MARK 14
At Eastside Baptist Church we have been living
in the Gospel of Mark, both in reading it in our morning services, and preaching
from this Gospel on Sunday evenings. Our
desire is to get to know or Lord Jesus as He is revealed to
us in this gospel. [1] May
the Holy Spirit be pleased to add to our knowledge the ability to see Christ
for who He is? May our hearts be filled with
renewed gratitude , worship and
resolve to serve Him with a greater
devotion as a result of this special
time on the Christian calendar .
Our Scripture reading from Mark chapter 14
on this Communion evening takes
us to
the events of the days and the night before the cross of Christ
- the night on which he was betrayed by Judas .
The major theme of this chapter : Christ is coming to do that for which He was appointed. He comes to be the
Passover Lamb.
We find the Old Testament imagery in Exodus 12. The blood of a lamb was to be
applied to the door lintels of the homes of every Hebrew family, presently in slavery in in
Egypt. They must leave this land to go to the land of their promise. Human sin stands in the way yet again, by
way of a stubborn Egyptian pharaoh. God will do whatever it takes to send His
people on their way to that country. With patience God speaks 9 times to Pharaoh
by means of plagues. Pharaoh will not listen,
and so the 10th plague is decreed:
the death of every firstborn son in every household in Egypt!
God however makes exclusion. He commands the Israelites to institute a new commemorative feast, which is called the Passover. The ritual is simple. Kill a young lamb, and apply its blood to the door lintels. This would be the sign for the angel of death who would pass through Egypt that night, to pass over the homes of the Israelites.
God however makes exclusion. He commands the Israelites to institute a new commemorative feast, which is called the Passover. The ritual is simple. Kill a young lamb, and apply its blood to the door lintels. This would be the sign for the angel of death who would pass through Egypt that night, to pass over the homes of the Israelites.
It is amazing , is it not , that God used this ancient incident to prepare us for a far
greater deliverance- for the world’s deliverance
from our spiritual Egypt, - the world house of sin and slavery . This
picture is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and all this rich Old Testament history
and imagery now comes to a climax here
in Mark 14.
Jesus had prepared His disciples for this event
on at least three occasions: Mark 8:31; Mark 9:31 and Mark 10:33-34
In Chapter
14:1 we find the great connection between Christ and the Passover. Christ is the Passover Lamb.
John saw this clearly when he said: “Behold,
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (John
1: 29, 36).
The greater Passover Lamb must die! Death is in the air! We see this already in
the very first verse in Mark 14:1 where we
are told: “the chief priests and the
scribes were seeking how to arrest Him
by stealth and kill Him.” Their intent is clearly murderous. In that
sense they become the image of Old Testament Pharaoh who designed evil and
death for the Jews. God however shall use
this evil intent to bring about the most glorious story ever told! God will deliver up His Son to evil men. He
will allow them to do what they want to
do, but in doing this God will
count His Life as a
blood atonement that will redeem
all those in the world that believe
in the person and work of Christ , and God will use this to judge all those that stand indifferently or
defiantly against Christ !
The next thing that happens
is that Jesus gets anointed at Bethany (14: 3-9) by Mary , the sister
of Lazarus and Martha (John 12:3) with a very costly perfume . While some regard this as a “waste “Jesus
sees this as anointing of His body for His funeral. Again, the fragrance of Christ’s
death is in the air!
Next we
find Judas, who being tempt by the priests , promise to give him money in exchange for betraying the One who has been so very good to him (14:
10- 11)
The day of the
unleavened bread which is closely associated with the Passover
now follows. This is the day and the night of Jesus betrayal! On this day every Jewish house removes all
evidences of any yeast (12:15) and eats unleavened bread only. Yeast symbolically has the characteristics of
sin. Once it is in the dough it spreads and it cannot be removed from the dough.
The sin that has pervaded the nation of Israel (and the world) cannot be removed
… except through the blood of Christ.
With Mark 14: 12 – 72 we
find the day which has sometimes been called "Maundy Thursday"[2]
(see note). The remembrance of the historical Passover shall be central event
of this day. In fact the Passover today will become much, much bigger in its significance!
But where shall Jesus and the disciples find a place
to celebrate the Passover?
What unfolds now gives us a fascinating insight
into Jesus foreknowledge of events. We learn that there
is nothing haphazard about this event. It is all very carefully planned. In 14:
12-31 Jesus gives the disciples as
it were a foretaste of the ‘divine
agenda’:
·
A
man carrying a jar of water will meet them in the city.
·
The
man will tell them that he has a large upper room, ready for their Passover
celebration.
·
Here
Jesus will reveal that He shall be betrayed by one of the disciples. He will predict that the disciples will in
fact all fall away (14:27) because it is written: “I will
strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered” (Zech. 13:7). He also reveals (again) that He will be raised from
the dead. He reveals that He would meet them again in Galilee (14:28). He foretells that Peter (amidst
protestations) will fall away.
The rest of the chapter reveals at least three fulfilments of Jesus’
words:
(i)
Verses 43 – 50 - Judas
betrayal
(ii)
Verses 51 – 52
- the young man that
flees as Jesus is arrested ( probably Mark
who is illustrative of the
disciples )
(iii)
Verses 66-72 - Peter
denies Jesus
· Following the Lord’s supper Jesus and the disciples go out to the Mount
of Olives Verses in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus come here to pray, as He knows that the
hour is now come. Verses 32- 42 show us
that He is in deep distress. The depth of His soul agony we will never be able
to understand. It is probably much worse than the physical trauma and pain which He experiences
on Friday when He is mocked ,
tortured and crucified (Mark
15) .
This is the day which
we now remember …. Maundy Thursday
1.
It was all
part of God’s plan to
provide a Lamb whose blood would
be applied to the lives of those who
would believe in God by believing in the person and work of His Son .
2.
In
this plan He uses the wicked (like Judas) to do what they would have freely
chosen to do.
3.
The
sin of His redeemed people’s faithlessness
( illustrated by the young disciple that ran away and by Peter who denied
Christ ) is all covered by
the shed blood of Christ . We are taught here that it is not our natural
resolve to love God that causes us to
persevere, but the fact that the Lamb’s
blood has been shed for us.
Praise God then for the active obedience of Christ,
by which He secures our justification! Although the cross (Good Friday) is that event where His blood is shed and where our
justification is ultimately secured, Maundy Thursday is important , because here the Old Testament history is being vindicated
, and the whole Bible as we hold it now
in our hands is proven to be the Word of
God !
Thank God for Maundy Thursday!
[1] The most detailed description of the night
He was betrayed is found in John Chapters 13-17
[2] WIKIPEDIA :
Most scholars agree that the English word Maundy in
that name for the day is derived through Middle English and Old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem
sicut dilexi vos" ("A new
commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you"),
the statement by Jesus in the Gospel of John 13:34 by
which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing
their feet.
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