It is conceived in sorrow, and brought forth without any to pity it; nor does it murmur at grief and oppression. It never rejoices but through sufferings, for with the world’s joy it is murdered. I found it alone, being forsaken.¹ – James Nayler

In chapter 13 of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus used figurative language to describe the suffering each and every soul must endure prior to receiving the Light of Christ Within. In chapter 14, we see Jesus enter into his own particular tribulation, and thus we are provided with the archetype for each of our own journeys through the world. In chapter 13, we were told of the way forward; in chapter 14, we are being shown that way.

Though the circumstances of Jesus’s tribulation will be uniquely his own, the particulars point to the universal formation that every person must undergo, each in his own distinct time and place, each with her own unique history and circumstances. Chapter 14 presents a template of the conflict; error; corruption, both personal and institutional; violence; cruelty; pain; shame; abandonment; and isolation that one suffers in a life that is lived over the decades. For Jesus, however, all the injury happens within a few days. Regardless of the intensity of his ordeal, he steadily assures us – and perhaps himself – throughout the account that this apparent calamity is in accord with God’s will; it is all to be expected, for this is the one and only true way to eternal life.

Trouble without and within (1-11)

In this chapter, there are two groups of characters that bring about Jesus’s suffering and death: the corrupt religious establishment and the uncomprehending disciples. Judas’s betrayal is the act which brings the two groups’ determinants – corruption and ignorance – together and amalgamates them into a force capable of inflicting the suffering Jesus will endure. The opening passage of the chapter, verses 1 through 11, introduces all three of these components: (1) the corruption of the religious establishment, (2) the ignorance of the disciples, and (3) the betrayal of Judas.

The chief priests’ and scribes’ treachery is exposed immediately in the first two verses of the chapter: “After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death” (1).² While Israel makes plans to celebrate its historic deliverance from captivity and oppression (the exodus from Egypt), its chief priests plot to destroy the one who would have all know deliverance from inward captivity and oppression. These religious leaders should be celebrating and advancing the people’s freedom, but instead they plot their continued captivity, and thus is the institution corrupted.    

Next in this introductory passage is a short story (3-9) that reveals the disciples’ failure to understand Jesus. In “the anointing at Bethany,” the disciples criticize a woman who has honored Jesus by anointing him with costly oil; the disciples see the act as wasteful and would have had the money used to serve the poor. Jesus justifies the woman’s having “done what lay in her power” (8), thereby siding with one who acts with personal initiative, understanding, and love for him. The disciples argue that virtue is the function of principle and outward, social action while Jesus teaches virtue is an expression of the heart. Furthermore, Jesus sides with a woman who is jointly criticized by a group of men. His claim that the whole world will honor her act wherever the gospel is proclaimed (9) reverses the power imbalance begun with the disciples’ joint castigation. The disciples find power in the crowd; Jesus finds power in righteousness.³  

Finally, completing the introductory passage, are two verses that bring together the corruption of the religious leaders and the ignorance of the disciples: Judas Iscariot is “one of the twelve [and he] went unto the chief priests, to betray [Jesus] unto them” (10). The priests’ and Judas’s complicity is registered in the next verse, and their joint force is now complete and active: “And he sought how he might conveniently betray him” (11).

Just as he had told them (12-31)

Given that the destructive force is now in place and set to act, it is imperative to show that Jesus is aware of all that has passed, is passing, and will come to pass. The narrator must show that Jesus has a higher, truer grasp of reality, beyond mere human capacity. To the human and limited understanding, Jesus will be broken and killed; however, on the true, divine platform of reality, Jesus is supreme; unconquered; and wholly, fully in control.⁴ These expansive, divine qualities are shown figuratively in his ability to foresee the future.

In the first five verses of this section (12-16), the narrator depicts Jesus as having a more-than-human foresight of the complex sequence of events that will allow him and his disciples to conveniently organize and enjoy the Passover supper. The implication is that if Jesus has such detailed prescience of this minor accommodation, he certainly is able to foresee events of major importance. And during the Passover meal, this implication is borne out when he alerts his disciples that one of them will betray him (18), that he [Jesus] will die (25), that all of the disciples will fail him (27), that he will be resurrected and lead the way into Galilee (28), and that the cock will crow twice and Peter deny him thrice (30).

Not only does Jesus’s envisioning the future designate him as having divine power, but when all that he has forecasted has come to pass, his disciples (and we readers) must conclude that this trial of suffering and death is, in fact, the will of God. That Jesus twice refers to Scriptures as having foretold the course set out for the Son of man (21, 27) again confirms that an amendatory tribulation is in fact God’s will throughout time.⁵

Acceptance (32-52)

Hitherto in the stories of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has led and taught his disciples, and he has shown all his opponents to be no match for him in virtue and power. We have seen Jesus in this role of the god-like man, and have rightly attributed his greater-than-human ability to his knowledge of; reliance upon; and unity with God, the Father. In this passage, however, that knowledge of, reliance upon, and unity with “Abba, Father” (36) requires him to forfeit all the preeminence that has been given him in the world, and thus outward manifestations of his commanding strength are largely absent. He is unable to summon his three closest disciples to stay alert while he prays, and he is betrayed by another who’s in league with his long-standing, corrupt opponents. Arrested upon their orders, Jesus is treated as a lowly thief (48).

In this passage, strength of spirit is not exhibited outwardly by directing or defeating others; rather the fleshly will is directed inward to subdue or discipline itself that God may rule. Jesus yields: “nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (36). The movement from following his own will to accepting the Father’s is replicated in his response to both groups: the disciples and the religious leaders (through the proxy of the armed crowd sent to arrest him).

Jesus instructs his disciples to stay awake while he struggles and prays: once and again, praying the same words (39) with utmost determination. A third time he returns to the disciples after praying, and this time he accepts their failure and says, “Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough” (41). Similarly, with the posse sent by the religious leaders, Jesus at first challenges them, but then reverses himself and tolerates their duplicity, stating it’s been preordained in the Scriptures: “I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not; but the scriptures must be fulfilled” (49). Once Jesus has inwardly accepted the Father’s will, he is able to “endure unto the end” (13:13b) the weakness, failure, and corrupt abuse of the world.

Conclusion (53-72)

The final passage in chapter 14 takes place within the stronghold of corruption: the high priest’s palace where all the religious leaders – the priests, elders, and scribes – are assembled, with the intent to find an excuse to put Jesus to death. In this passage, which comprises more than a quarter of this long chapter’s length, Jesus speaks little. He knows what is to happen, has accepted and will not oppose it, for it is God’s will. Only once does he speak, and with words that will enrage the religious leaders and give them the “evidence” they seek to condemn him of blasphemy. Jesus answers the high priest’s question “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the most Blessed?” (61) with these words: “I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (62).⁶

We have seen the corrupt force of the leaders gather momentum throughout chapter 14: first the plotting of Jesus’s death, then colluding with Judas, followed by the false arrest and condemning Jesus “to be guilty of death” (64). Finally, these corrupted ones abuse the dignity and person of Jesus (65). Only killing him remains to be done in this most extreme portrayal of human suffering at the hand of the corrupt.

As the religious leaders have done their worst, so likewise must the other group, the disciples, be shown to fail Jesus in the most extreme way. Through a kiss (45), a gesture of love, one disciple has betrayed Jesus, and during the arrest, “all [his disciples] forsook him, and fled” (50). Peter, the most ardently outspoken of the Twelve, follows Jesus to the high priest’s palace, and while Jesus is tried within by the kangaroo court, Peter warms his flesh by a courtyard fire. Accused by a serving girl, Peter’s three-time cowardly denial is in high contrast to his earlier claims of loyalty (29, 31). His shamed weeping ends the story, a fitting conclusion to the chapter in which Jesus has entered knowingly into his great tribulation, subject to all the failure, corruption, cruelty, pain, shame, abandonment, and desolation that the world can muster against a living soul.

1. James Nayler, Works of James Nayler (Glenside, Pa.: Quaker Heritage Press, 2009), 4:382.

2. The King James Version of the Bible is used throughout the essay.  

3. The prophecy in this passage of the gospel’s spread throughout the world through preaching (9) not only underscores the disciples’ future responsibility but also tells of the ultimate triumph of the gospel, the power of God. The accuracy of Jesus’s prophecies in this chapter shows him to be knowledgeable and in control, though by the end of the chapter, all will appear to be in disarray.

4. Unity with God – wherever that leads – is synonymous with victory. Where one stands in the worldly hierarchy is ultimately inconsequential.

5. The suffering and death is scandalous to the person who refuses the God of Truth; God does not align with any imposed fantasy of what constitutes divine love.

     6. It is interesting to note that Jesus’s claim would not be a threat to the innocent; for speaking to his disciples previously, he used some of the same words to describe salvation: “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (13:26). To these corrupt leaders, however, these words cannot be heard but as a threat of their damnation. That the same words (voice) can effect different responses – depending upon the soul’s guilt or innocence – is the meaning of these verses:

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (Jn. 5:28-29). 

Kiss of Judas, 1306 Scrovegni Chapel, Giotto