Scripture reading – Mark 14
The Gospel of Mark parallels events we considered in our previous reading from the Gospel of Matthew. Today’s Bible study will focus on Mark 14.
Mark 14
As did Matthew, Mark set the scene for when Jesus had supper at the home of Simon the leper. This was the meal that Mary interrupted when she anointed Jesus for His death and burial (Mark 14:1-9). Mark chronicled Judas’ arrangement with the chief priest to betray Jesus (Mark 14:10-11) and the disciples’ plans for the Passover meal (Mark 14:12-16). Mark gives us the conversations at the table where Jesus observed the Passover, His last supper before He was betrayed, tried, and condemned to die (Mark 14:17-25).
Christ’s Foretold Judas’ Betrayal and Peter’s Denial (Mark 14:26-30)
Walking into the darkness of the night, Jesus and His disciples made their way to the Mount of Olives (Mark 14:26). Along the way, He warned them the night would not pass before the prophecy of Zechariah would be fulfilled, which said, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered” (Mark 14:27; Zechariah 13:7). Yet, with that warning He gave them hope, saying, “after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee” (Mark 14:28).
Understanding that Jesus was saying all would abandon Him to suffer alone, Peter protested and said, “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I” (Mark 14:29). Jesus answered his boast and predicted that he would deny Him three times that night “before the cock crow twice” (Mark 14:30).
Christ’s Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-42)
Arriving at the garden called Gethsemane, Jesus asked His disciples, “Sit ye here, while I pray” (Mark 14:32). He then took Peter, James, and John with Him and went further into the garden to pray (Mark 14:33). He then confessed, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch” (Mark 14:34). Jesus asked His disciples to pray. Yet, three times, He came to them and found them sleeping (Mark 14:35-41). Then, with earnest resignation, Jesus commanded His sleepy disciples, “The hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand” (Mark 14:41b-42).
Christ’s Arrest and the Disciples’ Flight (Mark 14:43-52)
Even as Jesus spoke, Judas came into the garden. With him was “a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders” (Mark 14:43). With a kiss, Judas betrayed Jesus, saying, “Master, master” (Mark 14:45). Christ’s enemies seized Him. Peter took courage, “drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear” (Mark 14:47; John 18:10; Luke 22:50). Jesus, however, said to Peter, “Suffer ye thus far” (meaning permit them to do as they will), “and he touched his ear, and healed him” (Luke 22:51).
Christ then challenged Judas’ betrayal and the covert arrest of those who detained Him and asked, “Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? 49I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not” (Mark 14:48-49a). Rather than flee His enemies, Jesus submitted to their will and said, “The scriptures must be fulfilled” (Mark 14:49).
The disciples, fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy, “forsook Him, and fled” (Mark 14:50; Zechariah 13:7), as His enemies led Jesus away to be tried. Only Mark gives a record of a “certain young man” who was present that night, and when an attempt was made to take him, he fled and “left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked” (Mark 14:52). Who was that young man? We cannot be sure, but I wonder if He was not John Mark, the author of this Gospel that bears His name.
Christ’s Trial Before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:53-64)
The balance of today’s Scripture follows our LORD’s trial before the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:53) and the travesty of justice in the early morning hours that Friday. As Peter watched from a distance (Mark 14:54), false witnesses were brought to testify against Jesus. Yet their testimonies did not agree (Mark 14:55-60). Jesus answered not a word in His defense. Finally, the high priest demanded, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed [meaning, God the Father]?” (Mark 14:61) Jesus answered him and said, “I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62).
With those words, Jesus was accused of blasphemy, a capital offense under Hebrew law that was punishable by death (Mark 14:63-64). (He did not commit blasphemy, for He was Christ, the Son of God). Jesus was falsely charged, physically abused, and condemned to die, as had been prophesied (Isaiah 53).
Closing thoughts –
Peter denied being a follower and disciple of Christ three times (14:66-71). That Friday morning, even before the sun broke the eastern horizon, the crowing of a rooster drove home a powerful, convicting reality to Peter’s heart (Mark 14:72). He had denied Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. Yet, unlike Judas, who went out and hung himself, Peter sorrowed, repented, and wept his way back to the Lord.
Believer, you might find yourself where Peter was that Friday morning. Perhaps you have not denied Jesus with your words but with your life. I invite you to confess and turn from your sin, knowing that “the blood of Jesus Christ (the Son of God the Father) cleanseth us from all sin…If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7, 9).
If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Redeemer, I invite you to follow Peter’s example of brokenness over your sins, for “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
Copyright © 2024 – Travis D. Smith
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