The Dark Mystery (Mark 14:43 - 52)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church exploring the background, context, meaning, and significance of the account of Jesus of Nazareth in the book of Mark.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into the book of Mark for Lent. So, you know, some of these episodes I have like a kernel or an idea, like a new angle. This one is more maybe just some musings. Um, I think in scripture sometimes there's holy mysteries, and sometimes there's, I don't even know, dark mysteries. And this text feels like a dark mystery uh to me. Uh, this is the the the uh the account of Jesus' arrest. Um and uh yeah, I'll just say a few words about it. So this is Mark chapter 14. We're told that Judas, one of the twelve, appeared, and with him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs. Notice that it says a crowd. I mean, it's more like a band of hooligans than some kind of like police force or something. Um and uh Judas had arranged a signal that he would kiss Jesus, of course, and presumably it's dark. Um not all the not all these folks that are coming for this arrest even know what Jesus looks like. And so Judas uh famously betrays Jesus with a kiss, going at once to Jesus. Judas said, Rabbi, and kissed him. And the men seized Jesus and arrested him. Um and then one struck one of the servants of the high priest with a sword and cut off his ear. Jesus says, Well, you know, essentially, am I leading a rebellion? Why are you doing this? Uh and then in verse 50, then everyone deserted him and fled. And then this strange little extra detail that Mark includes, a young man wearing nothing but a linen garment who was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. I just almost like to double down on everybody ran away. Even this one guy who got his shirt ripped off his back ran away. Um, and it's just here here's the Son of God, like uh the God man, completely abandoned by his friends. And I think there's just this dark mystery about this. I think about the way that they all just ate um the Last Supper with Jesus, and each one of them drank from the cup and accepted the bread. And each one of them after that, when Jesus told Peter he was going to deny them, every one of them they all said, No, we'll never abandon you. And then Mark almost underlines the word all. They all fled. They all abandoned in Jesus' moment of need. They all left. And that's just uh, yeah. I find this to be a dark mystery, like with these uh these disciples who spent so much time with Jesus. How was it that in this moment um they chose to flee? And then I think maybe the darkest mystery of all is that is Judas and his betrayal. And I find myself reflecting on questions like what does it say about discipleship and leadership, um raising others up, pouring into other people, that the Son of God, the God man, could spend years walking roads with Judas, sitting at the table with Judas, doing miracles, healing and teaching in front of Judas. And here at the end of all things, Judas would still choose to betray him. Like, what is that? The mystery of that. Um just the depth of our ability uh to reject Jesus and uh and just the the the app like the how far human freedom goes. Like we really cannot control the choice. Like, if if God, if Jesus couldn't disciple someone into another, like what does that, yeah, what does that say about our ability and the limits of that? Um, yeah, and then I think about Judas himself. Like, what brought him to this place? Uh, some of my uh, I don't know about favorite songs. I the the song by you two. Um what's the title of that one? Um it's on uh I think it's on Octune Baby. Until the End of the World is a song about Judas's betrayal of Jesus. That one's always been profound to me. And then just recently, this springtime, I've been listening to another song entitled Judas by Josiah Queen. And these songs, I just find artists often are able to kind of explore like this betrayal of the perfect, the good, innocent God man. Uh and what was going on in Judas's heart that led him to betray the only truly good man he had ever met? What what darkness, what twisted idea got him to that place? And then, of course, there's this this kind of the musings on what in the end, what was the difference between Judas and Peter? I mean, Peter didn't actively betray Jesus. The the the denial of Jesus in some ways isn't as bad in a sense, and yet it's still like, I mean, you know, in just a moment we'll see Peter saying, I never knew this man. Um, and yet somehow the breaking of Peter and the breaking of Judas led to Judas, of course, ends up taking his life, and Peter ends up um being restored and a leader in the Jesus movement. And what was going on inside these two men? And so um I guess I just invite you as we move closer to Good Friday and Easter Sunday into the dark mystery of Jesus' arrest and to spend some time with this moment when the Son of God, the God man, Jesus of Nazareth, is in the dark, literally at night, surrounded by this gang wielding swords and clubs, his friends abandon him, his lifelong table companion betrays him, and all the dark mystery about the the the darkness that lurks in the human heart, and all that Jesus has come to set us free and forgive us and save us from. Um, I just I guess I invite you to spend some time there. Um, to spend some time with your king and your rescuer um on that dark evening to better understand his heart, to better understand our own hearts, this world and what how he has come to save. Grace and peace.