14:67-7
Peter may have thought he was escsping scrutiny, but there was no escape. Another servant girl saw him and studied him closely, she recognized that he had been with Jesus and told him so. Again, Peter denied it \\yet again Peer tried to escape, and yet again failed. The more accusations, the more vehemently \ Peter denied knowing Jesus. Then the cock crowed s second time and peter remembered \jedSus’ words . Peter realised what a failure he was, and broke down and cried bitterly.
12:27
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” God surely is the God of the living, there is not much point being the God of the dead! This also implies that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive and will be raised. There is no record of the response in Mark’s gospel, though Luke says that no one dared to ask Him anymore questions.
12:28
We now get another questioner, this time one of the teachers of the Law. This time the question is not hostile Schnabel posits the possibility that the questioner may start off as being hostile, but there really does not seem to be any evidence for this in the text. The questioner notices “that Jesus had given them a good answer”. This would suggest that the man was a Pharisee, or at least sympathetic to them. He then asks which is the most important commandment? Now why does he do this? It could be a further test of Jesus, or it could be the man trying to prove how clever he is!
8:31,32
We now get a series of sins, based on Deuteronomy. The first in the series asks God to judge a case. Why is he asking God to do this? Presumably it is because there are no witnesses, so man is not able to properly judge the case. God is the only one who has full knowledge of the matter. We need to recognise the limits of human judges.
8:33,34
There then follow a number of cases where the nation is under judgement from God. The first example is where the army has been defeated “because they have sinned against you”. Solomon asks God to forgive them when they turn back to the Lord, repenting and praising God. The Old Testament always accepts/knows that Israel would not keep the Law, and so there is provision for repentance and forgiveness. Note that forgiveness and repentance go together. “Teach them the right way to live”. Forgiveness is not “being let off”, but involves learning the right way. The result asked for here is God bringing the people back to the land.
14:69-72
The servant girl saw him again, and this time said to those around about that Peter was one of Jesus’ disciples. Again Peter denied it. The third time those standing near Peter accused him of being with Jesus. His accent may have given him away as a Galilean, and they knew that many of Jesus’ disciples were Galileans. Galileans were looked down upon, regarded as peasants. Peter then denied knowing Jesus all the more vehemently, even calling down curses upon himself. Then the rooster crowed and Peter came to his senses, remembering what Jesus had said, and realising what he had done. It is so easy to do the wrong thing. In 1 Per 1:13 Peter tells us to prepare our minds for action. We need to do this in order to reduce the risk of our doing something sinful or wrong. Otherwise it is easy for us to be caught off guard and our flesh will cease the opportunity.
15:1
Jesus is now brought before Pilate, the Jewish religious leaders were unable to have Jesus killed themselves, they needed the Romans to do it for them. So there is an interesting comparison here. The Jews and the Gentile had to work together to reject Jesus. Now the Gentiles and Jews together can find eternal life by believing in Jesus. Jesus was bound and handed over to Pilate, the Roman governor. Just ponder on this for a moment. Men have bound the Son of God, and the Son of God, who could have called on myriads of angels, has let them, has submitted to this.
15:2-4
Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so” was Jesus reply. In many ways Jesus’ answers were not helpful. What He was doing was let the Jewish leaders, Pilate and others take the consequences of their decisions. The chief priests piled on a heap of other accusations. Jesus remained silent and Pilate was perplexed that Jesus did not answer any of their accusations.
15:5-7
The natural reaction when accused of something, especially when falsely accused, is to respond denying the accusations. Jesus’ lack of response is in line with Is 53:7. Pilate could not understand Jesus’ lack of response. It was the custom for the governor at this time of year to release one prisoner. The governor was not obliged to do so by law, but would often do this to help maintain peaceful relations with the people. Note that this implies that prisoners were not all normal criminals, but some were “political prisoners”. The primary aim of a governor was to maintain peace, the worst thing that could happen is that there were riots, as this would make the governor look very bad in the eyes of Rome.
12:25
The Sadducees assumed that the resurrection was a mere continuation of this life, in particular that marriage will continue to exist as it does in this life. In 1 Cor 15 Paul makes clear that life will be very different, we die mortal, but will be raised immortal (1 Cor 15:53,54). Here Jesus points out that we will be like the angels. This does not mean we will be angels, but that we will be like them in the sense that marriage is no longer a thing.
12:26
Jesus does not leave things there. He now “puts the knife in”, as He often did. The Sadducees claimed to hold to the Book of Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament), but Jesus shows that these very books proclaim the resurrection. “Have you not read in the Book of Moses”, Jesus is now mocking the Sadducees. He refers to the incident of God meeting Moses in the burning bush, where God declares Himself to be “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”.
8:27,28
While Solomon is pleased to have completed the temple, and pleased that God enabled this to happen, he realises that a man made temple cannot contain the greatness of the Lord. Even so, he asks the Lord to hear his prayers, and that the Lord would have mercy upon him. “Is praying in your presence this day”. The presence of the Lord is vital for Solomon.
8:29,30
“My Name shall be there”. “Name” here is not just a title, but represents the character and person of the Lord. Solomon’s prayer is that the Lord will dwell with the people of Israel. Moses expressed a similar desire for the presence of the Lord (Ex 33:14,15), and Rev 21:3 declares that the dwelling of the Lord is now among the people. Solomon calls upon the Lord to always hear the prayers of His people, and a sign of the people being committed to the Lord is that they pray to the Lord and that He will hear and answer them.
