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.

November 15, 2025

Jesus is arrested

Mark 14:43-52

This section is one of those that makes Judas out to be the real villain of the story, even betraying Jesus with a kiss.  While I think that Judas may have had different motives than Jesus did, that is Judas may have been hoping to force Jesus’ hand into fighting, first against these people and then against the Romans, Jesus by comparison saw the value of non-violent resistance and wouldn’t have gone in the direction that Judas hoped he would.  Nevertheless, Judas had spent three years with Jesus, when he could have left after he got the idea that Jesus wasn’t a violent revolutionary.  But he stayed.  Jesus obviously had some effect on Judas.  And I think that had Judas known where his actions would lead, to Jesus’ death rather than Jesus starting the revolt, then he would have approached things quite differently.  We of course only get the Gospel writers’ perspectives and not that of Judas, so it is impossible to know.

As Jesus is arrested, and as one of the disciples draws a sword, Jesus responds in a negative way.  He challenges those who have come to arrest him with swords and clubs, and in other Gospels we read other details.  In John, it is Peter who draws the sword.  And the slave who loses an ear is named.  And Jesus tells Peter to put the sword away.  In Matthew, Jesus says to put the sword away, “for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  (26:52 NRSV)  And finally, in Luke, Jesus heals the ear of the slave who was attacked.  Jesus was obviously not interested in a violent revolt, as Judas likely was.

The disciples all flee, fearing for their own lives no doubt.  And then we get a curious detail that we find in no other Gospel.  A young man, wearing nothing but a linen cloth (that in itself is interesting), also flees from the people arresting Jesus, and since they have grabbed the cloth, he runs away naked.  Since this little detail has no direct impact on the events being related, and since the other disciples are not there to witness it, scholars speculate that this is an autobiographical note by the author of the Gospel, put into the text to indicate that he was there and to add credence to his account overall.  It seems to me to be a reasonable assumption.

November 7, 2025

In the Garden

Mark 14:26-42

This portion begins with mention of singing a hymn.  Traditionally, this would have been the last of six psalms sung as part of the Passover observance.  Psalms 113-114 would have been sung before the Passover meal, and Psalms 115-118 would have been sung afterwards. 

The night then takes Jesus and the disciples to the Mount of Olives.  It is here that Jesus tells the disciples that they will all desert him that night.  Peter is the most vocal in denying that he would do such a thing.  And no doubt Peter believed what he was saying.  As indeed surely the others did too, for they all said the same thing as Peter.

Jesus leads them to Gethsemane, and tells them to wait at a certain spot while he goes to pray.  Jesus first takes his inner circle of Peter, James and John with him, and leaves the other eight to wait by themselves.  Remember, Judas is not with them at this point.  Then Jesus leaves even those three, and goes off by himself, telling them to keep awake.  Staying awake likely served two purposes, the first being that Jesus wouldn’t feel so alone, and the second being that they could watch out for any trouble, which Jesus likely expected that night.

Jesus prays an anguished prayer.  One could ask how we know what he said, considering that he was alone.  My guess is that after the Resurrection, when he spent many days with the disciples, that he shared with them some of the intimate details such as the content of his prayer.

When Jesus returns to the three, he finds them sleeping, encourages them to stay awake, and then repeats this whole sequence twice more, praying the same words, finding them sleeping each time.

And then, perhaps seeing the inevitable, prepares them to meet the crowd that has come to arrest him.