The Arrest Of Jesus - Mark 14:41-52 Series

Jesus leads the 12 into battle even though he knows they will fail. When the hour comes, you’ll have to face the battle, ready or not. Jesus fights this battle on four fronts. Front #1: Judas (Jesus fights dis-couragement by calling out to Abba, Father). Front #2: the rogue disciple who jeopardizes the whole gospel. Jesus fights that front by reminding him of the mission (the gospel), which can’t be achieved by the sword. Front #3: He exposes their sinfulness and points them to prophecy about him. Front #4: Jesus takes upon himself the garments of our shame and clothes us in his righteousness.

Mark 14:41 Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

43 Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. 44 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard." 45 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Rabbi!" and kissed him. 46 The men seized Jesus and arrested him.

47 Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cut-ting off his ear.

48 "Am I leading a rebellion," said Jesus, "that you have come out with swords and clubs to cap-ture me? 49 Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled."

50 Then everyone deserted him and fled. 51 A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, 52 he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

Introduction

Imagine yourself waking up from a deep sleep. It takes you a minute to even realize where you are. You feel the hard ground, you shiver. Man, it’s freezing out here. O, right, we’re up here at Geth-semane ... uh oh. You see the look on Jesus’ face. This is the third time he’s come back and had to wake you up and he’s not happy.

Mark 14:41 Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

I mentioned last time that’s military language—like saying, “Forward, march!” Jesus is letting them know they are headed into battle. And he’s letting us know as well. We’re going to learn a lot from Jesus here about spiritual warfare.

From this point on, the mood totally changes. In Gethsemane we see pathos—extreme emotion, tears, desperation, weakness. Mark shows us the passions roiling inside Jesus’ heart. After v.43 there’s no sign of that. Jesus stands with calm, strong, unruffled, poise.

In the Garden, Jesus was worked up and the disciples were asleep. Now he’s calm while they pan-ic. Why? Because Jesus understands what’s happening. There are a lot of characters in this drama, and Jesus is the only human in the scene who has any idea what’s actually going on. Jesus had prayed, “Your will be done, Father.” And he understands what he’s doing is watching the answer to that pray-er. The rest of the book is nothing but God’s will unfolding and coming to fruition. And Jesus has spent the whole night in prayer coming to grips with that.

Or to put it another way, look at verse 49 where Jesus explains why everything was happening the way it was happening.

Mark 14:49 … the Scriptures must be fulfilled.

God had a plan for how this was going to go, it was set in stone, sealed in the pages of prophecy, and we’re about to see it unfold.

Ready or Not, You Must Face the Battle

So back to our scene. You wake up, Jesus is back again, and he says this:

41 … "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come.”

A more natural way to translate this would be, “Do you plan on sleeping indefinitely? Do you think it’s far off? No. The hour has already come.” Then he points down the hill.

41 … Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes the one handing me over!"

The disciples are supposed to be the ones keeping watch while Jesus prayed, and he ends up hav-ing to tell them to wake up because Judas is coming. That’s like if you had to wake up your guard dog and drag him on a leash to go confront intruders.