Good through Bad
God often uses bad people to accomplish his good purposes. Throughout history, both the inspired history of the Bible and the wider history of the world, God has achieved his goals through sinful people.
Indeed, how could God get anything done in the world if he didn’t use flawed and broken and rebellious and sinful people? God’s purposes aren’t thwarted by sin and sinners. They actually include the actions of moral agents, making the existence of any good in our world truly remarkable. What a gift of grace that so much good happens in a world with so many bad people like us!
God’s Will Carried out by Bad People
As we continue our study of Mark’s Gospel, continuing our way through Mark’s Passion narrative (chs. 14-16), one of the overarching themes throughout this section is how Jesus, the Righteous One, is killed by unrighteous ones. This is perhaps the greatest example of how God uses bad people to accomplish his good purposes.
This principle is on full display in our text this morning, Mark 14:43-52. In this text, we’ll see God’s good plan continue to unfold, a plan full of treachery and cowardice. In our text, we meet the kisser (vv. 43-47), the kissed (vv. 48-49), and the cowards (vv. 50-52).
The Kisser
In verses 43-47, we meet the kisser. Remember what I said two weeks ago. None of this takes Jesus by surprise. He’s not a tragic hero caught in a web of unfortunate circumstances. He shows no hint of desperation, fear, or anger as these events unfold. He knew exactly what was going to happen. He made that clear in verses 18-21. Verse 42 says that Jesus knew what was about to happen to him. He knows that something bad is about to happen, but he keeps entrusting himself and his future to his heavenly Father.
We learned back in verses 10-11 that it would be Judas Iscariot who’d betray Jesus. Mark confirms this in verse 43. He tells us again that it’s “one of the twelve” who’s betraying Jesus. He wants his readers to grasp the uncomfortable fact that Jesus’ demise begins in his inner circle. It’s one of Jesus’ trusted followers who sells him out.
This means two things for us by way of application. First, it means that proximity to Jesus doesn’t mean that we love Jesus. We can know all about Jesus, even have tasted the goodness of his word and seen his power and not have a heart that’s surrendered to him. You may know lots of stuff about Jesus, but the real question is whether you love him. If you haven’t been born again by the Spirit of God, repented of your sins, and put all your hope in Jesus, you may be close to him, but you don’t belong to him.
Secondly, it means that Jesus knows what betrayal feels like. He’s felt the cold sting of a knife in the back. Jesus experienced the pain of someone close to him using and abusing him. Have you ever experienced this? If you have, go to Jesus. Tell him how you feel. He won’t turn you away and tell you to get over it. He’ll hold you close because he understands. As you rest in him, remember that he was betrayed for your redemption. He loves you so much that he allowed one of his best friends to drive a dagger through his heart. That’s the kind of love that you can’t find anywhere else. It’s the kind of love that changes you. It’s the kind of love worth telling someone about.
Verse 43 says that Judas came with “a crowd with swords and clubs” who were sent “from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders,” that is, the Sanhedrin. The jealous rage of the religious authorities has finally boiled over. They’re finally about to silence the man they hate so much. Or so they thought.
Verse 44 says that Judas gave them a signal that would trigger the sting operation. He’ll kiss the one who’s supposed to be arrested. What a remarkable way to point out the man who’s supposedly a danger to society.
Verse 45 says that Judas did just as he planned. This has been called the “kiss of death.” In a remarkable paradox, an act of love is used to carry out a mission of hate. The language here tells us that this wasn’t just a peck on the cheek, but a lavish and even passionate kiss. This was a sign of deep affection and honor turned on its head in order to begin the mockery of Jesus.
Picture this moment. One of Jesus’ closest friends, a man who’d seen him raise the dead, walk on water, calm a storm, heal the sick, cast out demons, and teach the Word of God with power comes up to Jesus, grabs his face, says, “Greetings, Rabbi!” (Matt. 26:49), and kisses him with enough affection to make any man uncomfortable. And he does all of this for a show.
Judas doesn’t love Jesus. He loves money. He doesn’t respect Jesus. He respects the religious authorities. He’s pretending like he and Jesus are close friends when in reality he’s selling him out. This was hypocrisy in the highest degree. Judas’ outward sign of affection meant nothing because his heart was empty of true love for Jesus. Judas kissed Jesus but loved himself.
What about you? How many times have you kissed Jesus through some outward display of religion while your heart remained unchanged by his grace? We must never confuse outward displays of religion with true affection and love for Jesus. Jesus says that those who worship God must worship him in spirit and truth (Jn. 4:23-24). God sees through our religious games. He knows when we’re honoring him with our lips while our hearts are far from him.
Judas was the epitome of faithless Israel, and of many professing Christians in America today, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips while their hearts are using him for selfish gain. The good news is that Jesus has grace for people like that. Anyone who confesses their treachery and trusts in Jesus will be forgiven and embraced by Jesus. The One we’ve betrayed can become our friend.
This kiss triggers the sting and Jesus is arrested (v. 46). In the commotion, someone took out a sword and whacked a guy’s ear off (v. 47). Mark doesn’t tell us who this is but John says that it’s Peter (18:10). Luke tells us that Jesus touches the guy’s ear and heals him (22:51). John tells us that this man’s name was Malchus and that he was the servant of the high priest (18:10). This likely means that Jesus heals the man who was leading the raid against him that night.
Jesus has always had mercy for his enemies. Whereas we would’ve thought that Malchus got what he deserved, Jesus had mercy on his enemy, giving him what he didn’t deserve. Jesus knew that the Father sent him to show mercy to sinners, so when he arose from prayer in the Garden that night, he was resolved to do that in every way possible, starting with Malchus.
The Kissed
In the middle of this chaotic scene, God is using terrible people to show off the glory of his grace in his Son. His will is unfolding just as planned. Jesus’ commitment to this plan is made clear in the next two verses. In verses 48-49, we see the one kissed.
The temple police come out ready for a fight, which turned out to be serious overkill because Jesus surrenders peacefully. He wonders why they didn’t arrest him in the temple where he was teaching every day in plain sight to all (v. 49). He’s upset that they see him as a “robber” or “bandit” when they know that’s not true (v. 48).
How could Jesus just stand there while he was wrongfully arrested? Why didn’t he make a run for it when he saw Judas and the mob approaching? The end of verse 49 has our answer, “But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” Jesus told them that there was no need for force and that he was prepared to surrender without a fight because he knew that what was happening was God’s will.
It had long been prophesied that the Messiah must suffer. Isaiah 53 says that he’d be “oppressed” and “afflicted” and “cut off out of the land of the living,” despite the fact that “he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth” (vv. 7-9).
Jesus was resolved to be a victim of the severest injustice because he was resolved to fulfill God’s Word. He could’ve stopped all this in an instant. In Matthew’s account, he says to Peter, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled?” (26:52-54) In John’s account he says, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (18:11)
Jesus stands there and lets Judas kiss him, heals Malchus’s ear after Peter lops it off, and willingly surrenders to the authorities because he’s committed to drink the cup of God’s wrath toward sin and sinners (v. 36). Jesus chooses obedience to the Father rather than taking the easy way out by calling an army of angels. He allows himself to be taken into custody because he’s constrained by the joy of purchasing a people from all the people’s of the world through his death for the praise of God’s name.
In other words, Jesus is arrested because he’s already arrested by a higher purpose. He’s living for the glory of God and he knows that God’s will includes his suffering and death. He’s not complaining about how bad everyone is treating him or about how unfair everything is. He’s calmly entrusting himself to his Father who loves him.
The Cowards
Jesus’ disciples have a slightly different reaction to all that’s happening (v. 50). They run away like cowards as soon as Jesus is arrested. This is exactly what Jesus said would happen back in verse 27. They all drank the cup (v. 23), they all pledged to die with him (v. 31), and they all deserted Jesus when they realized that he was resolved to be arrested.
But then Mark adds two verses that the other Gospel writers don’t have (vv. 51-52). Though they seem insignificant, these verses are really important, and it’s not because they’re the first recorded streaker in history!
Why does Mark tell us about this “young man”? Some scholars argue that this is Mark writing himself into the story, kind of like how Stan Lee, the creator of many of the Marvel superheroes, shows up in many of the Marvel movies. Some say that this is Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead just days earlier, but whose identity needed to remain anonymous because the authorities were trying to kill him as well.
At the very least, this “young man,” if not Mark himself, is an eyewitness who Mark relied on for this account. But Mark is likely doing something else here. He doesn’t just throw this anonymous guy in here randomly.
Look at the contrast between verses 50 and 51. All the disciples left Jesus, whereas this young man “followed him.” Unlike Jesus’ closest friends, this guy tries to keep following Jesus even as the temple police are escorting Jesus away. But even he runs away when the authorities try to arrest him. In the process, he loses his “linen cloth” and “ran away naked.” This guy did not want to go to jail!
What is Mark doing here? Why does he tell us this? New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham argues that Mark is ending the account of Jesus’ arrest by painting a climactic scene of terror and shame. The disciples are all running away and another guy is running away naked. Nakedness is a picture of shame in Scripture. There’s shame in what these guys are doing.
Mark’s point is that the ruling emotion in all these guys was the desire to save their own skin. The mood of the moment was, “Every man for themselves!” In verses 51-52, Mark is reinforcing the picture already painted in verse 50. Everyone close to Jesus is terrified and running away. To their shame, all of Jesus’ friends fled like cowards.
Perhaps Mark left this young man unnamed so that we can write our own name into the story. Mark is inviting us to examine our own readiness to abandon Jesus. Will we run away from him when things get crazy? Will we choose the shame of abandoning our Savior over the honor of staying with him in the midst of evil and tragic events? As a church, will we turn away from Jesus when following him starts to cost us something socially or financially or politically?
There Is One Who Did Not Turn Away
Like these guys, we’ve all turned and run away from God. The apostle Paul says that there are “None who are righteous, no, not one” and that “all have turned away” (Rom. 3:10, 12). All of us have turned away from God, have preferred to do our will rather than God’s will, have loved ourselves more than we’ve loved God, have lived by our own rules rather than God’s rules.
The Bible teaches that there are consequences for running away from God. Because we’ve run away from the God who made us, God is right and just to judge us. God is holy and must deal with those who’ve spurned him and mocked his Son with empty notions of love and affection.
But God is also merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In love, he sent his Son Jesus to live the life we should be living. Jesus is only One who never turned away from God. He lived to do the will of God. And yet, as the prophet Isaiah said, “He was despised and rejected by men” (Isa. 53:3). He was arrested and ultimately killed for crimes he didn’t commit. Why? For us! Isaiah goes on to say, “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…(he was) wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (vv. 4-6).
Though we’ve all turned and run away from God, Jesus did not. He did everything God wanted him to do. The promise of his gospel is that everyone who turns away from their sins and puts their trust in him will be forgiven of their rebellion and awarded his righteousness.
God used the evil of Judas’s betrayal and the cowardice of Jesus’ disciples to accomplish his good plan of saving people through the suffering of his Son. May God give us a resolve, like Jesus, to joyfully trust and obey him, even in the most chaotic and painful moments.