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Mark 14:53-65 – The 4 Trials of Jesus

Mark 14:53-65 – The 4 Trials of Jesus

Last updated on: February 9, 2017 at 5:01 pm by Fr. Charles Erlandson

Mark 14:53-65 – The 4 Trials of Jesus 2017-02-09T17:01:16-05:00 Fr. Charles Erlandson

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** Christ before Pilate - Munkácsy **Jesus Christ is put on trial four times, you know. I don’t just mean by the Sanhedrin, by Annas, by Pilate, and by Herod. I mean He is put on trial in four different, gargantuan ways.

We see the first time He’s tried when we read the Bible in the literal sense. We could stop right there because it ought to make you cry your eyes to red, it ought to make you want to tear out that page of the Bible in a blind, crimson rage because the Messiah, the Christ, the One who is not afraid to say I AM, is put on trial. God Himself put on trial, and there’s not a stinking thing you or I can do about it. Don’t you remember? All the disciples fled in Mark 14:50. We’re not there, we’re gone, real gone, Splitsville.

We see Him tried the second time when we read the Bible with a moral interpretation, applied to us. We, meaning me and the me that is you, tried Jesus. We are the ones who have borne false witness against Him, by betraying Him and fleeing from Him. We are the ones who spit on Him with the fluids of our lives because we want to do our own thing and not His thing. If I was mad at the Sanhedrin for trying my Lord, you can imagine how inflamed I am against myself for doing the very same thing in my own way. If I wanted to tear out a page of the Bible before, now I want to tear it out and shove it down my throat because I deserve that kind of contempt. But that’s not what I’m here for today.

We see our Lord, the Master, tried for the third time when we read in the moral sense again, applied in a corporate and not individual way, seeing that the Master is on trial again here in America and the world in the 21st century. We see the Herods of the world coming to get Jesus every time a baby is aborted in America (which is every 1 every 26 seconds). We see Him being misunderstood and rejected by the governing powers of the world, as represented by Pilate. He is banished from the classroom and from the newsroom, and He is subjected to the most humiliating insults, defamations, mockeries, hatreds, ridicules, and invectives possible on the screens that shine so brightly in our living rooms and in our theaters. To mention His name – and to actually mean it and that you will govern by it – is to be expelled from office. Of course, the persecution of the Christ in His Church is much greater in parts of the world outside the U.S. I groan with this humiliation of my Lord as well, for as St. Paul found on the road to Damascus, whoever attacks the Church is, in reality, attacking Christ.

But I promised a fourth trial, and this time we will read with Christ in the anagogical sense, where we see with final clarity the end of all things. Here is Christ, literally on trial in Mark 14, and He answers nothing, just as sometimes He seems to answer nothing in our lives or in our nation when He is on trial.

But in time, He does answer, saying, “I AM. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven!” No doubt, He is referring to the great events that will follow with His Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost, for He tells those there present that they will see Him coming. But in the eschatological sense, when all will be revealed, Christ will come gain. Only this time, He will be judge, and each of us, those in Mark 14 and the nations included, will be the ones having to give answers.

Today, if you see Jesus on trial, in your life or in your nation, remember that Final Trial that is to come. Remember that He has already stood trial for you and that He stands trial with you in your sufferings for Him today. You are not alone: your Lord has been there first, and He will be there ahead of you as well.

Prayer: Be not silent, O God of my praise!

For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.
So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.

But you, O GOD my Lord,
deal on my behalf for your name’s sake;
because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is stricken within me.
I am gone like a shadow at evening;
I am shaken off like a locust.
My knees are weak through fasting;
my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they wag their heads.

Help me, O LORD my God!
Save me according to your steadfast love!
Let them know that this is your hand;
you, O LORD, have done it!
Let them curse, but you will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!

With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death. (Psalm 109)

Points for Meditation:

In what ways do you ever feel on trial for Christ in your life?
In what ways do you see Christ on trial in your city or country?

Resolution: I resolve the next time I feel I am on trial to remember both the innocence of Christ and His exoneration and exaltation.

Christ Before Pilate by Munkácsy – U. S. Public Domain

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Mark 14:43-52 - The Naked Young Man

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