Mark No.26 Betrayal! Trial! Denial!

Mark's Gospel, chapter 14, verse 43. Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them, the one I kiss is the man, arrest him and lead him away under guard. Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, Rabbi, and kissed him. The men seized Jesus and arrested him.

Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Am I leading a rebellion, said Jesus, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the scriptures must be fulfilled.

Then everyone deserted him and fled. A young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and teachers of the law came together. Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warned himself of the fire.

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. And some stood up and gave this false testimony against him, We have heard him say, I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days we'll build another, not made by man.

Yet even then their testimony did not agree. Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you? But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? I am, said Jesus, and you will see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest tore his clothes. Why do we need any more witnesses, he asked? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? They all condemned him as worthy of death.

And some began to spit at him. They blindfolded him, struck him with their fists and said, Prophesy. And the guards took him and beat him.

While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus, she said, but he denied it.

I don't know or understand what you're talking about, he said, and went out into the entryway. When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, This fellow is one of them. Again he denied it.

After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, Surely you are one of them, for you are Galilean. He began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, I don't know this man you're talking about. Immediately the rooster crowed the second time.

Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me three times. And he broke down and wept.

This is the word of the Lord. Now let me twin to that reading that you already had so feelingfully brought before you, a few verses from Peter, 1 Peter in chapter 1, in which Peter makes some reference to trials and difficulty, and I imagine he's speaking somewhat autobiographically because he himself has known the same, and he's addressing his remarks, Peter also being the man who's behind Mark's gospels, so you're really drawing from the inspiration under the Holy Spirit of the same man for these epistles and also for the gospel. And he's addressing a readership that is going through great problems, great trials, like in Iran today, we're asked to focus our attention worldwide on the situation in Iran where you've got 50 million or so people tucked away, often unreached, often unheard of in terms of their needs in the world, especially the tiny Christian minority that endures such suffering and hardship.

Well, speaking of hardship, this is what Peter says in the sixth verse, in this, this is 1 Peter 1, in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes, even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

And then still speaking somewhat biographically, Peter at the end of this epistle says in the fifth verse, fifth chapter, eighth verse, be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, but you shall not resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings, and the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever.

Amen. Well, let's go back to Mark's gospel and to those very fascinating verses tucked away at the end of the fourteenth chapter. As always, I try, along with my colleague Tim, in the grace of God, to explain to you what the word of the Lord, the Bible actually says, that's the task of the preacher and those of you who home in here regularly on a Sunday know that we're working our way through and coming to the conclusion of the life of Jesus as told in this wonderful gospel.

And from the fifty-third verse and onwards, we come to a particular passage in this fourteenth chapter which speaks, if you please, of trials. It is the way of faith to be tested. The testing of your discipleship will clarify what you believe, it will focus it more clearly and what's more, it will toughen you.

Somebody has said that the trials of life are sent to make us better and not bitter. Another Puritan preacher says that the rod that strikes is often better for us than the staff which comforts. Well, let's consider this passage.

You see, it has a lot to do about trials, but you can work that word trial through with two particular connotations. There is a sense in which your faith is always being tried, you're always on display. People, whether you recognize it or not, assuming that you profess to be Christians are examining your life and therefore there is a sense in which you're always being tested.

And I want to suggest that in that general sense of the word, it's helpful for you to come to the narrative between the fifty-third and the sixty-fifth verses of this chapter, because here is our beloved Lord, if you please, on trial. They're testing His faith, they're testing His mettle. So if you like, it's interpreting that word circumstantially.

I'll fill in the details in just a moment. But then when you come to the, I said as far as the sixty-third verse is concerned, I really meant to say that our Lord is being tested, He's being tested as far as His circumstances are concerned from the fifty-third verse. And then after that, you will find that the Apostle Peter is also being tested and tried in a legal sense from the sixty-sixth verse and onwards.

But let's go back to the forty-third, for here is our Lord and He's been arrested and He's been taken in front of the high priest, or at least He ultimately will be. But at the point of His arrest, as I suggest that generally speaking, in understanding the word generally, He's on trial, there are certain things that He brings to your attention by the way that He reacts to the problems that are in front of Him. You see, what's happening here is our Lord is coming towards the end of His human life in terms of leading up to the cross.

And from the forty-third verse and onwards, you are introduced to what is called the passion narrative. It was probably a narrative that circulated for a while independently of the rest of Mark's gospel, and when Mark was writing his gospel, he drew this narrative into the main gospel that he's writing. And therefore in the forty-third verse, you see as he's quoting, an explanation is made about Judas, one of the twelve.

We know that he's one of the twelve, but well, this is an incorporation into the narrative. And Mark is showing you how our Lord Jesus, as He is arrested in these incidents that follow in the garden of Gethsemane, is in that general sense on trial. He's going to be specifically on trial from the fifty-third verse.

But here I'm suggesting to you that the way in which things are happening to Him at that point is also a test as to who He is and how He will cope with the problems that have come His way. You see, earlier on, you recall in the garden of Gethsemane, He's prayed, Father, let this cup pass from me. And it doesn't pass.

It can't pass. It's within the purposes of God for the Son of Man, look at verse forty-one, to be betrayed and handed into the hands of sinners. And so, from this forty-third verse through to the fifty-second, what you get is a picture of Jesus responding, I say, to the general trial, responding to His circumstances.

And you can start to analyze something of what He's going through in these words. First of all, He has to cope with the trial of treachery. That's what it says in verse forty-three, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared.

Verse forty-four, now Judas, the betrayer, had arranged a signal with those who've come to arrest Jesus. It must have been quite a temptation for our Lord, don't you think? I mean, He knew all the time that one of the twelve who was with Him would ultimately deal treacherously. But Jesus is human as well as divine.

I mean, if David was hurt by the treachery of his son Absalom, will not Jesus also be hurt by the treachery of Judas? So I'm putting to you that here you're beginning to get an example of a trial in its general sense. Now, if the disciples of our Lord had obeyed His express instructions, they would have known that when He was arrested, there was going to be no forceful attempt whatsoever permitted to be made to rescue Him from His predicament. But not only is our Lord tried in terms of treachery, He's tried in terms of immaturity.

Look at the forty-seventh verse, and you'll find John's gospel will identify the person who's involved. One of those standing near, Peter, draws his sword and strikes the servant of the high priest. And in so doing, he endangers the whole of our Lord's ministry, who has been teaching His disciples that the kingdom that He's going to bring in is one that is not to be taken by way of military might.

And for Peter to blunder in such a way as this is going to be a trial to Jesus. The last miracle that Jesus performed on earth before His crucifixion was to undo the mischief caused by an insensitive, overzealous act on the part of Peter. And our Lord has to cope, I say, with this particular burden or trial.

And what is more, when He starts to look at those who've come to arrest Him, He finds that they're perverse. There's a crowd armed with swords and clubs. Look at verse 43, sent from the chief priests.

Now this to our Savior was a perversion in terms of justice and human behavior. They come to Him at night, and yet He says as He responds to this arrest, am I leading a rebellion? Verse 48, that you've come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you teaching in the temple. You come at night, I've been with you in the day.

And what's more, you're not representatives of the Roman occupying force, I've been with you in the temporal area. Therefore by pure logic our Lord is inserting thereof the stock of Abraham. Oh, the perversity of coming armed to the teeth to arrest a man who is unarmed.

The insults which are directed towards our Lord Jesus, treachery on the part of Judas, immaturity on the part of Peter, perversity on the part of the arresting gang. And then there is the temerity of His disciples. Look at verse 51 as an example.

Now admittedly when you come to verse 51 you've got some interesting reasoning in which you can engage. The reference is to a young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, who has been following Jesus. When they seized him this young man flees naked, leaving his garment behind.

Who this young man is, is a tantalizing question. I think that all the evidence seems to indicate that this is John Mark, the one who actually wrote the gospel, who acted, if you please, as Peter's secretary. John Mark, he was living in Jerusalem.

It seems that he came from a family that was quite wealthy, who probably allowed the Lord Jesus and the disciples the use of the upper room. With the curiosity of maybe someone not much more than a teenager, he has witnessed what happened in the garden of Gethsemane and he's actually stole into the inner part of the garden. But when all this happens in terms of the arrest of the Lord Jesus, terror strikes his heart as it struck the heart of the rest of the disciples and he flees away naked.

Now Lord Jesus is left on His own. You see, He's being tried, not in terms of jurisprudence, but in terms of circumstances. And I repeat my argument that you are always being tried for your faith in terms of how you react to your present circumstances.

Someone has said that God at times allows His children to go to bed in the dark. What did they mean? Well, you can't always understand what God allows at a particular point. He'll ask you to trust Him when you cannot trace Him.

When you have worked out a certain course of events that are going to happen, you believe in the benevolence of God and they don't work through in that particular order. Then I put to you in the name of God, He's trying you. He's testing your faith.

He wants to focus your faith more clearly. He wants to strengthen it. The trials of life are not, I repeat, directed to you by God, allowed by God to make you bitter but to make you better.

And here is our beloved Lord in those opening verses of the narrative that commands our attention from the 43rd and down to the 52nd, being, if you please, tried by the circumstances that befall Him. So I argue there is a general trial. But let's move to the 53rd verse and onwards, if I've cleared up having given you the wrong verses right at the very beginning, the configuration of my pulpit Bible is a little different from the personal Bible that I use, thus my mistake right at the outset.

But when you come to the 53rd verse, then you get the introduction of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Jewish Sanhedrin. And if you like, there commences the legal trial. But if you've read very carefully what follows after the description of our Lord before the Sanhedrin and you focus your attention on Peter and the circumstances that fall out in his career at this stage, you will find that it's not just Jesus who is on trial but also Peter who is on trial.

Now Mark is very interesting in the way that he writes this narrative. He engages in what I would call flashback. In other words, he has two cameras and they're both rolling at the same time because he wants you to see that there are concurrent incidents that have to be interpreted, the one stacked against the other.

You say, what do you mean? Well, look at verse 53, our Lord having gone through what I've called this general trial in the garden of Gethsemane, starting to drink something of the contents of the cup which is so unacceptable to him, is then carted off into the high priest's lair. Ah yes, but the camera zooms in on Peter. Peter followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest.

Look at verse 66. Again, you get the same idea of the flashback. You see, Mark goes on to describe Jesus in the courtroom of the high priest, but then he comes and at the same time shows you what is happening to Peter.

Peter was below in the courtyard. So I'm arguing you've actually got two trials here. There is the trial of Jesus, the legal trial of Jesus in the upper room, one of the balcony rooms of the courthouse, and there's the trial of Peter in the courtyard.

In the courtroom, lies of false witnesses will be directed towards Jesus. In the courtyard, there will be the sarcastic laugh of a mocking servant girl directed towards Peter. Jesus will take an oath within.

Peter will take an oath without. Jesus is on trial by the professionals. Peter is on trial by the amateurs.

Jesus will be judged by the lawyers. Peter will be judged by the laity. But mark this, both Jesus and Peter have in common, they are under scrutiny.

Now you see how the whole of this narrative remarkably links together. I repeat in the first part, here is the illustration of Jesus responding in the garden of Gethsemane to the testings and the trials of the arrest. Here in the 53rd verse, you get the story of Jesus responding to his so-called legal trial, and you get Peter described as coping with the trial that's his on the part of lay people putting questions to him.

So, let's follow our beloved Lord into what I call the lair of the high priest. Actually, what has happened is there's been an unofficial calling together of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is the Jewish equivalent to the Old Bailey.

The Sadducees will be there, referred to here in verse 53 in terms of the high priest and all the chief priests. The elders will be there, that is the Pharisees, and the teachers of the law, the scribes. Seventy men will come, and in a semicircle they will face the Lord Jesus, he being in the center, and they will ply him with questions.

I refer to it as a legal trial, but actually it's an illustration of a flagrant miscarriage of justice. You see, these men who want to assess our Lord Jesus have actually made up their minds before the whole procedure of the trial begins, that's why I call it a farce. Look at verse 55, they were coming together looking for evidence against Jesus.

In other words, they had prejudged the whole issue. Our Lord never had a fair trial. But it wasn't that easy for them to get witnesses that were all saying the same thing.

The very pieces of silver which have bribed Judas no doubt were also being offered to people who were in the area of the palace of the high priest in order to come forward and to give testimony against Jesus. One of the things about trying to get people to lie is that you cannot get them to lie consistently. That's one of the reasons why if evidence is ever given at a law court and everyone is saying the same thing, any magistrate worthy of his name, her name, knows that there has been connivance because any reputable evidence about an incident given by one, two, three, or four people will always have their nuances of difference because everyone sees something from a different angle.

And here the priests are in great difficulty, the evidence comes forward but they cancel one another out. Many testified falsely against him but their statements did not agree. Then somebody stood up and gave this sort of comment.

We. We heard him say, I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days we'll build another not made by man. And now the half truth is always worse than a lie.

Half of the truth was that Jesus had made reference to the temple. Right at the very beginning of his ministry and towards the end of his ministry. But you didn't really need to have much common sense to appreciate that when he was talking about the temple he was referring to his body.

He was in the temple area, but he was actually referring to the temple of his body. And when he made reference to the temple being destroyed, even if he had been referring specifically to the physical temple, he didn't do so in the language that is here used in this court. There is no occasion when Jesus right at the beginning of his ministry or at the end of his ministry spoke of himself destroying the temple.

He spoke rather of finding the temple in a state of dissolution. And they would see what he would do when his body is handed over to the charge of those who will deal damnably with him. Though it is destroyed on the third day, it will be raised again.

But as I say, the evidence is perverted. This is just another indication of the trial that our Lord had to go through. But not only that, you find that the high priest who by this time is getting a little bit miffed, he speaks to the Lord Jesus.

He suggests that the case is watertight, knowing full well that it's riddled with illogicality. Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you? Well, a downright lie does not have to be argued with by truth. Truth will always remain intact and stand on its own.

So Jesus remains silent. There is no case to answer. Now the interesting thing about our beloved Lord is that one of the charges that were leveled against him, one of the trials that he had to cope with, is actually that his ministry was explained in terms of he's a demoniac.

In other words, he's demon-possessed. Now the high priest has great authority. And according to Jewish culture and tradition, when the high priest actually uses his priestly authority and adheres someone to speak, they have to.

And the interesting thing is that when the high priest here makes a challenge to our Lord Jesus, when it says he asks him the rather neutral, insipid language of the NIV, he doesn't. He adheres him. And it's the same verb which suggests the expulsion of a demon.

Maybe the connotation is this, that Jesus is so possessed that it needs the high priest to use his authority to see if he can get this blasphemy out from the lips of Jesus once and for all. Tell us, are you the Christ? And now you see the charges shifted. It's not to do with some trumped up business about the temple.

It is to do with the person of Jesus, who he is and what his authority is. And so our Lord significantly responds in verse 62, I am, using the express name of God. And also affirming that the priests will one day see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One.

In other words, here is our Lord Jesus acknowledging that not only is he the representative of God, he has the authority of God himself. How the watchtower, the Jehovah's Witnesses can read this, not see the reaction of the high priest and appreciate that our Lord is claiming publicly and clearly to be divine, I do not know. As a result, the high priest tears his clothes.

Game, set and match. He's got Jesus, or so it would seem, just where he wants him. He has got the Lord Jesus to come clean.

Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah? Yes, I am the Christ. I am the Messiah. And the place alongside Jehovah himself belongs by right to me.

You've heard the blasphemy? What do you think? Says the priest. And so, our Lord Jesus on trial is proven to be by this subtle questioning more than just an ordinary man. He claims he is the Son of God.

Now, let's move because we have to. I know there is a couple more verses, but we'll return to those in a moment. Let's move to Peter.

If Jesus is in the upper court, here is Peter in the lower court. And he too, I argue, is on trial. Not the lawyers, but the laity.

Not the professionals, but the amateurs. You ask yourself, first of all, why are there people in the courtyard at that time of day? And the reason is, well, because of all the exciting things that have happened in Jerusalem. Here is this Nazarene.

He's been arrested. There's a trial. And, you know, human curiosity being what it is, it causes people to hang around.

It's Passover. It's night. It's dark and cold.

And, therefore, there's a fire. And Peter, all credit to him because he shows some courage here. He makes his way into the area of the high priest's domain.

And he starts to warm himself by the fire. And it seems as though he's got some sights as to what is happening to the Lord Jesus inasmuch as such a full narrative is given later on at Peter's dictation to John Mark. So, a woman comes along.

Actually, she's a portraitress. The lady who looks after the gate through which Peter has passed into the palace garden of the high priest. And she says, you also were with that Nazarene.

As Jesus has been assailed by false witnesses, here is the saucy comment of some damsel. I don't know or understand what you are talking about. That's a very interesting expression.

What Peter is doing now is using legal jargon. He's using the language of a proper law court in which he is dismissing any possibility of the charge being leveled against him as being accurate. Isn't it interesting that sometimes men and women can cope with intense pressure? I mean, Peter may have been very foolish in the garden taking the sword and cutting off the ear of the high priest's servant.

But there is a sense of courage involved in that action. Peter can do that. Peter can show the confidence and the courage of following the Lord Jesus into the very domain of the high priest where people presumably are looking out for him because of what he has done to the high priest's servant.

He can cope with the greater. But the saucy comment of a servant girl pulverizes him. I don't know or understand what you are talking about.

And he clears off. He went out. He went out into the entrance.

Well, he comes back once more to a different part of the courtyard. And this annoying lady spots him again and publicly identifies him. This fellow is one of them.

But he denies it. He doesn't just deny it with ordinary speech. He begins to call down curses on himself.

And he goes under oath as well as using oaths. You remember how Jezebel said to her husband Ahab when he wanted but found it difficult to obtain the vineyard of Naboth, God do so to me and more also. In other words, bringing an oath upon herself if what she wanted wasn't delivered.

And here is Peter bringing an oath on himself and with the foulest language he is dissenting from the accusation that he was an accomplice of Jesus. I don't know the man you are talking about. Peter, turn the clock back just a few months.

The high priest has been saying in courtyard number one that Jesus is or asking him if he is the Christ, the son of the blessed God. Who do men say that I am? Peter, you remember the disciples suggested John Baptist or one of the prophets and you said you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus is in trouble for affirming what you said five months ago.

And in courtyard B you are denying what you said five months ago. You see the point? There is a double trial here. Not just Jesus on trial but Peter also on trial.

And the cock starts to crow. It could be a literal cock and probably is but the Romans actually, they had a trumpet call at three o'clock in the morning which was known as the cock crow. Which would have been heard throughout the whole of Jerusalem as it sounded and disturbed the silence of the streets at that time in the early morning.

And we read, then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him. Peter has been knocked off course by the amateur interrogation. Our folk are only concerned to establish his relationship with Jesus who he refers to now as that man.

You see what happens is that our Lord is able to cope, is he not? I mean he copes with the general trial, he copes in the garden, he copes with the treachery, he copes with the perversity, he copes with the temerity of the disciples and so on and so forth. He copes there admirably. And he also copes in the legal trial.

But Peter, Peter goes to pieces. And you can't criticize Peter unless you yourself have lived an impeccable life of discipleship. But you probably haven't.

And therefore you're glad of the honesty of Peter that when he talked to Mark about these incidents, he who alone had the intelligence as to what happened in the high priest's courtyard, he allowed Mark to write it down. And Peter goes out and he weeps. O ye tears, O ye tears, I am thankful that you run.

Though you trickle in the darkness, you shall glitter in the sun. The rainbow cannot shine if the rain refused to fall. And the eyes that cannot weep are the saddest eyes of all.

Peter remembers. He remembers that Jesus has said, when you deny me. Recall this.

I prayed for you. You see, Peter's love for Jesus never failed. Peter's faith in Jesus did not fail.

Peter's hope about the current circumstances, that failed. And he panicked. He knee-jerked.

I was at one of the most incredible services I've ever attended in my life, yesterday. I went up to Westminster Chapel, not because of my past association with Westminster, but because Bishop Huyck, Hobespian Meyer's wife, was present. Bishop Huyck was martyred for his faith in Iran.

In the early months of this year. He is one of three Christian leaders who have been butchered in the opening period of 1994. His wife, Takush, was present.

And she came to the microphone. There were not many people there, mainly Iranians and just one or two Brits like myself. And she started to talk about Bishop Huyck.

An elegant lady. When she had finished, people not only clapped, they stood up. And the clapping went on and on and on.

Not the clapping that you might associate with the jingoism of, shall we say, the last night of the proms. It was the clapping of people who realized that they were standing in the presence of someone who had been almost to hell and back in terms of what her family had endured. And she talked about Bishop Huyck, her husband.

And the way that he had faced persecution in its face. And told the Muslim authorities that there was no way in which he was prepared to agree not to spread the gospel amongst Islamic people. She told of the problems that she has now as a woman whose partner has paid the supreme price and was knifed to death in Tehran just in the early parts of this year.

And when I tell you that there was hardly an eye that wasn't filled with tears, I'm not exaggerating. Because so against the consistency of Bishop Huyck, one felt one's own inconsistency. You thought of what he had gone through and you related it to the way that you buckle.

And the fact of the matter is that when you buckle, as Peter did, only he with the Lord Jesus as his example, Jesus does not turn you aside and refuse to take you back. When the trials of life come in, when the testings come and you fail, he'll take you back and give you another start. That's what happened for Peter.

In Galilee, by the seashore where Jesus first met Peter, he met him once more and brought him back into the ministry. Father, there are those of us who need to reaffirm our trust and confidence in you. There are some of us who have been reeling this past week through circumstances, sometimes beyond our control, sometimes as a result of things that we've set in motion through our foolishness.

We ask that whatever state of life we find ourselves in right now, that your word may come and minister to all our hearts. In the name of Jesus our Saviour, Amen.