God’s Word for You
Mark 14:53-54 The trial begins
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, February 18, 2024
53 They brought Jesus before the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes were gathering together. 54 Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat down with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.
John adds a scene that helps us to understand the other Gospels. While the chief priests and the elders and scribes (in other words, the seventy members of the Sanhedrin) were being gathered, Jesus was not allowed to rest in a jail. The three groups mentioned here were the three divisions that made up the Sanhedrin at this time. There were also at least two men in their number who were followers of Jesus. One was Nicodemus, the man Jesus had spoken to about eternal life. He was a Pharisee (John 3:1, 7:50) but it was probably as an elder of Israel that gave him a seat on the Sanhedrin. The same was probably true of the other disciple of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, who was “a prominent member of the Council” (Mark 15:43; John 19:38). It is usually assumed that those two men were not summoned to this meeting, either because their faith in (or at least their sympathy for) Jesus was known, or because they were recognized as fair men who could not be swayed by popular opinion, jealousy, hatred, or the other sinful motives that carried the rest of the group. “The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom… the law of God is in his heart. But the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, seeking their very lives” (Psalm 37:30,31,32).
First Jesus was brought to a former high priest, Annas, who questioned him without any authority but knowing that whatever he said, his son-in-law (who was Caiaphas, the current high priest) would go along with it. The two men probably shared wings of the same palace in Jerusalem, or one had a house next to the other. At any rate, Jesus was given no rest, not a moment at all to collect his thoughts, but was subjected to trial after trial through the small hours of the night and all the way until dawn (Luke 22:66).
Peter had doubled back after the guards took the Lord from Gethsemane across the valley and into the city. Gerhard says: “That he followed was love; that he followed afar off was from fear. Love draws him, fear keeps him back.” It wasn’t the Sabbath yet, so the city gates would be shut but not locked. The command from Nehemiah about the gates remaining locked “until the sun is hot” (Nehemiah 7:3) only applied to his time, when the walls were being rebuilt and there was a danger of being attacked by the Ammonites and their allies (Nehemiah 2:10, 13:1). And at any rate, the servants of the high priest would be admitted even if the doors were locked. Yet Peter got in, as well.
The night was far from quiet. Peter’s curiosity brought him all the way to the courtyard of the high priest. He sat with the guards there because there was a fire. Peter forgot the words of David: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers” (Psalm 1:1). He thinks that he is being brave, that because he boldly told Jesus, “Even if all fall away, I will not” (verse 29), he should stay close at hand. But he neglects his faith by “sitting in the seat of mockers,” spending the night among the guards of Jesus’ enemies. Even if these were not the very same guards who arrested him (who were surely still guarding him now in the high priest’s front hallway) they were under the same orders and had the same leaders. If their unbelief started to show itself, would Peter be delighted he had a pulpit in the front lawn? Would he take the opportunity to preach about their sins and their unbelief and the victory of the Messiah, who was at this moment a prisoner on the other side of the curtains and tapestries?
We should pause and consider these two verses as they stand together. Here is Jesus among his enemies, forced to stand and to face accusation after accusation. And here is Peter among more enemies, voluntarily standing “in the way of sinners,” with no idea that he, too, will soon face accusation after accusation. What Jesus was facing was illegal—a man could not face the Sanhedrin unless it was broad daylight, and in the courts of the temple. Neither of those conditions were being met, and no one raised a single objection about it. What Peter was facing was not illegal in any way. It was perfectly ordinary, just conversations around a fire where he was trying to keep warm. This is where temptations and dangers lurk for Christians, in ordinary circumstances, when we least expect anything, when we think that we are being bold and brave for the sake of Jesus. Then we fall, like Peter at the firepit, like David on his rooftop, like Adam out for a walk with his bride. Hadn’t Jesus warned Peter this very night, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation” (Mark 14:38)?
Our Father in heaven, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.