In the High Priest’s House

Mark For Everyone

MARK 14.53–72
In the High Priest’s House...

...Jesus retains his integrity at the cost of his life. Peter loses his integrity to save his skin. Mark has contrasted them vividly.

The double picture is put together in another of Mark’s ‘sandwiches’. Peter arrives in the high priest’s courtyard; but the reader already knows that Jesus has prophesied that he will renounce him three times. Jesus is then accused before the high priest of being, among other things, a false prophet. After the verdict, Jesus is taunted: he’s such a hopeless prophet that when blindfold he can’t tell who’s hitting him. We then switch back to Peter: he does exactly what Jesus had said he would. That night, says Mark, Jesus was vindicated as a true prophet.

Within this framework, the detailed description of Peter’s failure highlights the solitariness of Jesus. Betrayed by one associate, forsaken by ten more, and now publicly and bitterly renounced by his closest friend; he stands alone, defenceless, before the Jewish court, before the world...

Taken from Mark for Everyone by Tom Wright