Chapters 13-14 - Wake Up

Maybe they’re following his advice for once. In chapter 13, Jesus tells his disciples what’s going to happen to them if they continue to follow him. They’ll be handed over to councils, beaten, and brought to trial. Brother will betray brother. This is exactly what happens to Jesus in the next chapter. If the authorities have already come for Jesus, how much longer before they come for his friends? Maybe the disciples took the “little apocalypse” of Mark 13 seriously and fled as he directed them (13:14). He tells them flat out that they will all become deserters (14:27). They deny it, of course, but within moments of his arrest we’re told that “all of them deserted him and fled” (14:50).

Chapter 13 is puzzling for many of us, separated as we are from the original hearers by an ocean, a culture, and a language – not to mention by two millennia. Yet the wording here is pretty common for apocalyptic literature of its time. In this genre, the end is near and all is lost but for direct divine intervention. Our human efforts and good intentions won’t cut it; only God can make a difference now.

We’re not sure what “the desolating sacrilege” is that Jesus mentions in 13:14; Mark assumes that his audience knows, though. Perhaps it was too politically dangerous to say aloud. Whatever is to come (be it judgment or salvation or both), it’s foreshadowed by what happens to Jesus in the chapters ahead. Perhaps that’s part of why Jesus says that “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” (13:30). What will happen later in its fullness begins here.

Of course, the major piece of advice Jesus offers in these chapters is ignored completely. Twice he tells the disciples to “be alert” (13:23, 13:33). Four times he tells them to “keep awake” (13:35, 13:37; 14:34, 14:38). Yet three times in chapter 14, he goes to them in the Garden and finds them asleep. The only one who has managed to stay awake is Judas. We’re told that the chief priests and scribes know better than to arrest Jesus in the daylight, when the crowds might object; Judas arranges it so they can arrest him secretly.

Only the time for secrets is over. At the trial, the religious authorities ask Jesus point blank if he is the Messiah. His response, for once, is unequivocal: “I am” (14:62). Meanwhile, Peter hopes that he can keep up the secrecy a little while longer. He hides in the outer darkness of the courtyard and hopes that he can follow without cost. But the secret is out; he’s spotted and called out as a follower of Jesus not once or twice, but three times. Finally, the cock crows a second time, and all of Peter’s attempts at secrecy and self-delusion are exposed. He remembers Jesus’ words, breaks down and weeps.

Consider the group gathered for the Last Supper – betrayers, deniers, deserters all. Jesus knows this full well and gives them his body and blood anyway. In the words of hymn writer Isaac Watts, “love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”