Thursday Evening After Passover

Thursday Evening after Passover

Mark 14:53-72

Rev. Dr. Michael Koplitz

53 They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together. 54 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 whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. 56 For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. 57 Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, 58 "We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'" 59 Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent. 60 The high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus, saying, "Do You not answer? 1What is it that these men are testifying against You?" 61 But He kept silent and did not answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying 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 to be deserving of death. 65 Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, and to say to Him, "cProphesy!" And the officers received Him with slaps in the face. 66 As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, "You also were with Jesus the Nazarene." 68 But he denied it, saying, "I neither know nor understand what you are talking about." And he went out onto the porch. 69 The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, "This is one of them!" 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, "Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too." 71 But he began to curse and swear, "I do not know this man you are talking about!" 72 Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, "Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times." And he began to weep.

Jesus stood his ground and to His conviction. When He was arrested, He said nothing. Jesus went willingly with the guards knowing that He was facing execution. In front of Caiaphas, he was quiet about His situation. Jesus walked the walk and talked the talk. He allowed the LORD's will to be "in charge" of Him to the very end. The Sanhedrin could not convict Him as a revolutionary, so they had to develop some other trumped upcharge. Blasphemy was undoubtedly the easiest to accuse Jesus of and the one that needed the least amount of credible facts.

If we use the church timeline as a basis of the narratives of Holy Week, this event occurred on Thursday evening. I forgot to mention that I am using the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, for the timeline. John's Gospel has a slightly different event schedule.

So, let's recap the week, OK? Jesus was doing his ministry for a while, mainly in the Galilee area. There were times He ventured out of that area but not that often. The religious leaders in Jerusalem knew of Him in the same way they knew about John the Baptist. However, Jesus was no big threat to them. There were plenty of itinerant preachers that said they were the Messiah.

However, then Palm Sunday occurred. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on that Sunday, people were cheering for Him. Honestly, we don't know if the people were His traveling crowd or people from the city. It does not matter. The celebration of a holy man entering the city and receiving the praise of a parade alerted the religious and government overseers to Jesus' presence.

During the Passover, the Zealots started riots. It was a time that many pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. The city was bulging with people. Jesus and His followers had to sleep in the Garden of Gethsemane because there were no rooms available. They secured a room for Jesus to celebrate the Passover with them is remarkable. Things were going well for Jesus and His entourage. The evening after the Passover meal, they turned from celebration to aggravation.