Chapter 14 resumes the thread of the history, but with the solemn
circumstances that belong to the close of the Lord's life.
The scribes and Pharisees were already consulting how they might take Him
by craft and put Him to death. They feared the influence of the people, who
admired the works and goodness and meekness of Jesus. Therefore they wished
to avoid taking Him at the time of the feast, when the multitude flocked to
Jerusalem: but God had other purposes. Jesus was to be our Paschal Lamb,
blessed Lord! and He offers Himself as the victim of propitiation. Now the
counsels of God and the love of Christ being such, Satan was not wanting in
suitable agents to perform all that he could do against the Lord. Jesus
offering Himself for it, the people would soon be induced to give up, even
to the Gentiles, the One who had so much attracted them; and treachery
would not be wanting to throw Him without difficulty into the hands of the
priests. Still God's own arrangements, which owned Him and displayed Him in
His grace, should have the first place; and the supper at Bethany and the
supper at Jerusalem should precede-the one, the proposal, and the other,
the act of Judas. For, let the wickedness of man be what it may, God always
takes the place He chooses, and never allows the enemy power to hide His
ways from faith, nor leaves His people without the testimony of His love.
This portion of the history is very remarkable. God brings forward the
thoughts and fears of the leaders of the people, in order that we may know
them; but everything is absolutely in His own hands; and the malice of man,
treachery, and the power of Satan when working in the most energetic manner
(never had they been so active), only accomplish the purposes of God for
the glory of Christ. Before the treachery of Judas He has the testimony of
Mary's affection. God puts the seal of this affection upon Him who was to
be betrayed. And, on the other hand, before being forsaken and delivered
up, He can testify all His affection for His own, in the institution of the
Lord's supper, and at His own last supper with them. What a beautiful
testimony to the interest with which Godcares for and comforts His
children in the darkest moment of their distress!
Remark also, in what manner love to Christ finds, amid the darkness that
gathers round His path, the light that directs its conduct, and directs it
precisely to that which was suitable to the moment. Mary had no prophetic
knowledge; but the imminent danger in which the Lord Christ was placed by
the hatred of the Jews, stimulates her affection to perform an act which
was to be made known wherever the death of Christ and His love for us
should be proclaimed in the whole world. This is true intelligence-true
guidance in things moral. Her act becomes an occasion of darkness to Judas;
it is clothed with the light of divine intelligence by the Lord's own
testimony. This love for Christ discerns that which is suitable-apprehends
the good and the evil in a just and seasonable manner. It is a good thing
to care for the poor. But at that moment the whole mind of God was centred
on the sacrifice of Christ. They had always opportunity to relieve the
poor, and it was right to do so. To put them in comparison with Jesus, at
the moment of His sacrifice, was to put them out of their place, and to
forget all that was precious to God. Judas, who cared only for money,
seized the position according to his own interest. He saw, not the
preciousness of Christ, but the desires of the scribes. His sagacity was of
the enemy, as that of Mary was of God. Things advance: Judas arranges with
them his plan to deliver up Jesus for money. The thing in fact is settled
according to his thoughts and theirs. Nevertheless it is very remarkable to
see here the way in which-if I may so speak-God Himself governs the
position. Although it is the moment when the malice of man is at its
height, and when the power of Satan is exerted to the utmost, yet all is
accomplished exactly at the moment, in the manner, by the instruments,
chosen of God. Nothing, not the least thing, escapes Him. Nothing is
accomplished but that which He wills, and as He wills, and when He wills.
What consolation for us! and, in the circumstances which we are
considering, what a striking testimony! The Holy Ghost has therefore
reported the desire (easy to be understood) of the chief priests and
scribes to avoid the occasion of the feast. Useless desire! This sacrifice
was to be accomplished at that time; and it is accomplished.
But the time drew near for the last feast of the Passover that took place
during the life of Jesus-the one in which He was Himself to be the Lamb,
and leave no memorial to faith except that of Himself and of His work. He
therefore sends His disciples to prepare all that was needed to keep the
feast. In the evening He sits with His disciples, to converse with them,
and to testify His love for them as their companion, for the last time. But
it is to tell them (for He must suffer everything) that one of them should
betray Him. The heart at least of each one of the eleven answered, full of
grief at the thought.
[see note #16]
So should one have done who was eating from the same dish with Him; but woe
to that man! Yet neither the thought of such iniquity, nor the sorrow of
His own heart, could stop the outflowing of the love of Christ. He gives
them pledges of this love in the Lord's supper. It was Himself, His
sacrifice, and not a temporal deliverance, that they were henceforth to
remember. All was now absorbed in Him, and in Him dying on the cross.
Afterwards, in giving them the cup, He lays the foundation of the new
covenant in His blood (in a figure), giving it to them as participation in
His death-true draught of life. When they had all drunk of it, He announces
to them that it is the seal of the new covenant-a thing well known to the
Jews, according to Jeremiah; adding that it was shed for many. Death was to
come in for the establishment of the new covenant, and for the ransom of
many. For this, death was necessary, and the bonds of earthly association
between Jesus and His disciples were dissolved. He would drink no more of
the fruit of the vine (the token of that connection) until, in another way,
He should renew this association with them in the kingdom of God. When the
kingdom should be established, He would again be with them, and would renew
these bonds of association (in another form, and in a more excellent way,
no doubt, yet really). But now all was changing. They sing, and go out,
repairing to the accustomed place in the Mount of Olives.
The connection of Jesus with His disciples here below should indeed be
broken, but it would not be by His forsaking them. He strengthened, or, at
least, He manifested, the sentiments of His heart, and the strength (on His
part) of these bonds, in His last supper with them. But they would be
offended at His position, and would forsake Him. Nevertheless the hand of
God was in all this. He would smite the Shepherd. But when once raised from
the dead, Jesus would resume His relationship with His disciples-with the
poor of the flock. He would go before them to the place where this
relationship commenced, to Galilee, afar from the pride of the nation, and
where the light had appeared among them according to the word of God.
Death was before Him. He must pass through it, in order that any
relationship whatsoever between God and man might be established. The
Shepherd should be smitten by the Lord of hosts. Death was the judgment of
God: could man sustain it? There was but One who could. Peter, loving
Christ too well to forsake Him in heart, enters so far into the path of
death as to draw back again, thus giving a testimony all the more striking
to his own inability to traverse the abyss that opened before his eyes in
the Person of his disowned Master. After all, to Peter it was but the
outside of what death is. The weakness that his fears occasioned made him
unable to look into the abyss which sin has opened before our feet. At the
moment when Jesus announces it Peter undertakes to face all that was
coming. Sincere in his affection, he knew not what man was, laid bare
before God, and in the presence of the power of the enemy who has death for
his weapon. He had trembled already; but the sight of Jesus, which inspires
affection, does not say that the flesh which prevents our glorifying Him
is, in a practical sense, dead. Moreover he knew nothing of this truth. It
is the death of Christ which has brought our condition out into full light,
while ministering its only remedy-death, and life in resurrection. Like the
ark in Jordan, He went down into it alone, that His redeemed people might
pass through dryshod. They had not passed this way before.
Jesus approaches the end of His trial-a trial which only brought out His
perfection and His glory, and at the same time glorified God His Father,
but a trial which spared Him nothing that would have had power to stop Him,
if anything could have done so, and which went on even unto death, and unto
the burden of wrath of God in that death, a burden beyond all our thoughts.
He approaches the conflict and the suffering, not with the lightness of
Peter who plunged into it because he was ignorant of its nature, but with
full knowledge; placing Himself in the presence of His Father, where all is
weighed, and where the will of Him who laid this task upon Him is clearly
stated in His communion with Him; so that Jesus accomplishes it, even as
God Himself looked upon it, according to the extent and the intention of
His thoughts and of His nature, and in perfect obedience to His will.
Jesus goes forward alone to pray. And, morally, He passes through the whole
compass of His sufferings, realising all their bitterness, in communion
with His Father. Having them before His own eyes, He brings them before His
Father's heart, in order that, if it were possible, this cup might pass
from Him. If not, it should at least be from His Father's hand that He
received it. This was the piety on account of which He was heard and His
prayers ascended up on high. He is there as a man-glad to have His
disciples watch with Him, glad to isolate Himself and pour out His heart
into the bosom of His Father, in the dependent condition of a man who
prays. What a spectacle!
Peter, who would die for his Master, is not able even to watch with Him.
The Lord meekly sets his inconsistency before him, acknowledging that his
spirit indeed was full of goodwill, but that the flesh was worthless in
conflict with the enemy and in spiritual trial.
The narrative of Mark, which passes so rapidly from one circumstance (that
displays the whole moral condition of the men with whom Jesus was
associated) to another, in such a manner as to place all these events in
connection with each other, is as touching as the development of the
details found in the other Gospels. A moral character is imprinted on every
step we take in the history, giving it as a whole an interest that nothing
could surpass (excepting that which is above all things, above all
thoughts) save that only One, the Person of Him who is here before us. He
at least watched with His Father; for after all, dependent as He was by
grace, what could man do for Him? Completely man as He was, He had to lean
on One alone, and thus was the perfect man. Going away again to pray, He
returns to find them again sleeping, and again presents the case to His
Father, and then awakens His disciples, for the hour was come in which they
could do no more for Him. Judas comes with his kiss. Jesus submits. Peter,
who slept during the earnest prayer of his Master, awakes to strike when
his Master yields Himself as a lamb to the slaughter. He smites one of the
assistants, and cuts off his ear. Jesus reasons with those who were come to
take Him, reminding them that, when He was constantly exposed, humanly
speaking, to their power, they had laid no hands upon Him; but there was a
very different reason for its now taking place-the counsels of God and the
word of God must be fulfilled. It was the faithful accomplishment of the
service committed to Him. All forsake Him and flee; for who beside Himself
could follow this path to the end?
One young man indeed sought to go farther; but as soon as the officers of
justice laid hold of him, seizing his linen garment, he fled and left it in
their hands. Apart from the power of the Holy Ghost, the farther one
ventures into the path in which the power of the world and of death is
found, the greater the shame with which one escapes, if God permits escape.
He fled from them naked.
The witnesses fail, not in malice, but in certainty of testimony, even as
force could do nothing against Him until the moment God had appointed. The
confession of Christ, His faithfulness in declaring the truth in the
congregation, is the means of His condemnation. Man can do nothing,
although he did everything as regards his will and his guilt. The testimony
of His enemies, the affection of His disciples-everything fails: this is
man. It is Jesus who bears witness to the truth; it is Jesus who watches
with the Father-Jesus who yields Himself to those who were never able to
take Him until the hour came that God had appointed. Poor Peter! He went
farther than the young man in the garden; and we find him here, the flesh
in the place of testimony, in the place where this testimony is to be
rendered before the power of its opposer and of his instruments. Alas! he
will not escape. The word of Christ shall be true, if that of Peter be
false-His heart faithful and full of love, if that of Peter (alas! like all
ours) is unfaithful and cowardly. He confesses the truth, and Peter denies
it. Nevertheless the grace of our blessed Lord does not fail him; and,
touched by it, he hides his face and weeps.
The word of the prophet has now again to be fulfilled. He shall be
delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. There He is accused of being a
king, the confession of which must assuredly cause His death. But it was
the truth.
The confession that Jesus had made before the priests relates, as we have
seen in other cases in this Gospel, to His connection with Israel. His
service was to preach in the congregation of Israel. He had indeed
presented Himself as King, as Emmanuel. He now confesses that He is to
Israel the hope of the people, and which hereafter He will be. "Art thou,"
had the high priest said, "the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" That was
the title, the glorious position, of Him who was the hope of Israel,
according to Psalm 2. But He adds that which He shall be (that is to say,
the character He would assume, being rejected by this people, that in which
He would present Himself to the rebellious people); it should be that of
Psalm 8, 110, and also Daniel 7, with its results-that is to say, the Son
of man at the right hand of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Psalm
8 only presents Him in a general manner; it is Psalm 110 and Daniel 7 which
speak of the Messiah in that particular manner, according to which Christ
here announces Himself. The blasphemy which the high priest attributed to
Him was only the rejection of His Person. For that which He said was
written in the word.
