mark 14:53-14:72

43. 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.

judas had left the last supper separately.

evidentally, he went and got a group from the high priest to go and arrest jesus.

judas betrays christ.

he leads the armed crowd (sent from the high priest) to jesus in the garden, and identifies christ with a kiss.
the kiss, a symbol of affection, becomes the act of betrayal.

christ is seized.

peter pulls out a sword and attacks...but jesus emphasizes that he is going willingly.

one of the disciples has a sword, and attempts to use it. probably saw a movie and thought it would be easy.
the disciple was...peter. johns gospel tells us it was peter, and also identifies the guy who got cut as malchus, the high priests servant.
remember that peter is likely narrating the story to ark, so he is throwing in all his personal stupidity.

luke recounts that jesus healed malchus' ear then and there (after saying 'stop, no more of this')

the point of all this? jesus is going willingly.

understand this - no one can compel christ to do anything, god does what he wants.

think about that...and how different god is from us.
his goodness is better than we think.

the struggle of the cross will not between the high priest and christ, pilate and christ, or the soldiers and christ.
it is simply christ doing the will of his father, despite the pain of bearing our guilt.

at this point, realizing that there is no fight, and that he's being taken away, everyone flees.

a young man flees naked

mark's gospel is the only one that includes this detail; church tradition is that mark is this young man who streaks.

2. christ before the high priest

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.

v53,54 - christ is lead away to a meeting of the jewish leaders

the high priest presides, and everyone is assembled.
v54 notes that peter followed - he ran, but he stayed nearby.

v55-61 - christ is charged

'witnesses' are brought to accuse christ of things that are worthy of death in the law.
they can't seem to keep their stories straight however - so nothing can be pined on christ.
the stuff that he did say gets misquoted (perhaps as they had interpreted it)...but he stays silent.

v61-64 - christ identifies himself

we get to the root issue; christ is asked if he is the christ.
this he answers to - "i am" and quotes scripture, saying,

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."

"the son of man sitting at the right hand of power"

looks like a loose reference to ps 110, the most well known messianic psalm.

"coming with the clouds of heaven"

this part is a bit bigger - it's a loose reference to daniel 7, in which daniel sees the ancient of days and the son of man.
dan 7:9-14

9 “I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His vesture was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne was ablaze with flames,
Its wheels were a burning fire.
10 “A river of fire was flowing
And coming out from before Him;
Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him;
The court sat,
And the books were opened.
11 “Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking;
I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.
12 “As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted
to them for an appointed period of time.
13 “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.
14 “And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations and men of every language
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.

this is a claim well beyond that of 'political leader messiah'; it's a claim of god.

this is obviously not lost on the jewish leaders.

this is interpreted as blasphemy by the jewish leaders. reason enough for them to abuse jesus and have him killed.

v65 - christ is abused

god begins to endure suffering on behalf of my sin.
he is spit on, blindfolded, beaten, and then told to prophesy who is hitting him.

no god who is loving would ever...

there are things in the bible that i don't like.
hell at times seems fair and right, but other times (most) seems way overly harsh.
lots of the judgement ideas in the bible seem that way to me.

i will bet that this is because of my confusion on how things really are.
but regardless, the cross is proof of the overwhelming love of god.

god is willing to suffer in place of people.
regardless of how things seem, you can't say that god is not loving.
and don't allow yourself to think of god as 'inconsistent'.
it is much wiser to realize your own limitations of understanding.

evil is considered good by those doing it

people believe what they want.
rarely will people believe that what they are doing is truly evil - rather, they will believe that their anger or hate is necessary.

also - let's be clear - this isn't confusion

confusion may be part of their sin.
but there is more arrogance and hatred - remember the conflicts that jesus has had with them.

he's revealed their hypocrisy, condemned their sin, and attacked their authority.
it's not as though they just met him and decided that he wasn't orthodox.

next time you get angry, think about how right you feel.

3. peter's denial

the third denial

the crowd has noticed that he's from galilee; they accuse him of following christ as well.

peter denies it. in the background, a rooster crows.
peter remembers jesus' prediction earlier and his own insistence that he would never, and we weeps.

1. god suffers for our sin

the suffering of christ begins this week - jesus is beaten and mocked so that we can be forgiven.
this is core to christian belief.

god is moral and holy;
we are sinful
god judges sin, and we are guilty.
jesus suffers in our place, his blood for ours; his sacrifice is given to any who accepts him as lord and savior through faith.

that's why we call the worst event of all time 'good friday'.

2. betrayal and failure

regret, and forgiveness

ivan the terrible killing his son.
my fear of the things you can't undo.

peter and judas here betray christ - and can never undo this.
we're going to look more at peter than at judas...

thought 1: what went wrong for peter?

well...he had choosen his type of obedience.
remember that he said, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" ?
remember the ear, and peters response? he was ready to follow to battle. he probably really was ready to die for christ, sword in hand.

he was not expecting god to lead him to 'defeat'.

obviously this isn't just peter here; this goes for all of us.
we are so willing to deny ourselves; until it's humiliating, or stressing, or whatever.

also - it's interesting to see how fear causes disobedience (worry is our more common form).

thought 2: people are awful

find a bright spot in this story:

- judas sells jesus to the jewish leaders.
- the jewish leaders abuse and mock jesus, who delivers himself to save those who have sinned against him.
- everyone abandons christ to suffer alone. peter denies christ publicaly.

a corralary to 2. even the best people sin.

if all the disciples scattered, and they had spent 3 years with jesus...what about us?

- you and i should expect to fail (not the same as being too big to fail)
- don't hide that you fail; repent (apologize) and move forward.

(moving forward is not denying the past; it's owning up to it, repenting, and believing the forgiveness of christ )

- don't expect to be perfect. that's ridiculous. instead, be humble.
- don't expect others to be perfect. that's ridiculous. instead, be gracious.

covering for the greatest sin.

we all, like peter, need good friday.
judas' betrayal - the greatest betrayal ever (sorry brutas/cassius. a distant second place).
it's also the event that lets us move past it, to have it covered up with innocence.

no matter what you have done - christs sacrifice is sufficient.
repent and believe.

thought 3: what's the difference between peter and judas?

both betrayed christ.
both regretted their decision.
but they aren't the same are they...

this is something to think about on your own this week.

intro: it begins

setting: we're in the garden

1. judas's denial