p. 532). While Jesus was getting treated with gross inequity and injustice, His key disciple was out in the courtyard betraying Him. However, something else should be said about Peter…
Q How many disciples ventured into the courtyard?
An = Mark records only Peter. Why did Peter, and Peter alone, risk the dangerous proximity to the trial?
Q Did Peter plan on betraying Jesus?
An = No, he did not. Only Peter verbally betrayed Jesus because only Peter cared enough to get close enough to be questioned.
Q Did Jesus get a fair trial?
An = No! Capital offense cases had to have the collaboration of at least two witnesses. This was not working. They tried to get Him on temple desecration (a serious offense in those days). See John 2:19 and Jeremiah 26:1-9. However, their case did not stick.
Note: What is clear is that the purpose and spirit of the law was outweighed by the firm resolve to get Jesus. >> Have someone read Mark 14:1 and 14:55. How interesting it is that no witnesses were brought forth that could witness of how Jesus healed them, feed them, brought back their children from demon possession, or the dead, etc. Only witnesses for the supposed temple desecration.
B. The Second Legal Maneuver.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 14:60-65.
Note: The chief priest asked a leading question trying to get the defendant to incriminated himself (Barclay, p. 369). This was not a proper procedure. Judges were not to interfere in order to get a conviction.
Q What was Jesus’ Spirit like in 14:60-61a?
An = Calm, willing to be quiet, not alarmed at the injustice. It seems to rattle the high priest.
Q What is Jesus saying in 14:62?
An = He is the Messiah: see Psalms 110:1, Daniel 7:13 and Isaiah 52:8.
Q What do they convict Jesus of?
An = Supposed blasphemy: >>Have someone read Leviticus 24:15-16.
Q Is it fair?
An = No, Jesus is treated totally unfairly, like some of you have.
Q What is happening in 14:65? What did Jesus ever do to deserve this?
An = >> Have someone read Isaiah 50:6. Many of you today have suffered unjustly, been railroaded, and if it has not happened to you yet, it easily could. If it has happened, or when it happens, remember, your Lord knows. He completely understands.
V. Betrayal: Peter’s Denial. Mark 14:66-72.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 14:66-72.
Note: There is a double interrogation going on.
>>>> Have someone re-read Mark 14:65 and 71.
Note: As Peter was acting as he did in 14:71, 14:65 was going on simultaneously.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 14:29.
Q Why did Peter not leave the courtyard in 14:68 when he was recognized?
An = He wanted to be there. He wanted to be loyal.
Q Again, why is only Peter here?
An = Only Peter cared deeply enough to be there and to get into the trouble that he got into.
Note: Only those of us in this room who really care about God can fail as Peter did. Lesser men would have never been there (Barclay, p. 370). What is strange is that some of us really love God, and yet do things that betray Him.
In our own strength we try to serve God and we, like Peter, will fail.
Q What is the source of this story?
An = The Gospel of Mark is said to be Peter’s preaching memoirs. It is from Peter himself that we have this story. There is a power in true Christianity, where the Spirit of God is truly active, that allows us to tell the truth about ourselves and yet survive!
William Barclay tells a story, “There was an evangelist called Brownlow North. He was a man of God, but in his youth he had lived a wild life. One Sunday he was to preach in Aberdeen. Before he entered the pulpit a letter was handed to him. The writer of the letter recounted a shameful incident in Brownlow North’s life before he became a Christian and stated that if Brownlow North dared to preach he would rise in the Church and publicly proclaim what once he had done. Brownlow North took the letter into the pulpit with him. He read it to the congregation. He told them that it was perfectly true. Then he told them how, through Christ, he had been forgiven, how Christ had enabled him to overcome his sin and put the past behind him, how, through Christ, he was a new creature.
He used his own shame as a magnet to draw men to Christ. That is what Peter did.” (Barclay, pp. 371-372)
That is what we could also do. Tell the truth about our failures, because in Christ, if we are truly in Him, there is hope.
Note: Let me read the last sentence of chapter 14: “And he began to weep.” No more fitting ending to this chapter can be made. When we see we are wrong, then hope and restoration have begun.
Mark 14:43-72
Immediately while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, *came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs, who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44 Now he who was betraying Him had given them a signal, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard.” 45 After coming, Judas immediately went to Him, saying, “Rabbi!” and kissed Him. 46 They laid hands on Him and seized Him. 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. 48 And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me, as you would against a robber? 49 Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me; but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures.”50 And they all left Him and fled.
51 A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they *seized him. 52 But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked.
53 They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes *gathered together. 54 Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. 56 For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. 57 Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, 58 “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’” 59 Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.
60 The high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus, saying, “Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?” 61 But He kept silent and did not answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 Tearing his clothes, the high priest *said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? 64 You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death. 65 Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, and to say to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in the face.
I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him. Daniel 7:13
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” Psalm 110:1
I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. Isaiah 50:6
66 As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest *came,67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and *said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch. 69 The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.” 71 But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!” 72 Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he began to weep.
But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” 30 And Jesus *said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.” Mark 14:29-30