Mark 14:12-31. Mark continues the story of Jesus fulfilling his God designed destiny; living out his purpose.  The first thing that impressed me was the part about the room where they would have the Passover meal.  Although most people probably don’t think about it this is really a prophecy.  Jesus is telling them what will happen before it happens.  Now some people could think that it was prearranged by Jesus, but I don’t think his activities were so scheduled that he would know that at the very moment his followers would enter the city that the very man they needed to talk to would be walking by with a picture of water.  As God, looking into the future he could see that, but I don’t think it was scripted; like a movie.

The next thing that kind of stood out to me was that it says his disciples (students) went and prepared the room ahead of time.  Later when Jesus arrives “the twelve” are with him.  We need to remember that Jesus had more “disciples” than the twelve (think about all the women who were faithful followers, for starters).  When we think of this meal that Jesus is going to have, called “The Last Supper” by many, you may think of that famous painting.  Interestingly they probably were not sitting at a table like in the picture.  They probably weren’t all on one side of the table they were at, and there may have been more people there than Jesus and the Twelve.

As they are all kick back around the table Jesus brings up the fact that one of them is going to betray him.  Certainly that part of the story wasn’t prearranged by Jesus.  It’s interesting that the leaders were plotting against him in private; secretly (Mark 14:1).  In Mark 14:10-11 Judas, one of the twelve, goes off and he and the leaders plot against Jesus.  I’m sure they didn’t announce it to Jesus before hand.  In fact when Matthew tells this story Judas is specifically named as one of the people who denied that he was going to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:25).  But Jesus knew it was going to happen.

In verse 21 Jesus tells them that it would have been better if the person who was going to betray him had never been born.  He uses the word “woe” which is usually used in the Bible to indicate that God is going to punish someone.  If God forced someone to do something then I don’t think he would punish them for it.  Punishment comes from disobeying God not for obeying him.  Although God knew what was going to happen he did not force Judas and the leaders to plot against him.

Verses 22-25 describe the formal part of the “Passover” meal.  There is a lot of symbolism in the Passover celebration; a lambs bone, bitter herbs, four cups of drink, three or four crackers that are eaten at various time through out the night (one of which is hidden and later discovered and eaten, this is probably the one Jesus broke for his followers).  I wish I had time and space to describe it all here.  Maybe I will do a “Did You Know” about it sometime.  If you get a chance to do a “Passover” at church sometime you should do it to see how Jesus the Messiah was the real meaning behind the celebration.  It is clear that Jesus saw himself in that way because he tells them that two of the symbols represent his body and his blood; both representing his life which he was going to give as the payment for many (Mark 10:45).

In verses 26-31 Jesus and his followers go out to an olive grove on a hill outside of Jerusalem.  Jesus tells his followers that all of them are going to run away soon.  Peter, the big mouth of the group, is insistent that he will never run away from Jesus, even if it means dying with him.  But Jesus knows and insists right back that Peter will deny him, even giving the details of what is going to happen.

I think there is a common theme running through today’s reading, Jesus knew.  Theses events weren’t a surprise to Jesus.  But that doesn’t stop him.  How many of us would get in a car for a ride if we knew that we were going to get in an accident and be crushed or decapitated or burned to death.  Jesus was facing multiple beatings and then what many consider the worst death ever invented yet he moved forward.  The author of Hebrews told his readers that because of the joy in front of him that Jesus endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2).  You see Jesus not only saw the man with the picture of water, he saw not only the betrayal by Judas, he saw not only his followers all running away and denying him, he saw not only his beatings and death, he saw a kingdom filled with people who were made right with God because of his broken body and spilled blood.  He saw not only Earth where sin was gone and there was no more crying or pain.  That was the joy before him and the cross was just a bump in the road.  Later one of his followers, a guy named Saul of Tarsus (read “Paul: Sent one to the Gentiles”) would suffer for fulfilling his God designed destiny.  In a letter to the church in Corinth he calls the trouble he had encountered while traveling around starting churches “momentary light affliction”.  That was his way of saying “it was nothing” (2 Corinthians 4:17).  Later in the letter he describes some of what had happened to him, it included trials, beatings, shipwreck, being stoned (not on drugs but having a group try to kill him by throwing lager rocks on him until he was dead) (2 Corinthians 11:22-33).  In another letter to another church, in a town called Philippi, Paul told the group that his life was about serving them and that is why he was willing to endure all the trouble he was going through, but he also said he would be happy to die, not because that meant escaping the trouble but because it meant the beginning of eternity with Jesus in Heaven (Philippians 1:20-24).

I think that for the believers in Rome this account of Jesus life would have been very encouraging.  God knows, Jesus knows, the events that are coming are no surprise to God.  Not only does he know but he cares.  Jesus gave his life in a very brutal way to fix the sin problem and make eternity in Heaven available to each of us.  Unfortunately in order to give people time to respond to his offer of eternal life God is patiently enduring all the junk that we keep doing here and now on Earth; he is allowing people time to come to him (2 Peter 3:9)  Incidentally all the time God has allowed so far also allowed you and me to be born, and to hear about Jesus, and to respond to him.  I’m glad it’s worked out that way but there is a day coming when God is going to put a stop to it all (That is what we read about a couple of days ago and what we find in the book of Revelation).  But for now God is patiently enduring the evil and he want’s us to be like him and Paul, enduring too as we tell as many people as we can about Jesus.

God I’m glad you know and I’m glad you care.  I know if I go through trouble that it is mostly because of evil in the world.  Help me have a good attitude about the trouble knowing that it is you loving patience, giving people time to come to you.  Help me help other understand your existence, your perfection, your purity, and especially you self-sacrificing love.  Help me lead other to you.  Give me endurance and help me not add to the evil in the world.  Thank you for dealing with my rebellion and disobedience.  Thank you for the assurance of eternity with you.

Mark 14:1-11. So in this third section of Mark we see Jesus getting closer and closer to fulfilling his purpose, his ultimate purpose of being a sacrifice for our rebellious and offensive lifestyle (sins).  It’s interesting how Mark starts our today’s reading.  The religious leaders, the chief priests and scribes, were looking for a way to get rid of Jesus.  But notice that they were trying to do it in a sneaky way.  Why?  Because they wanted the people’s approval, they didn’t want to make the crowd mad, so they needed to find a way to kill him without doing that.

The next part of the story seems to play right into their hands, almost like God was setting Jesus up!  But of course he was.  Dying on the cross was Jesus’ purpose (Mark 10:45).  In the book of John we find several times that  the leaders wanted to get rid of Jesus but were unable because it wasn’t the right time (John 7:30; 8:20)  The idea of timing is important in the book of John (see also John 2:4).  Mark doesn’t emphasize that point as much but Jesus life is still filled with purpose and the fact that he was living according to God’s will and plan.  It’s amazing how God can take human actions and reactions and blend them together and have the result lead just where he wants it to go. I think God is like the ultimate chess player, no matter what moves we make he has a way of winning.  I don’t know much about chess but I understand that when you lose your king you lose.  Here God is about to let his king die but that will lead to him winning.  God is amazing.  Anyway Jesus is rest with his students (disciples) and a woman comes in and pours perfume over Jesus’ head.  This wasn’t some cheap drug story perfume it was worth 300 days wages for an average person.  That’s a whole years worth of pay.  Several people became mad, “Hey, think of all the poor people we could have fed!”  And they were scolding her, that word means to “snort with anger”.  We might say they were “hopping mad”.

Here is where the turning point comes, Jesus defends her, says that her actions were appropriate because she was preparing his body for the grave.  It’s interesting the contrast here between the leaders who were afraid of everyone and let that rule their actions and Jesus who wasn’t afraid to offend even his closest friends.  It’s also interesting that the leaders were driven by personal ambition and Jesus was driven by his desire to serve us by “giving his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  The leaders actions were clearly “political”; they wanted to keep as much power as they could but Jesus actions were pure and purposeful, benefiting others.  Notice too that the leaders were afraid of a riot.  That’s not just about a bunch of people flipping over cars and breaking window because their team lost, in Rome riots were responded to in the harshest way by the army, again a threat to the religious leaders “control” over things.

Not only did Jesus defend the woman but he told his followers that here actions would be remembered forever, that her respect for his would be talked about wherever he was talked about.  Wow!  That must have been like salt in a wound for those who wanted to spend the money on the poor.  One of the followers who was offended was Judas Iscariot.  This particular action by Jesus was more than he could accept and so he went to the leaders and offered to betray Jesus.  So they offered him money and planed how he could deliver him to them.

All Jesus had to do was acknowledge that the woman had spent too much on the perfume.  He could have appreciated it but played to his follower’s sense of wise use of money.  But that would have been wrong.  It would have been wrong to put the woman down for the sacrifice she had made toward him.  She was showing Jesus the highest respect, respect he deserved.  Just days before the people had given Jesus a royal welcome into the city, but now the king was preparing to give his life a ransom for many.  Such a sacrifice should be given the highest respect and the woman was doing just that.  Jesus could not and would not compromise to make his followers happy and so the stage was set for his betrayal by one of his closest followers.  Jesus was true to his purpose.

I wonder if we have anything like the kind of conviction that Jesus had.   I know I “cave in”, “go with the flow”, “follow the crowd”, sometimes, too many sometimes.  It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t tell his followers not to care for the poor, that would have contradicted his instructions earlier when he told the leader and the people listening to love their neighbor like they loved themselves.  But this woman was “loving God with all she had” too, which was the other of the two greatest commandments; in fact the first of the two.  We can’t neglect God for people and we can’t neglect people for God.  And we certainly can’t be like the religious leaders who neglected everyone for their own personal interests  (see Mark 7:1-13 where Jesus is talking to the leaders about their traditions).  Jesus had a purpose and live by it.  We all have a purpose too, each a little different but you can bet it always involves both honoring God and caring for others.

God thank you for living with purpose.  Thank you for being true.  Thank you for giving me purpose.  Help me be true to that purpose.  Help each of us find the purpose you have for us.  Help us always measure our actions by your word.  Help us not be afraid of the crowd.  Help us truly care for the crowd, even if our actions are unpopular and make us unpopular.  Let my life, my daily actions, bring honor to you.  Thank you for dying to give me a place with you forever.