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Scripture Reading: Mark 14:27-42
In 14:27-42 the Lord Jesus warned His disciples of their stumbling and charged them to watch and pray. In verse 27 He said to them, “You will all be stumbled, because it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” Then the Lord told them that after He was raised, He would go before them into Galilee (v. 28).
When Peter heard the Lord’s word concerning the disciples being stumbled, he said to Him, “Even if all shall be stumbled, yet I will not!” (v. 29). Then, also as part of His preparation of His disciples for His death, the Lord went on to say to Peter, “Truly I tell you, that you today, in this night, before a cock crows twice, will deny Me three times.” The Greek verb rendered “deny” is a compound that signifies utterly deny, as in verses 31 and 72. But Peter, being rather rough, confident, and bold, said emphatically, “If I must die with You, I will by no means deny You! And all said similarly” (v. 31).
After warning the disciples of their stumbling, the Lord Jesus went with them to a place named Gethsemane (v. 32). Gethsemane means the place of the oil press. The Lord was pressed there to flow out the oil, the Spirit.
Taking with Him Peter, James, and John, He “began to be awestruck and distressed” (v. 33). Regarding “awestruck,” C. E. B. Cranfield says that the Lord was “in the grip of a shuddering horror in the face of the dreadful prospect before Him.”
The Lord said to Peter, James, and John, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death; remain here and watch. And going forward a little, He fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from Him.” The Slave-Savior’s sorrow and His prayer in verse 35 are the same as in John 12:27. There He said that He came for this hour; that is, He knew that the Father’s will was that He should die on the cross for the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan.
According to verse 36, the Lord Jesus prayed, “Abba Father, All things are possible to You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” The Triune God determined in His divine plan in eternity past that the Second of the divine Trinity should be incarnated and die on the cross to accomplish His eternal redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:7-9). Hence, the Second of the divine Trinity was ordained to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29) before the foundation of the world, that is, in eternity past (1 Pet. 1:19-20); and in the eyes of God, as the Lamb of God, He was slain from the foundation of the world, that is, from the existence of God’s fallen creatures (Rev. 13:8). From the time of man’s fall, lambs, sheep, calves, and bulls were sacrificed by God’s chosen people as types (Gen. 3:21; 4:4; 8:20; 22:13; Exo. 12:3-8; Lev. 1:2), pointing to Him who was to come as the real Lamb foreordained by God. In the fullness of time, the Triune God sent the Second of the divine Trinity, the Son of God to come in incarnation to take a human body (Heb. 10:5) that He might be offered to God on the cross (Heb. 9:14; 10:12) to do the will of God (Heb. 10:7), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people (Heb. 10:9-10). In His prayer here, immediately before His crucifixion, He prepared Himself to take the cup of the cross (Matt. 26:39, 42), willing to do this unique will of the Father for the accomplishment of the eternal plan of the Triune God.
In verse 38 the Lord Jesus charged the three disciples, “Watch and pray that you may not come into temptation; the spirit indeed is ready, but the flesh is weak.” The Greek word translated “ready” may also be rendered “willing.” In spiritual things our spirit is often ready, willing, but our flesh is weak.
Why is it that after the Lord Jesus instituted His supper, He warned the disciples of their stumbling and charged them to watch and pray? The reason is that whenever the Lord reveals something concerning Himself in God’s economy, He exposes our real situation. Consider the case of Peter in chapter eight. Peter received the revelation that Jesus is the Christ. After Peter received this revelation, the Lord exposed him as being Satan. Furthermore, the Lord went on to expose Peter’s self, his soul life.
The institution of the Lord’s table reveals the Lord’s death, His resurrection, the Lord Himself, and His enlargement, His mystical Body. Immediately after this revelation, Peter and the other disciples were exposed. Their natural man, self, self-will, mind, and thought were all exposed. Although they experienced the Lord’s institution of His table, they did not realize how much they were in themselves and how much they were according to the natural concept. Therefore, the Lord Jesus exposed them. This exposure is the practicality of being brought into the Lord’s death.
As we read chapters fourteen and fifteen of the Gospel of Mark, we see that Peter was brought into the Lord’s crucifixion. When Peter boasted that he would never deny the Lord Jesus, he had not yet been crucified. He claimed that even if all the others were stumbled, he would not be stumbled. He went on to say, “If I must die with You, I will by no means deny You” (14:31). However, very shortly after making this boast, he fully denied the Lord Jesus. After denying Him, “Peter remembered the word Jesus had said to him, Before a cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times. And thinking upon it, he wept” (14:72). In a very real sense, this was Peter’s crucifixion. He wept because he had been crucified.
Although Peter denied the Lord, he did not give up. Rather, he went on to enter into the Lord’s resurrection.
Perhaps you are wondering what indication there is in the Gospel of Mark that Peter entered into Christ’s resurrection. Consider the word of the angel to the women who came to the tomb early in the morning on the day of the Lord’s resurrection: “Do not be amazed; you are seeking Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He was raised! He is not here! Behold, the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, even as He told you” (16:6-7). Here we see that the angel specifically names Peter. This indicates that Peter was brought into the resurrection of Christ.
We should not read the Gospel of Mark merely as a book of stories. We need to see the revelation in this book. The Gospel of Mark reveals that the Lord Jesus did not intend to go through death and resurrection alone. Instead, it was the Lord’s intention to bring His followers with Him into death and resurrection. If we see this revelation, we shall be assured that, as those who love the Lord Jesus, He will bring us through His death and into His resurrection.
When we come to the end of the Gospel of Mark, we see that all the Lord’s followers were brought not only into His death and resurrection but also into His ascension. In His ascension they were sent out to preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Praise the Lord that His disciples were brought into His death, resurrection, and ascension!
Although Peter was present when the Lord instituted His supper, he did not understand the significance of it. Immediately after the supper, the Lord warned His disciples about being stumbled. This warning was an indication that the disciples were still in the flesh. Even though the Lord had instituted the supper and they had all partaken of it, they were nevertheless in the flesh. Immediately Peter behaved himself in a natural way, boasting that he would not be stumbled or deny the Lord.
After warning His disciples concerning their stumbling, the Lord Jesus brought three of them — Peter, James, and John — with Him to Gethsemane. The Lord charged them to “remain here and watch” (v. 34). However, when He came to them, He found them sleeping and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Are you not strong enough to watch one hour?” (v. 37). Peter, the leader of the disciples, took the lead to sleep. He did not have the strength to do anything except sleep.
Peter also behaved in a natural way when the Lord Jesus was arrested. He drew his sword and “struck the slave of the high priest, and took off his ear” (v. 47). Peter again caused trouble. At the time the Lord Jesus was being arrested, it was necessary for Him to perform a miracle to heal the ear of the high priest’s slave (Luke 22:50-51).
According to Mark 14:66-72 Peter utterly denied the Lord Jesus. One of the servant girls of the high priest said to Peter, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus!” (v. 67). But Peter denied this, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are saying” (v. 68). Shortly thereafter Peter denied the Lord Jesus twice more. Through this exposure Peter was put on the cross. The Lord Jesus was crucified, and Peter also was crucified. His exposure was his crucifixion.
According to the Gospel of Mark and the book of Acts, Peter not only passed through the death process, but also entered into the Lord’s resurrection and ascension. Therefore, when he stood up to preach the gospel on the day of Pentecost, Peter was a different person. He was a crucified, resurrected, and ascended person, a reproduction of the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. Peter was a duplicate copy of this Christ. Having been brought into the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, Peter was also saturated with Christ. He was one with Christ, and Christ had even become him. For this reason, we may say that Peter was a duplication of Christ on the day of Pentecost.
The record in the Gospel of Mark indicates that Peter passed through a lengthy process in order to become a reproduction of Christ. This process began in chapter one, when Peter, a fisherman, was called by the Lord Jesus. After calling him, the Lord brought Peter into a process that took more than three years to complete. As a result, on the day of Pentecost Peter was a person who had been brought into the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.
Perhaps at that time Peter could understand the significance of the Lord’s table. The Lord had instituted the table as part of His preparation of the disciples, as part of the process to bring them into a full realization of His death and resurrection.
We need to see that the Lord intends to bring all of us into His death and resurrection. Through His death and resurrection we may enjoy Him as our replacement. As we enjoy Christ as our replacement, He becomes us and we become one with Him. The result is that we become His reproduction, His duplication. This is the vision conveyed to us in the Gospel of Mark.
We have seen that God’s economy is to produce the new man. The way to produce the new man is to replace us with Christ.
In the preaching of the gospel Christ as the universal replacement is ministered to others. However, when we present Christ as the all-inclusive replacement, there will always be conflict and persecution. Because Satan has usurped the old creation, and because Satan instigates those of the old creation to oppose the things of the Lord, the things of the old creation hinder us in allowing Christ to become our replacement.
First, Christ replaces all the old things of Judaism. We have seen from chapters nine and thirteen that Christ replaces Moses and Elijah and also the temple. Furthermore, Christ replaces the things in the Gentile world. He replaces culture, customs, habits, and the old way of living.
Because Christ is such a replacement, conflict is unavoidable. However, this conflict serves a positive purpose. Through the conflict we are put to death and ushered into resurrection. This means that, eventually, all that the enemy can do through persecution and conflict only helps release the flow of resurrection life. Hallelujah for the flow that produces the new man that will become the kingdom of God! This new man is produced by the death and resurrection of Christ. Through the Lord’s death and resurrection we enjoy Him as the all-inclusive, universal replacement for the producing of the new man.
