Mark 14:28

Mar_14:28

I will go before you into Galilee.

Voices from Galilee

It is quite certain that, in the manhood of Christ, there was, in a very large degree, the truest poetry of the heart. His sympathies with nature-His love of the beautiful everywhere-His tenderness to childhood and to weakness-the delicacy of His action-the play of His fancy-all show that vivid imagination, and fervent glow, and quiet sensibility, and creative habit, and deep perception which, I speak it humanly, always make life a poem. Can we wonder that to such a mind as His, that country, so endeared, so sanctified,-lovely in nature, but lovelier still in all its sacred recollections-should have such an attraction that He could scarcely consent even to go to heaven without another look at its beauty, and a last taste of its sweetness! And did my Saviour-did He-even thus? Then forever He has consecrated the pious memories of early years, and the yearnings of our manhood after the sacredness of the past!

II. But, as far as we may presume to judge, this was not the only feeling which led the risen Jesus back to Galilee. We know, indeed, from St. Peters words to Cornelius, that when God raised up Jesus, the third day, He showed Him openly indeed, but not to all the people, only to chosen witnesses, chosen before of God, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. Indeed we know that He appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, and this manifestation was most probably on that mountain in Galilee, where He had made such a special appointment for the reunion. We may well believe-and it is in complete accordance with the whole mind of Christ-that He went down to Galilee for this very object-to gather, and assure, and comfort, and strengthen those to whom His miracles and teaching had been already blessed in that part of Palestine. And it was only like our dear Master, and consistent with all His faithful love, that He should thus pause, before He went on further-to reassure and bless His own in distant places.

III. And of this, more and more, be quite sure, that Christ will always come back to His own work in the soul which He has once made His own. And this blessed lesson again I read in that loving journey to Galilee. Whom Christ calls, to them He returns. No time dims, no changes reach, no distance appals, that love!

IV. I see, too, in the visit to Galilee, a probation and discipline to His own more immediate followers. They were to have the joy of His presence, but they must make an effort. They must show their constancy and their faith by an act of toil and trust. They must go-at His word-all the way to meet Him in Galilee. He went before them. He always goes before His people. And sometimes precedence looks like desertion. Obey and believe, and the recompense will be a full and mantling cup. Go where I send you;-this is His constant language-Go where I send you; I shall be there.

V. One, and perhaps the greatest, cause why He passed those forty days on earth-after He had finished His great work-was to show and prove His identity; to demonstrate that the Risen was the Crucified; that nothing was changed of His love and being. He was the same! the same Man! the same Brother! the same Saviour! the same God! And there were the very wounds to bear their evidence! This visit to Galilee was singularly fitted to evidence the oneness. He goes the very same journey which He had taken often before, to the same places, where He had spent the greater part of His life, and where the witnesses to the identity would be the greatest in number, and the most competent to attest. He seeks the same lake, which He had made the centre of His previous ministry. He stands with His disciples-on the very shore where He had spoken to them and called them. The voice, the accent, the manner, the spirit are the same, They recognize it in a moment. He eats food, where He had so often eaten it before. And how much we owe to that identity, I need not say. The Man of Weakness is the God of Power. The Crucified is the Intercessor. Sure proof that the ransom is accepted, and the whole debt is paid by Christ! Positive evidence that we have now a God in sympathy. And one more voice I hear from Galilee. The risen Christ walked the whole land-from Dan to Beersheba: He revealed His authority: He showed His power: He made all His own! An earnest of that day when He shall come and reign in Mount Sion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously; and His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives; and then there shall be one Lord, and His name One, and all Israel shall be saved. (James Vaughan, M. A.)

Consoling promises

Such a promise as was never heard of before-that a dead man shall rise within a few days, and promise to do so. Note the consolations with which our Lord sustains His disciples.

1. That there shall be a certain end of this evil ready to swallow them up.

2. That there shall be a short end after a few days; three or four.

3. That there shall be a happy end. For

(1) Christ should rise again from the dead with power and glory.

(2) Whereas they have run away from Him, He will come to them again.

(3) Though they have left their Shepherd, yet He will become their Shepherd again, and guide them as a shepherd goes before his sheep. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

The promised meeting in Galilee

Why in Galilee?

1. That our Lord and His disciples may more surely enjoy one another without fear of the Jews; and that He may instruct them in the things concerning the kingdom of heaven.

2. Because Christ had more disciples and favourites in Galilee to whom He would familiarly offer Himself, and manifest His resurrection, than in Judea.

3. His disciples belonged to Galilee, and He would bring, them to the place where He found them.

4. They must follow their calling till Christ came, and for the time before they can get into Galilee, He will be there before them, waiting for them (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:28 Despite predictions of their failure, the account included encouragement and hope. After Jesus was raised from the dead, he met the disciples in Galilee (see 16:7), where they were forgiven and restored (see John 21:1-23).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 14:28 . ἀλλὰ μ .: stronger than Mt.’s μ . δὲ = ye shall be offended, but (be of good cheer) after my resurrection I will go before you, as your Shepherd ( προάξω ὑμᾶς ) into Galilee.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28. after that I am risen] The Angel afterwards referred to these very words at the open Sepulchre on the world’s first Easter-Day (Mar_16:6-7).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But Peter said unto him,.... Being greatly moved at what Christ had said, that all of them would be offended with him that night, and run away from him, and be scattered from him, and one another:

although all shall be offended, yet will not I; though all the rest of the disciples, the other ten, should do as Judas had done, should fall off from Christ, and either betray him, or deny him, or, at least, turn their backs on him, yet he would do neither; See Gill on Mat 26:33.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Howbeit, after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee. This our Lord said to reassure them. Galilee was more like home to them than Jerusalem, and they would there be less afraid of the unbelieving Jews.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus clearly tells Peter he will deny him. Peter and all of the disciples are certain they will not deny Jesus.

I am raised up

This idiom means that God will cause Jesus to become alive again after he has died. This can be written in active form. AT: "God raises me from the dead" or "God makes me alive again" (See: Idiom and Active or Passive)

I will go ahead of you

"I will go before you"

Even if all fall away, I will not

"I will not" can be fully expressed as "I will not fall away." The phrase "not fall away" is a double negative and carries a positive meaning. This can be expressed in the positive if needed. AT: "Even if everyone else leaves you, I will stay with you" (See: Ellipsis and Double Negatives)

translationWords

raise

Galilee

Peter

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

28. ἀλλά. Mt. has δέ, which does not mark so clearly the contrast between the sad scattering of the flock through the death of the Shepherd and its happy reunion through His Resurrection; After I am raised up.

προάξω. The verb suggests another contrast; between His going before them to Jerusalem to suffer and die (Mar 10:32) and His going before them to a meeting place in the chief scene of their life with Him. This prediction of a meeting in Galilee is required to explain Mar 16:7 and Mat 28:6, and we may be sure that it was uttered. As usual (Mar 8:31, Mar 9:31, Mar 10:34), Christ adds to the prediction of His death the comforting promise of rising again; but it seems to have made little impression on the Apostles until after its fulfilment. Even then they derived little comfort from it until He appeared to them. That they believed that He had appeared to them because they were so convinced that He would rise again is against all the evidence that we possess.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28. ἐγερθῆναι—this is the common word for the resurrection, but it acquires here a special meaning from the preceding πατάξω, denoting his rising from the earth to which he has been smitten. προάξω—this word also gets its special sense here from the figure of the sheep and shepherd. He will go before them, as a shepherd leads his flock, i.e. he will resume toward them his office of shepherd, and go before them to the familiar scenes of his earthly ministry. See J. 10:4. The fact that there is no appearance to the disciples in Galilee in Mar 16:9-20, in connection with this prediction, is one of the conclusive proofs that that passage is from another hand.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Go before. See on Mt 26:32.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.