I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 14-16.

    We will not know in this lifetime why Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. However, the more I read Mark’s account here the more I think that Jesus’ response to the woman who anointed Him with perfume, and to the disciple who questioned her doing so, played a major role in his decision to do so. The Gospel of John tells us that Judas was the disciple who questioned the woman anointing Jesus with the perfume. Here in Mark, immediately after Jesus rebukes the disciple for belittling the woman’s act, Judas goes out and cuts a deal with the chief priests to betray Jesus. When I wrote the previous I realized the true importance of the story about the woman anointing Jesus. When we look at this we tend to interpret Jesus’ words as an affirmation of the woman’s action, which they were, but that is not the important lesson here. More important than Jesus’ affirmation of the woman’s action was His rebuke of the disciples’ reaction to her act. The woman anointed Jesus in an extravagant act of worship. The disciples scolded her for expressing her joy at being in Jesus’ presence. The lesson here is that we should never do anything which might diminish the joy of being in God’s presence.

    The other story in this passage which I want to write about today is Peter’s denial and Jesus’ prediction of that denial. When Jesus tells the disciples that they will all desert Him in the face of His persecution, Peter quickly asserts that he will not. He insists that he will stand with Jesus even if it means his own death. There is an element of hubris in what Peter is saying. To a degree, he is saying “I know these others will desert you, but I am different from them. I am better than they and will stand with you.” It is that hubris which leads to his denials. The other aspect is that Peter does not yet understand what is going to happen despite what Jesus has been telling them for weeks, if not months. I think that Peter believed, at least in part, that the betrayal and arrest would be the signal for Jesus to throw of his “disguise” and reveal Himself as the conquering Messiah. And Peter would be there, the loyal follower ready to support the now victorious King. To me that explains why Peter followed Jesus to the high priest’s house. He expected that it would be there that Jesus would reveal Himself and His power. Peter was there to stand up when Jesus declared Himself to say, “Here I am Lord. Let’s take the battle to them.” It was devastating for Peter when he realized that he was not who he thought he was. He was no better than anybody else and neither am I.