The Myth of Safe Christianity

Mark 14:53-72

In the Greek text, the word for ‘witness’ appears 7 times in this pasage.

There are two trials that take place, the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin and the trial of Peter by a servant girl.

Mark wants for us to compare and contrast the two.

Jesus is tried by the highest Jewish court of His day at pain of death and remains faithful to the truth. Peter’s trial is at the hands of lowly servants and bystanders and yet he fails.

Remember that the gospel of Mark is Peter’s eyewitness testimony. So this is really Peter recounting his own denial to us! See the attitude of a true follower of Christ; He owns his failure and his sin, and points to Christ as the great saviour of men. Peter is the best of all that Adam has to offer. In Adam we all fall, but in Christ we will rise.

A Christian is a faithful witness. It’s someone who bears witness faithfully concerning Christ and who He is and what He has done. It’s not someone who simply believes certain things in private.

Faithfulness is revealed by trial. In a court of law, a witness who knows the truth but lies in the witness box is not a faithful witness, they are guilty of perjury. Their private beliefs count for nothing - it is their public profession that matters.

Sadly many who bear the name of ‘Christian’ today are like this - they may believe the right things in private but just like Peter they capitulate and deny their Master entirely when leant upon even slightly by their peers.

VERSE 54

‘Peter followed Jesus at a distance.’

Distance always preceeds denial.

Why did Peter follow Jesus from a distance? To lower the risk of getting into trouble on account of him. Peter followed Jesus from a ‘safe distance’. Removed enough so that others would not associate him with Christ, who was condemned by the world and was suffering at her hands.

Many are content to follow Jesus from a safe distance; not to take their devotion too seriously, not risking being associated with what the world condemns, attempting to avoid the suffering which belongs to our Lord.

When we allow distance to come between us and Jesus, distance to come between us and His word, distance between us and His church. We are walking towards the cliff edge of faith. Bumbling towards that slippery slope of denial.

Peter was warming his hands with those whose hands had just beaten His Lord. To keep company with the world is to keep your distance from Christ.

Would your friends, colleagues and family have enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?

VERSE 55-59

The Sanhedrin were attempting to condemn Jesus. They were bringing up witnesses to testify against him - but their testimony did not agree!

Inconsistency is a hallmark of untruth. Wherever there is untruth, there will be inconsistency. The facts don’t add up. Truth always has a simple consistency to it.

One of the best arguments for the truth of scripture is it’s consistency - though it was written by many human authors it speaks with one voice. All of the facts hang together neatly and the more we know about ancient history, the more scripture is shown to be true.

Now what the Sanhedrin did in holding Jesus’s trial at night on the eve of Passover went against a number of their own by laws. According to the Mishnah;

Trials were to be held in the day

They couldn’t take place on the eve of a feast

They couldn’t be held in someones house

The trial must begin by hearing a case for the defence

Verdict could not be decided on the same day.

And simply claiming to be the Messiah did not constitute blasphemy

VERSES 60-65

Caiaphas finally asks Jesus ‘Are you the Christ? The Son of the Blessed?” Meaning - are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of God”

And Jesus responds ‘I am’. These are the same words spoken by God from the Burning Bush in Exodus 3. There are some who like to say that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God, that He never claimed to be anything other than a prophet. But here it is in black and white - I AM.

He goes on; Mark 14:62

Mark 14:62 ESV

62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

Why did Jesus call Himself the Son of Man here instead of the Son of God? Wouldn’t it have been more fitting to say ‘and you will see the son of God?’ This makes more sense if you understand what the name Son of Man means. It’s found in Daniel 7:13-14

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

This is who Jesus was identifying as when He calls Himself the Son of Man.

The high priest tore his garments, a sign of rage, and they condemned Christ as deserving of death.

They began to spit on him, cover his face and strike him saying ‘prophesy, who hit you?’

Isaiah 50:6 ESV

6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

VERSES 66-72

Now Peter’s trial commences below in the courtyard.

A young servant girl came and said ‘you were also with the Nazarene, Jesus.’ And Peter denies it a first time ‘I neither know or understand what you mean.’

He moves out into the gateway to get further away and the rooster crows a first time.

The servant girl sees him again and begins to raise awareness to those around her ‘this man is one of them!’ But again Peter denied it.

Then after a while some of the bystanders say to Peter ‘Certainly you are one of them, you are a Galilean.’ Then Peter began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear. It’s possible he used foul language here in anger. But most likely he bound himself by an oath of some kind - like ‘may God curse me if I am not telling the truth...’

God’s name is holy - that is why it is such an unfitting thing for a Christian to use his name in unholy service, as a swear word or as an oath of some kind.

Peter said ‘I do not know this man of who you speak.” A third denial. And immediately, the rooster crowed a second time.

Now Peter didn’t break down and weep immediately. It wasn’t until he thought about it, and he remembered Jesus’s words that he felt the weight of his sin and wept.

It’s often not until we have a moment to think, a moment to allow the word of God to fill our minds that our consciences begin to feel the weight of guilt for sin. Why is it you think that people in the world often like to make themselves so busy - is it in part so that they never have to be alone with their conscience?

Luke 9:26 ESV

26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Don’t be a ‘safe Christian’, there is no such thing. don’t be content with following Jesus at a distance. Take up your cross and follow Him today. Walk with Him, the only faithful witness, and He will bear you up, He will give you real comfort, not the passing warmth of worldly favour but a comfort that endures forever.