November 26, 2025

Jesus is arrested

Mark 14:53-65

This description of the trial and interrogation of Jesus leaves me with more questions than answers.  When I was young, I took it at face value, and saw the Jewish leaders as the “bad guys.”  Mark’s description does tend to provoke that response.

Through the years I have come across various scholarly responses to the incident, including the idea that it would have been improper, if not illegal, for the Council to convene in the darkness of night.  In addition, we should also remember that it was still Passover, and should ask why these leaders weren’t elsewhere observing that festival that was so central to Judaism.  Or were they elsewhere?  And Mark has pieced together this story to move his narrative along.  Wiser people than me can better answer such questions, but this is what I mean by there being more questions in my mind than there are answers.

However, if we take the account at face value, there are several things to note.  First, the testimonies of the witnesses don’t agree, and according to the Jewish Law, at least two witnesses were required to agree before proceeding further with charges against someone. 

The turning point here is when Jesus is asked if he is the Messiah, and he acknowledges that he is.  This precipitates outrage and anger.  But the question is, what should Jesus have said?  Should he have been untruthful?  Should he have deflected the question?  How, indeed, should he have proclaimed who he was?  He had shown it in various ways through his actions over the past years, and had taught as one who might be received as the Messiah.  How was he to respond?

After Jesus says that he is the Messiah, Mark tells us that, “All of them condemned him as deserving death.” (14:64  NRSV)  Of course, the technical point here is that they said that he was “deserving” of death, not that they actually sentenced him to death.  But then we should also pause at the word, “All.”  In Luke’s Gospel, certainly a different account, we read in chapter 23 that Joseph of Arimathea had not gone along with their plan.  And considering Jesus’ relationship with Nicodemus, we can certainly raise a question there too about his participation in things.  So, even if a majority felt that Jesus deserved death, it was certainly not “all” of them.

We have no transcript of what took place, and when it took place.  We have the Gospel accounts of things.  So, I am still left with questions.  I think it is important for us to look carefully at such accounts, for stories such as this have led to extreme anti-Semitism through the centuries.  That in itself is contrary to what Jesus taught and preached.  We need to tread carefully as we encounter the rest of the story that is to come.