The Kiss of Death

Overview

As we look at the last part of Jesus’ life, we come to this scene: his arrest. In it, Jesus makes a big deal about them coming for him with swords and clubs.

What we have here is a clash between two kingdoms, two administrations of reality, two sets of priorities and values. We have the right-side-up kingdom of this world and the upside-down kingdom of Jesus and of God.

In this passage in Mark 14 we see, 1) Judas shows us the kingdom of this world, 2) Peter shows us the difficulty of living in the kingdom of Jesus, and 3) the mysterious young man gives us insights into how we get the power to live in Jesus’ kingdom.