This Sunday, I’ll be preaching Mark 14:43-72. Spoiler alert, this text is heartbreaking. In it, Jesus is lied about struck in the face, refuses to defend Himself against lies, then admits to His true identity in a way that essentially seals His death.
Meanwhile, Peter, Jesus’ top follower and leader of the rest of the band, has an opportunity to identify with Jesus in His hour of great need. But instead, in spite of nearly swearing that he wouldn’t, Peter denies Jesus three times. That is, he claims he doesn’t even know who Jesus is.
What follows are my initial thoughts after having done just a few hours of study on it. I have much work to do left, so don’t take these thoughts as polished, or necessarily even accurate. They are just my initial thoughts. They may be helpful to some to get an idea of how one preacher chews on the text.
It seems that these two chunks of texts go together (53-66, 66-72) by way of contrast. Jesus is falsely accused three times and Peter is rightly accused three times. Jesus allows His wrongful accusations to continue but Peter tries to stop his rightful accusations. Jesus doesn’t deserve death as no one can corroborate their accusations against him (and only on the evidence of 2-3 witnesses should a charge be established, according to OT law). But when it comes to Peter, multiple people confirm their charge of him being a follower of Jesus (thus following the OT principle). And yet, Jesus accepts His wrongful accusations and Peter denies his rightful one. Jesus seems to want everyone to know who He truly is, while Peter doesn’t want anyone to know who he is.
Another clue that 53-72 should be treated as one is the inclusio of Peter being introduced in verse 54 and Peter weeping at the end (verse 72).
While I see the connection between the two sections and see how it can be treated as one pericope, I’m not quite sure of a few things:
- What will be the best way to emphasize the gospel? Perhaps by showing how we are all like Peter in some way. What I mean is, each of us, at various times in our lives, have “chickened out” in standing up for Jesus or with Him instead of being identified with Him and facing some kind of retribution or persecution. I can think of many times in my own life when I’ve been exactly like Peter–no matter how determined I was to not fail beforehand. I can then show how we need a substitute just like Peter did. And then I can, perhaps, show how Jesus willingly accepted His wrongful accusation, which of course leads directly to the cross.
- What is Mark’s goal in this section? Is it to show Jesus’ sovereign control over His own death? He just told the twelve that all of them would deny/betray Him (14:18). He also told them that they would all fall away (14:27). Now, at the point of 14:72, both of those “predictions” have occurred.
- Is there anything to Mark emphasizing that Peter was “warming himself” (54, 67) while Jesus was being falsely accused and condemned to death? It seems instead of Peter being concerned about his Messiah’s death, he was more concerned about being chilly! Peter’s “warming himself” brackets Jesus’ condemnation (first mention–54, Jesus’ condemnation 55-65, second mention–67).
- There is a decently-sized translation difference in verse 65. The ESV says “the guards received him with blows.” The KJV says “the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.” The NASB says, “Then the officers took custody of Him and slapped Him in the face.” The meaning of the NASB and ESV are similar, but the KJV is very different. I suspect there’s not just a translation difference, but a textual variance there that I’ll need to look into.
- I’m guessing that in verse 65 that when they covered Jesus’ face and struck him, that they were putting their hand or a cloth or something over His eyes and then hitting him, after which they told him to “prophesy,” meaning that they should tell them who hit Him.
- What is going on with the differences between the accounts? In Mark, Peter Denies Jesus three times “before the rooster crows twice” (14:72). In Luke 22:61, it reads, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” I naturally take Luke 22:61 to mean that before the rooster crows at all, Peter would deny him three times. Perhaps it doesn’t mean “at all,” but something more like, “before the rooster is finished crowing.” (Matthew 26:75 has it the same as Luke 22, and the same is implied in John 18:27). I’ll need to look into that. Why does Mark mention that the rooster would crow specifically twice? Another variation between the accounts is the people who ask Peter who he was. Mark 14:67 and 69 (in the ESV) says that it was the same servant girl who identified Peter on the first two occasions, but it is stated differently in Luke, John, and Matthew.
Those are my musings at this time. There is much work left to do to understand this text well and learn how to apply it best. I’m grateful for all the prayers for help as I know they do make a difference.
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