Mark 14:44 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 14:44

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Mark seems reluctant to name Judas unless it's absolutely necessary. He had given them a token, a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same is he; take him, and lead him away safely.’ The chief priests did not necessarily know where Christ withdrew himself to, after preaching in Jerusalem in the evenings of this last week. But Judas knew, and he would take them to that little garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives. It was clearly owned by one who was a follower of Christ. Not one of the twelve; not a close disciple, but the owner of that garden, who possibly lived nearby. And the garden had olives – it was an olive grove – and there would have been a structure there to press the olives, either a simple building or a cave in the hillside, which had been adapted to the purpose, and contained the press. But the owner was sympathetic, a follower, and there Christ would take the disciples. Judas knew. He knew exactly the route to the place, and he took this great hostile crowd of soldiers, clergy and temple police to that very spot. He had arranged the kiss; he would kiss and embrace Christ, and so we would indicate who was the one they were after. What Judas didn't know – and we read about this in the Gospel of John – was that, the moment this party entered the garden, Christ would step forward, and say to them, ‘Who are you seeking?’ and they would say to him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, and he would say ‘I am he.’ They didn't need Judas actually; the Lord would step forward himself. But Judas led the party, and though it was no longer necessary, since Christ identified himself, Judas advanced to him. He utters these words: twice he says, ‘Rabbi, rabbi’ – Master, master, from the Hebrew, ‘Teacher, teacher’. Mark you, Judas has done this before at the Last Supper. Then too he called him, Teacher, whereas everyone else called Christ, Lord. Judas no longer believed that. He no longer believed he was divine; he was Lord. He was falling already. Judas represents here, perfectly, a nominal believer. A nominal believer? Isn't he an outright enemy? No, that's not how he was. He was a follower of Christ, and he was one of the twelve, the inner circle of disciples. But he was the one among the twelve who was actually a nominal believer. He believed in Christ to begin with. Not as the spiritual Saviour, but he believed in him as being from God and having divine power. He would have believed in him as a political saviour, one who would rescue the country from the Romans, when we revealed himself and his power. But it became increasingly obvious to Judas that Jesus was not going to do that, and that was not what happening. He was allowing himself to be taken and arrested and humiliated; this was not the victorious political saviour of the kind that Judas expected – so he ceased to believe in him, and he was for most of the time a nominal believer. He professed Christ to be the Son of God. He stood with the other disciples. He was trusted enough as one of them, by the other disciples, for them to appoint him the treasurer of their money, the one who would handle their pooled resources as disciples of Christ. When Christ first said at the Last Supper, ‘One of you will betray me’, none of the disciples suspected Judas, not for a moment. They said, ‘Is it I? Is it I?’ Isn’t that amazing?

Application

The nominal believer can pass. The nominal believer can be admitted to membership of the church. The nominal believer can convince many people that he has a sincere faith, but he is only notional, formal, nominal as a believer. He hasn’t actually been saved; he hasn't actually ever truly repented; he hasn't been illuminated and received a new understanding, and that transformation of life which is conversion. He is not in a relationship with God. He doesn't walk with Christ, and love him deeply and sincerely, and seek to honour him. He hasn't come to hate his sin, and to long to please Christ. He isn’t in the battle against sin. He isn't really changed. Here is a warning about the nominal believer: the nominal believer will ultimately fail and fall. You see it in times of persecution. You see, when it becomes unpopular, such as in our land, to be a believer in Christ. You see nominal believers falling away in their masses. The Victorian age was the end of an age of blessing. Many people were truly converted in all kinds of churches around the country, Protestant believing churches. But then it faded, and the offspring of those believers were nominal believers, or many of them were. They were not personally and deeply saved. So, the great fall began from worship. They were the people who were the first to be convinced by Darwinism and later Freudianism, and so on – the intellectual hostility to the Bible and to the gospel. They were the people who fell for the movement for higher criticism. They were the people who, when the First World War came and all its terrors and horrors, stopped ever going to church, and there began the great falling away in the United Kingdom. From then on, it’s been steep until, at the present day, we are virtually an atheistic country. But the nominals ultimately fall. If you have never deeply found the Lord, and really repented of sin, and found a new life and transformation, and found yourself walking with God, and fighting against sin and doing all for his sake, you are a nominal, and ultimately you will fail. If not before, at death, and when Christ comes again, you will fail. That’s the first warning of the passage.

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Mark 14:44 Commentary and Bible Study