Your Story Doesn’t End Here

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Our journey through the gospel of Mark is nearing its end. And today we come to what may be Mark's climactic text. I know that we would usually think of the crucifixion scene, which is next week, or the resurrection, which is appropriately on Easter, uh, as the climactic scenes in the gospel. But if you are hearing this text alongside the original hearers of the gospel of Mark, then you already know that the crucifixion and resurrection is coming, the central features of the Christ story.

But because Mark is telling this as the very first narrative rendering of the story of Jesus, of all four of our gospels, Mark was the first one written and the first in the genre that we call a gospel. Prior to this, all the early church had was Paul's letters, which are not a narrative. This is the first time anyone is hearing the narrative of the life of Jesus. If that were you in that early church setting, hearing this gospel for the first time, read in worship, what you wouldn't have heard yet are all the details that lead up to crucifixion and resurrection. And Mark has drawn us really carefully into this moment.

Up to this point, Jesus had, has gathered with his closest friends for a meal where he takes the bread and the cup and he tells them, “This is my body and my blood when you eat it and drink it, remember me.” And if that wasn't dramatic enough, he also told them that one of them is sitting at the table, would betray him, and then he turns to Peter the stalwart, disciple, the exemplar of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And Jesus says that even he, Peter will deny him. And Peter responds, “Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.” And all of the disciples agreed that that was true for them too.

Then they go out to the garden to pray the text that Maggie preached last week, and all of them fall asleep awakened by words confronting them with their inability to stay awake with him in his distress, even for one hour. And then the betrayer arrives. Judas, one of their very own who's been with them from the beginning, one who had been at the table with them just the night before. And he gives Jesus over to the armed mob who has come to capture him. And we do not know where the other disciples went after that. In fact, uh, we never hear about any of the male disciples again in the gospel of Mark. The only ones aside from Peter in today's text that we hear about are the women disciples of Jesus who had come with him from Galilee to Jerusalem and who never left his side. They will become clear in the next chapter that only the women followers of Jesus have remained faithfully with him throughout. They are the only ones who appear again after today and they follow him all the way to the cross.

But today it is just Jesus and Peter in our scene. And even Peter keeps his distance from Jesus. The text says this:

Then they took Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes were assembled. Peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest and he was sitting with the guards warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none for many gave false testimony against him and their testimony did not agree. Some stood up and gave false testimony against him saying, we heard him say, “I will destroy the temple that is made with hands and in three days I will build another not made with hands.” But even on this point, their testimony did not agree.

Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you but he was silent and did not answer? Again the high priest asked him, are you the Messiah? The son of the blessed one? Jesus said, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven.

One thing that we must correct in the preaching of this text today is the history of antisemitism bound up in the traditional interpretation of this text. Everyone in this text, just to be clear about this matter, everyone in this text, the priest, the elders, the scribes all the way to Jesus and Peter are all Jewish. The only entity not Jewish in this text are the officials of the Roman Empire who carry out the state execution.

So this is an important example of horizontal violence, which Warren Carter describes as a phenomenon that occurs as local oppressed groups replace direct confrontations with the oppressor, which they know they cannot win with violent attacks on other oppressed groups and rival figures who might threaten their status and power. It's a phenomenon that we see all the way up through our own day today when people who struggle under the oppression of a more powerful entity fight one another and are instigated to destroy one another so that they don't join in solidarity against the powers that actually oppress them.

And what's important to see in this text is that those who accuse him and those who put him on trial do see him as a genuine threat to the authentic religious expression of their people. This isn't a sham trial. The statements that they make seem loosely based on something that he had said prior to this. In the gospel, though, the details don't quite match up, and the remembering is a little spotty like eyewitness testimony often is, and none of their testimony is sufficient to condemn him. So they ask Jesus directly, “Are you the Messiah, the son of the blessed one?” And Jesus said to them, “I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

Now, you might not recognize at first since this season has been spread out over many, many, many, many months. Now it's coming to a close. You might not recognize at first if you've heard parts of this series, but this is the very first time in Mark's gospel that Jesus says anything definitive about his identity at all. In fact, up to this point, whenever anyone else recognizes the spark of the divine identity in the life of Jesus, he tells them not to tell anyone to keep it to themselves. That's what scholars have called the Messianic Secret. It's a feature of the gospel of Mark. Jesus is constantly telling people not to tell anyone who he is.

The one and only time when Jesus says with clarity that he is indeed the Messiah, the son of the blessed one is at his own trial, when being set free depends on him saying, “I am not” to this question. And instead he says, “I am.” The Messianic Secret that has been kept in Mark all the way up to this point in this story, washes away with the very words that Jesus speaks that will condemn himself to death. And immediately the text says:

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, why do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision? And all of them condemned him as deserving death. Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, to strike him, saying prophesy. The guards also took him and beat him.

Jesus's courageous words are remarkable when we hear them spoken in face of certain death, he iterates a hope and a promise that would come, saying, “You'll see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven,” but this promise would be too late to save his own life. His punishment begins in that moment, beating and taunting. And then we are reminded that Peter is also in this scene. He's been there all along outside the house where the trial is taking shape. He has followed Jesus at a distance up to this point and the narrative then zooms back out on his presence and says this:

While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the female servants of the high priest came by. When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, you also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth. But he denied it saying, I do not know or understand what you were talking about. And he went out to the fore court and then the cock crowed.

Peter is on trial in this scene too. Jesus for the first time in the gospels is forthright about his own identity and is condemned to death. Peter lies about even knowing Jesus in order to save his own life. In Peter's trial, his conscience is the judge. The first question is from the enslaved woman of the high priest. She's the one who poses the question, and it's just to Peter all alone. Then the second question comes again from this same enslaved woman, but this time there's a crowd around witnessing what's happening and it heightens the drama. It says the female servant on seeing him began again to say to the bystanders, this man is one of them, but he denied it. The third question in Peter's trial of conscience comes from the bystanders themselves, bringing the drama to its peak. The text says:

Then after a little while, the bystanders again said to Peter, certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean and you talk like one. But he began to curse and he swore an oath. I do not know this man you were talking about at that moment, the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

He followed at a distance, a disciple not wanting too close, an association with Jesus who is being brought to trial. He ends the scene swearing a formal oath, disavowing that he even knows who Jesus is. And for the first hearers of Mark's gospel, that early church at the end of the first century reading or hearing for the first time, this story told in the context of worship as well as for us, we've been invited to see ourselves in the life of the disciples the whole way through Mark's gospel narrative.

And we arrive with Peter, the paragon disciple at the climactic scene in the gospel when Jesus himself reveals the fullness of his identity for the very first time. Yet the last words that we ever hear from Peter in the entire gospel narrative are these: “I do not know this man you are talking about.” And the last act of Peter, who has been so brave and bold throughout the story, albeit not always knowing what he's doing, ends his final scene on the stage of the gospel drama by breaking down and weeping. And we never see nor hear from him again in the text of Mark's story of Jesus.

I love the gospel of Mark because of Mark's ability to heighten the drama of the story. His details are always sparse, never getting bogged down in the weeds. His action is always really fast. It's the shortest of the four gospels, and his favorite word is “immediately.” It appears 41 times in the gospel of Mark, which is more than the rest of the New Testament books combined. And he doesn't answer every question for his readers. Even at the very end, which you'll get in a couple of weeks, we're taken up to the cliff and then left there.

What happens to Peter, who cannot stay awake in Jesus' hour of deepest need, who follows at a distance as Jesus is taken to trial, who is put on his own trial of conscience and digs himself deeper and deeper into denial of his status as a disciple in order to save his own life, only to break down in tears at the end—what happens to him? We do not know. That's where Mark leaves Peter.

Yet the original hearers of the gospel of Mark, those early Christians hearing this text for the very first time read in worship, they do know what happened to Peter. Presumably that early group of Christ followers listening to this text read in worship sometime at the end of the first century know very well, as they're 40, 50, 60 years out from the story, that Peter became the leader of the early Christian movement in Jerusalem. The original hearers of the gospel of Mark likely know that Peter was also eventually martyred for his faith, also by the Roman Empire who executed Jesus. Peter is a hero of the faith to them, a paragon disciple. And the Catholic Church tradition even says that he is the first pope.

But in the story itself, Mark feels no need to rescue Peter's reputation by tidying up his place. At the end of the story, Peter's last words are to swear a formal oath that he doesn't even know Jesus. And his last act is to break down weeping, an utter failure as a follower of Jesus. And that's how the first hearers of the story, who know what Peter became, see themselves in his faltering discipleship—following at a distance.

You may have heard that the Christian gospel, the good news, is that it's a gospel of second chances. But that's not quite accurate. It is the gospel of second chances and third chances, and even a gospel that ends with the paragon of faith and discipleship faltering in his own faith when it counted the most and breaking down in utter despair over his failure of conscience. And yet, let the reader understand, that is not the end of Peter's story.

Mark consistently leaves details of his narrative untied and even unfinished, because the rest of the story for Mark is what happens next in the life of the readers—for Peter, whose faith and following at a distance is found lacking, and yet who becomes the leader of the Christian movement in the decade that follows. And it's also true for you, whose faith may also feel lacking at times. You who try to follow the ways of Jesus but faltering are at a distance—even for you, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. And even if you faltered the first and the second and the third time, and even if you think the story is over for you, there's still another chance.

That's the beauty of what Mark is saying in not so many words: that if it's true for Peter, then it's true for you too. And that is the good news of the gospel.