The ‘Looks’ of the Lord Jesus – Part 3

[All quotations are from the New King James Bible unless otherwise stated]

(iii) In Mark chapter 11, we read of the second occasion when the Lord Jesus cast out those who bought and sold in the temple.¹

We note that, in advance of this action, the Lord had, first, ‘looked around at all things’ and had then gone out to Bethany for the night.²It was on His return the next day that He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves and so forth.³

The Lord explained His actions in terms of the words of Isaiah, ‘Is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? but you have made it a den⁴ of robbers’.⁵

The court of the Gentiles, which should have been available for prayer and the worship of the true God, was occupied by tradesmen -in part, by ‘the Bazaars of the sons of Annas’.⁶ Men came to pray and to bring their offerings to God but were ‘robbed’ and deprived of their spiritual privileges by a corrupt and money-grubbing priesthood. That which Jesus saw stirred Him (out of compassion and love) to spring to the defence of those who were denied the blessing of the special place appointed for them to bring their intercessions and their praise to God.

It is most important that we understand what it was that made the Saviour angry on each of these occasions. That which made Jesus angry in Mark chapters 3, 10 and 11 was certainly not (a) some petty injury done to Himself or (b) some personal insult, such as was once delivered to Him by the inhabitants of ‘a village of the Samaritans’, who refused Him hospitality - following which He simply passed on to another village.⁷

Our Lord’s anger was roused, rather, when others suffered hurt or loss by being deprived of that which was for their good and blessing. It was, that is, love and compassion which provoked our Lord to indignation and anger:

1. for the man with the withered hand of chapter 3,
2. for the children and their fathers of chapter 10, and
3. for the would-be worshippers of chapter 11.

‘Time would fail me to tell’⁸ of the occasions when . . .

5. Some received the benefit of His straight speaking

By way of example only, I point to our Lord’s encounter with a rich young ruler.⁹

The incident concerns a rich¹⁰ young¹¹ ruler¹² who approached Jesus with a question about obtaining eternal life. The man claimed that, from his youth, he had observed those commandments in the law which were concerned with adultery, murder, theft, false witness, fraud, and respect for parents.¹³

However, this exemplary young man knew in his heart that more was required of him than mere outward conformity to the law; hence his question, ‘what do I still lack?’¹⁴

‘Jesus, looking at him, loved him’, we are told, ‘and said . . . “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”’.¹⁵

The Lord knew the man’s heart, that riches held the supreme place there - that what the man really worshipped were his possessions and his riches. The Lord’s loving (albeit stringent) demand ‘touched the poisonous swelling as with a sharp lancet when He called for surrender of wealth . . . it was this man’s money which stood between him and eternal life’.¹⁶

It was for this reason that Jesus put His finger on the dominant idol in the ruler’s life and told him first to give away all his possessions and then - and only then - to ‘come’ and ‘follow’ Him.¹⁷

We should note that the commandments which the man claimed to have kept were all ‘manward’, taken from what is known as the second table of the Decalogue.

In effect, the Lord Jesus took him back to the very first commandment of the first table, which was ‘God-ward’; namely, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’.¹⁸

Tragically, faced with this demand, the ruler’s brow clouded over¹⁹and ‘he went away sorrowful’.²⁰The price was too high. But Jesus had spoken straight to the man and would not pare down His requirements to make them easier for him to accept.

In each of the cases we have considered so far (from that of the multitudes with their physical and spiritual needs to that of the rich ruler), that which the Lord Jesus saw moved Him to do something or to say something or, at the very least, to feel something.

But there is one recorded instance when the Saviour’s ‘look’ was itself His response to a painful situation. I refer to the occasion when ‘the Lord turned and looked at Peter‘.

6. Peter received the benefit of His look

I refer to the occasion when ‘the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said, “Before the rooster crows today, you shall deny me three times”.²¹

At that moment, Jesus was being led out²² from the place where He had appeared before the council during the night to spend a few hours in some form of a cell before being brought back before the council early in the morning for a formal so-called trial with its predetermined verdict and sentence.²³

En route, Jesus was led past a charcoal fire²⁴ which the guards²⁵and the servants of the High Priest had kindled²⁶ in the middle²⁷ of the High Priest’s courtyard below.²⁸ Around the fire, the guards and the servants gathered to warm themselves for it was cold.²⁹ Peter joined them as they sometimes sat³⁰ and sometimes stood³¹ near the fire.

The servants of the High Priest were shortly to mock Jesus, to beat Him with their fists, and to blindfold Him.³² At that point, He would not be able to ‘look at’ anyone!

But for one brief moment, His eyes met those of the unhappy apostle. And that single glance told Peter that Jesus knew everything - that Jesus had recognized his face and his voice - that Jesus had heard his every word, including his dreadful oaths!³³

For the Lord to have spoken even one syllable to Peter at that moment would have been for the Lord to betray Peter. Under close questioning, Peter had repeatedly denied that he even knew Jesus. The Lord could not afford, therefore, to make the slightest gesture of recognition. He was not able even to slacken His pace. But then He did not need to! He compressed everything He wanted to say to Peter into His one look.

Perhaps His look reminded Simon Peter, not only of Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s failure,³⁴ but also of the very first time they had met. On that occasion, Andrew (Peter’s brother and one of the disciples of John the Baptist) had left the Baptist to follow the ‘Lamb of God’.³⁵

Andrew found Peter to tell him, ‘“We have found the Messiah”’. Andrew then ‘brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at³⁶ him and said, “You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which is by interpretation, ‘rock’³⁷)’.