Peter Wept

Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Mark 14:72

Peter had big failures, but he also had big regret. He was not blind to his sin, and he wasn’t too proud to grieve over and repent of it. That is why there was hope for Peter. And that is why I fear there may not be hope for some of our churches. 

You see, we have big failures too. Our churches today are full of big failures, major sins. But there is no weeping. No regret. No repentance like this. When was the last time someone came forward in your church and anointed the altar with holy tears? When was the last time someone wept over their sins? When was the last time you wept over your sin?

It’s not that we don’t sin anymore. It’s not that our failures and our sins aren’t that big. That isn’t it. It’s that we just aren’t that moved by them. We explain them away. We think that sex outside of marriage doesn’t really matter, that divorce doesn’t really matter, that greed and all manner of worldliness doesn’t really matter. And, perhaps worst of all, we think that repentance doesn’t really matter. So, we just move on and expect God to forgive us.

But sin that hasn’t been repented of is a hindrance to your intimacy with God. Many of you aren’t as close to God as you used to be and you can’t figure out why. And it’s because of your sin. Sins that you willingly committed against God and haven’t repented of. It is holding you back in your relationship with the Lord.

So, allow yourself to be broken over your sins. Name them before your God and ask for His forgiveness and see if He won’t restore you to close relationship and usefulness to Him, just as Peter was eventually restored and used in amazing ways.

Deserting Jesus

Then everyone deserted him and fled.

Mark 14:50

Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane with 11 disciples, but He came out alone.

At first, the disciples tried to resist Jesus’ arrest. One of them drew his sword and attacked a man in the mob. But once it became clear that Jesus wasn’t going to resist, once it became clear that He would surrender, and that He was going to be put on trial…well then…then the disciples all fled.*

In fact, Mark’s gospel tells us that there was a young man who wasn’t one of the 11 disciples who was also there. As the mob tried to seize him and he wriggled away his linen garment was torn. He fled from that place naked, leaving the garment behind. I think that detail is included to show us just how desperate and panicked the disciples felt in that moment.

The old Puritan Pastor Matthew Henry captures the point I want to make here rather succinctly. He says, “It is easier to fight for Christ than [it is] to die for him.”**

Before he was stripped of His clothes and hung on the cross, He was first stripped of all friendly support. It wasn’t just that Judas betrayed Him. It was also that EVERYONE deserted Him. No one was willing to suffer with Jesus in the end.

Are you? Are you willing to suffer with Jesus? Or like the disciples, will you run away when true suffering comes? Will you disappear, go home, or fall silent to avoid suffering for Jesus? Have you already begun to draw back?

Let us learn from the disciple’s mistake. Make up your mind now that you are willing to suffer for your Lord should it ever come to that. That no matter what, you will stand with Jesus even if it means your life.

* John D. Grassmick, “Mark,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 181.

** Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Mk 14:43.

He Sees Past Your Failures

“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Mark 14:27–28

Jesus knows His disciples will scatter and abandon Him in His hour of greatest need, and He tries to prepare them for it. He tells them they will all fall away, but that He will meet them in Galilee after He has risen.

Notice that even though Jesus knows they will abandon Him and fail Him and prove unfaithful to Him at the worst possible moment, yet He loves them still! Jesus doesn’t cast them out early. He doesn’t say, “You are all gonna fall away, so just go ahead and get out of my sight now." Jesus isn’t speaking to them in anger, but with a sense of sorrow and compassion. He is trying to prepare them for what’s ahead. And He makes a special point to give them hope for reconciliation after their failure. That is why He mentions the resurrection. He wants them to know where they can gather again after they have been scattered so that they will not be lost forever.

What Jesus does is He looks beyond their failure and sees their potential. He sees what they will become. So, He deals gently with their failures in the meantime until they are fully formed into the apostles who will shake the world after His ascension.

I want you to know that Jesus is the same with you. He knows you will fail. And He sees your failures coming, but He loves you still. And He sees past your failures to what you will become, what He is making you into. So, do all you can to avoid failing Him, but when you do fail, know that He isn’t surprised. When you fail, don’t run away from Him for good, but rather go back to the place where you first met Him, at that place called repentance and be reconciled to Him. And let Him keep shaping you through your failures into the mature Christian He wants you to be.

Setting the Table

So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

Mark 14:13-15

Mark, the gospel writer, could have jumped straight into the Last Supper but he chooses not to. He takes the time to draw our attention to the fact that without preparation there wouldn’t have been a meal at all. This is true of every meal. Someone has to set the table. Someone has buy and cook the food. Drinks have to be poured. All of this is necessary before there can be a meal.

And in the case of the Last Supper, Jesus sends two disciples to make preparations. Luke’s gospel reveals to us that it was Peter and John whom Jesus sent to make preparation. And since this was a Passover Meal, the preparations would have included making sure the room was in order, gathering the supplies, and finally “preparing the lamb, the bitter herbs, the unleavened bread, the wine, the crushed fruit, etc.”*

Now, I don’t know if preparing the Passover Meal was considered a great honor or if it was something that servants normally did. But I can tell you that without Peter and John prepping the herbs and purchasing the lamb and doing all the work that was required to make that meal possible, without that behind the scenes preparation, there would have been no Lord’s Supper.

And I think this is a good reminder for us that there are a lot of people who do work behind the scenes. And those people and the work they do matter... a lot. Someone cooks the meals and washes the clothes and cleans the toilets in your home. None of those are particularly glamorous jobs, but they are all necessary. And your life, and the lives of your family, are made better by the person or persons who do that work. And at your church, you may not think about who runs sound on Sunday morning, but without them you wouldn’t be able to hear the sermon or the music. You may not know who is on the Building and Grounds Committee, but without them the roof would leak and there would be no working HVAC units. You may not know who works in the preschool and children’s area, but without them your children would be neglected.

So, understand that service matters, because it makes everything else possible. And sometimes, it is the small jobs... the behind the scenes jobs, the jobs that you don’t even think about, that make everything else possible. So, be thankful for those who serve you. And make sure that you find your own way to serve both at home and at church.

*Ross H. McLaren, “Mark,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1587.