Mark 14:27-31. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 29, 2020.
Although our passage is immediately about the events leading up to the crucifixion, it also points to all those places along the path of our walk of faith where our faith will be tested. We can call this the crucible. The crucible is a place where we are melted down and the impurities float to the surface. The purpose is to remove the impurities identified in that event. The crucible experience always asks the question, “Will you continue to follow Jesus, or will you stumble?” Or, in the words of John 6:67, “Do you also want to go away?”
The truth is that we all stumble at times in this walk of faith. The real point is whether or not we will stumble to the point of falling away completely. I pray that you will remain loyal to the Lord Jesus in the days ahead regardless of any stumblings.
We are living in a time where no people on earth are going to be able to escape the trap that the whole world is heading into. You can escape its destruction, but the trap will be there nonetheless. The wonderful news is that in Jesus there is a way through the trap. You can’t avoid it, but you can be saved through it by putting your trust in Jesus completely, by letting your fears and idols be purged from your life in the refiner’s fire of these times, and by clinging to him, no matter what.
Let’s look at our passage.
This discussion seems to take place on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mt. of Olives, east of Jerusalem. Jesus tells his disciples that they will all stumble because of him this very night. This word for stumble is the same word that Jesus used when John the Baptist was in prison. John was having second thoughts on whether he was right about Jesus. Thus, he sends his disciples to Jesus with the question, “Are you the Coming One, or do we wait for another?” Jesus tells them to tell John the miraculous stuff that he is doing, but then ends with this statement. “Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.” This gives the wrong impression to us today, one of a person’s feelings being hurt. It would be better translated as this, “Blessed is he who is not made to stumble because of me.” Jesus is using the Old Testament stumbling block imagery we find throughout the prophets (see Isaiah 8:14-15 and its context).
The stumbling that is being referred to is a spiritual stumbling, and is tied into the Greek term for a stumbling block, skandalon. This actually points to a whole series of things. To stumble is to waver in our faith in such a way that we lose our balance on the path of following the Lord. This can lead to a person falling to the side of the path, even landing on the ground, injured. If the problem is not rectified at each point of the situation then it can lead not only to falling off the path, but a person may continue on an alternate path that does not follow the Lord, that is either deception, or apostasy (leaving the faith completely).
Stumbling and falling away are spiritual terms that Paul uses in Romans 11 when he explains what God is doing with national Israel. As a nation, Israel had stumbled and fallen away from the path of God. To some of the early Christians, it appeared that God was replacing Israel with the Church and that Israel would be no more. Paul explains that the fall of Israel was not for nothing. It had opened the door for the Gospel to be sent to all the nations, and, when this time of the Gentiles was completed, God would open the eyes of natural Israel that they may believe in Jesus the Messiah. Of course, through the centuries, anyone of natural Israel could believe on Jesus and be recovered, but they would not be recovered to the faith as a nation until the end times. This is what Isaiah is talking about in chapter 8 and is what Jesus means.
Before they can protest this statement, Jesus quotes Zechariah 13:7. This is an interesting passage. In chapter 12 of Zechariah, he talks about Israel, “they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son.” This is in the context of a great salvation from many, if not all, of the nations of the earth marshalled against her. Zechariah 14 actually describes the second coming of Jesus, which also spares Jerusalem from total destruction. However, in Zechariah 13, nestled in between those other chapters, God calls upon one who is “My Shepherd, and My Companion (or Associate).” It pictures the shepherd (the good shepherd) that God sent to teach and to lead Israel (this shepherd who was a close companion to God, being struck and the people of Israel (his sheep) being scattered.
It is interesting that Zechariah doesn’t mention stumbling in the verse Jesus quotes, only “scattering.” The prophets not only spoke of stumbling, but also of falling, broken, snared, and taken. It speaks of such a bad stumbling that Israel is removed from the land and scattered throughout the nations. A scattering that only Messiah could recover. This the verse in Isaiah 8:14-15.
“He will be a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.”
Yet, in Luke 21:35, Jesus says, “[The Day of the Lord] will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” It is not just the disciples of the days of Jesus that need to beware spiritual traps that lead to us being snared. Jesus promises that the trap is not done. There is a great end times trap that has been set by the Lord. This world is quickly rushing headlong into it. The only ones that will survive are those who put their full faith in Jesus and do not stumble to the point of not recovering. God help us to keep our bearings, not to be deceived, nor to lose faith in Jesus.
Jesus then tells them that he will go ahead of them to Galilee after he is resurrected. This helps us to understand why Jesus was telling them that they would stumble. His purpose was not to rub their nose in their coming failure, nor to tell them what a bunch of losers they are. Jesus is not vindictive and angry at their weakness. He had told them many times that he would be killed in Jerusalem, and yet, rise on the third day. Now, he is adding that he will meet them in Galilee afterwards. Yes, the sheep will scatter when God’s shepherd is struck, but then the Good Shepherd (who was struck on our behalf) will rise up and seek out his sheep who were scattered “on a dark and cloudy day.”
We have our own dark and cloudy days, not just on the horizon, but even now. These are times of testing in which all of us have our times of wavering in faith. The Spirit of Jesus is here today, drawing us to his side, saying, “Stand with me and I will give you rest.” For those who stumble, we are called to help them to keep their balance, and keep walking in faith. Even those who fall to the side of the path, we are to warn them of the destruction, bandage their wounds, and help them back into the way of the Lord.
There is a great falling away from the truth of God and His Messiah that is moving throughout the earth. We must guard our hearts and prepare for greater storms yet.
It is at this point that Peter protests what Jesus is saying. True to form, Peter is only saying what he wants to be true. “Even if everyone else is made to stumble, I will not be made to stumble!” This sounds like a great statement of faith, similar to Joshua’s, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!” However, Joshua spoke his statement as a battle-hardened warrior who had been fighting the battles of the LORD. For him, it was not bravado, but a faith that had been tried in the furnace and purified. Peter and the disciples were still wet behind the ears. They were only now headed into the first of many furnaces that lay ahead for them. In fact, in Luke 22:31, Jesus tells Peter that “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Like with Job, Satan had requested to try Peter and his pretentious words.
Jesus prophesies that Peter will deny him three times before the rooster crows a second time that very evening. Peter and the other disciples then vehemently protest this statement. I know that in your heart you may want to be something great for Jesus, but be warned. We are only now in a time of furnace that is itself what purifies our motives and hearts. These are not the times to be talking smack, but rather to be removing the impurities that come to the surface. Jesus knows that we are weak and frail in ourselves. Without him we are fodder for the enemy. Yet, he loves us. In Luke, Jesus tells Peter a wonderful thing in this exchange. He says, “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” How beautiful is that? When we couple this statement with the events after the resurrection in John chapter 21, they are like bookends of the love and forgiveness of Jesus. He is not expecting you to be a robotic faith machine. He loves you; He will not forsake you; He has prayed for you that your faith will not fail! Yes, the sheep will scatter, but in the Name of Jesus we are empowered and authorized to go out into all the world and draw God’s sheep back into the fold. Amen!