Lesson number eight, Mark for Beginners. Chapter 13 of Mark.
Final Teachings, is the title of this lesson.
We've said, I said, I'm going to repeat it one more time here, Mark tells the story on
three levels, and we've looked at all three as we've worked our way through the book.
Very briefly: Jesus's ministry to the masses;
Jesus's ministry to His disciples, on a more private basis; and of course, the ongoing confrontation with
various Jewish leaders.
Mark is, kind of, weaving these three storylines in to one, as we go through his gospel.
So with Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, declaring openly His true identity to the masses,
followed by His final confrontation and rebuke of the leaders, talked about that in our last lesson,
there remains just one final time with the disciples for ministry.
So during this time, Jesus is going to teach them about three things:
first of all, the judgment on Israel for having rejected their Messiah;
secondly, He's going to talk about what is going to happen to Him in the
near future; and then, how they will
commemorate His life and death and
resurrection. So those are the things that He's going to talk about
with them, that we're going to look at tonight. So, final time
ministering to the disciples will then be followed by a description of His suffering and death and resurrection,
which we will do in our last lesson. Last lesson is next week.
When you read chapter 13 of Mark, you're not sure what Jesus is talking about.
Is He talking about the final end of the world or is He talking about the destruction of Jerusalem,
which occurred in 70 AD?
Now in Matthew 24 and 25, anybody who's in that class, that I teach,
you will know that in Matthew 24, 25, Jesus talks about the whole panorama of history, from
the present time in His life, while He's talking to the disciples,
all the way to the end of the world. He talks about that and
then in another part of Matthew 24, He talks about - He zeroes in on the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
And He talks about that for a while.
And then He talks about the end of the world.
The actual end of the world, the second coming. He talks about that for a while.
All that is included in Matthew 24 and 25.
So you have to, kind of, know when He leaves off one topic
and He goes to another. In Mark Chapter 8, however, He doesn't do that.
He focuses on only one event. And that's the thing you have to remember between Matthew 24 and Mark eight.
Yes, He's talking about a cataclysmic event, but in Matthew 24, He's talking about the
destruction of Jerusalem and
the end of the world. Mark eight, just the destruction of Jerusalem. So let's do one and two.
"As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Teacher, behold, what wonderful
stones and what wonderful
buildings!' And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another
which will not be torn down."
The apostles - remember, He's already had confrontation in Jerusalem.
They're leaving the city now, leaving the temple, and they're referring to a structure that
was in a period of restoration for over 40 years. Forty years of construction work on
this temple, that they had witnessed most of their lives.
So He tells them that the temple is going to be destroyed.
Now you have to remember, the temple
represented and embodied the Jewish religion and the Jewish nation.
It wasn't just some building that was going to get knocked down.
I mean, are you kidding me, if the temple goes, in their mind, everything goes.
So they don't understand yet that Christianity will supersede
Judaism and the total destruction of the temple and the city will be a sign of this fact that
Christianity now breaks free. Because for a long time time, for several decades,
Christianity was simply seen as an out shoot of judaism.
Not just by the Jews, but by others. By the Romans, by the gentiles, they saw Christianity as just another,
kind of, facet of Judaism.
But with the destruction of the temple and the city,
Christianity began to be seen by others as a religion that stood on its own, okay?
So verse 3 and 4 it says, "As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives
opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately,
'Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?"
Several of the apostles were
disturbed about this idea, so they questioned Him, specifically, about it.
They want to know, when is this going to happen and what are going to be the signs that it's going to happen.
So the response that Jesus gives, in the next verses, is an answer to these
two question. The first four verses in Mark Chapter eight
establish the context for everything. They want to know: when's the temple going to be destroyed?
Right? That's the question. And are there any signs?
He answers that question. So a confusing thing for us who read
Jesus's answer is that, He uses
apocalyptic language. Same language that's in Revelation. Same kind of language in the book of Daniel.
It's called apocalyptic language. And they used it
so that only Jews understood. You had to understand the symbolism, in order to understand the
message. So only those who knew Jesus, and both the question and the answer, will be able to
discern the meaning of what He says in the next verses.
Remember, however, that He's talking about the destruction of
Jerusalem. If you just keep that in mind, this will make perfect sense.
So they asked Him, remember, what are going to be the signs?
How will we know this is going to happen? Jesus mentions several phases leading up to this event.
I'm not going to read all the verses, but I'll give you the phases. Phase number one,
the false rumors stage, or let's call them stages,
the false rumor stage, verses five to eight.
Jesus tells them, after Him there will be a lot of false prophets that will arise and preach that the end of the
world is coming.
One of the historical writers of the time, Josephus, writes about these people and how they were killed or
executed or they faded away.
The Jews were always at odds with Herod and Rome and there were always many rumblings,
political and military rumblings going on all the time.
Jesus warns them not to be panicked by these things. They'll be the false rumor stage.
Next, there will be the persecution stage. Talks about that in verses six to 13.
Now we know that soon after pentecost and the preaching of the gospel, what happens?
Well, the apostles were imprisoned by the Jewish authorities in Acts chapter four.
And then, later on, Paul and his associates were persecuted by
both the Jews and the Romans, Acts 17 and 23, and 26.
And we know that Paul and Peter were martyred in Rome, as a general persecution of Christianity was
begun throughout the empire.
We know that. Even these terrible events were not the judgment that He's talking about.
Remember, they're saying, what are the signs?
And He's saying, well don't worry about the rumors and the military of people,
that's not a sign.
Don't worry about the fact that you people will be persecuted, because that's not a sign.
You'll be persecuted, but that's not a sign of what I'm talking about.
Next stage, the siege stage, verses 14 to 23.
Jesus gives them the sign that destruction is near. He says, "But I will give you one sign:
when you see Jerusalem under siege, okay, pay attention, the end is coming.
Once you see them under siege. Now we know that Luke chapter 21 verse 20 says that the
surrounding of Jerusalem by the Roman army, with their idolatrous shields,
was a desecration of the temple, considered a desecration of the temple.
And when they did that, that was the fulfillment of what Jesus is talking about here.
When you see the temple desecrated, under siege, know that the end is near.
Now, Jerusalem was under siege, not just for a day or two, it was under siege for four years.
Okay, they did things kind of slow in those days.
They didn't just
charge in and try to bust in. There was a million people in the city or more, and they also had an army.
So what did the Romans do? We'll, starve them out. What do we care?
We have enough soldiers. They just march the army up, where no one could leave, no one could come in and they just waited.
They waited until the inhabitants of the city starved. They waited, they waited, they waited.
At some point they began to close in. At some point their companies
surrounded the city, the shield's went up.
There's another word for that, and I can't think - their banners went up, and on these banners they had
idolatrous images, which many of the soldiers would worship.
This, here, was a desecration
of the holy ground of the temple. And Jesus is saying, when you see that happen, boy,
there's a sign that the end is near.
Jesus warns them that when the news that the temple has been desecrated comes,
It'll be time to flee the city. Now history records that the Christian community that lived in Jerusalem
did escape the city to go to a city called Pella, which was across the Jordan River.
And they were able to do this during a lull in the siege when the Roman army pulled back for a short time.
Because there's politics going on in Rome and they've got other wars going on.
They've got other campaigns going on and they need this company and that company. So for a time,
they pull back. The Jews in the city are thinking hey, we're good.
And Jesus said, no. When you see that happen, get out.
Historically we know that the majority of the Christian community in
Jerusalem escaped during that time. And then the Roman army came back at this time with a vengeance.
So, as I say, the siege lasted over four years. From 66 to a little past 70 AD.
And when they had starved out the inhabitants,
they charged in, massacred everybody in the worst bloodbath in history, up until that time,
million people estimated.
Jesus says, however, that He shortened those days, because of the elect,
who managed to have at least the remnant survived the ordeal.
Shortened in the sense that He permitted some to survive. The Romans didn't kill everybody.
Almost everybody, but there was a little remnant that
was left. And so, He warns them that these things are going to happen and they know when to escape.
I'm giving you the sign. Then there's the gospel stage, verse 24 to 27.
In apocalyptic language,
which is a literary style used to describe
terrible wars or national tragedies or the judgment of God on a nation.
Apocalyptic literature,
apocalyptic style: the moon is filled with blood, and the stars fall, and the dragon with a chain - yeah, that's all
apocalyptic style language. Jesus uses apocalyptic style language to describe, what?
The fall of a nation, the end of an era. A pretty amazing thing, the people of God are going to be wiped off the
face of the earth here. And so, it means that an era has ended and a new one begins.
Jesus is telling them that with the destruction of the city and the temple,
an era and a nation has ended. The time when the Jews were
God's chosen people will now end with this destruction.
They're still a people who are dear to His heart, because they're the first ones to have the promises.
Through them the prophets came, the law was given,
the savior was born. So He loves those people, but they themselves
culturally, based on their culture, are no longer the elect, that has changed.
This passage also talks about the Son of Man, when the Son of Man comes.
This is Old Testament imagery,
Isaiah 19:1, and it describes God's visitation upon a nation for the purpose of judgment.
So God visited the Assyrians, He visited the Babylonians, the Medes, the Greeks, and now He
visited the Jews. For what? For the purpose of judgment.
So when the Son of Man comes, or when God does the
visitation, it's easy to think, oh this means the end of the world. Well, it could mean the end of the world,
but it could also mean the end of a certain nation, the end of a certain empire, the end of a certain rule.
So John, of course,
John the apostle, in the book of Revelation, using apocalyptic literature,
He's going to describe how God will visit who? The Romans and their empire, to destroy them.
So that idea, of the coming of the Lord, is used quite often in the context of judgment, okay?
So next He's going to describe the new Gospel age, where the angels,
could be - the greek word could be translated as angels,
but it can just as well be translated as messengers or apostles, same word used everywhere -
will go out to every people to bring people, His elect,
because the Jews are no longer His elect, to bring people into the kingdom. And so, the farthest of heaven
may refer to the martyrs who are part of the kingdom. There's a term in there.
So, you've got the false rumor stage, the persecution stage, the siege stage, the gospel stage, and then
the final warning stage, verses 28 to 37.
He's warned them. He's given them specifics.
And He's assured them of several things, in this long passage. One, that it's all going to happen in their
generation. This is not a description of the end of the world. This is a description of the end of
Jerusalem, because many of them were alive when Jerusalem was destroyed, okay, number one.
Number two, nothing can stop it.
There won't be a new prophet, no time for repentance. That time is all gone.
Number three, no one but He knows when this is going to happen.
Don't even try to speculate on the time, just be ready and look for the sign.
Again, for the sign of what? The sign for the end of
Jerusalem, which is going to happen in your lifetime, He says.
So that's Mark
recording the answer to the apostles' question, when is the temple going to be destroyed?
In Matthew, they asked Him two questions: when is the temple going to be destroyed;
and when are you coming back?
Well, that's two different things.
One of the problems with the apostles, John the Baptist, is, they assumed,
that the end of the temple in Jerusalem
would also be the end of the world, because they couldn't imagine a world without the temple.
Are you kidding me? There is no world if there's no temple. So they were mistaken about that.
Now Mark moves on to chapter 14, to talk about the passover meal.
So, of course, Jesus is a Jew, as we know. And as a Jew, He observes the passover.
I'm not going to read a lot of material. I think in this class everybody's pretty familiar with that, but for
recording purposes, we know that the passover
commemorated the time when the angel of death destroyed every first born in Egypt,
but spared the Jews who were in captivity there.
The angel of death passed over their dwellings,
they were spared because they obeyed God's instruction to sprinkle the blood of a lamb on their doorposts
and to remain in their homes to partake of a special meal.
Since that time, each year the Jews would offer the
sacrifice of a lamb and share a special ritual meal,
in order to commemorate their freedom from Egyptian slavery. And this was usually in the spring.
It was at this time of year that Jesus cleansed the temple and after teaching His disciples
He was getting ready to do the passover with them.
Normally, the father, or the head of the household, or the teacher, would be the one who would preside over this
special meal. It's one of the reasons we use that term "who's presiding at the Lord's supper".
You know today, who's presiding
over the meal. It comes from this idea: the father - the Jewish idea, the father, the teacher, presided over
the passover meal, because it was a ritualistic meal.
So as the scene opens in chapter 14, Jesus is with His disciples two days before passover.
And He's visiting Simon the leper.
So this we'll read,
"So now the Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away; and the chief priests and the scribes
were seeking how to seize Him by stealth and kill him;
for they were saying, "Not during the festival, otherwise there might be a riot of
the people." So Mark notes that He was in danger,
but His attackers would leave Him alone during the passover, for fear of the people.
I mean, the hypocrisy is almost blinding here.
We want to kill this guy, hasn't done anything wrong, but we want to kill Him, right?
But we better not, because we want to observe our religious feast. I mean.
Anyways, it's just amazing. We move on, verse 3, it says, "So while He was in Bethany, at the home of
Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume
of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. But some were indignantly
remarking to one another, 'Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for
over three hundred denarii, and the
money given to the poor." And they were scolding her. But Jesus said, 'Let her alone; why do you bother her?
She has done a good deed to Me. for you
always have the poor with you and whenever you wish you can do good to them;
but you do not always have Me.
She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.
Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world,
what this woman has done will also be spoken in
memory of her." Mark tells the story of the woman who anoints Him with costly oil. A lot of them complain
this was a waste, of course, especially Judas, who saw a lost opportunity to sell the perfume himself
and pocket the money.
Jesus puts her action into context, saying that it wasn't just a waste of oil,
poured on His head to make Him smell good. It wasn't aftershave. She was, in reality,
anointing His body in preparation for His death.
The custom, of course, was to cover the dead body with perfumed oil, to cover the
smell and out of respect. The Jews did not do embalming.
They simply cleaned the body and they perfumed it and then they put it into the tomb.
The difference was that the anointing here, was done before He died,
because you didn't anoint before you died.
Even if you were sick, they didn't anoint you, they put a little oil on you,
but they wouldn't anoint your whole body yet. You had to die first. So here, the anointing is done as an act of
prophecy. It's a living prophecy.
So Jesus commends the woman's act and uses it to advise His disciples of His death, which was to happen
very soon. Remember, right? Remember the three strands:
teaching the masses, teaching the disciples. Well, He's teaching the disciples here. Verse 12.
I've just jumped to verse 12, here.
It says, "On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed,
His disciples said to Him,
'Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the passover?'
And He sent two of His disciples and said to them, "Go in to the city and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher
of water,
follow him and wherever he enters say to the owner of the house, the teacher says,
'Where is my guest room, in which I may eat the passover with my disciples?'
And he, himself, will show you a large upper room furnished and ready
prepared for us. There the disciples went out and came to the city and found it just as He had told them and they
prepared the passover."
Some ask, how would they know which guy? Everybody's carrying water. How, it's like
when you see a guy drive by in a car, stop - well, it was because in those days
the men never carried the water. It was the women who carried the water.
So a man carrying the water would be actually quite
unusual. So he would be easy to spot. That's a little thing there.
Anyways, the passover had grown into a week-long celebration by that time.
And it began with the eating of the sacrificial pascal or passover lamb.
This particular year, the passover fell on a Thursday.
So the two apostles are sent into the city to purchase and sacrifice a lamb at the temple.
That's what they had to do first, and then make ready the room where they will eat
that lamb, that meat and the rest of the food.
No name is given to the owner of the room or its location, in order to maintain security.
Jesus knew of Judas's intention, so He's not going to mention a guy's name out loud.
And where they're going to be, because he doesn't want Judas to bring anybody to that particular
location. He has special plans there. Verse 17, "When it was evening
He came with the twelve as they were reclining at the table and eating Jesus said, 'Truly
I say to you that one of you will betray me. One who was eating with me.'
They began to be grieved and say to Him one by one, 'Surely not I.' and
He said to them, 'It is one of the twelve, one who dips with Me in the bowl. For the Son of Man is to go
just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!
It would have been good for that man If he had not been born."
So Judas was with them at the meal when Jesus announces that there's a traitor among them.
For all the people who
speculate about what happened to Judas, was he was really lost, was he really saved?
Note what Jesus says about the one who betrays Him. I mean, what other conclusion
can you come to, when Jesus says, woe to the one who betrays the Son of Man?
I mean, there's only one conclusion.
Verse 22, let's keep going, "While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing
He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, 'Take it;
this is my body.' And when He had taken a cup and given thanks,
He gave it to them and they all drank from it. And He said to them,
'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you,
I will never again drink the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.' And after
singing a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives."
The normal passover meal was a ritual where the leader ate the meat and
the bitter herbs, was a kind of a salad with a certain type of bitterness,
and this here, it represented the bitterness and the difficulty - the bitter herbs
represented the difficulty in bitterness of life in Egypt and slavery.
We know that the unleavened bread, that they were eating,
represented their haste. Their hurry to leave. They wouldn't take the time to cook the bread,
or bake the bread. And the wine wasn't part of the original passover meal.
They didn't have wine when they were in Egypt. The wine portions were added later. And the wine portion
represented the new land, the promised land, the land of milk and honey, the land of abundance.
Wine was always associated with
abundance. So the wine portion was added later on.
And, of course, in between the food they would offer a prayer and then they would eat some more,
offer another prayer,
and quote another piece of scripture. So at the point - and there were four cups.
It had gotten to the point where there were four cups.
I don't mean four individual cups, but four servings of wine, so they'd eat and they'd eat.
And then they'd offer a blessing or, not a toast, that's too worldly,
but they'd offer a blessing and then they'd take some of the wine, go back eat some more food and other
blessing, more wine. So now, at this point, there's only some bread left and one last portion of
wine, and it's at this point that Jesus changes the significance of the meal and the significance of the
elements.
The wine, we'll start with the bread. The bread no longer represents their haste to leave egypt,
but now will represent His body, which will endure the cross. The wine will no longer
represent the blessings of the promised land,
but will now represent His blood or His life, because life is in the blood,
which will be sacrificed for the sins of mankind.
So Jesus, after, once again, speaking of His death, tells them He will drink wine with them again
when the Kingdom, the church,
will be established. And they will share this supper once again. This prophecy is fulfilled
every time the church gathers to share communion in
remembrance of Christ. Why? Because whenever two or more are gathered in My name, where am I?
I'm there, He said. So when we gather in the name of Jesus, to share the communion, His promise is that
He's with us sharing that communion, as well.
Now the custom of the passover was to sing a hallel.
The Hallel, the songs,
were a series of Psalms, actually, that we know. Psalm 115, 116, 117, 118.
That was the Hallel. And so, they finished by singing. I often wonder if - I often
reflect on the idea that we sing, the churches of Christ, we're an acappella church.
We sing. And the Lord sang, the Lord, think about it,
He sang. There was music, and He followed the music. He sang the words. We do the same thing.
He sang, we sing.
I think there's a beautiful symmetry there, beautiful balance, that we see.
And after they've sung these songs,
they go to the Mount of Olives, which was a public park actually used for
quiet meditation. And from the Mount of Olives, you can actually see
Jerusalem. it's up here on a hill.
You're on this side here, and then there's the valley here, between, and then Jerusalem is on this field.
It's about a mile.
And you can see clearly. You can see the city, the walls, the gates, everything
from the Mount of Olives. And it's still there. Not the Mount of Olives, the garden of Gethsemane, rather,
is still there. I mean, not the original trees, olive trees. They don't last 2,000 years.
But the space is there. And the road is still there. It's the same road.
It's paved now,
but it's the same road that leads to Bethany.
They go there. Verse 27, and Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, because it is written,
'I will strike down the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.'
But after I have been raised I will go ahead of you to Galilee.
But peter said to Him, 'Even though all may fall away, yet, I will not.' And Jesus said to him, 'Truly
I say to you, that this very night before a rooster crows twice,
you, yourself, will deny me three times. But Peter kept saying insistently, 'Even if I have to die with you,
I will not deny you.' And they all were saying the same thing also."
Notice, they were all saying the same thing. I mean, we're hard on Peter, right? We're hard on Peter,
but they were all saying the same thing.
And they all ran away. And notice, only Peter followed to go to the courtyard.
And the others didn't even get close to the courtyard. And so, Peter insists
that he will not deny Jesus. Jesus tells him that he will.
Of course, we know the rest of that story. Just a few minutes. I'm almost done here.
The Mount of Olives was called so because of the grove of olive trees on its slope.
And, as I say, Gethsemane means,
the term Gethsemane means, an oil press.
This was the site where there was a press situated. And it's interesting that the apostles slept during
Jesus's period of agony, as well as the period of glory, at the
transfiguration. They're always sleeping, these guys, at the wrong moment.
Jesus accepts the suffering that His human nature was trying to avoid, naturally.
It wouldn't have been natural if He would have said,
Lord, I'm so looking forward to getting this cross thing over with. I mean, just a couple of more hours to go.
No. His flesh, like our flesh, says, I don't want to do this. This is going to hurt.
Mark talks about that, actually, devotes a certain, a good amount of time.
We won't read that, don't have the time to do that.
Judas, we know that Judas leads a mob of temple guards and rabble-rousers, and he arrests Jesus after
having identified Him with a kiss.
And Mark says that one of Jesus's apostles, John tells us, it's Peter,
cuts the ear off of one of the priest's servants, even gives the name of that fellow, Malkis.
Luke tells us that Jesus healed that servant.
Mark mentions also that there was a young man who was there, in the garden, who ran away,
leaving only his clothes behind.
And scholars believed that he was actually referring to himself, because Mark actually lived in Jerusalem.
So 53, let's finish off here.
It says, "They led Jesus away to the high priest and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes
gathered together.
Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest,
and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain
testimony against Jesus, to put Him to death and they were not finding any.
For many were giving false testimony against Him.
But their testimony was not consistent. Some stood up and began to give false testimony
against Him saying, 'We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands and in three days
I will build another made without hands.' Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.
The high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus saying, 'Do you not answer?'
What is it that these men are testifying against you, but He kept silent and did not answer.
Again, the high priest was questioning Him and saying to Him, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?'
and Jesus said, 'I am'.
And you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
Tearing His clothes, the high priest said, 'What further need do we have of witnesses, you have heard the blasphemy.
How does it seem to you?'
And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.
Some began to spit at Him and to blindfold Him and to beat Him with their fists and to say to Him, 'Prophecy'.
And the officers received Him with slaps in the face."
So the problem for the high priest and the Sanhedrin was to formulate a serious enough charge against
Jesus, to warrant the death penalty. They wanted to kill Him themselves, but they couldn't,
because the Romans, only the Romans could
authorize an execution. So they finally make a charge -
blasphemy, which according to Jewish law is punishable by death, but not according to Roman law.
Blasphemy is not a death penalty thing for the Romans. Note that they have nothing to accuse Him with until Jesus, Himself,
acknowledges the truth He cannot deny, His own self.
Note also, that they had no legal reason to put Him to death,
but used political and mob pressure to do so. Let me just finish this last passage here.
It says, "As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself,
She looked at him and said, you also were with Jesus the Nazarene,
but He denied it, saying, 'I neither know, nor understand what you're talking about.'
And he went out onto the porch.
The servant girl saw him and began once more to say to the bystanders,
'This is one of them.'
But again he denied it, and after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter,
'Surely you're one of them. For you' are
Galilean too, but he began to curse and swear, 'I do not know this man that you are talking about.'
Immediately, a rooster crowed a second time and Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him,
'Before a rooster crows twice, you
will deny me three times.' And he began to weep." Amazing thing. He was swearing and cursing,
swearing and cursing to
convince the people, this is how much I do not want you to associate me with
Him. I can understand why he was weeping.
So Peter's in the courtyard of the high priest,
which would be the front yard. He's with another disciple who was known by the high priest people.
When confronted by the servants and the others about his association with Jesus,
he not only denies it, as I say, he curses and swears that he doesn't even know the man.
Perhaps Peter followed to see if Jesus would do a miracle.
Maybe that's why he followed. A little like Samson -
bust open the thing, break the chains, take over, do a great miracle, kill all the soldiers.
He wanted to be there to see that happen, but when he saw that Jesus was tried and tortured,
just like any ordinary man,
he became afraid. People do awful things when they're under pressure,
or they're afraid. And, of course, Peter fell victim to this weak and sinful nature. So as the cock crows and
Friday is dawning, Peter realizes what he has done and is immediately - sorrow, true sorrow, tears of sorrow.
He had done something he could not take back. He had done something he could not fix. He couldn't pay for it,
only Jesus could make it right. And, of course, we know that He did. Next week
we're going to wrap it up. The crucifixion and resurrection
from Mark's perspective. Thank you for your kind and loving attention.