Mark 14:53-15:15 Rejected!

Mark 14:53- 15:15

It’s night-time in an olive grove in early spring. The scent of budding flowers is in the air. There’s a full moon, its face shining brightly on the earth, creating strong contrasts of silver beams of lights and dark shadows under the branches of the trees.
And in the shadows we see twelve men huddling in fear. They are fugitives, on the run from the authorities – and they have just been betrayed.
They trusted Judas – he was their treasurer for goodness sake! And now he betrayed them.
They looked at their leader, Jesus, his face drawn with anxiety. They had never seen him like this. He brooded in silence.

Suddenly there was a shout – the soldiers had found them!

“RUN!” shouted Jesus. “Run for your lives”. The twelve men set off in different directions, fear etched on their faces. Jesus threw himself in a ditch, and began to crawl towards the safety of a nearby river.

But it was too late. There were too many soldiers. All too soon the men were rounded up, and their leader, Jesus, his face covered in dirt and leaves and debris, was hauled before the Captain of the Guard. He laughed as Jesus cowered before him, disbelief and fear etched on his face. An shameful end, for a failed prophet.

OR The Hollywood version!

As Jesus crawled away he heard the screams and cries of his friends, his followers, as they were tracked down by the soldiers, bound together, and taken away to judgement and punishment. A few tears escaped before his face grew hard with resolve. This time, he will teach his men to fight. This time, he will strike down the authorities. This time, he will not be skulking away, but be victorious.

He’ll be back!

If we had to guess or even write about what was going to happen, knowing 200 soldiers were coming to arrest 12 men, wouldn’t that be how we would picture it? If we were Jesus, isn’t that how we would react? Isn’t that what people think about Jesus – just another failed prophet, who accidentally got himself arrested and killed?

As we saw over the last two weeks, surprisingly, what actually happened is very, very different. This was no failed prophet, running from death. This is not the weak end to what could have been a lifetime of famous ministry. This is not a tragedy, but a victory!

This is the pinnacle of Jesus’ ministry. This is his crown jewel, the moment he has been working towards his whole life. This is when he will be revealed as the King above all Kings – as he destroys death and Satan, rescues humanity, and glorifies himself!

This is the high point of human history: the reason Jesus came was in order to die.
He came to be the Passover Lamb: sacrificed so that his blood would shield those who trust in Him from the Judgement to come.
He is the King, the one who is strong, the one who prays in deep anguish to avoid the cup of judgement - but faces it anyway. He drinks the cup, the cup which makes men stagger, down to the last poisonous drop.
We are weak, like the disciples, unable to pray, but instead to sleep, unable to stand with Jesus, but instead to be scattered: we are weak, and could not face the judgement to come. So Jesus, in his great love, faces it for us. That is propitiation. He absorbs the judgement, the wrath of God, and shields us from it, by his blood, by his broken body.

That is love.

Last week we saw that Jesus knows that we are weak. And still loves us. Our weakness, our failure is not something we have to try to hide from him. Christianity is not about pretending you’re better than you are!

Jesus is strong where we are weak.

Tonight we see again how Jesus is strong, whereas we are weak. He is the King, the rightful and true King – yet he is rejected by the Jews (represented by the leading priests and high council), rejected by his own dearest friends (represented by Peter), and rejected by the Gentiles (non-Jews, that’s us, represented by Pilate).

1. Rejected by the Jews v55-65

They took Jesus to the high priest’s home where the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law had gathered...55 the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any.

The trial is a sham. It is irregular – meeting in the middle of the night instead of the day, and not in the Temple court but in the high priests house. And no evidence could be found! They’d already decided the verdict - back in chapter 11:18 they had decided that Jesus must die and were plotting to kill him. This was no fair hearing, but a loaded gun pointed at Jesus’ head.
How precious this must have been to the early Christians being persecuted in similar trials under Roman and Jewish persecution. Jesus went through this, so can I!

How precious this is to us when life seems unfair, when the decks are stacked against us, when we are wrongly accused – Jesus has been through this. He knows what it feels like. He endured. He is strong. Draw strength from him in your weakness.

56 Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other. 57 Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony: 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, made without human hands.’ ” 59 But even then they didn’t get their stories straight!

If this wasn’t so serious it would be like a comedy sketch! The bungling baddies, oafishly getting their stories wrong. The paid witnesses saying the opposite of each other! You can almost see little fight breaking out between them: “why’d you say that, you idiot, you were supposed to say….” You can almost imagine them getting cream pies out and hitting each other in the face with them. It is so utterly foolish.

Man vs. God.
Don’t we look like a bunch of clowns? Aren’t we utterly idiotic when we try to act like God, deciding for ourselves what’s right and wrong when we don’t understand anything about, well, anything! It’s like children trying to understand the goings-on in an adult world. Sometimes my kids try to make decisions, which to them seems good (like “Daddy stay home today, don’t go to work”) – but they have no idea of the wider world, the bigger consequences (like having food to eat and a house to live because Daddy goes to work instead of staying home and playing with the kids!).

So, even the high priest can now see that they’re getting nowhere. Even as a sham trial this is pretty thin. He’s probably beating his head against the wall in frustration – while Jesus stands there calm, resolute, quiet. Eventually in frustration he turns to Jesus v60 “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” 61 But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” I bet he couldn’t believe his luck when Jesus answered him: “I AM. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Blasphemy! BLASPHEMY!! You dishonour God! How dare you claim to be God! BLASPHEMY! Death!
But not once did they stop to consider maybe this is true. They did not listen to his words: I AM, the personal name of the God of Israel (Yahweh or Jehovah means I AM who I am – God said to Moses tell them I AM sent you). So Jesus says I AM. Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? Yahweh, says Jesus. I am.
And just to make sure they understand, he then claims to be the human figure in Daniel 7 who is given all authority in heaven and earth by the Father (the “Ancient of Days” in the prophecy). He is the Messiah. He is God Almighty. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But they miss it. Their sin blinds them to the truth, and drives them to murder their own king, their God.
We, too, are blinded by our sin. Without his grace we too would be shouting Crucify him! Blasphemer! Playing our religious games while murdering the Son of God.
Religion does not lead you to God, but away from God. Unless you know Jesus, religion is dangerous. Paul the Apostle was a very religious man, and loved God (or so he thought) – but that love expressed itself in murdering Christians until the day that Jesus met him and turned his life around.
Unless you know Jesus, religion is dangerous, poisonous, futile, and hellish.

65 Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away.

Why did Jesus suddenly openly proclaim his divinity (that he is God, the Son of God), the Son of Man in power, and that he is the Messiah? Up to now he has always refused to proclaim this publically, always told demons to be quiet, and those whom he has healed not to tell anyone. Why now?

Because now, chained, arrested, beaten, abandoned, there is no misunderstanding what type of Messiah he is. He is the suffering servant of Isaiah. He is the conquering King as well, but it is a spiritual conquest, not a political. Jesus can openly claim to be the Messiah because now no-one will want to force him to be the political king. He is arrested, weak, with no followers. Who’d want this fellow to be king?
Now there is no risk to his mission being compromised – he came to die, and he will achieve it. Now it is unstoppable, and so he can reveal himself because no-one will believe it. In fact, revealing who he is will achieve his goals!

64 You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” “Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!”

So the Jews, the very people of God, with the religion of God, the word of God, the rituals of God, the Law of God – reject God.

And even Jesus’ closest friends reject him.

2. Rejected by his own

54 Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and went right into the high priest’s courtyard. There he sat with the guards, warming himself by the fire.

Peter was probably still determined to “die for Jesus”. He follows him right in to the courtyard. He had probably convinced himself that he could still do it, that this time he wouldn’t run away – despite the fact that, unlike Jesus, he had not prayed for strength, but fallen asleep. And despite the fact that Jesus had already told him that he would fall.

He did not believe Jesus. He thought he was fine by himself. How often is that us? Or our friends, or family members, or work colleagues?

We don’t want to hear the uncomfortable truths. We don’t want to hear that we are sinners who sin. That there is a God, and we are not him! That God is angry with us and will judge us and condemn us to hell if continue to rebel against him. That shame covers us. We have dishonoured our King. Lalalala we say with our hands over our ears, trying to block it out. The problem is, is that it is true. And reliable, true, truth. There is no escape.

Jesus said a few hours before: v30 “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

A servant girl questions him v67 “You were one of those with Jesus of Nazareth.” 68 But Peter denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” One.

V69 She began telling the others, “This man is definitely one of them!” 70 But Peter denied it again. Two.

“You must be one of them, because you are a Galilean.” 71 Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know this man you’re talking about!” Three.

And he broke down and wept.

There is no escape. We are weak. We reject Jesus in our own strength and condemn ourselves to hell.
Jesus’ closest friends deny Jesus. He is the rejected King.
Praise Him, that he knows our weakness, and is able to cover over our failure with his blood. Peter, after meeting with Jesus after his resurrection, became the head of the church, its premier evangelist and missionary. He knows our weakness, yet still love us.
Praise Him, that he is strong, face set like flint, going with determination towards his death as he enters the courtroom of Pilate to be rejected by the Gentiles, to pay the price of love so that he can forgive us.

3. Rejected by the Gentiles

Just in case we were thinking, well, I’m not Jewish, not religious, I wouldn’t have rejected Jesus. I’d have seen through their lies and seen the truth of Jesus. Well, here comes Pilate, our representative.

Because the Jews were under Roman occupation, they had no authority to put someone to death. So they needed Pilate to find Jesus guilty in order to sentence him to death. Unfortunately “blasphemy” was not punishable under Roman law – so they accuse Jesus of being the King, and therefore rebelling against the true ruler: the Emperor of Rome! Ironic, isn’t it. 2 Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.”

Jesus makes no further defence, says no further words – to Pilate’s amazement – and in accordance with Scripture: “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth”. (Is 53:7)

Just as in the first trial, where no witnesses could agree and the only charge that stuck was actually true, Jesus is declared innocent in this second trial. 10 (For he [Pilate] realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.)

But Pilate is a crowd-pleaser, amoral, with no fear of God. He was not a good man, forced into a bad situation. He was a bad judge who condemned a man he knew was innocent to a brutal and disgusting death. He rejected the King, he rejected God, he even rejected his own conscience. 15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

Jesus, rejected by the chief priests and the Jewish nation, rejected by his closest friends, rejected by the whole world.

What about you?