The Silence of the Lamb - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

Last week we looked at Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane and how He provided us with an example for dealing with the messy, chaotic, painful events in our life.

Have you ever been in a situation where you were falsely accused of something or where your actions were misread and it caused a problem? I think most of us in that situation feel compelled to set the record straight and make sure the people involved understand what really happened. Do you ever wonder why we have such a huge desire to be understood? What’s our motivation?

Let’s think of it in another way what if we couldn’t or wouldn’t defend ourselves or attempt to clear up misunderstandings?

Would it be safe to say that the main reason we do it is to protect ourselves and in most cases protect our reputation? Deep down we all care about what other people think about us don’t we? It eats away at us when we’re misunderstood or falsely accused and we can’t stand it.

We’ve seen the fall out from this kind of thing and we know it’s not pretty. People talk and they almost prefer to believe the rumors and accusations. Guilty until proven innocent may be true in the eyes of the law but it’s not true for the court of public opinion.

We’ve all seen the injustice that goes with this kind of thing and if we’re honest we’d have to say we’re guilty of doing it ourselves.

I know that I can be very judgmental at times especially when it comes to people who I don’t like very well or live in a certain way that I don’t like. I think we can all be like that at times and we have a tendency to blur or ignore the line between being informed and gossip.

But even worse than that is when we have the ability to defend someone who is being falsely accused or misrepresented and we shrink back from doing it because we don’t want to get involved or if the person is taking an unpopular stance or has become the subject of ridicule we want to stay away because we don’t want our reputation to suffer.

It’s easier to allow them to take the hit and suffer isolation than to risk being hurt and outcast ourselves.

In situations like this there are always two kinds of guilt the guilt of commission and the guilt of omission. Commission means I did something to hurt someone and omission means I failed to do something that hurt someone.

Today the story of Jesus’ final night before His crucifixion takes us through both of these situations….

Let’s read Mark 14:53-15:5

In vs. 53-65 Jesus faces the first of His accusers. There’s some debate as to whether this was an illegal trial or simply a fact finding inquiry but it doesn’t really matter because the intent of the religious leaders was clear; they wanted to get rid of Jesus. They were so desperate they brought in willing accomplices to lie and give false testimony about Jesus.

The reason they went to this trouble is because not all of the elders were involved in the plot or had knowledge of what was going on. Since this group of people weren’t in on the conspiracy they could stop what was going on so they needed to be convinced.

When you look at this scene it was laughable. The witness didn’t agree on anything and when they finally found something they did agree on they couldn’t even get that story straight. When you look back at the other attempts that were made to entrap Jesus it’s obvious that it would have been easy for Jesus to defeat them but He chose to remain silent.

When the High Priest had finally had enough of the circus in front of him he decided to directly accuse Jesus and he went with a charge that was sure to get everyone’s approval, blasphemy. Jesus had remained silent until this but He knew that answering this question directly would lead to His death. It’s interesting that Jesus answered by saying “I am” which is the covenant name of God but didn’t use that phrase when Pilate questioned Him. To Pilate it wouldn’t mean anything but to the religious leaders it was blasphemous. We know Jesus was the Christ, but they were blinded to that fact.

Blasphemy was punishable by death in the Jewish religion but because they were under Roman control they couldn’t put anyone to death so they had to convince Pilate to do it.

That’s why they take Jesus to Pilate in 15:1-5. But he wouldn’t do it because of a religious offense. The other gospels reveal that the religious leaders changed their accusation from blasphemy to revolutionary. Before Pilate they accused Him of saying He was the King of the Jews. That would put Jesus in direct opposition to Roman rule. That’s why Pilate asks Jesus “Are you the king of the Jews?” and that’s why Jesus answers with “You said it!”

Jesus’ silence in the face of such strong accusations caused Pilate to marvel, or admire Him. I’m sure Pilate had seen plenty of men try to cut a deal or become argumentative. But Jesus remained silent and didn’t put up any defense. Jesus knew that His silence meant a death sentence and that people would turn on Him but He did it anyway. The fact that Pilate marveled seems to say that he knew Jesus wasn’t guilty of the things He was accused of and that there was a certain something about Him that didn’t add up.

Then right in the middle of these two trials vs. 66-72 we see the story of Peter’s denial. It actually starts in vs. 54. It says that Peter followed at a distance. Doesn’t that seem to be where trouble starts for those who follow Jesus? When we make the decision to follow Jesus at a safe distance we’re already in the first steps of denial. We really can’t play it safe and follow Jesus it just doesn’t work out so well.

What comes next in Peter’s story is just the natural outcome of playing it safe. We won’t ever know Peter’s specific reasons for denying Jesus this side of heaven, but I think we all know why because we’ve all done it at some level.

It’s ironic that the man who would put Jesus to death admired Him and the man who followed Jesus denied Him.

Peter knew he had done something that he personally would have refused to forgive. Abandoning and denying a friend in need was disgraceful and Peter knew it and he was moved to tears of remorse and regret. He knew the depth of his sin and it hurt deeply.

We might be able to give ourselves a pass if we’ve never directly denied Jesus but have we failed to speak up when someone if being talked about or falsely accused or mistreated? Jesus said that whatever we do or don’t do for others we do to Him.

But I think we need to understand something, even though Peter denied Jesus, Jesus never let go of him. It doesn’t excuse Peter’s actions but it does show us the depth of Jesus’ love and grace.

So how do we respond? What should we do? I think the best place to start is by staying close to Jesus and to love as He has loved. Refuse to believe the lie that staying out of a situation or remaining silent when we should speak up or defend someone who is being hurt is ok.

Reckless compassion means that I will follow Jesus even when it costs me something especially my reputation. In fact Jesus warned us to be careful when people say good things about us.

We don’t have to be admired or respected but we do need to follow Jesus closely.