Collin Hansen: Everyone's grabbing their seat. Good afternoon. If I haven't had the privilege of meeting you, my name is Cole Ragsdale, and I get to serve as the college director, here at Redeemer. And so this afternoon, we're gonna continue our study through the book of Mark, and we're gonna be in Mark chapter 14 today, specifically starting, in verse 41. You can follow along with me in your worship guide, or if you've got your copy of the scriptures with you, I invite you to turn there with me.
Mark chapter 14, starting in verse 41. The Holy Spirit says this through Mark. And he came the third time, and said to them, are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come.
The son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise. Let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, 1 of the 12.
And with him, a crowd of swords and clubs, from the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders. Now, the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard. And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, Rabbi. And he kissed him.
And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, have you come out again come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day, I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.
And they all left him and fled. And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together.
Our father, what we know not teach us, what we have not give us. And What we have not, give us. And what we are not, make us. We pray these things for your son's sake. Amen.
So this afternoon, we are looking at the most notorious betrayal in human history. Maybe you've heard the idiom kind of thrown around in our culture, this idea of the kiss of death. Of like, you know, once this company makes this decision, it was, it's the kiss of death, or maybe when, this college relationship goes on this date to this restaurant, it's the the kiss of death. It's this idea of intimacy that ultimately leads to ruin. If you were to trace the etymology of that idiom back, we would make our way to Mark chapter 14 verses 43 through 52, that we see here in this passage that Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.
And Jesus is arrested and is led away into custody. That these 12 verses tell us just that. Even as I was beginning to look at this text and beginning to kind of meditate on it, it was like, well, I mean, I guess I can say those two sentences and just do a benediction. I mean, Jesus is betrayed by Judas's kiss, and then he's arrested and then led away. But what we know is that the scriptures are here for a purpose, that in each passage we can ask ourselves this question, what is God's purpose for this passage?
And I think for many of us, this text may be familiar, and sometimes, unfortunately, familiarity can begin to dull the impact of a passage. And so this afternoon, I want us to really lean in on these 10 verses in particular, 43 through 52, where we're gonna see that Jesus, or Judas will betray, but thanks be to God Jesus obeys. And so there's kind of 3 movements that I want to make through this text this afternoon, kind of think about them as 3 mental hooks for you to kind of hang this passage on. So, these three hooks are, the first is that Jesus is betrayed. That we're gonna look at the betrayal of Jesus, but not only is Jesus betrayed in this passage, but we see Jesus arrested.
2nd hook, that Jesus is arrested. And then 3rd, we'll see that Jesus is abandoned. Betrayed, arrested, and abandoned. But maybe we need to back up a little bit here, of even understanding how did we get to this point? Why is Jesus even betraying, or why is Judas betraying Jesus?
Why is there this crowd of people making their way? Well well what we know is that we're in the book of Mark, this is one of the 4 gospels, one of the 4 biographies of Jesus, and Mark is giving us an account of Jesus' life, and specifically Mark highlights that Jesus is this suffering servant, that kind of like the theme verse of the entire book of Mark is Mark 10:45, that says for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And and it's this life of Jesus that has begun to frustrate some of the power players of the day. That in particular, we'll see in the crowd in verse, it's verse 46, it says that it's a crowd of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. You see, that at this point, the these this group of people, these status holders in the community, they are fed up with Jesus.
In fact, they hate Jesus. And, why do they hate Jesus is because they are jealous of his power, that he is doing things that no man in human history has ever done, that the blind are seeing, that the lame are walking, that the deaf are hearing, that that Jesus seems to have this miraculous power that they cannot muster. Yes, they're jealous of his power, but they're also jealous of his popularity. That Jesus is having crowds gather around him, that that much of the cultural capital of the day, like that social equity is being drained from their bank account and is heading towards Jesus'. And so their power and their popularity, they hate him.
But even more than that, these past few days, we find ourselves on this is Thursday night. This is the last night of Jesus' life. I think it would be helpful for us to kinda take a few steps back Monday, the triumphal entry. Jesus enters the city with throngs of people shouting his name, hail the messiah, hosanna, like like here comes our king. And you can just imagine the chief elders and the priests be getting angry, like he's getting more power, he's getting more popularity.
That's just Monday. Then we make our way to Tuesday, and what does Jesus do, but enter into their space, the temple. And Jesus begins to what we call cleanse the temple, that he flips over the tables of the money changers, and those that are exchanging goods, and he clears it out, and then for the rest of Tuesday, jeez the word of God literally rings in the temple as he teaches. And you can just imagine those scribes and the Pharisees and the elders, they are beginning angry and frustrated. He's gaining more power.
He's coming to our place. And we even see in, in chapter 14 verses 1 and 3, it's at this moment that they decide we must kill Jesus. And then, on Wednesday, we we've talked about the story a few weeks ago that a woman breaks, this expensive perfume and pours it on Jesus, that he's anointed. And it's at this moment that our betrayer of the story in Mark chapter 14 verses 10 and 11, that Judas decides to betray Jesus. That these power brokers of the day are looking for a way.
How can we get to Jesus without causing a revolt? How can we get to this man to kill him? And Judas comes and says, I'm your man. And then on Thursday, as we've looked at these past few weeks, we have the last, the last Passover, the First Supper. And it's just after this meal that Jesus has made his way into the garden of Gethsemane with his disciples.
That he is praying with such agony that he begins to sweat blood, and that his disciples begin to fall asleep. And it's here at this moment, that now, the story is really gonna pick up. That by 3 o'clock the next day, our savior will be dead. And it's here that we see the betrayer enter and enter the story. So verse 43, it says, and immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12 with a crowd, with swords and clubs.
What Mark is gonna highlight for us here in verses 43 through 45 is the magnitude of Judas's betrayal. That he is trying to draw our attention to, like these beautiful stained glass windows, to the magnitude of Judas's betrayal. The first clue that Mark gives us is in verse 43, if you wanna join me there. It says, Judas, one of the 12. If you're like a note taker, you could even like circle that, one of the 12.
That at this point in the story, we're 13 chapters into Mark. Like like we know who Judas is. We know that he's a part of the 12, like he was listed in Mark chapter 3, like like duh, he's one of the 12. But what Mark is doing is he's heightening this sense of betrayal that like, this was one of Jesus's guys. That Mark chapter 3 verse 14, Jesus says, and he called the disciples in order that they would be with him.
That Jesus called Judas in order to be with him, to be one of the guys. Like like think about this combination of like he's one of your groomsmen, who's also your brother, who's also your business partner, who's also the person you're doing missions with, like like the magnitude of he's one of the 12. Mark's drawing our attention to the magnitude. But then look at the second half of verse 43. It says, and with him, a crowd.
It's actually an interesting word play. In Mark chapter 3, Jesus says that, I'm calling in order that you would be with me, and then Judas shows up with a crowd. And this crowd is unlike any other crowd described in the book of Mark. Up to this point, the word crowd has been used 15 times to describe the people that are gathering around Jesus. These throngs of people who are experiencing the blessing of the son of God, the the teaching from his mouth, and the blessing from his hands.
But this is the first crowd that comes not to receive from Jesus, but a crowd that comes to kill Jesus. And every time that Mark will use the word crowd for the rest of the book of Mark, It's a crowd that wants to kill him. That this is a shift in our narrative, from a crowd adoring Jesus, to a crowd wanting to kill Jesus. And this is the crowd that Judas is now running with. But then we also see in verse 44 or even in verse 42 that Judas is given a new title that he's referred to as the betrayer.
I mean I don't know if you have any nicknames within your friends, but like the betrayer is probably not the best one. That he has, like, Jesus has very resolutely said, like, this is the one who will betray me. This is the one who will bring the kiss of death. And then in verse 45, potentially some of the most wicked words in all of scripture that he comes up to Jesus. And he says to him, rabbi.
Other greek translations would think say that think that he even said it twice. Rabbi, rabbi. And he kissed him. Now it was a normal, cultural it was a cultural normity of the day, for for this to be a casual greeting, of that like, men would kiss men on the cheeks, like, women would kiss women on the cheeks, like, this was not this romantic display of affection as our culture knows it today. But it's interesting that Mark uses an incredibly specific Greek word here, that doesn't refer to a simple greeting, but it refers to a fervent kiss.
It refers to a gesture of like intimate care. Essentially, Judas is laying it on thick. That something that was meant to be a gesture of affection has now turned into a gesture of affliction. That something that was meant to express honor is now about to express horror. That something that was supposed to be intimate care is now going to cause intimate harm.
That the betrayer is here. Or even the fact that he refers to Jesus as rabbi. This is the idea of teacher or master. And Jesus or and Judas is using this title, using this kiss, not to honor, but to harm. The magnitude of the betrayal could not be higher.
The stakes could not be worse. Because ultimately, this betrayal leads to death. I hope you're seeing here that this is a picture of sickening hypocrisy. That I I don't know if there's really a worse a worse, title to be given and or worse insult in our culture today than that of hypocrite. That if someone was to look you in the eye, and to simply just say, you're a hypocrite.
There's something that's so deep about that. Something that's so harming. I mean, in a silly way, you know, it's the idea of the the steak eating vegetarian. It's like, it's pretty hypocritical. Or or like the the texting and driving person while they're texting and driving, who like says you shouldn't do that, but then like you're clearly seeing them do that.
Or it's the it's the tolerant person who actually only tolerates ideas that they agree with. They're like there's this like kind of this this piece of like that's really kind of frustrating, like those are silly ideas, but when it comes to a follower to a disciple that it couldn't be more serious. And I think from a point of application for us here is that we this story is a chilling reminder that you and I can be externally connected with Jesus and his people. But the moment that Jesus begins to not, live up to our expectations that we are quick to turn our backs. That we are quick to go the other way.
That we are quick to offer up Jesus for whatever may be the best next thing. That even in fact, Joel mentioned this a few weeks ago, that that Jesus was betrayed for exactly 20 pieces of silver. Which the old testament tells us is exactly what a slave was worth in this day. And in fact, it's actually what the old testament prophesies about what the son of God will be, what will be sold for. That the old testament prophecy is fulfilled here.
And even this kind of brings up echoes to me of some of the scariest passages of scripture in Mark chapter 7 verses 21 and 23, where Jesus essentially says that, like, some of you will come to me and you'll say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this in your name? Did we not do that in your name? And Jesus will look at you and will say, I never knew you. And you almost hear here, Rabbi. Rabbi.
And Jesus says to this man of wickedness, I never knew you. So I think a question for us to consider today, I'm not calling you Judas, but what I would invite you to consider is, is there any hypocrisy hiding in your heart? That Judas's kiss began with compromise. That slowly but surely throughout his life, you know, what's a few coins here or there? It's hypocritical.
It's not a it's not a big deal. Just a just a few coins here or there, like, I'm pretty frustrated at how he handled this, but like, I'm just gonna kinda shove that to the side. That the kiss of death began with small decisions of compromise. Is there any unchecked hypocrisy in our hearts? Is there any part of us in which we're creating the impression that we're actually better than we are?
Even, John Wesley, who's the famous founder of the Methodist, faith, he had this holy club and and they basically would ask each other accountability questions. This was their very first question. I think this is helpful. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I actually am? Invitation of this passage applying what we're seeing here is, is there any unchecked hypocrisy in our hearts?
We see in verse the 43 through 45 that Jesus is betrayed. But then, verse 46 through 49 show us that Jesus is arrested. Let's look together. And they laid hands on him, and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
And Jesus said to them, have you come out against me as a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day, I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled. It's in this moment, in this time of Jesus's arrest, we're going to see 2 ways. We see the way of the sword, and we see the way of the cross.
The way of the sword and the way of the cross. You see, the power players of the day, Judas, the chief scribes, the elders, they lived by the power of the sword. In fact, most human cultures have always lived by the power of the sword. This idea of if you've got enough might, if you've got enough power, you can get what you want. That you can control the situation however you deem.
That you can get whatever you desire by the power of the sword. But we see here that Jesus is uninterested in his entire life of living by the power of the sword, but instead by living the way of the cross. That instead of I'm going to grab and get, I'm going to give my life in order to make a way, that Jesus told us throughout his teachings that my kingdom is not of this world, that we're not going to achieve kingdom purposes the way that the world achieves them. It's gonna instead of through status and power, it's going to be through service and sacrifice. Instead of selecting the the Harvard grads of the world, he chooses fishermen.
That the way of Jesus is different here. That they lay hands on him, but the one who stood by him, which we know by other accounts, is the apostle Peter. That he draws his sword and he cuts off the ear of a high priest. We know, his name is Malchus, that he is the the the lead servant of the high priest, Caiaphas, from our other, our other gospel accounts. But I hope you're seeing the contrast here between the way of the sword and the way of the cross.
That even Peter, even one of the disciples, that his natural instinct is to find is to go to the way of the sword. But Jesus doesn't fight back. That instead, we find he actually heals this guy's ear. And Jesus says to them, like, hey, like, I've been teaching in the temple all of these days, and you did not come seize me. I'm not a I'm not a rebel, I'm not an insurrectionist, like like here I am.
That we find It's interesting here that Jesus from the garden prayed. And we're seeing that prayer answered here. Not your will God, but mine, I'll go. That Jesus's prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane lead to him being poised and powerful. And then we see Peter's prayerlessness in the Garden of Gethsemane make its way out of him being proud and pitiful.
That he is immediately going to his gut instinct, let me go to the sword. And Jesus is saying this has never been my way. And so we as a church, we as the church, may we be careful not to reach for the wrong weapons. That sometimes our first instinct is to grab for the sword of power, or the sword of status, or the sword of money. That scripture is quite clear, we have been only given one weapon.
And it's the sword of the spirit. It's the word of God. And may we never lose confidence in what God has given us. I mean think about this, Jesus's kingdom, like his church on earth has been built on three things. God's spirit, God's word, and God's people.
And that has been enough for generations, and it is enough for us today. That we don't need to reach for once again the sword of status, or the sword of power, the sword of money, we have what we need. This made me kind of begin to consider this idea of the way of the cross, or the way of the sword. And I think maybe a way to kind of package this that's helpful is, would you consider your life as that of a cultural warrior or a kingdom ambassador? A cultural warrior or a kingdom ambassador.
You see, a cultural warrior is someone who is fighting against culture. That they are drawing the sword of using whatever means necessary to get what they want. But a kingdom ambassador is that of 1 of the cross, that of invitation, that of service, that of sacrifice. Because I think we I think we know that like, no one gets forced into relationship with Jesus. No one gets gets gets controlled into intimacy with the father.
They're invited in and so just kind of a question to consider tonight. Is is are you a cultural warrior or a kingdom ambassador? Are you living by the way of the cross or the way of the sword? We see that Jesus is arrested and that the scriptures are fulfilled. I hope that you see here in this arrest that Jesus is not out of control, God has not dropped the ball.
Jesus is in full control, and he says, not your will, but mine. I'm heading to the cross. That the decision of Calvary was prayed through and decided upon, that Jesus enters not into this moment as a helpless victim, but as champion. And he walks, set like flint towards the cross. And then in verse 50 through 52, we see that Jesus is abandoned.
And specifically it says, and they all left him and fled. That the Greek construction here, you can do a lot of fun things with Greek sentences, one of them is called an emphatic positioning. Here, it's almost like Mark is saying, abandoned all the disciples left him. Abandoned all the disciples left him. That Mark is highlighting to us that Jesus has been left alone.
That his closest people, that his disciples, that his groomsmen, that his brothers, that they have fled, that they have cut and run, that they're all of their confidence in Jesus as messiah and king has collapsed. That I would even venture to say Judas is not the only one to betray Jesus this night. But in fact, the disciples do as well. That they that the heroes of our faith turn tail and run for darkness. That they abandon him.
That quite literally like we talked about Mark chapter 3 verse 14, that he called the disciples to be with him, and instead they choose to be without him. That they fold like a lawn chair. They collapse like a house of cards, and they flee. I think maybe you and I may connect a little bit with some of the disciples experience here that that, at the at the last supper, they're saying Jesus will never leave you. Like like no matter what even Peter is saying like, hey like to the point of death, I'm like I'm in.
Like that bravado, that confidence, but then we like you know get into the garden, full belly, get a little sleepy. Faith gets a little sleepy. Then we make our way to verses 43 through 52, and it's no longer just a bravado or sleep, but now it's, we're out. That we we would rather not die, that when death approaches the disciples, they flee. And I don't know about you, but I know that's a similar experience for me.
There are days in which I'm like, God, I'm in. I'm your guy. Like like, no matter what, I'm with you. And then there are days that my faith is rather sleepy. You could even describe me as a sleepwalker.
And I'm, now at this point not arrogant enough to think that come the right circumstances that I would run to. That the disciples abandoned Jesus. And so maybe you know people who have bailed, who have gone out. I think about friends, people from seminary that are no longer walking with Jesus. And it's the beautiful piece of our faith that while Judas betrays that Jesus obeys, that my faithlessness is always met by God's faithfulness.
That he always keeps his end of the bargain. That while the disciples flee from death, when Jesus approaches death, he heads head on. That Jesus does not run from the big scary thing. He steps into the big scary thing. And then verse 51 and 52, which is a fascinating weird passage.
It says, a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked. This is like Mark's, like, little, like, Picasso kiss. It's not in any other gospel. There are, like, tons of commentaries about, like, who it is and what you think, just like a little bible thing here. The main thing are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.
I think it's probably Mark, I feel good about that, you know, they're you know, they're that his house was close by in Jerusalem, maybe even the last supper was there, he maybe, like, literally like threw on a sheet and made his way there, all I'm saying it doesn't really matter, I think what Mark's doing here is this. Is that there is not one left. That Jesus is entirely abandoned, that we're just getting another repetition of someone else leaving. Even in this culture, this idea of being naked publicly was that of great shame. So hear this, this man would rather lose his reputation than stand with Jesus.
He's bailing, he's out. And so Jesus stands alone, arrested and in custody. I hope you even hear some echoes of Eden here. That Adam and Eve, our first parents in Genesis chapter 3 starting in verse 7, that they realize that they're naked. And what do they do?
They hide from God. They run and hide. And here, we see the disciple a a disciple in the garden, naked, and he runs, and he hides from God. That that is what sin does. Sin causes us to run from God and hide.
But at the end of that passage in Genesis Genesis 3 verses 21 and 22, we see that that God makes sacrifice to cover them. And it's here that we see that Jesus set for the cross, says take me. Like, take me and I will be their covering. Take me and I will be their substitute. Mark chapter 1442 through 53, we see that Judas betrays and Jesus obeys, that Jesus betrayed, he's arrested, and he's abandoned.
And that Jesus ultimately, when it's confronted with death, does not run and hide like his disciples, but he steps in to conquer it once and for all. Let's pray together. Our father, I thank you for your word and I pray that your Holy Spirit, even now, would do what only you can do and that you would change us. So even as you sit in your pew tonight, would you just ask God, Lord, what of that was for me? Would you ask God, is there anything that I need to stop?
And would you ask him, is there anything you need to start? And lastly, would you ask him, is there anything that you need to believe? Father, we pray these things through the sun and by the spirit. Amen.