Mark 14:27-31 The sheep scatter
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: April 12 & 13, 2018, Mark 14:27-31
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Then Jesus told them, “All of you will turn against me, because it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ However, after I have been raised, I will go to Galilee ahead of you.” But Peter told him, “Even if everyone else turns against you, I certainly won’t.” Jesus told him, “I tell you with certainty, today, this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” But Peter kept saying emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the others kept saying the same thing.
(Revelation of God) They had eaten the Passover which Jesus had transformed into the communion service. I wondered why He only chose the bread and wine and not the lamb, but I just realized that there would be no need for a lamb as a symbol anymore. There would be no more need for animals to die. Jesus was about to become the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thus, there was no more need for a symbol that pointed to Jesus’ sacrifice. There was only need of a symbol to point to our acceptance of the sacrifice. Thus, the bread and wine as symbols of us partaking in the sacrifice that Jesus made by becoming body and blood and then giving up that body and blood for us. There was only need of a symbol to show that God had become one with us and then had taken our fate upon Himself. He so identified Himself with us that we who had broken our relationship and could no longer connect with Him might once again be one with our Creator. Without that connection, we cease to exist. With that connection, death cannot touch us. Our forefather and foremother chose death, but God chose not to let them die without fighting for them. God found a way that they might live even after they severed their connection of trust with Him. He found a way to reconnect by Himself becoming flesh and blood and leading us back through death to life eternal.
(Understanding the Text) They had finished singing Psalm 118 and left the upper room. Barnes commentary gives me a time framework. “When the even was come – The lamb was killed “between the evenings,” Exo_12:6 (Hebrew) – that is between three o’clock, p. m., and nine in the evening. The Jews reckoned two evenings – one from three o’clock p. m. to sunset, the other from sunset to the close of the first watch in the night, or nine o’clock p. m. The paschal supper was commonly eaten after the setting of the sun, and often in the night, Exo_12:8.” Thus, it was probably after 9:00 at night. Judas was somewhere else in the city telling the high priests that he knew where Jesus would be and receiving his payment. He was waiting as the priests contacted the Roman soldiers and made arrangements for a group to go arrest Jesus. They expected Jesus’ disciples to fight. They expected a battle, so they prepared for one. One of the reasons for Judas to kiss Jesus was to keep the disciples from reacting quickly to the soldiers and maybe winning the battle and finding other people to join in the fighting. It was to be an ambush. However, Jesus already knew the plan, and as usual, God’ ways were upside down from the ways of men.
As they walked the peaceful streets of Jerusalem that spring evening, the disciples were probably in a solemn mood trying to understand the instructions that Jesus had given them. They were probably a little confused and a little worried, but I’m sure that they had no idea that their calm still night was soon to become the storm of a nightmare. Maybe they enjoyed the warm breeze as they walked along to the Mount of Olives. This was a routine that they had gone through before with their Master. They only expected a long wait under the stars as their Master prayed. They were probably looking forward to closing their eyes and sleeping after a long day until their Master was ready to go on to His next task. However, when they reached the garden, their Master continued His strange actions of the Passover meal. Jesus stopped them, and when He had their attention, He gave them a warning that they could not, would not, accept.
(Revelation of God) As Jesus looked at His disciples, some of them for the last time before His resurrection, He felt the need to reach out to them one last time. He wanted to tell them that He knew that they were going to run away and scatter to hide from the Romans and Jewish leaders. He wanted to tell them that He understood and that there was hope for after the nightmare of the next few days. He wanted them to understand that this was not the end and that He would return for them. He was going away but not forever. He looked at them intently willing them to understand and told them that they would scatter like sheep from the wolves, but that it was okay. He told them that He would rise again and meet them in Galilee.
It is interesting that while Jesus did meet them in Galilee on the day of Peter’s fishing trip, He met up with them before that in Jerusalem. Could it be that God’s original plan was not to appear in Jerusalem and that He modified it out of pity for His loved ones’ fear, distress, and lack of faith? Or was it simply that Jesus as a man was not omniscient and the only meeting that the Holy Spirit had shown Him was the meeting on the shore of the lake in Galilee? I think it was the latter. Jesus was not all-knowing when He was here as much as we like to think so. He knew information through His connection to the Father just as prophets had been told of the future through the Spirit. However, He did not foresee every future possibility. Much of His knowledge was through the enlightenment that came as He studied the scriptures. Even here, He quotes a scripture to demonstrate where His knowledge came from. Thus, Jesus could be sure that He would meet with His disciples again through a vision of the Galilee reunion and possibly through scriptures, but He may not have foreseen all of His interactions with His followers after His resurrection. Cambridge commentary points out that the disciples would be reminded of Jesus’ promise to meet them later. “after that I am risen] The Angel afterwards referred to these very words at the open Sepulchre on the world’s first Easter-Day” (Mar_16:6-7).
(Understanding the Text) Peter loved Jesus with all his heart. Peter trusted Jesus. There was only one person that Peter loved and trusted more than Jesus-his own self. That was going to change in the next few days. The Bible tells us representative samples of human experience so that we might learn, so it is tempting to think only of Peter’s overconfidence, but Peter was not the only disciple claiming that he would never deny Jesus. All of the disciples claimed that they would die with Jesus and never deny Him, yet they all ran away rather than stay with Jesus. They had only two reactions to danger-fight or flight. When Jesus would not let them fight, when they woke in confusion to armed soldiers, and when their Master performed no miracle to escape, their drowsy minds reverted to instinct, and they fled. They were all sure that they would die for Jesus, but the death they pictured was a glorious one where they died fighting at the side of their miracle-making Master. The ignominious death that started with meekly following soldiers to the grave was not the death that they were promising. This night would break not just Peter, but also the rest of the “brave” disciples who ran away. Earlier in the evening, Jesus had told them that they would be ashamed of Him. Barnes commentary says “All ye shall be offended because of me – See the notes at Mat_5:29. This language means, here, you will all stumble at my being taken, abused, and set at naught; you will be ashamed to own me as a teacher, and to acknowledge yourselves as my disciples; or, my being betrayed will prove a snare to you all, so that you will be guilty of the sin of forsaking me, and, by your conduct, of denying me.” The joy is that the disciples would learn their lessons and redeem themselves as they bravely and with joy proclaimed their Master’s death and resurrection and later meekly accepted their own deaths for Jesus.
Guzik’s commentary points out that it is sometimes easier to go out in a blaze of glory than in the quiet of submission. “Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be: We wonder how Peter could ever say such a thing. Tragically, Peter was unaware of both the spiritual reality and the spiritual battle that Jesus clearly saw. Peter only looked to how he felt at the moment, and at the moment he felt pretty brave. i. However, when you walk on feelings everything can change pretty quickly. Soon, Peter will be intimidated before a humble servant girl, and before her Peter will deny that he even knows Jesus. ii. “It is sometimes easier to bear a great load for Christ than a small one. Some of us could be martyrs at the stake more easily that confessors among sneering neighbors.” (Maclaren)” I have found this true in my own life also. When the great pressure came, I never denied Jesus, but in the small every day trials, I have denied Him many times. Feelings have betrayed me because my commitment was not total. Like Peter, I still trusted in myself more than I trusted Jesus. Today, my commitment is total, but my trust is still sketchy. It is a daily struggle to let go of my trust in my own wisdom and faithfully trust God’s love for me individually. MHCC commentary restates this well. “Though the great Shepherd passed through his sufferings without one false step, yet his followers often have been scattered by the small measure of sufferings allotted to them. How very apt we are to think well of ourselves, and to trust our own hearts! It was ill done of Peter thus to answer his Master, and not with fear and trembling. Lord, give me grace to keep me from denying thee.”
John may be the only exception. I think maybe John did not run away as much as avoid. He started out in flight but as soon as he realized that no one was chasing him, he and Peter followed along behind. John did not deny Jesus, and when he could no longer be near Him, maybe in Pilate’s house, John fled to someone as close to Jesus as he could find. He found Jesus’ mother and the other women and accompanied them to the cross. I think maybe John did not need to be broken of his trust in himself. I think maybe John had already learned to trust others. Maybe, John needed to be broken of his trust in Peter. Maybe John needed to grow up and become responsible. Maybe that is why Jesus gave His mother to John’s care, not because John was responsible, but because John needed responsibility.
Maybe, the reason that John lived to an old age and was rescued miraculously so many times from death was because he had no feelings of guilt to work out. I think maybe the other men almost needed to die for Jesus psychologically to redeem themselves from their failure that night. Maybe God gave them what they needed when He allowed them to show His glory and love to others even to death.
(Application) My application for myself is that God has compassion on me and wants me not to fear or hurt. He does not blame me for failing. He only wants me to know that He will be there to meet with me, and there is hope. I need to learn not to trust myself but to strive to trust Jesus. I should not be overconfident in my own “goodness” and ability to serve Jesus without failing. On the other hand, when I do fail, Jesus understands what is happening and is there to dust me off and hold me so I do not fall. It is only when I stop trusting to Jesus to hold me and start holding myself up that I will fall again.
(Prayer) Teach me to trust You in all circumstances and to follow wherever You lead me. Help me to remember that You look on me with compassion and understand my struggles. Thank You that You love me and will never leave me. Teach me not to ever leave You also.