Gospel of Mark Study #51

“The Bottom of the Well”

Mark 14:66-72

Study #51 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

During our first term as missionaries in South Brazil we partnered with a Brazilian couple for about two years in a new church-plant in a community called Parque Valença on the outskirts of Campinas in the state of São Paulo. It was an extremely poor neighborhood. Most of the houses were made of mud bricks and the floors were of concrete or packed dirt. Everyone there did manual labor and many did not even have enough to eat. One of the men in the congregation, José Egidio, was a well digger. Here in the USA that means one thing, but down there it meant something vastly different. He dug wells by hand, with a pick and a shovel, and used buckets on a rope for his partner to haul out the dirt and rocks.

It was a dark, dirty, difficult, and dangerous profession. It was dark because after the first few feet down José was working in pitch-blackness. It was dangerous because those dirt wells often caved in on the well digger. Many were killed. Or else sometimes the rope would break while they were going down into the well or coming back up and they would suffer terrible injuries. If you just use your imagination you can think of several other ways a man could get killed doing that job.

I liked and admired José, but I certainly did not begrudge him his job. The idea of going down into that deep, dark hole creeps me out still to this day. The bottom of the well is not a nice place to be.

TRANSITION:

That phase, “the bottom of the well,” can symbolize several different situations. Perhaps you have had your own “bottom of the well” experience. I have, and it was not pleasant! From the bottom of the well all you can see is a tiny little round dot of light that seems ridiculously out-of-reach. At the bottom of the well there is no hope. At the bottom of the well there is no light. At the bottom of the well there is no one who understands. 

Today we are going to see the apostle Peter at the bottom of his personal spiritual well. We are going to see him descend a deep dark hole and finally hit bottom. From that point there was nowhere else to go but up. But as he lay there at the bottom of his well, I can imagine that he thought there was no hope for him. He had committed what in his mind was an unforgiveable sin, not once, but three times. He had failed Jesus and he had failed himself and his friends. He had gone back on his word and had denied the Lord publicly. He was a broken man.

But after having been broken myself, and after having observed God at work in other people’s lives, I have come to believe that God specializes in pulling people out of wells and He specializes in using people who have been broken. He has a special talent for taking a person with no future and no options and making him or her into an instrument He can use for His glory. In fact, God used Peter’s “bottom of the well” experience to shape him into a useful servant. Let’s see exactly how He did it.

By way of review, we are looking at Mark’s account of those last few hours just before the Lord’s crucifixion. After Jesus was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane by Judas into the hands of the soldiers, He was shackled and taken to the home of the high priest. He was examined first by Annas, the former high priest, and then taken to stand before Caiaphas, the currently presiding high priest. Although this was late at night, some members of the Sanhedrin were summoned to the home of Caiaphas to render judgment against Jesus. Meanwhile, down below in the courtyard, Peter was sitting by a campfire, surrounded by temple guards and some of the high priest’s servants. He had managed to gain entrance and was keeping his eyes and ears open for any news of what was happening to Jesus upstairs. 

NOTES on the Text:

Verses 66-67: And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, ⁶⁷ and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him, and said, “You, too, were with Jesus the Nazarene.”

• Remember back to last week when I explained that Caiaphas, the high priest, and Annas, his father-in-law who was also the previous high priest, had their houses joined together kind of like a big 2-story duplex with a courtyard down below. People would come from the street through a gate and into a forecourt area. That led to the courtyard itself where Peter and the others were gathered around a fire for warmth and light. Jesus was being interrogated by the high priest and members of the Sanhedrin upstairs in the large salon in Caiaphas’ living area.
• We learn from John 18:15-17 that this servant-girl was the one who let Peter into the courtyard in the first place after another one of Jesus’ disciples [possibly John himself] put in a good word for Peter to help get him through the door: ¹⁵ Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, ¹⁶ but Peter stood outside at the door. So, the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in.  ¹⁷ The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.”
• The servant-girl may not have even hardly glanced at Peter before, but now Mark says, “…she looked at him…” and Mark uses a word that means “to fix one’s gaze upon, or to scrutinize.” She looked at his face and studied his clothes and remembered that he had gained access with that other fellow’s help, who was also a Galilean. She connected the dots and concluded correctly that Peter was with Jesus.

Verse 68: But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch. 

• Peter’s denial was fast and furious. It was also strengthened by repetition: “I do not know” and “I do not understand” what you are talking about. Both statements were lies. He both knew and understood what she was saying, and he lied through his teeth, denying that he had any connection with that raggedy Jesus of Nazareth fellow.
• “And he went out onto the porch.” This so-called porch was really the forecourt or vestibule area leading from the street into the courtyard. Being farther from the fire it was darker, and it protected him from curious eyes.
• Some of the Bible versions include the words, “…and the cock crowed,” at the end of this verse, but the words are lacking in the older Greek manuscripts. However, it does not change the facts or the content of the account, as you will see down in verse 72.

Verse 69: And the maid [i.e., servant-girl] saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!”

• Apparently the same big-mouthed servant-girl got another glimpse of Peter lurking around the courtyard and spoke up again. This time, though, she addressed her words, not to Peter, but to the other bystanders. I imagine that as soon as the words left her lips all eyes turned to look at Peter. Can you imagine the feeling of panic that must have gone through him? He was probably terrified.
• I need to stop and explain something. If you compare the four Gospel accounts describing Peter’s three denials it starts to get confusing, because each one tells the story in a little different way, giving different details. For example, Matthew 26:71 speaks of a second maid who pointed the finger at Peter. And Luke 22:58 tells of a man who accused Peter of being with Jesus. And John 18:26 says that one of those making accusations was a relative of Malchus, the servant of the high priest, whose ear Peter had whacked off. No doubt, all of these are true and historically accurate, and it makes perfect sense if you think about it. The first one who accused Peter of being with Jesus was the servant-girl and she accused Peter to his face. After that, however, the accusations were made about him to the bystanders, opening the door for many people to weigh in on the topic. They were yelling at him and accusing him and pointing him out to others. Very quickly Peter found himself surrounded by accusers and he responded with vehemence to all of them.

Verse 70: But again, he was denying it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.”

• “But again, he was denying it.” Just like before, in an infuriated voice, with as much disdain as he could muster, he repeatedly denied that he had ever known Jesus. The verb tense carries the sense of repeated action. Stating it in several different ways, for everyone to hear, Peter disavowed himself of any connection whatsoever with the so-called “Prophet from Galilee.”

Verse 71: But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this fellow you are talking about!” 

• To make things worse, Peter called down curses upon himself. Where is says, “…he began to curse and swear,” it does not mean that he used profanity. It means that he “pronounced a curse,” almost certainly upon himself, if he was not telling the truth. The New Living Translation says this in verse 71: “Peter swore, ‘A curse on me if I’m lying. I do not know this man you are talking about!’” To put it another way he said something like, “May I be struck by lightning if I am lying about this. With God as my witness, I swear on a stack of Bibles, upon my mother’s grave, that I do not know this guy, Jesus the Nazarene, that you all keep talking about!” That is what he did. And he did it in a loud voice; loud enough that everybody in that courtyard could hear him. 

Verse 72: And immediately a cock [i.e., rooster] crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, “Before a cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he began to weep. 

• The incredible timing of that rooster crowing is amazing. The text says, “Immediately.” As the words were leaving Peter’s mouth the rooster let loose with a loud crow for the second time. The second Peter heard that sound, Jesus’ words pierced his heart like an arrow: “Before a cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”  
• But it was not just the memory of Jesus’ words that struck Peter like an arrow. Something else happened, and it sent him to the very bottom of the well.
• Luke tells the story this way in Luke 22:60-62: “⁶⁰ But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about.’ And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹ At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: ‘Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know Me.’  ⁶² And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.”
• In some horrible string of events Jesus was apparently being moved from one place to another and He witnessed Peter’s last denial and heard him swear that he did not know Jesus. All He did was turn and look at Peter. Their eyes locked in that moment, and Peter knew in an instant that Jesus had heard every word he had spoken.
• The text says, “And he began to weep.” That is an understatement. He wept, and wept, and it seemed there was no end to his tears and his sorrow. That was the moment when he hit bottom—when he reached the bottom of his well.

CONCLUSION:

But Peter’s fall to the bottom of the well did not happen all at once. In fact, he had been in freefall for quite a while, and he did not even know it. This, I believe, is something that we need to examine, because our “well” experiences do not happen all at once either. They are always a series of events, usually tied to our messed-up thinking and bad decisions. 

The story of Peter’s fall leaves us feeling helpless, powerless to intervene, as we witness the tragedy unfold until he has finally passed the point-of-no-return and crashes at the bottom of the well. Let’s look at some of the landmarks on the way down:

1.       His childish self-confidence and scorn for other people (14:29)

2.      His failure to discipline his sleepy flesh in the Garden (14:37)

3.      His cowardice when the soldiers showed up to capture Jesus (14:50)

4.      His “following at a distance” out of fear (14:54)

5.      His hanging out with the enemies of Jesus in the courtyard (14:54)

All these things made his actual denial logical and almost inevitable. His battle against temptation in the high priest’s courtyard had been lost long before, which reminds us that the time for the Christian to fight temptation is before it is encountered, not when it is staring us in the face.

The real tragedy of Peter’s story is that each step downward might have been a step upward. At each point along the way Peter was forced to take a stand and to declare himself. At last, he could no longer remain silent; he either had to admit or deny his connection with Jesus. God laid out a path for him and the issues were clear-cut. But Peter chose, deliberately, and three times, to deny the Lord. And so those promptings of grace became occasions of condemnation, and he regretted his decision for the rest of his life.           

We are tempted to try and make excuses for Peter because we feel sorry for him. We see ourselves in him, and our own weaknesses, and we suspect that under the same circumstances we might have failed as miserably as he did. However, unless we see the heinousness of his sin, we cannot understand the bitterness of his remorse, or the depth of his repentance, nor the riches of God’s grace in his restoration. Our point in this study is not to analyze by what easy steps Peter’s fall came, but to realize the terrible nature of the fall itself.

Remember this: To underestimate the gravity of our sin always leads to underestimating the value of God’s redemption, and ultimately, robs the cross of its glory.           

I want to add one more comment, and this is important. The only unimpeachable witness and source of information about the events in that courtyard was Peter himself. Years later, Peter was Mark’s primary source of information to write his Gospel. Peter himself was the one who shared the story of his worst defeat, his worst hour, his greatest failure. Yet that which for him was the lowest point of his life was the place where he really discovered God’s love and forgiveness. I believe that for the rest of his life Peter told this story, his story, and used it as an example of God’s grace, mercy, and restoration. People must have marveled as that big old fisherman, with tears in his eyes, would say, “If God could love me, and forgive me, and restore me after what I did to Jesus, then He can and will do it for you too.”           

The experience that was Peter’s greatest shame became his greatest glory, and the platform from which he could preach about the amazing grace of God.

FEEDBACK:

What lesson are you taking away from this story? What has stood out to you? What do you think the Lord wants to teach you today from this passage and how will it make you a better Christ-follower?