Mark's Portrayal of Jesus

The Gospel of Mark and the Pressure of Modern Skepticism

Your Bible's this morning, and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, Mark Chapter 14. The Gospel according to Mark, Chapter 14. Before we open the word of God, together let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that once again you would, by your Spirit, meet with us, lift up our hearts and our minds to understand your truth.

Help our unbelief, help us to have believing hearts and minds, eyes that see and ears that hear. We know that we are dependent upon your Spirit for this, in Christ's name, Amen. You just have to keep chipping away.

I remember a story, a report that I saw on television a few years ago about a man who had begun a major sculpture on a mountain up in, I think it was in Nebraska or Wyoming, somewhere up there where it's really, really cold right now.

There aren't very many people living there. And his son was now continuing on the work. It took so long, it's taking so long to do this, that it is a family affair. And they have to keep chipping away.

And of course, when you're doing something that large, you can spend an entire year on a nostril. You can spend an entire year on just one small little feature. You just have to keep chipping away and eventually you'll get to where you're going.

Well, that can be a positive exhortation. We need to keep chipping away at sanctification and working those areas in our lives that need improvement, that need to more reflect God's truth. But it also can be used in a negative way.

That is, the world is always chipping away at us. Chipping away at our belief. Chipping away at the foundation of our faith. In our day, this is happening from every direction. Not only do we see it in the media around us, but especially when the society, in more and more blatant ways, attacks the Christian faith and especially attacks the reliability of the Word of God.

Constantly chipping away. You can't help but hear it. You will see the great scholars on television. And they're talking about how the Gospels contradict one another. How they're unreliable. How Paul sort of took over the Christian faith and instead of it being the religion of Jesus, it becomes a religion about Jesus.

And so it goes on and on and on, chipping away. It's interesting that many of these individuals would claim either to still be Christians, ironically, or that they once were. Apostasy is not something that happens just overnight.

I've never met anybody who was an active member of a church who was teaching and who was living the Christian life. And then one day they just wake up and everything's different. There's always been a process.

Maybe the people in the church didn't see it. There's always been a process going on underneath that leads to those types of radical things. Today I want to address a very common claim that is made. It's made by many kinds of scholars.

But if it's made by scholarship today, it'll end up in popular media. If you have a computer, and if you go online, and most of us do that anymore. Some of you have been dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age.

Some of you have set your feet firmly and will not go there. But most of you have recognized the need to go there just as there are people who didn't like Gutenberg's folly either. But eventually they started using printed books too.

If you go online, if you communicate, if you read the newspaper, if you read that newspaper now online, I think newspapers will eventually go the way of the dodo bird. But if you do that, you have heard it said over and over again.

That the gospels contradict one another. That if you just read them the way you should read them, you would see that they're very different from one another. One of the claims that I have found to be amazing, some of you may recall, it was made in the debate that I did in 2005 in Seattle with Dr. John Dominick Crossan, was the great difference in the Gospel of Mark over against John, or even the Synoptic Gospels, in regards to Jesus' attitude about his own death.

What you hear over and over again, and sadly what you would even hear from pulpits in so-called churches in our land this day, go up to Indian School Road, take a left, travel a couple of miles, I guarantee you'd be hearing things similar to this, is this claim, that in Mark, Jesus is out of control.

He is being borne along by currents beyond his own understanding and his own purposes. That this death is something that he has no control over. He doesn't see it coming. He's being carried along by forces that he has no control over, but by the time you get to Luke, by the time you get to John, they've decided that's not a good presentation of Jesus anymore.

And so now we need to have a Jesus who is very much in control. A Jesus who is in control of the events around him. So from many a lectern during the coming semester, sadly from many a pulpit of a liberal quote-unquote church, it is said, if you just look at these texts, you would see Mark is so different.

Well I remember responding to that particular assertion during the debate, and there is just so much evidence found in the Gospel of Mark that says just the opposite. And so we're going to survey some of that evidence this morning.

Get your Bible up, be ready to move through some text. Remember a few weeks ago when we preached on the prophecies, we had to do some Bible page turning. Well, you're going to have to do that. I know some of you want to put that Bible in a very familiar spot.

Well, you're not going to be able to do that. We're going to have to move along just a little bit here. So beginning in chapter 14, the first bit of evidence I want to present to you is Jesus' anointing in Bethany, beginning in verse 3.

Jesus' Anointing in Bethany and His Awareness of Burial

Now while Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of costly aromatic oil. It was pure nard. It was very, very expensive. After breaking open the jar, she poured it on his head.

But some who were present indignantly said to one another, Why this waste of this expensive ointment? It could have been sold for more than 300 silver coins. Gives you an idea how expensive this was. And the money given to the poor.

And so they spoke angrily to her. But Jesus said, Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good service for me. For you will always have the poor with you. And you can do good for them whenever you want.

But you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She anointed my body beforehand for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Now, it is not my intention to examine each one of these texts and exegete them in the way we normally would. Our overarching purpose is, does Mark portray Jesus as someone who is just being carried along by forces that are outside of his control?

He doesn't know what's coming. He doesn't have a purpose in all these things. It seems to me that right here we hear Jesus. And he knows. He has already set his face to go to Jerusalem. We've already had the events.

He knows that if he was trying to avoid confrontation, this is not where he wants to be. He doesn't want to be going to Jerusalem. He doesn't want to be teaching in the temple, in the very precincts where the men who hate him most have the most power.

And here, this woman anoints his head. And what does he say? You will not always have me with you. What's he referring to? Well, he makes it very clear. She anointed my body beforehand for burial. Now, there is no question that this is a part of the original gospel of Mark.

Mark presents Jesus as fully aware of his coming, death, and burial. And defends the woman's action on that very basis. He seems to know that the gospel is going to be proclaimed in the whole world. So often we are told, Oh, well, you know, Jesus just wanted...

He was just a Jewish Messiah, you know. And he just wanted to start truth and justice amongst the people of Israel. He never had any idea about church, preaching of the gospel, going to the whole world.

All that was later reflection. But here, Jesus speaks the gospel. He proclaimed the whole world. And what this woman has done will be told in memory of her. And we have the reference to the betrayal of Jesus in verses 10 and 11.

And then we have the reference to the preparation of the Passover. Jesus sends the disciples in, beginning in verse 12. And then we have the whole story of the establishment of the Lord's Supper. Verse 17, Then when it was evening, he came to the house of the twelve, while they were at the table eating, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me will betray me.

They were distressed, and one by one they said to him, Is it I? He said to them, It is one of the twelve, one who dips his hand with me in the bowl. The Son of Man will go as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

It would be better for him if he had never been born. So once again, what is Jesus talking about? There's going to be a betrayal. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed. The Son of Man will go as it is written about him.

Jesus sees fulfillment of Scripture in his own experience. Again, we're commonly told, Again, it's just an early church, writing these things down. But here, in what even the liberal scholars say is the most primitive gospel, the first one written, is Jesus portrayed as one out of control?

Does he see this coming? Or does he see his burial? His betrayal? The Scripture is being fulfilled. The Son of Man will go as it is written about him. Hmm. It seems to be right there on the surface of the text.

And then, the Lord's Supper, while they were eating, he takes bread. After giving thanks, he broke it, gave it, and said, Take, if this is my body. After taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

And he said to them, This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many. I tell you the truth, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

And after seeing him, they went out to the Mount of Olives. What are you doing talking about the new covenant in my blood? How can any of this be understood outside of the coming sacrifice and the certainty of it?

Here in the Passover meal, where everything on the table has such deep meaning, it is symbolic. The bitter herbs. These are Jewish people. This is a part of their very identity. And so when Jesus takes the bread and he breaks it and he gives it to them, he says, This is my body.

First of all, they never would have thought about transubstantiation or anything else. They're in the Passover. Every herb has had a meaning. Every cup of wine has had a meaning to them. So this is my body.

It has meaning to them. What meaning could it have outside of his talking about going to Jerusalem, being betrayed, dying and being buried and rising again on the third day? This is my covenant, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out to many.

Clearly, this is a Jesus who knows exactly what he's doing. He has a mission. And he is fulfilling that mission. I don't know where you get the ideas out of control, but that's what people say. Then Jesus said to them, verse 27, You will all fall away.

For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered. Zechariah 13. But after I am raised, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. After I am raised. Raised from what? Well, raised from the dead.

And of course you have Peter's protestation, I will never deny you, but Peter says before the clock froze 93 times. Peter says, it won't happen. Frequently, the idea comes from two things. But they're not things that are found only in Mark, which is what confuses me.

And that is the prayer in Gethsemane and then words from the cross. Beginning in verse 32, Jesus takes disciples into Gethsemane, a place they had been many times before, on the Mount of Olives. It's a place where olives were grown, which is why it was called the Mount of Olives.

They had found a cave there where they had the olive presses. It's probably a place that Jesus and disciples frequented often. And here in this garden, He announced them that His soul is deeply grieved, and He goes away to pray by Himself.

And His words in verse 36 are, He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me, yet not what I will, but You will. We are told that He repeats this prayer. And evidently, even though this is not the only place where this is found, there are many who would see in this an unwillingness on Christ's part.

That this is where He's being moved by forces outside of Himself. Those very same people would not be willing to allow Jesus to be who the New Testament reveals Him to be and to consider that what we have here is the very consideration of the pure, perfect, sinless Son of God.

Think about it for a moment. An eternal experience of purity. An eternal experience of perfect fellowship with the Father. And yet, what is going to happen on the cross? What is the purpose of the Father, Son, and Spirit in the Son going to the cross?

But for the Son to become sin for us, to use Paul's words, to bear the very punishment in Himself on the tree. Notice the beginning, Abba. Father, it is a term of endearment. This is one of those few places where we are able to listen in to inter-Trinitarian communication, the Father and the Son.

The Son, very naturally, as the God-Man, expresses His deep desire, indeed, one that flows from the revulsion that would have to be His, and what He is about to endure in our lives. He would not be the God-Man, either God or man, if knowing what was going to take place, knowing that the fullness of the wrath of God was going to fall upon Him in the place of His people, if He just simply, with a light-hearted attitude, skipped toward the cross.

No. The very consideration. Though it had been considered in eternity past, now it is about to happen in time. And the Son agonizes in prayer. Luke tells us that He sweat, as it were, drops of blood. He was agonizing in prayer.

Does this mean He was afraid? No. I don't know that any one of us could even begin to assign an emotional concept to what He who has eternally experienced pure fellowship with the Father would be experiencing in the contemplation of His own becoming sin.

Experiencing the wrath of God. So He comes and He finds the disciples sleeping. Stay awake. Pray that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. Praise this prayer three times.

Then, the Son of Man, verse 41, is being betrayed in the hands of sinners. Betrayer is approaching. So then you have Judas coming. Jesus does not run. Right away while Judas was still speaking, Judas won the twelve king.

With him came a crowd armed with swords and clubs and the chief priests and the experts in the law and the elders, the scribes. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I kiss is the man.

Arrest him and lead him away under guard. When Judas arrived, he went up to Jesus immediately and said, Rabbi, kiss him. And they took hold of him and arrested him. One of the bystanders, we know who that was, from another gospel, drew his sword and struck the high priest's sleigh cutting off his ear.

Jesus said to them, Have you come with swords and clubs to arrest me like you would an outlaw? Day after day I was with you teaching the temple courts yet you did not arrest me. But this has happened so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

It doesn't strike me that these great scholars who stand before their classes are really accurately representing the Jesus of the Gospel of Mark. This has happened so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

There is an amazing power that comes to one who sees his experiences as being the will of God. The disciples left and fled, but Jesus knows. Jesus knows that He is doing the will of the Father. Notice what happens then in the encounter before the high priest.

All sorts of false testimony is given. Verse 58, Well, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands in three days, build another not made with hands. Yet even on that, they couldn't get their stories straight.

They didn't understand what temple Jesus was talking about. Then the high priest stands up and he asks Jesus in verse 60, Do you not answer? What is this they are testifying against you? But he was silent and did not answer.

Again, the high priest questioned him. Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? Are you the Mashiach? Are you the Anointed One? Jesus said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.

Daniel chapter 7, verse 13. When Jesus does respond, He responds with words they cannot possibly understand. Notice then the high priest tore his clothes and said, Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy.

What is your decision? What is your verdict? It doesn't sound like someone who is trying to avoid something. Someone is trying to escape, standing before your accusers. Not only do you not point out the inconsistency in their stories, not only do you correct their errors, but then when asked if you are the Mashiach, the Messiah, and of course answering positively to that question, you know in that context, you know in that day what the result is going to be, especially standing before the people you are standing before.

He not only says, I am, but then he identifies himself with one described in the book of Daniel who is clearly divine, who has servants who worship Him. The high priest tears his clothes, a sign of great emotional upheaval.

They all condemned him as deserving death. Is that not what Jesus had said? So then begins the beating, the mistreatment. We have Peter's denials, the end of the chapter, and then early in the morning, chapter 15, the chief priests, the scribes, the whole Sanhedrin, hand Jesus over to Pilate.

Pilate asks him the question, are you the king of the Jews? He replied, so you said. The chief priests began to accuse him repeatedly. Pilate asked him, have you nothing to say? Jesus makes no reply to those specific charges.

So then Pilate was amazed. People say, oh see it says, Jesus made no reply. So Mark had never talked to Pilate, but John decides to insert this type of thing, not ever allowing specific context to speak to a specific thing.

But Pilate releases Barabbas, and Jesus again condemned. What do you want me to do? Verse 12, the one you call the king of the Jews. They replied, they shout, crucify him. Pilate's response is, why? What has he done wrong?

Would they shout more insistently, crucify him? So Pilate satisfies the crowd, releases Barabbas, has Jesus flogged, and he hands him over to be crucified. Then we have the mocking of Jesus. I suppose I should at least make note in passing that while this mockery, this beating, the crown of thorns, would have been indeed a violent and horrible thing to see, nowhere do the New Testament writers expand upon this, glorify this, dwell upon this, as we will see in each gospel.

Even when they record the crucifixion, they do so as a sub-clause in a sentence. They do not dwell upon the gory details. They did not need to do so. There are some who feel there is a need for that, but that is not a biblical perspective.

And so you have the mockery of Jesus. They lead him away to crucify him. Simon of Cyrene is tapped. Notice Mark knows that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. To help carry the cross, they take Jesus to a place called Beldotho, the place of the skull.

They offer him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. He is in control of himself. Then they crucify him and divide his clothes, casting lots, throwing dice for them, decide what each would take.

Then notice that we are told that it was a certain time of day, and people say, ah, see, Mark and John say different things. That's because Mark is using the Jewish rendering of time. John uses the Roman rendering of time.

That is why there is a difference between the two. When you allow for that, they are saying the exact same time, actually. And over his head, inscription, the King of the Jews. You have the outlaws, the mockery of the people.

Then you have the second reason why many would say, see, in Mark, Jesus dies alone and forsaken. And that is in verse 34. Jesus cries out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken?

And so people look at that text, and they say, see, Jesus believes He's been forsaken by God. He's dying alone. Now, of course, these very same folks will say, now, you can't take each of the Gospels and allow each one of them to focus upon its own audience for its own purposes.

You can't do that. And so you can't take the other sayings from other Gospels. You can't bring them together to have a full picture. No, no, no, no, no. These have to be read independently of one another and in a way contradictory to one another.

That's where you start these days. Not surprising they don't really get very far when they follow that idea. For when it says, for example, in verse 37, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and readers laughed.

Why do you cry out? Well, we can't go someplace else to find out. We can't go to other contemporaneous accounts to find out. No, no, no, you're not allowed to do that. We know when He cries out. It is finished.

But was Jesus claiming to be forsaken by God? I don't believe so. Now, I know. I take somewhat of a minority viewpoint here, but I think I can substantiate my position. When the Lord Jesus quotes Scripture, you need to look at what Scripture He's quoting.

And when any Jewish person quotes from the Psalms, you better realize that everyone hearing it would know it was the hymn book of the ancient people. We sing a lot of the Psalms here. Those of you who've grown up in a church like ours don't even realize how much more of the Psalms you know than the vast majority of evangelicals of any type.

My first couple of years here was a learning experience because our hymns are full of the Psalms. Did you notice this morning when the pastor opened the service, what was he reading? A text that unfortunately, rarely gets preached on in ministry.

The Jews knew their hymn book. And if I started off Blessed Assurance, if I started off Amazing Grace, I wouldn't have to sing the whole thing if you understand what I was referring to. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The first few words of the 22nd Psalm. Remember just a few weeks ago, we read through the 22nd Psalm. The 22nd Psalm is as messianic as you can get. When Jesus cries out, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, notice that even that is in the second person, not the third.

It's not saying, why has God forsaken me? This is addressed to God. And the other Gospels are going to tell us Jesus will say into your hands, I commit my spirit. I believe that there could be a very surface level reading on the part of many of this text.

See, Jesus feels abandoned. Let's not worry about what Psalm 22 says. Let's not worry about the fact that it's being fulfilled in Jesus. Let's not worry about the fact that it describes the crucifixion.

And let's not worry about the fact that it ends in the vindication of the Psalms. Let's just ignore all that. These ancient people couldn't have that much sophistication, could they? Now none of us can begin to pry into exactly what takes place during this time.

But I think we need to be very careful to allow the Scriptures to delineate the parameters of even our thinking about the subject. We are told that he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. We might have made the righteousness of God in him.

We have that. And in that wonderful book that we are reading now on Sunday mornings, the book of Hebrews, just today, Hebrews chapter 2 told us about Jesus becoming like his brethren. So he might be the one who can taste death for them, give himself for them, those who are sanctified.

We do know that by his death, he perfects. Somehow his death gives him the basis for being the intercessor to bring about forgiveness of sins. He's able to perfect those for whom he dies. There's all these statements of Scripture, but there are some things where God says this far and no longer.

No farther. We want to pry into what's going on in the very Trinity itself at this point in time. I know one thing. Jesus is doing exactly what the Father has willed. He is being obedient to the Father.

And I know it's very popular. People say, God turned his back on the Son. I don't know where that comes from. I don't see it. Oh, well, it's right there. Well, had God actually abandoned even the psalms?

What Jesus experiences on the cross, all of eternity will not be long enough for us to even begin to understand. But what we can say for certainty is that Jesus did not shirk His responsibility, His duty.

He said it is necessary that the Son of Man be betrayed in the hands of men, die, and be buried, and rise again on the third day. It is necessary. He did the Father's will. All the words of Jesus up to this point in time in the Gospel of Mark present to us a Jesus who knows what He's doing.

He is not merely an idealist who got caught up in the wrong political situation at the wrong time. You may even want to say, well, Mark's making all this stuff up. If that's what you want to do, if that's what you want to say, fine, say it.

But don't try to tell us that the Gospel of Mark presents a Jesus different from the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke because it doesn't. No fair reading can take us there. I think sometimes because people have a bunch of degrees typed out after their name that we think that they will handle this text fairly because of those degrees.

Sometimes all those degrees do mean all they mean is that they can mishandle the text more subtly than others. The Jesus presented to us in the Gospel of Mark is the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke. He's the Jesus of the Gospel of Matthew.

He's the Jesus of the Gospel of John. There's only one Jesus. And I remind you of the words of Jesus Himself in Luke 24. It was a few weeks ago that I mentioned it to you. When He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, remember?

You see, for many, their lives are taken up and it must be a sad life to have in tearing these books apart from one another. Setting them at odds with one another, sometimes with themselves. That's what is so popular today.

That's what you will hear. Sadly, it doesn't even require you to go to a secular university any longer to hear this. And yet, Jesus opened the minds of the disciples to the Scriptures. That's a category that transcends any one single book.

There is a harmony. There is a message. There is a unity in the Scriptures. And it is the work of the Spirit of God to cause us to understand it, to cause us to see it, to cause us to love it. We live in a day of much faithlessness, of much apostasy.

There are many who look about them and they see these things and they are caused to be quiet in their Christian faith because, well, they think, am I wrong? Have I been misled? We need to be students of the Word of God.

Yes, this is one example of where modern liberalism is just completely wrong. And what we hear even anymore from the television, from the newspaper, whatever it might be, where these people think they're now theologians and they can talk about these things or they're ignorant of these things.

While it is important for us to understand these things, to have faith in the Word of God, there's something else that hopefully using this example has emphasized to you. We're talking here about the very foundation of our relationship with God right now.

I mean, if the New Testament is not even consistent in its announcement of the cross, of the death of Christ, of the purpose of Christ's death, then what foundation do we have? What message do we have for the world?

Sometimes in conversations with you, I will hear my fellow believers who have grown up in solid Bible teaching express utter amazement. Did you hear what that Anglican guy said? How did he get that? What are these people thinking?

And you just can't even begin to understand why they can come up with those conclusions. Why they can come up with those conclusions. Because they don't have a foundation in the Word of God that gives them a consistent gospel.

They don't have a message. They have to come up with something on their own. That's why. You see, without the highest view of Scripture, there is no gospel. Because there is no redeeming. There is no incarnation.

There is no sacrifice. There is no law. There is no sin. There is nothing. It's just make it up as you go along. So you see, when we proclaim that there is no other name given under heaven whereby men must be saved in the name of Jesus Christ, when we tell people that, we have a solid foundation in an inspired Word.

People lose that. And the enemy knows how to chip away faith in that. They lose that. There's really no basis left for saying there's only one way. So you have to sort of drop back, scale back the claims.

Well, I think this is a good way. You might have your way because I really can't be confident of my foundations. It's all interconnected. That's why the Lord Jesus ministered to His disciples, and by His Spirit opened their hearts to understand the Scriptures.

That's what we pray for the Spirit to do amongst us every time we gather. And given that the world is every day chipping away at your faith in the Word of God, we need to be constantly exposing ourselves to it and praying, God, make me like the Psalms.

Read that 119th Psalm more than just once every few years. Pray, God, make me passionate for You. Cause it to have its work within me so that I may be a bold witness. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for this Gospel of Mark.

The one who wrote it so long ago who desired to record in words the message that was already being preached across the world. Father, we would pray that You would help us to have the zeal of those of old who despite the mockery of the world and the unbelief that is rampant, that we would be bold witnesses of Yours.

Uphold us. Glorify Yourself in the message of Jesus Christ. We pray in His name.