Today we talk about denial, abandonment, and Jesus on trial in Mt 26.57-27.14;Mk 14.53-15.5; Lk 22.54-23.12; Jn 18.13-38.

Jesus is handed from one authority to another. Religious leaders to Pilate. Pilate to Herod. Herod back to Pilate. The proceedings are chaotic, the charges keep shifting, and through all of it Jesus is almost entirely alone.

This week Alan and Mary Balfour work through the trial narratives across all four gospels, and the differences between them turn out to be as instructive as the agreements. Each writer frames the proceedings through a distinct lens, and paying attention to what each one includes, and what each one leaves out, opens up the story in ways a single account never could.

Peter's denial runs alongside the hearing the whole time, and the fact that all four gospel writers include it is worth pausing on. The early church preserved the story of its most prominent leader's worst moment and built it into the center of the Passion narrative. That decision says something important about what the gospels are actually trying to do.

But the heart of the conversation this week is the loneliness of what Jesus endures. No supporters. No character witnesses. No one in the room on his side. Alan and Mary Balfour reflect on what it means that Jesus experienced this kind of abandonment, and why that matters to anyone who has ever felt completely alone. Jesus's faithfulness to God in his darkest moment is not a distant theological proposition. It is a word spoken directly into human suffering.

Readings for next week: Mt 27.15-56; Mk 15.6-41; Lk 23.13-49; Jn 18.38-19.37

Links mentioned in this episode:

- Zita of Tuscany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zita)

- Education for Ministry (https://theology.sewanee.edu/education-for-ministry/)

- Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner's Guide to Holy Week (https://a.co/d/89u4GX8)

- Christ Chronological Bible (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143364603X)
- Check us out on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@biblelovepodcast)