Sermon from February 10, 2002
We have entered the central part of the Christian story. Everything that has found its way into this part of the story takes on transcendent significant and serves as a model by which the most important human experiences can be measured. We see here the depth of devotion and the depth of treachery. A meal becomes a meal for all time. The prayer in the garden teaches humanity the way back to the Garden of Eden. Sleep can never again be entirely innocent. And today we step into the legal world of Jerusalem, and judgment is rendered and challenged.

We also step back into that curious feature that characterizes the last three chapters of Mark. I mean the alternation between episodes that center on pivotal events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus and episodes centering on the spiritual significance of that event. Back and forth the narrative goes right to the end. Today, Mark 14:43-65 centers on a pivotal legal event that leads to the crucifixion of Jesus. It begins with His arrest and ends with a lethal legal opinion.

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. This posse had authorization to act from the highest levels of Jewish bureaucracy. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard."

We have known since chapter three that Judas betrayed Jesus. We do not know why Jesus included him in His circle of twelve disciples. More troubling to us is our lack of knowledge about Judas' motives for betraying Jesus. Was he a mole planted among Jesus' followers by the Sanhedrin? Did he have loyalties to some radical group that had reasons for wanting Jesus taken out? Did he feel betrayed by Jesus' failure to lead a political revolution? Did he feel snubbed by the other disciples, an outsider among insiders, full of murderous resentment? We just don't know. Mark says nothing to dispel the mystery of an evil of this magnitude. He tells what happened with no embellishment.

Going at once to Jesus, Judas, "with the perfidious kiss writhing on his lips," 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. He was not aiming at his ear.

"Am I leading a rebellion," said Jesus, "that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Among my closest followers only one acts to defend me, and he missed his target. You call this a revolution? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me." By including this exchange Mark shows in a decisive way that Jesus never had any revolutionary ambitions. The next words take us close to Jesus' true motivation. "But the Scriptures must be fulfilled." We will come back to this powerful motive. Then, as a final proof that Jesus had no revolutionary motives, everyone in his "revolutionary army" deserted him and fled.

One desertion in particular deserves notice. A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. It is of course another grievous act of abandonment, and it offers further evidence that Jesus was no revolutionary. But, as often as I have read these verses, it is hard for me not to read them also as comic relief, although it is hard to believe that Mark intended comedy. The posse that arrested Jesus must have had a hoot at the sight. In light of the Resurrection it is okay for us to laugh at the sight of bare buns beating a hasty retreat into the Judean night.

They took Jesus to the high priest. Mark never tells us his name; we know from other Gospels that he is Caiaphas. All the chief priests, elders and teachers of the law came together. Verse 55 will tell us that they constitute the Sanhedrin, the highest sitting judicial body in Israel.

Peter followed him at a great distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire. It took courage to do that. Like so much in Peter's life it seems more impulsive than from conviction.

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. The action to follow is that of a grand jury rather than a trial (Cranfield, Mark, 440). They were looking for legal evidence that would justify their taking Jesus to Pontius Pilate on a capital charge. Verse 56 says they were not having much luck. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. It is worth taking a minute to understand better what the Sanhedrin was looking for.

Here is a statement about the death of Jesus, taken from the Babylonian Talmud, a Jewish document written many years after Jesus. "Jesus was hanged on the eve of Passover. The herald went before him for forty days, saying 'He is going forth to be stoned because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray. Let everyone knowing anything in his defense come and plead for him.' But nothing was found in his defense, so he was hanged on the eve of Passover," (quoted in Wright, Jesus, 548). It is a curious mixture of propaganda and history, and it agrees with the New Testament that Jewish leaders charged Jesus with leading Israel astray.

The scriptural basis for that charge comes from the Old Testament. Listen to these words from the Torah, Deuteronomy 13:1-3, 5. If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer...that prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the LORD your God.

An example of rebellion against God that would lead Israel astray was Jesus' alleged intention to destroy the temple. Verses 57-58 explain. Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days will build another, not made by man,'"

We read in Mark 13 Jesus' strong words about the coming destruction of the temple. He never said He would destroy it, but it is easy to see how anyone hearing what He said could prematurely draw the conclusion that He intended to do it. In a responsible court, and the Sanhedrin was a responsible court, the testimony given had to support such a charge. Verse 59 says it did not do so. Yet even then their testimony did not agree.

However, the findings of a Grand Jury do not necessarily put to rest the suspicions of the Grand Jury. Remember this piece of rejected testimony, when we come to the crucifixion scene in Mark 15. They could not prove it in court, but many of these men were convinced that Jesus had destructive designs on the temple and deserved to die. In the meantime the high priest has one more card to play.

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?" He was trying to get Jesus to incriminate Himself by some careless word. But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" Son of the Blessed One is the reverent, Jewish way of saying, Son of God. We don't know what legal representation Jesus may have had in this hearing. If He had a lawyer and if His lawyer counseled Him not to answer this question, it is doubtful that Jesus would have kept quiet. The question concerns His person and His vocation. There are times when silence is evil, and Jesus thought this was such a time.

To say He was the Son of God would be taken as a confession that He was the rightful King of the Jews, the long-awaited descendant of David who would restore Israel's golden age, and that would be enough to make Him a political liability in the supercharged politics of Judaism. He made His confession. "I am," said Jesus. "I am the long-awaited Messianic King." It is what He said next that sealed His fate.

"And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." This language comes from the book of Daniel 7:13. Look at them with me. "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days (one of Daniel's names for God) and was led into his presence."

Notice that coming with the clouds of heaven means entering into the presence of God. Notice also that Jesus' words, sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One, do not occur in Daniel 7, but verse 14 expresses exactly what it means to sit at the right hand of God. "He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."

Every man on the Sanhedrin would know that by quoting from Daniel 7 Jesus was saying that the God of Israel would vidicate His claim to be the Messiah and a true prophet. If Jesus is telling the truth, and the Sanhedrin opposes Him, that would place the Sanhedrin in jeopardy before God. If Jesus is not telling the truth, then He would be blaspheming God by using His name to utter false prophecy and lead Israel astray. What will the decision of the Sanhedrin be?

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. That doesn't sound like the action of a Grand Jury in American jurisprudence; but while there are significant differences between their legal system and ours, it is very likely that "they were not pronouncing a sentence but rather giving a legal opinion," (Cranfield, 445). Verse 65 shows how far Western jurisprudence has come.

Then 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. We should hear the command to prophesy as a taunt, hurled at the man now held to be a false prophet by the highest office within Judaism.

Jesus said to the high priest, "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the MIghty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." In plain language He was saying to the Sanhedrin that night, "Whatever you do to me, the God of Israel will vidicate my message and my ministry." What evidence might have convinced people later that God had vindicated Jesus? One piece of evidence would be the fate of the temple. The other would be the resurrection.

As we saw in chapter 13, Jesus said that a day was coming when not one stone of the temple would be left on top of the other. It is compelling evidence that within 40 years, His words came to a horrible fulfillment. The Jews undertook a full scale revolt against the Romans, and within a few years, the Romans had crushed the rebellion, and to drive the point home the legions had sacked Jerusalem and burned the temple to the ground. The only thing they left standing is what Jews today call the Wailing Wall.

Did followers of Jesus say to Jewish friends or in public debate, "Look, Jesus said this was going to happen. He was not a blasphemer. He told the truth. God has vindicated Him"? And how did others answer that question? We just don't know. We have little evidence of how this fact was used in the on-going first century debate between Jews and Gentile Christians, and also between Messianic and non-Messianic Jews.

We do know that another form of vidication emerged long before the destruction of the temple. Within hours of Good Friday, the very men who abandoned Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane under cover of night stood forth in broad daylight in the Jewish temple and proclaimed that the God of Israel had raised Jesus from the dead.

We also know that when the destruction of the temple came, it did not come as a result of anything done by the followers of Jesus. It came for precisely the reason that Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple. Jewish nationalism, forgetful of its divine calling to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, had pursued a narrow and ill-fated policy of violent revolution, while the followers of Jesus, Jew and Gentile, pursued the ancient calling of bringing the blessing of God to the nations of the earth.

The Grand Jury in the quarters of the high priest did not solve anything. Its decision, fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus, only served to accent the long night of Jewish suffering that would reach new depths when the Romans desecrated and destroyed the temple and once again reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

Now, I am ready for my question to you. What do you think of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that He is the unique Son of God in whom God has acted, is acting and will act to bless all the nations of the earth with peace and holiness and eternal salvation?

So far as we have the strength to do it, that is where this church stands and will stand until it shuts its doors in some obscure catastrophe, or until it welcomes the kingdom of God into the affairs of earth. Do you stand with us?

The witness of a congregation like this must be embodied by men and women, who are convinced about Jesus Christ and have staked their present happiness and their eternal destiny on Him. Are you thus convinced?

If you do not believe in Him, if you do not stand with us, if you are not thus convinced, this moment has become a moment of decision for you, and for all you know, it may be as crucial for you as was that moment for the Sanhedrin in the hall of the high priest. On Christ's behalf I ask you, I urge you: Believe in Him! Stand with us! Be convinced! I have designed a simple way for you to decided for Christ.

We are about to say together the Apostles' Creed. For all who believe in Him this will be a reaffirmation of faith. For any of you here, who may be deciding for Christ, it will give you words with which to take your stand with Christ and His Church. When you say, "I believe in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord," you are affirming what you believe to be true, and therefore what is true for everyone. (Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 22).