Mark 14:60-65 
Midweek Lent 2

March 4, 2009

Mark 14:60-65 (New International Version)

⁶⁰Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" ⁶¹But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, ^[a] the Son of the Blessed One?"

⁶²"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

⁶³The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. ⁶⁴"You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"

   They all condemned him as worthy of death. ⁶⁵Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, "Prophesy!" And the guards took him and beat him.

Forgive Our Desire to Defy Your Divine Authority!

1. At times we chafe under your commandments.

2. Father, teach us, for Jesus' sake, to submit to your authority and his.

Although I’m not a big fan of poetry, I remember reading in college a poem that ended with these famous words: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” Many people think this poem is quite courageous and inspiring. One can imagine the speaker on the deck of his ship, sailing through the storms and tempests of this life, navigating through the treacherous and tumultuous waters, following his own will, and bravely marking out his own way. No one else will set his course. No one else will command his soul.

Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jewish nation, and the members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Israel, probably had not spent much actual time on the deck of any ship. But they thought of themselves as great navigators, nonetheless. It was their task to keep their people safe and afloat on the tossing seas of empires. This was no small challenge! It would take all the wits and all the wisdom they had to keep little Judea from being swallowed up and disappearing beneath the waves, as had happened to so many other nations. But they were accomplishing it, and they were proud of themselves for it. And in all of that they forgot who the true master of Israel was and condemned him to death when he came before them. And although we might never have gone along with this great crime, we still are tempted by the same pride and arrogance that led Caiaphas and the others. And so we must pray: Forgive Our Desire to Defy Your Divine Authority! 1. At times we chafe under your commandments. 2. Father, teach us, for Jesus' sake, to submit to your authority and his.

Did you ever hear how the high priest of the Jewish nation in the days of Jesus became the high priest? It took political skills. The Romans, when they had conquered the country, had decided that so high an office as the high priesthood was not something they wanted out of their control. So the governor of the province was the man who would decide how to fill the office, and he had one overriding concern about candidates: make sure it is someone who can keep the peace and keep the taxes coming in.

Caiaphas' family members would end up in the office of the high priesthood for about one hundred years because they knew how to “play the game.” Caiaphas knew how to spot and exploit the slightest weakness in the Roman governor's position. He knew how to keep the streets of Jerusalem relatively peaceful. He enjoyed all the perks of the position, including a grand house in the better part of town. And he gladly wielded the power of the high priesthood and would allow no rivals.

But Jesus of Nazareth was a thorn in his side. The man traveled throughout Israel preaching and teaching, which would have been all right except for one problem: He kept on talking about the Jewish leaders' hypocrisy and false teachings. Jesus was saying that the priesthood had abandoned the pure laws of God and had substituted them with the traditions and foolishness of man-made laws and opinions. And Jesus kept performing all these miracles and getting everybody all worked up about himself. Every wonder he performed made him look better to the people and the priests look worse. So the high priest and his council, the Sanhedrin, had to go to work. They had to do something to lessen the influence of this fellow from Galilee. They sent out their colleagues and cronies to trap him in a misstatement and ruin his popularity with the people. That failed again and again. They confronted him directly on the day he rode into town with palm branches all over the road. But Jesus wouldn't back down. So they plotted his death. They bribed one of his disciples to betray him to them for 30 pieces of silver. They held a travesty of a nighttime trial and condemned him. They brought him to the Roman governor and demanded that the governor execute him. And when he was crucified, their pride was insulted when Pontius Pilate set up a placard on his cross which read “The King of the Jews.” And there was the real tragedy. Christ’s authority they rejected was the fact that he was the author of salvation!

The question before us tonight is this: “Do we see the defiant pride in our hearts that makes it hard for us to accept the authority of God in our lives?” Are there times when we question, “Who is God to tell me what to do?” or “Why should I have to do what the Bible says?” Or, are there other times when we cowardly look for ways around God’s Law, ways to cut a few corners, ways to find some ‘loophole’ that will allow us to ignore the clear laws of our God? At least we must all admit that there are times when we defy the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ by turning to sins we know he has forbidden or ignore doing the things we know he has commanded us to do. Sinfully, regrettably there are times when we knowingly feel and act as though we want Jesus out of our lives too, just like Caiaphas. In fact, there may be times when we might be tempted to think that we are the “author” of our own salvation just like the Pharisees. That’s why we need to fall to our knees and pray, “Father, forgive us for the times we have chafed under the authority of your Law and teach us always to look to Jesus alone as the author of our salvation! Because Lord, if we don’t, then we will navigate our ship right into the port of hell.”

II. It was to save us from such ruin and disaster that God's Son came to this earth and did what we couldn’t. He submitted himself to the authority of the divine law, which we so often throw aside. He submitted himself to the condemnation and death that we have earned for ourselves. Through this death he paid the price and penalty for our many and constant refusals to live under the authority of his commandments. He saved us from our headlong rush away from God and set us once again on the course that God, in his love and wisdom, had ordained for us from the beginning and revealed clearly in the pages of his Holy Word.

Now that we know the price he paid and the damnation from which he saved us and the heaven to which he is guiding us, why would we ever entertain the thought of further mutiny? Jesus Christ is the pilot of our lives. He and he alone is the captain of your soul and mine. He is the One who paid the great price to make us his own so that we might live under him in his kingdom and, as Luther so eloquently put it, “serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”

And so tonight it is good for us to pray: “Father, forgive us for any pride by which we defy your authority! Make us right in your sight by the blood of your Son. Give us innocent hearts that truly seek to live by your commands. And teach us the blessedness of knowing Jesus Christ as our Savior and of living under his authority as our King. Amen.”