relationships (Mark 14:53-65) Religion Leads to Hatred

(Mark 14:53-65)

53 They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes gathered together. 54 And Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the entire Council were trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. 56 For many people were giving false testimony against Him, and so their testimonies were not consistent. 57 And then some stood up and began giving false testimony against Him, saying, 58 “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that was made by hands, and in three days I will build another, made without hands.’” 59 And not even in this respect was their testimony consistent. 60 And then the high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus, saying, “Do You not offer any answer for what these men are testifying against You?” 61 But He kept silent and did not offer any answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and said to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, “What further need do we have of witnesses? 64 You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?” And they all condemned Him as deserving of death. 65 And some began to spit on Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists and say to Him, “Prophesy!” Then the officers took custody of Him and slapped Him in the face.

TODAY'S TAKEAWAY:

These Sanhedrin hated Jesus and wanted Him dead, and they were going to find a reason.  And if they couldn’t find one, they would make one up, but of course, these reasons would still have to hold up in court, according to their laws.  Now, because Jesus knew He was going to be crucified, and had to go to the cross in order to pay for all sins, of all people, of all time, He wasn’t concerned about defending Himself. 

Being God, Jesus was and always is all about truth!  He is the truth!  And while He was on earth, in flesh, He did not commit any sin, and certainly did not commit any crime.  So, with the first line of questioning, basically being asked if He had anything to say about all of the false accusations, well… here Jesus is a good example for us to follow… One cannot reason with or argue sense and truth with those who are unreasonable liars with corrupt intentions.  This is what is meant by throwing pearls before the swine!  (And this is why I pray often for our courts of law to maintain integrity and uphold the actual laws and constitution!)

Seeing that their first line of questioning wasn’t working, they asked Jesus THE question.  And understand, the Jews back then were extremely careful to avoid ever saying God's name, even when speaking about Him- or to Him, even in prayer, since they were very diligent in their efforts to not take His name in vain- in any way, whatsoever.  They were very religious about it.  Too bad these men didn’t know Jesus (the Lord God) personally.  So, here they asked Jesus, "Are You the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Blessed One?" 

This was a question that Jesus could actually answer.  And He answered very truthfully and directly, saying, "I am".  Unless you know His name as “I am”, one will at the very least understand that He said, yes, He was and is their Christ (Messiah).  But Jesus was ALSO actually saying, “I am God!”  The Jews knew exactly what Jesus was saying, because they knew the following scriptures very well…

(Exodus 3:13-16)  Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵ God furthermore said to Moses, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is the name for all generations to use to call upon Me. 

Because Jesus came to earth in flesh to be fully man while still being fully God, within Jesus’ full statement, after saying that He is God, He added “AND you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”  In this, He also let them know that He (as God) is the coming Judge.  The scribes would have most likely recognized these words from…

(Psalm 110:1)

     The Lord says to my Lord:
     “Sit at My right hand
     Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

(Daniel 7:13-14) 

13 “I kept looking in the night visions,
     And behold, with the clouds of heaven
     One like a son of man was coming,
     And He came up to the Ancient of Days
     And was presented before Him.
¹⁴ And to Him was given dominion,
     Honor, and a kingdom,
     So that all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages
     Might serve Him.
     His dominion is an everlasting dominion
     Which will not pass away;
     And His kingdom is one
     Which will not be destroyed.

Obviously, these people did not know or recognize God!  I mean, look at their reactions!  People do not like to be judged, or have their personal power and authority taken away.  And if they think that they want God in their lives, they want Him in their lives in their own way- in their own thinking- in their own strength.  But that- is religion.  If is an institution that is filled with empty efforts and attempts at being or appearing to be righteous, and trying to earn God’s favor. 

Unless one knows and understands that the Lord God (Jesus Christ) loves us, cares about us, and wants a personal relationship with us, to give us joy, peace, hope, freedom, purpose, direction and help, one is only “doing religion”!  Even Martin Luther finally recognized this, in his spiritual journey, after really look at the following verse.  And, after the verse, I have copy-pasted a portion of his writings, which explains this all so poignantly.

(Romans 1:16-17)  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”

Martin Luther
Preface to the Latin Works
(1545)

Original Electronic Text found at the Project Wittenberg website.

“Meanwhile in that same year, 1519, I had begun interpreting the Psalms once again. I felt confident that I was now more experienced, since I had dealt in university courses with St. Paul's Letters to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the Letter to the Hebrews. I had conceived a burning desire to understand what Paul meant in his Letter to the Romans, but thus far there had stood in my way, not the cold blood around my heart, but that one word which is in chapter one: "The justice of God is revealed in it." I hated that word, "justice of God," which, by the use and custom of all my teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically as referring to formal or active justice, as they call it, i.e., that justice by which God is just and by which he punishes sinners and the unjust.

“But I, blameless monk that I was, felt that before God I was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience. I couldn't be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction. I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners. In silence, if I did not blaspheme, then certainly I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God. I said, "Isn't it enough that we miserable sinners, lost for all eternity because of original sin, are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the Ten Commandments? Why does God heap sorrow upon sorrow through the Gospel and through the Gospel threaten us with his justice and his wrath?" This was how I was raging with wild and disturbed conscience. I constantly badgered St. Paul about that spot in Romans 1 and anxiously wanted to know what he meant.

“I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: "The justice of God is revealed in it, as it is written: 'The just person lives by faith.'" I began to understand that in this verse the justice of God is that by which the just person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: "The just person lives by faith." All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings, e.g., the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.

“I exalted this sweetest word of mine, "the justice of God," with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise. Afterward I read Augustine's "On the Spirit and the Letter," in which I found what I had not dared hope for. I discovered that he too interpreted "the justice of God" in a similar way, namely, as that with which God clothes us when he justifies us. Although Augustine had said it imperfectly and did not explain in detail how God imputes justice to us, still it pleased me that he taught the justice of God by which we are justified.”

Werke ed. O. Clemen,
6th. ed (Berlin: de Gryler, 1967) 4:421-8.
Trans. by Bro. Andrew Thornton.