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Welcome to our walk through Mark chapter 14 together in Daily Drive Time
Devotions, Day 4, verses 43 to 65. Let me begin with these verses, verse 43 to
52. 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. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal
with them, "The one I kiss is the man. Arrest him and lead him away under guard.

" Going at once to Jesus, Judas 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.

"Am I leading a rebellion? " said Jesus. "That you've come out with swords and
clubs to capture me?

Every day I was with you teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest
me. But the scriptures must be fulfilled. " Then everyone deserted him and fled.

A young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they
seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. Let's take just a moment
to focus on three people in these verses.

Judas, the disciples, and this young man who fled naked into the night. First
Judas. The Bible says that he betrayed Jesus with a kiss.

The word there for a kiss, when he came and kissed Jesus, is cataphylean. It's
not just the word phylean, which means a kiss of greeting, but cataphylean. He
means a kiss of deep friendship and love.

That's the way that Judas betrayed Jesus. Why did he do it? There are so many
questions and so many opinions around this.

Some people think, "Well, was it just for the money, 30 pieces of silver? That
seems like so little. " Other people think he was rejecting Jesus for who he was
turning out to be.

You see, he'd expected that Jesus was going to somehow overtake the Roman
Empire, and Jesus is instead talking about death and giving his life, and he's
rejecting Jesus as being that person who he's always intended to be, who he'd
come to be. Other people think that maybe he was trying to force Jesus' hand to
react somehow, that if he would do this, then Jesus would fight through and he
would overtake the Roman Empire. I don't know if it was a combination of all
three, or maybe five or six other things, but I do know this.

The Bible says that Satan entered Judas' heart, and he was motivated not by good
motivations but by pure evil. How does Satan enter a heart? Only if you open
your heart to him.

Through his greed, through his selfishness, through his plan for his life, Judas
opened his heart to this terrible moment when he betrays his Savior with a kiss.
God's going to use it in his plan, no doubt about it. This cannot thwart God's
plan, but Judas is going to suffer for it.

You see Judas in these verses, and then you also see the disciples. It's hard
not to notice that one of the disciples cut off the ear of the high priest's
servant. One of the other gospels tells us that this is Peter who does this, and
that the servant's name is Malchus.

And by the way, one of the other gospels also tells us that Jesus puts the ear
of the servant back on. He heals him on the spot. Even at his arrest, Jesus is
in complete control, but the disciples, they are completely confused.

And so verse 50 says of the disciples, the followers of Jesus, "Everyone
deserted him and fled. " Just as Jesus has told them, "My sheep are going to be
scattered," they are scattered in that moment. There's Judas, there are the
disciples, and then in verse 51 there's this young man wearing nothing but a
linen garment following Jesus.

What is this about? Who is this young man? Almost every student of the Bible
believes that this young man is John Mark, the writer of the gospel of Mark.

What is it with this boy and this sheet out in the night? There's a very great
possibility, as you study scripture, that the house where Jesus was in the upper
room with his disciples was the house of John Mark's family. Why do we think
that?

Well, in Acts chapter 12, verse 12, the Bible says, "When this had dawned on
him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where
many people had gathered and were praying. " We know that the disciples often
gathered in the same upper room where Jesus had celebrated this first Lord's
Supper, and here we're told that this place of gathering is Mary's house, who is
the mother of John Mark. The truth is, how else would anybody have known of
this?

This young man who flees naked into the night. Only the person who experienced
this would have known, and John writes about it. You see, it might have been
that as Jesus' disciples left to go to the garden of Gethsemane, John who had
heard what was going on in the upper room, young man, decides, "I'm going to
follow them.

" Or it might have been that Judas first brings the Roman guard, this is
probably more likely to John's house to arrest Jesus, and it wakes him up in the
middle of the night. And this huge garrison of Romans then goes towards the
garden of Gethsemane, and John Mark grabs his sheet, wraps it around him, and
runs out to follow them and see what happens. So John Mark, the writer of this
gospel, was probably right there at Gethsemane, and it was not one of his finest
moments, but he writes it down for all to hear.

We're going to talk more about that tomorrow. They go out from this garden, and
then come the trials of Jesus, verses 53 to 65. They took Jesus to the high
priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and teachers of the law came
together.

Peter followed them in a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest.
There he sat with the guards and warmed himself with the fire. But 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.

Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. 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 we'll build another not
made by man.

" Yet even their testimony did not agree. 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?

" But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again, the high priest asked
him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? " "I am," said Jesus, "and
you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and
coming on the clouds of heaven.

" The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses? " he
asked.

"You heard the blasphemy. What do you think? " "They all condemned him as worthy
of death.

" And then some began to spit at him. They blindfolded him. They struck him with
their fists.

They said, "Prophesy," and the guards took him and beat him. These are the
trials of Jesus Christ the night before he goes to the cross. This is the trial
before the Sanhedrin.

The high priest led this Jewish court, which was made up of 71 members,
Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes. And this court that was held that night
that condemned Jesus, it was a completely lawless court by their own rules.
These people who were so about keeping the rule of the law, by their own rules,
they condemned themselves this night instead of Jesus.

By their own rules, this court could not meet at night, but it did meet that
night. By their own rules, this court was to meet in its own building, but it
met in a different place that night. By their own rules, the verdicts when they
were given were to be individual, each one casting their own vote, not by common
consent as it was done here.

And by their own rules, if there was a death verdict that was given, at least
one night had to pass before it was carried out. And added to all that, they
brought false witnesses who couldn't even agree with each other. And so the high
priest commits another illegal act and asks Jesus an incriminating question.

In their day, as in ours, a person could not incriminate himself at a trial. But
they used Jesus' own words to incriminate him, again, completely against their
own rules. It's an entirely unjust trial.

And yet the justice of God, the justice of God, is shown even through this. We
think that the injustice of man sometimes is going to keep the justice of God
from being shown. It is not true.

Eventually, God's justice will prevail. Now, I'd like it to happen sooner rather
than later, but God does it in His time. And in His time, He's going to show
what is just and what is right.

And even though what was done in this trial was entirely wrong, Jesus was meant
to go to the cross. And even this unjust moment in human history, and even
though the fact those who were involved in it had to face punishment in their
own hearts and lives because of what they'd done, God still uses this moment to
get Jesus to the place of the cross. As I read these verses, what happened in
that trial, I can't get past the insults that are thrown at Jesus.

They spit at him. They blindfolded him. They strike him with their fists.

The Jewish leaders that were there, religious leaders, said prophesy, making fun
of the teaching of the Son of God, God Himself. And the Roman guards who were
there beat him. They whipped him nearly to death.

I can't get past the fact that the Son of God would allow Himself to go through
this for me, for you, Jesus Christ. You are the humble and suffering servant. I
do not deserve what you did for me, any more than you deserved what they did to
you.

But you took my punishment. You took my ridicule. You took my sins upon
yourself.

And so, Jesus, thank you. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your love.

Thank you right now, today, for the serving humility of your grace and what it
means in my life. Thank you that you did this for the world, but thank you that
you did this for me. In your name I pray, amen.

Join us tomorrow. We're going to talk about what happened with Simon Peter.