Jesus on trial, Mark 14:53 - 65

I am sure that the passage of scripture  that we are looking at today is familiar territory for most of you.  I assume everyone here has at least a basic knowledge of the trial of Jesus Christ. 

But I want to look at the historical context in a moment, and make sure we understand that correctly.  And then ultimately, I want to apply the spiritual principles that I think are incorporated in the text.  However, since we have already read the text, I think it will be helpful if we identify what the crux of this passage is teaching before launching into our exposition.

And I would suggest that the crux of this section deals with the identity of Jesus of Nazareth.  That is what He was on trial for.  And the application to us is to ask each of you here today, who do you say that Jesus Christ is? What do you believe about Jesus?

I heard of a small girl that was in the children’s section of a big bookstore one day, and she was busily drawing with a box of crayons, and the clerk came over and asked the child what she was drawing. The little girl said, "I am drawing a picture of God." "But how do you know what God is like?" the clerk said. "That," said the little girl, "is why I'm drawing him. I want to find out." She was making up her own mind about what God should be like. And very often when people come to the testimony of scripture that is the kind of attitude that they have. They do not come seeking to learn, but they come seeking to substantiate some preconceived ideas that they have concerning Him.

But the scripture says that Jesus is the exact manifestation of God in human flesh. Heb 1:1-3 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,  in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

But the question of who do you say that Jesus is, is of upmost importance, because the scriptures teach that believing in Christ is the basis for salvation. Jesus says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him might have everlasting life.” So believing in Jesus constitutes faith, and faith is the means of salvation. 

Jesus says virtually the same thing on several other occasions, one of which is John 11:26 “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”  And Paul makes the same assertion in 1Tim. 1:16 “Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those [who would believe in Him for eternal life.”  Paul and Silas said in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” I could give you many more references to the fact that belief or faith in Christ is the basis for salvation, but I  would hope that is already a settled doctrine for you all,  and so I don’t need to belabor it.  

However, the question could be legitimately asked, to what degree must belief be developed to be saving faith?  In other words, at what point does one believe unto salvation?  What constitutes saving faith? Is it merely believing in a historical Jesus?  The fact He lived on earth 2000 years ago is supported by virtually irrefutable evidence.  Even many historians who are for the most part atheists are in agreement that the facts of history indicate that Jesus lived and died on earth 2000 years ago.  They believe that He lived, yet they are not Christians by their own admission.

In fact, even non Christian Jewish historians and scholars do not doubt that Jesus lived.  The Jews have nothing to gain from accepting that Jesus lived.   But rather than try to deny His existence, the Jews simply deny that He was the Messiah, and they try to deny that they contrived His death.  To quote Haim Cohn, an internationally famous expert in Jewish legal tradition, he said that Annas and Caiphas, the high priests mentioned in our text, “Did all that they possibly and humanly could to save Jesus, whom they dearly loved and cherished as one of their own.” (quoted by Hendricksen, NTC Mark)  So most Jewish scholars believe that Jesus lived, they just refute the gospel’s account of their actions towards Him.

And of course, the other great universal religion, Islam, believes that Jesus was a notable prophet of God.  They believe that He lived and taught the scriptures. And yet they are not Christians. So the three world religions, Judaism, Islam, and of course Christianity, are all in agreement that Jesus lived and existed as the Bible teaches.  Yet by no means do all adherents of those religions claim to be saved.

So if we were to draw a diagram which has a horizontal line denoting belief, and at the left end we write the words absolute agnostic, meaning as much of an agnostic as possible, and on the right end we write absolute saving faith, meaning saved beyond a doubt, at what point towards believing would you place a mark on the line to indicate when a person is saved?  Does one have to have full complete faith, full knowledge of all doctrines, full understanding of all  theology in order to be granted saving faith?  Or is it somewhere further down on the line?  Is is perhaps way down at the first dawning of belief?  I must confess that I often wrestle with that. The fact is that I cannot say with absolute certainty where exactly you should make a mark on that line.  I suppose that only God knows for sure where that mark is.  That doesn’t mean that you cannot be sure of your salvation, because I believe you have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to assure you of that.  But I don’t think that you can necessarily determine with certainty others salvation based on their point on that line. Only God can do that because only God can judge the heart. 

However, I think that the minimum that you must believe to be saved is delineated in Romans 10:9 which says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

However, I did think of an illustration of what I think common belief vs saving faith might look like. When I was a kid, I used to like to fish in some of the ponds near my home in NC.  We were not very sophisticated fishermen - we used a little Zebco spinning reel set up with a bobber and lead weight, which had a worm on a little hook as bait.  And I enjoyed watching that bobber bounce up and down in the water, signifying that a brim or bass was toying with my bait.  If the bobber ever disappeared, then I knew to pull back on the rod and hopefully catch a fish.

But as those of you who are fishermen know, the fact that the bobber is moving up and down doesn’t always mean that the fish swallowed the hook.  Lots of times, most of the time, in fact, the fish would come up and look at the bait, smell the bait, nibble at the bait, pull on the bait, but in the end it might spit it out and swim off.  Sometimes it would come back and go through the whole process again.  And you might never hook a fish, but you could get a lot of “bites”, as we used to call them.  

And that reminds me of the verse found in Heb. 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”  Now a lot of theologians have a field day offering various interpretations of this verse, but I think it’s talking about people who have come to the faith, looked it over, smelled it, nibbled on it, but ultimately, they don’t swallow it, they end up spitting it out.  They have been given enough light to believe, they have been given enough conviction of the Holy Spirit to repent, they have been given enough evidence of the transforming power of salvation, yet they end up rejecting it.

Now I think there are a lot of so called Christians like that out there.  And I say “so called Christians” because they show by their lives that they are not really saved.  Because if you truly believe who Jesus is and what He has done on the cross to atone for your sins, if you truly believe that He is Lord, that He has sovereignty over your life,  if you truly have saving faith, it will result in a change of heart, a change of nature, a change in direction and a changed life.  The Bible makes that clear.  When one is truly saved, they are converted, changed, and they have a new life.

Now that was a long introduction, but hopefully we answered the fundamental question of Jesus’ trial, and now we need to look at the historical context for a few minutes and then we will make application to us here today.  It helps to understand that there were actually two trials going on.  There was the ecumenical trial, which was the religious trial, and then the civic trial.  The high priests and the governing religious body of the Jews known as the Sanhedrin arrested Jesus, with the help of the temple police and also Roman soldiers.  The Jews could try a person for a religious crime, but they could not legally punish him.  They had to get the approval of the Roman governor to execute punishment, especially corporal punishment.

So they arrest Jesus sometime around midnight and they take him to a hearing with the father in law of the high priest named Annas.  Mark doesn’t include this fact, but John does. Then there is the trial before the Sanhedrin, which is the religious governing body made up of 70 persons, not all of whom were probably there since it was held before dawn.  Those were illegal trials, by the way.  It was illegal to try someone before dawn. So there was another trial after daybreak with the high priest Caiaphas. Then there were three stages in the civil trial, first before Pilate, then before Herod, and back to Pilate again.  

In the ecumenical trial, they focus on getting the verdict of blasphemy.  At the civil trial, they try to accuse Him of insurrection and treason against Caesar. But our passage only focuses on the ecumenical trial today.  We are told at the outset that Peter follows at a distance and ends up in the courtyard of the high priest’s house, sitting with the officers by the fire.

Now I am not a legal expert on Judaic law.  However, I will say that most experts in such things concur that this trial was a travesty of justice.  It was an illegal trial, the witnesses were made up of the judges, who were also the prosecuting attorneys,  It was held during the Feast, which was forbidden, and no conviction was allowed at night, but yet they proceed to do so.

They also attempt to get Jesus to incriminate Himself. In vs 60 they try to get Him to tell them what the charges were that were being made against Him.  And Mark tells us that their testimonies do not match up.  They also misquote Jesus in vs58. They say, “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’” Actually, the words of Jesus according to John 2:19 were, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.”

Their hope was to accuse Him of defaming the temple.  After all, they were very angry that He had just cleaned out the temple of the money changers and vendors.  That was their own business enterprise that He had disrupted.

In vs 60 the high priest asked “Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?” But He kept silent and did not answer.”  Jesus knows that they are not interested in truth, but in proving their falsehoods.  So He does not answer them. 

The point that needs to be understood though, is that from the very beginning they have already made up their minds about Jesus.  The trial was never an attempt to uncover the truth, but simply an attempt to justify their desire to kill Him.  They had already decided that they would not accept Him as the Messiah, they hated Him without a cause, and they wanted to kill Him. All the evidence in the world wasn’t going to change their minds.  And so in that respect, the religious leaders are an example of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ.  They rejected who He really was because they saw Him as a threat to their position of authority in the nation.

So Caiaphas is irritated over the fact that Jesus does not answer these charges, but in fact Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53:7, which says, “He opened not His mouth.”  So in reality, their trial is really turning out to be a farce, until Caiaphas finally asks Him the key question.  This question was really the point of the whole trial and they finally come straight out with it; “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”  How many times had they asked Him this during His ministry.  “Tell us plainly, if you are the Christ.” (John 10:24)  

 Now up to this point, Jesus had not publicly come out with that declaration in no uncertain terms.  Others had declared this to be true, such as the disciples, and Jesus had confirmed that such a declaration came from God.  He had also defended those who called “Hosanna to the Son of David,” which was another title for the Messiah.  He had called Himself the “stone which the builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone” which was a key prophecy of the Messiah.  And He had told the woman in Samaria that He was the Messiah.  But in Jerusalem especially He had not made such an outright claim to being the Messiah to the religious leaders.

But now that HIs hour had come, now that events had transpired to bring Him to the cross as determined by the plan of God, it was the appropriate time to make that declaration. Other questions that are asked in the trials of the Jews and Romans were not of concern to Him.  Their minds were already made up.  But this question was one that He was ready to declare openly and plainly - that He was the Messiah, and all that title represented.

And notice something interesting in their question before we move to Jesus’s answer.  We can see by their question that they considered the Messiah and the Son of God to be analogous. Therefore according to Jewish theology, they considered that the Messiah had to be the Son of God, therefore being equal with God.  Modern liberal theologians who try to make a distinction between being the Messiah or the Son of God do so contrary to Jewish theology, which was the governing principle in this trial as well as in Christ’s declaration.

So notice Jesus’s answer.  In fact, He goes further than just answering their question.  He declares another prophecy concerning Himself and the nature of His Kingdom. Vs.62, And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”

Now what Jesus says is important, but especially in regards to what constitutes saving faith in Christ.  This declaration of Jesus is crucial for defining our faith.  So let’s break it down.  First, in answering simply “I Am”, Jesus is speaking volumes.  He not only claims to be the Messiah, the Anointed One, but He also makes claim to the personal name of God that was given to Moses out of the burning bush, “I am that I am.” 

But I also think that Jesus is saying that as a reminder of a previous answer that He gave the Pharisees in Jerusalem two years earlier.  At that time, Jesus said to them in John 8:58 "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” On that occasion they tried to stone Him to death, and now He states His eternal nature again, and this time they will succeed in killing Him.

Secondly, in the next part of His answer, Jesus quotes from two different scriptures.  One part of His answer refers to Psalm 110, verse 1.  "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Jesus has said you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power.  He is claiming the ultimate throne of His kingdom.  It is a spiritual kingdom of God through which the Messiah rules the world, in the hearts of His people.  It is the throne which is above every throne, above all rule and authority, and certainly above the rule and authority of these corrupt, evil religious rulers.  It is the throne to which those who believe in Him must bow.

And He is making the claim that not only is he the Messiah, but no matter if they kill Him,  they are going to see Him on HIs throne. He is going to be raised from the dead triumphant, and he is going to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high. And when He comes with the clouds, He refers not only to His second coming, but coming in judgment upon the world.

The other text Jesus refers to is found in Dan.7:13, "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man.”  In referring to Himself as the Son of Man in this context, Jesus is alluding to the prophecy of Daniel, especially that which says in vs14,"And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”  So Son of Man is a Messianic title that they would have been familiar with.

Now, I would suggest that Jesus’s answer to the high priest  is the definitive answer to what constitutes saving faith. Believing in Jesus Christ then by His own standard is recognizing that He is God, the great I Am, He is the Son of God, which according to the testimony of the Jews meant that He was equal with God in all respects, and that He is the Son of Man, meaning that He became flesh and dwelt among us, that He might become our substitute, so that He might die on our behalf that we might be made the children of God, to become His kingdom, that we might live for Him and serve Him and rule with Him in His eternal kingdom, which shall never pass away.  All of that constitutes saving faith, what it means to believe in Jesus.

Well, the Jews rejected that outright.  They refused to believe.  In fact, Caiaphas makes a great show out of rending his garment, which was done in a prescribed way to show grief.  But in actuality he wasn’t experiencing grief, I think he was happy that Jesus had made this confession, because he could now condemn Him of blasphemy.

Mark 14:63  Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, "What further need do we have of witnesses?"You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?" And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.”

Their judgement towards Christ, in spite of all the evidence that He had provided during His three years of ministry that He was the Messiah, was to reject it, to claim blasphemy and condemn Him to death.  I believe that they actually knew that He was the Messiah, and yet in spite of the evidence, wanted to kill Him because He did not fit into their plans and He threatened their power and position.  I believe they knowingly put to death the Son of God.  I can’t be dogmatic about that.  However, I believe ample evidence was there, and more than enough prophecy concerning the Messiah had been fulfilled that they had to have known about. But they rejected it.

Well, the hatred of these self righteous religious leaders had come to the boiling point, to where they could actually bring about the murder of the Messiah.  They take this opportunity to spit on Him, to punch Him, to strike Him.  They even blindfolded Him and then hit Him, while asking “who hit you?”  They truly revealed the evil nature of their hearts.  Their hatred towards Christ had become murderous.

Well, we must close.  But let me try to apply this to us today if I can.  Let’s imagine that you are the judge and jury at the trial of Jesus Christ.  You are the one that must decide who you will say that Jesus is. Who do you say that He is?  It is not enough to recognize that He was a good teacher.  Or that He was a miracle worker and prophet who lived 2000 years ago.  By the words of Jesus own mouth, He declared Himself to be the same God that appeared to Moses in the burning bush 2000 years before. He was the same God that existed before Abraham. He is the same God that existed with God since the beginning of the world. He is either crazy, or a liar, or He is the great “I Am”, the eternal God.

Jesus claims to be the Son of God.  He answered that question of Caiaphas in the affirmative.  That claim makes Him the equal with God. He told the disciples that He and the Father are One.  That if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. He is the author of salvation.  He is the Sent One, the Anointed One, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, who redeems to Himself a people from every tribe and nation. He is the Lord God Almighty,  seated at the right hand of the Father on the throne of God above all power and rule and authority.  And by that claim, He claims sovereignty over our lives.  If we believe in Him as Lord then we will be His people who serve Him. And He is coming again in power and glory for His chosen people.  That is the definition of faith in Jesus Christ, or believing in Jesus Christ, as defined by Jesus.  

How do you judge Him by that statement?  Do you believe in  Him?  The Jews didn’t believe Him and they thought they could condemn Him.  But in actuality they condemned themselves. John 3:18 says "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

If you believe in Him, in all that He claimed to be, then that faith is the means of justification.  “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”  I pray that no one tasting of the truth  today hardens their hearts, and spits out the truth of God, and goes away from this place unsaved.  Jesus came to earth to save sinners, and He has paid the price for your sin, that whosoever believes in Him might be saved.  Let’s pray.

The flesh is weak, Mark 14: 26-52

We are looking today, in our ongoing study of the book of Mark, at the night before the death of Jesus Christ.  It is the night of His betrayal.  Actually, there are multiple betrayals.  We are all familiar with the betrayal by Judas, but we will see that before the night is over, all of Jesus’ disciples will have deserted Christ.  Now remember that at the beginning of that evening, which was Thursday evening, Jesus and His disciples observed the Passover.  It was customary for the Galileans to observe the Passover supper on Thursday, and the Judeans would observe it on Friday.  Hence Jesus was able to observe the Passover on Thursday, and change it’s symbolism to the Lord’s Supper in so doing, and then the next day, Friday, He was able to offer Himself as the Passover Lamb for the sins of the world.  God’s timing was impeccable, planned in infinite detail since before creation, and Jesus knew exactly what and when all things pertaining to His death would occur.  

I believe that realization on the part of Jesus of the exact details of His death is very important for us to understand.  Some theologians seem to love to portray Christ as an unwilling, and unwitting victim.  But we will see that Christ showed unwavering courage and commitment to the Father’s will, and even more so because He fully knew the horrors set before Him.  Jesus was no coward, He knew what was coming, and yet He courageously set His face towards the cross and no power on Earth could have stopped Him from laying down His life.  And He did that not only because He loved the Father and wanted to do His will, but also because He loved us, and He wanted to obtain for us the price of our redemption.

Another indication that Jesus fully knew what was ahead of Him, is because it was traditional at the close of the Passover meal to sing the Hallel, which was the hymn they sang before going out on the Mt. of Olives.  The Hallel comes from Psalms, and particularly we see in Psalm 118: 27 “Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.”  In Psalm 116, the same hymn, we read in vs 3 “The cords of death encompassed me And the terrors of Sheol (Hades) came upon me; I found distress and sorrow.”   I would suggest that if you read the entire Hallel, you will understand that Jesus faced the knowledge of His death with courage and commitment, and He left the Upper Room after singing His battle song, the Hallel, then He  headed for the Mt. of Olives.

As the disciples followed Jesus out of the Upper Room, headed towards the Mount of Olives, it was dark, and they wound their way through the streets of Jerusalem towards the Kidron Brook, which already was flowing red with blood as the temple mount and the altars drained directly into it.  And as they waded across this bloody brook by the moonlight, Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP SHALL BE SCATTERED.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”

Jesus is quoting from a passage in the Old Testament, in Zechariah 13:7.  I suggest to you that it is the Spirit of Christ who was the author of that prophecy, so it is no surprise that Jesus knows it by heart.  Peter writes later in 1Peter 1:10-11 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,  seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” So Jesus Himself was the author of the prophecies concerning His death. 

And I make much of this principle of the deity of Christ and His divine nature which is spoken of in Hebrews 1:3, because it is important that we understand that it must be God that dies on the cross in order to effect our salvation.  Jesus, if just a man, was no more than just a martyr. Many people have died as martyrs, even many people have died on a cross.  Jesus had to be God in human form in order to effect our salvation through His death.

There is nothing inherently holy in crucifixion. There was an article  in the news some time ago about a primitive and superstitious culture in the Philippines which every year before Easter act out several crucifixions.  They actually flagellate themselves as they walk on these marches, and then it culminates with several of them being tied to a cross and then nails driven into their hands.  The sad thing is that such sacrifice and suffering does nothing in regards to obtaining justification or holiness.  They are suffering needlessly.  Only a holy, righteous God can atone for sin.   And Jesus was the divine, spotless, Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. 

Notice also in this statement of Christ in vs 27,28, that Jesus predicts not only their falling away, but also His death and resurrection, and also the regathering of the disciples afterwards. He says in vs28 "But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.” He knows all that is going to happen before it happens. It is all going according to a divine plan.

However, Peter doesn’t believe Him. Peter says that even though all the other guys may fall away, that He would never fall away.  I want you to notice some dangerous attributes that Peter exhibits in this statement.  First, he disregards the word of the Lord.  God has given us His word, even His commandments as warnings that we need to heed.  But how often do we brush aside the word of God in view of our own confidence?  We think we know better than the Lord.  The word  says, do not be unequally yoked; we say, we don’t see a problem with it.  The word says, do not be drunk with wine, we say, a few drinks won’t hurt you.  The words says, do not commit fornication, we say, that’s unrealistic in today’s culture.  How foolish Peter was to brush aside so easily the word of the Lord.  And how foolish we are today when we think what the Bible says doesn’t really apply to us, or that there won’t really be any consequences when we disregard it.

Secondly, another dangerous attribute of Peter is that he shows a superior attitude towards his fellow disciples. “They may fall away, but I never will.”  We often do the same thing, don’t we?  We look down at others who have fallen into sin, and yet somehow think that we are above such a thing.  We routinely think that what we do isn’t really so bad.  We conveniently forget how often we sin against God. As I said the other day, we should never see a person enslaved to some grievous sin, without saying, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”  The scriptures say, “there is no temptation overtaken you, but such as is common to man.”  It’s a dangerous thing to look down upon others while thinking that you are above such things.

The third dangerous attribute of Peter is that he shows that he doesn’t know himself. He has an inflated, conceited opinion of himself as events are going to show. Prov. 16:18 says pride goes before a fall.  Peter is controlled by his ego. Ego is self esteem.  And I think ego is the opposite of humility.  Humility should be the guiding principle of the life of a Christian, not your self esteem. Self esteem doesn’t really think you are that bad. Self esteem makes you think you’re not a sinner.  Self esteem is just a nicer word for pride. And self esteem wants others to confirm or build up your ego.  It’s really a terrible sin that is not often repented of or recognized for what it is. But pride is the original sin, and it’s insidiously rampant among Christians.

Jesus then rebukes Peter with an even more detailed prophecy of the hours to come. “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.”  Jesus is referring to the third watch of the night, between midnight and 3am.  That’s pretty specific, I would say.  And yet Peter denies the word of the Lord again, with an even stronger emphasis, “Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.” Though Peter did not know himself, yet the Lord knew his heart.  And notice that Mark says, the other disciples said the same thing.  Yet in just a few hours, all would desert Him and flee.  

How many of us confidently assert that we will never be untrue to the Lord, yet find ourselves later forsaking Him and His word. We do not know our hearts.  Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart [is] deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The point that needs to be made if we are to fully understand what is going on in Gethsemane and then at Calvary, is that we are all utterly sinful.  The word of the Lord says in Romans 3:10-12 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;  ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." Six times the word of God says “there is none.”  That includes you. Not your neighbor, but you are a depraved sinner.  And in Isaiah 53:6, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way.”  And furthermore, the word of God says in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” So the sinful man is cut off from God, without hope, and fully deserving of the punishment of eternal death away from God.  

There is no hope in good works, there is no hope in being better than your neighbor, there is no hope in religion.  There is no way to atone for your sins. The only hope is that God will have mercy and forgive us.  But God cannot wink at sin.  God cannot break His own law. If God is a good God, then God must also be a just God. And the justice of God must be meted out towards sinners.  There is only one way for us to escape the judgement that we rightly deserve.  That is if God might transfer our iniquity on another, who takes our place, and punish Him, so that we might go free.  And that is exactly the point of the gospel.  Isaiah 53:6 says, “God has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And 2Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made [Jesus], who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  God did not stop counting sin, He just stopped counting my sins against me, and He counted them against Christ. That is the symbolism of the Passover, the innocent spotless lamb dying in the place of the guilty.

I believe that our iniquity, the sins of the world, began to be placed on Jesus that very night in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Gethsemane is a garden on the Mount of Olives, and as you might expect in an olive grove, it was the place where there was an oil press, where the olives were taken to be pressed into olive oil.  In fact, that is what the name Gethsemane literally means, an oil press.  I believe that what happened there that night was the fulfillment, at least in part, of the prophecy in Isaiah 53:10, which says, “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering.” “The LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”  It was there, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord began to crush Him, putting Him to grief for our sins.  The guilt of the world began to crush Him, until as Luke 22:44 tells us, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

Notice that Mark says, after Jesus left some disciples and went off by Himself to pray, that he says Jesus was greatly distressed and troubled. I don’t think that the English translation does that phrase justice. I think it could be better translated, filled with horror and anguish. Jesus goes on to say to Peter, James and John who went a little further with Him, “I am overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  Then Mark says that Jesus going further still, alone, He threw Himself to the ground and prayed, “Father all things are possible for you, remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

Now what is going on here? How does one sorrow to the point of death? Can extreme grief kill someone? I suppose it can. But didn’t Jesus know that this suffering was coming?  Is He now wishing for another way out?  Is He looking for a way to avoid the cross?  Is He crying because He is sick in fear of what is to come in the crucifixion?  I would answer - No! Never!  I think His anguish was not caused by anticipating the cross.  On the contrary, He was looking forward to it.  It was the purpose for which He came.  

No, I think that what was agonizing to Jesus was the horror of sin.  He had never known sin.  He had been always in perfect communion with the Father from eternity past.  Now He begins to know the burden of sin, the horror of sin, the weight of sin, upon His spotless, holy, righteous soul, and the anguish and horror of experiencing our sin  drove Him to the ground, and the weight of all our sins pressed down upon His soul until great drops of blood began to be sweated out of Him.  And in regards to that horror, previously unknown, Jesus calls out  “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”Jesus is calling out to the Father to remove, not the cross from Him, but the weight of sin from Him, that if there was any other way than to bear this unholy burden of sin then He would that God would do it.  Yet He is willing to bear it, as deemed necessary by the will of the Father.

I want you to see something else that is given to us in this passage for our instruction.  And that is the contrast in attitude between Jesus and the disciples regarding prayer.  Between the two, Jesus and the disciples, it would seem that the Lord needed prayer a lot less than the disciples.  But as the text illustrates, Jesus prays fervently, repeatedly, but the disciples repeatedly are found sleeping instead of praying.

Christ is the quintessential spiritual man, but the disciples are natural men in their actions and attitudes.  The disciples may have been saved, but they are still natural in the way that they view the world around them and their response to circumstances they find themselves in.  And so they do not obtain victory in their lives, because they fail to live by the Spirit, but instead they are walking according to the flesh.

An essential component of a victorious spiritual life is prayer. Prayer is spiritual conversation. Prayer is spiritual connection to God who is Spirit.  So when Jesus warns the disciples to be on the alert, because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, He is speaking to that very principle that it is necessary to be in the spirit, to be in communication with the Spirit of God, if we are going to be able to stand firm in the natural world. 

Ephesians 6 tells us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against angelic principalities and spiritual forces that are fighting against us.  And Paul’s list of the Christian armor gives us only two weapons that we might use in this spiritual battle that we are engaged in.  One is prayer and the other is the Word of God.  Paul has this to say in regards to prayer, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.”  

So as we see this contrast between Jesus and the disciples. Jesus is praying fervently. Jesus is throwing Himself on the ground. He is crying, beseeching the Lord.  He is sweating drops of blood as He prays.  He prays repeatedly.  He prays for hours.  We have recorded elsewhere that many times Jesus prayed all night.  And also Jesus implores, practically begs the disciples to pray with Him and for Him.  So that is how Jesus prays in the Garden.  On HIs face in the dirt, crying with tears, sweating with drops of blood, for hours calling out to God. 

Then look at the disciples.  They were too sleepy to pray.  They were too conceited in their own strength to feel a need to pray.  They had physical, rational, normal, natural reasons to lay their heads down and go to sleep.  They just couldn’t see what Jesus was so worked up over.

I wonder which example is the one that is most like our spiritual life?  Do we tend to pray more like Jesus, or more like the disciples?  And let me point out one more thing about this prayer time.  Jesus says, “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Remember Jesus said earlier to Peter, “Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”  Satan has demanded permission to sift you folks here today like wheat, to sift your children like wheat, to sift your spouse like wheat.  Have you prayed for them, that their faith may not fail?  Your fervent prayers may be the only thing that keeps them from falling.

The point that needs to be made is that if you are desiring to live the spiritual life, the victorious life, then it’s necessary to be proactive spiritually, and not reactive.  In other words, Jesus is saying that prayer now delivers from temptation later.  Prayer now delivers from trials later. I used to have a teacher who said, “Proper prior planning prevents poor performance.”  I think you could also revise that and say, “proper prior prayer prevents poor performance.” 

 The natural instinct is that you live the way you think makes sense now, you do what seems natural now, and then when things fall apart, then when consequences come, then when the crisis arises, then you pray.  But we need to be proactive in our prayer life, that we may not come into temptation. That’s the secret to a successful spiritual life, it’s praying at all times, in good times, when it seems there is no necessity to pray.  Pray at all times in the spirit. I will assure you of this, that if you are in prayer, it is highly unlikely that you will fall into temptation to sin. Prayer is resistance to sin.

Well, the time of trial comes unexpectedly for the disciples, even though they are weary, in fact, it deliberately comes in their weariness.  The devil always attacks us when we are weak.  When we are tired.  He hits us when we are down. And so Judas and the mob are approaching and Jesus who has been watching and praying hears them and says, “Get up, let us be going.  The one who betrays Me is at hand.”  

Some people point to this statement as evidence that Jesus wanted to flee the cross. But in fact the opposite is true.  Jesus wants to go out to meet them.  And as He does, Judas and the mob come up and Judas runs up to Jesus and greets Him with a kiss, which was the prearranged signal with the mob that this was Jesus whom they were supposed to arrest.  It’s only been a few hours since Jesus washed Judas’s feet in the Upper Room and served Him the Passover meal.  Judas went out into the night, told the High Priests that He knew where Jesus would be sleeping that evening, and was given this mob made up from the temple police and Roman soldiers.

Peter though is still determined that through sheer force of will he will not deny the Lord, in fact he will die with Him if necessary.  So he draws his sword and takes a swing at the nearest man and ends up cutting off his ear. Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus healed the man’s ear and Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus rebuked Peter.   The point Jesus made in response to the mob and their arrest of Him was not to fight them with swords.  They came with swords and clubs.  They came with all the physical strength and weapons they could muster.  Peter thought that the disciples must fight fire with fire.  But Jesus doesn’t do that.  Instead, He says all this was done to fulfill scripture.  It was the Father’s plan not to fight against flesh and blood, but to fight against sin and death.  And Jesus would accomplish this great spiritual victory by delivering Himself over to death, so that He might experience the suffering and death that we all deserved, so that we might be given eternal life.  The enemy was sin and death, and Jesus would defeat sin through His righteousness and paying the penalty of our sin through His substitutionary death.

The disciples though, still seeing through physical, natural eyes, are totally taken aback at Jesus’s response.  They don’t understand the spiritual yet.  They are still operating in the natural realm.  They don’t see Jesus doing anything that is going to bring about victory, they think that Jesus is surrendering to the stronger power of the mob.  They think He’s raised the white flag of surrender.  And so they all flee.  

Almost as a footnote, Mark adds an autobiographical note in vs51 and 52.  He was the young man who escaped naked.  Not yet a disciple, just a young hanger on, eventually he would become mentored by Peter and become a valued asset to the church.  But like all the rest, he too deserted Christ that night.

I hope that you recognize in this passage of scripture we have studied today, why Jesus had to suffer and die.  Jesus suffered and died in our place, so that He might fulfill the justice of God, the wrath of God against sin which was poured out on Him.  And He did that so that we through faith in who He is, and what He has done, might be made righteous in Him.  I pray that you have accepted through faith this marvelous gift which Jesus purchased for us.  Saving faith is not just believing Jesus existed, but believing that His substitutionary death was sufficient to satisfy the judgement of God towards me.  And that assurance is given in that God raised Jesus from the dead, having satisfied all judgment.

And then secondly, I hope that you will be encouraged to walk in the Spirit, to live in the Spirit.  1Cor. 2:14-15 says “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.”  You want to live the victorious life over sin, which Jesus died to procure for us? Then walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.  Pray at all times in the spirit.  Don’t be wise in your own estimation.  Don’t think too highly of your strength of will.  But put your faith and trust in the Lord and seek Him in all things and at all times.  And if we are diligent to do these things, then I believe it will ensure that we will never forsake the Lord.   

The ordinance of the gospel, Mark 14: 12-26

Today we are looking at the section of scripture in which Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper.  It is called by various names in Christianity today. In some churches, it is the eucharist, in some, it is communion. All refer to the same ceremony, yet all do not observe it in the same way.  It is the belief of this church, and most conservative, evangelical Christian churches, that this ceremony is one of two essential ordinances for the church, the other being baptism.  In fact, some theologians have said that the identifying factors of the church are that it observes the preaching of the word and the observation of the ordinances. So it is important that we know how we are to observe the ordinance of communion, and why.

I believe that the answers to those questions can be found in this passage of scripture.  For the answer to how we are to observe it, I would point to the precursor of the Lord’s supper as the template from which it was established.  And as we se in vs12, it is the ceremony or ritual of the Jews that was known as the feast of Unleavened Bread.  And if you look back at vs 1 of chapter 14, you will see that the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread are presented as synonymous.  They refer to the same event, which is a week long celebration of Passover.  

The Passover was perhaps the most important ceremony celebrated in Israel.  It was observed in memory of the deliverance of Israel from captivity to Egypt. You will remember that Israel was held captive by Egypt for 430 years, and God raised up Moses to be their deliverer.  God, through Moses demanded that Pharaoh would let Israel go, but Pharaoh hardened his heart, even though God showed great signs and caused plagues to fall on the Egyptians.  Until at last the patience of God was finished, and God pronounced a final judgement saying that at midnight the death angel would pass through the land, and God would strike dead the firstborn son of whomever did not have the blood of the Passover lamb upon the door posts of their house.

But to provide for the salvation of Israel from the plague of death, God instituted an ordinance which required for the Israelites to take an unblemished lamb and slay it, and put some of the blood upon the doorposts of their house.  Then they were to roast the lamb whole in fire, and eat the lamb with a side dish of bitter herbs and with unleavened bread.  And the angel of death would passover the house that had the blood on the doorposts. Then as a perpetual commemoration of God’s deliverance, this meal was to be taken once a year on the first month of the year, as a way of remembering God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery and from death.  

And though all the Jews may not have understood all the full spiritual significance of the feast, other than the historical application, yet from our perspective we know that there were many symbols in the feast which were to be for our instruction.  Namely, that  as the scripture said in Hebrews 9:22, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The unblemished Passover lamb that was to live with the Jews in their home for 3 days, and then be sacrificed was a substitute for sin.  It presented the principle of the innocent dying for the guilty.  God allowed for the spotless lamb to be slain for the sins of the  believing family.  The bitter herbs represented the bitter years of slavery to Egypt, which in turn represented the bitter years of enslavement to sin and the world.  And the symbol of unleavened bread represented the removal of sin; sin being signified by the removal of yeast which causes corruption in the bread, making it rise, or in the absence of it, causing it to be unleavened, or uncorrupted.

So the Passover was observed every year in Jerusalem, and Jesus has been heading for this particular observance since the day He began His ministry, referring often to His appointed hour, which was the exact time when the lamb would be slain during the Passover.  Now on the day of the feast, Jesus sends two of His disciples to prepare the meal in a room which He has designated for this important event.  And there is an aspect of mystery to Jesus’s instructions.  He says “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.”  It sounds like some clandestine arrangement like you would read about in a spy novel or something.  But actually, there is a reason why Jesus would want to keep the location secret, and that is that Judas was looking for a way to betray Him to the rulers. So in saying look for a man carrying a water pitcher, the disciples would readily recognize the incongruity of a man doing something which was typically something only women did, and in so following this man they would be taken to the house which the Lord had designated, without Jesus having to divulge it’s exact whereabouts ahead of time.  Now we don’t know whether or not Jesus had prearranged this, or whether it was His divine foreknowledge, but either way, it was something Christ had arranged, either through divine providence or prearrangement. 

And I believe it was by divine providence, as Christ is able to even tell them the details of the conversation they will have, and Mark tells us that they found everything just as Jesus said it would be.  And so they prepared everything for the Passover meal.  

When it was evening, Jesus came to the house with the rest of the disciples, all twelve of them being now present, and Jesus as the host would have conducted the ceremony.  The timing of this is Thursday evening, by the way.  I’ve heard some Bible scholars explain that the Galileans celebrated the Passover on Thursday evening, but the Judeans celebrated it on Friday. But in any event, according to the Jewish concept of time, the next day began at sundown of the previous day, so therefore Jesus could celebrate the customary meal with His disciples on what we would call Thursday evening, but then be sacrificed Himself on Friday as the Passover Lamb for the remission of sins, even as thousands of lambs were being slain in the temple.

Now according to John’s gospel account, Jesus first washes the disciples feet in preparation for the meal. It was customary to wash the guests feet before entering a house to eat.  And so Jesus takes on the position of a servant, that He might wash the disciples feet.  You can read that account in John 13 if you like, but I will not expound on that aspect of the evening except to point out one fact; and that is that Jesus also washed Judas’s feet.  If you want to know what love looks like, then look no further than at the humility of Jesus who washes the feet of the man whom He knows will betray Him that very night.  

And we see that divine omniscience of Jesus revealed in His remark as they were then seated and eating the meal, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me—one who is eating with Me.”  Now this was a shocking statement, and it should be noted that the word betray means literally, to deliver over.  So it is clear what Jesus is saying, yet it is unclear of whom He is speaking of.

If this were a “who dunnit” mystery story then such a statement might draw conspiratorial glances around the dinner table, each of them appraising the criminal intentions of his neighbor.  But to their credit, it sparks intense introspection on the part of the disciples, as they each wonder whether or not they could be the culprit.  They show a healthy sense of self distrust.  They don’t think of themselves as too far above such a thing as disloyalty or even betrayal of their Lord.  

And I say such an attitude is healthy, because we should always have the mindset that we should not think of ourselves as being above temptation to some sin. We should always have a view towards anyone found in some public sin, that there, except for the grace of God, go I.   In fact, to some extent, everyone of them would desert Him that night.  And Peter would in fact publicly deny Him three times.  Betrayal is just one step further.

So they each ask with a sense of inner grief, “Surely, not I?” They grieve because they mourn their own lack of fortitude or certitude.  They know they are weak, but they pray that they are not that weak.  And Jesus does not immediately allay their fear.  Nor does He identify the culprit.  But Jesus allows a moment of introspection and examination.  And in 1 Corinthians 11:28, Paul warns that before taking the Lord’s Supper we too must take a moment to examine ourselves that we do not eat of the table of the Lord unworthily.  We need to take the time to examine ourselves, to look for the yeast which needs to be removed from the Lord’s house, whose house we are, if we are to properly celebrate what Jesus has done for us in His sacrifice.

Jesus gives an answer to their questions of “Is it I” by giving an ambiguous answer, “It is one of the twelve, one who dips with Me in the bowl.”  This was referring to the practice of eating a piece of bread dipped in the juices and herbs and meat.   He was referring to the unthinkable act of sharing His food and yet plotting His betrayal by one of His own friends and close acquaintances.

But though Jesus’ statement was meant to be ambiguous to the disciples, it must have cut like a knife to Judas, who had already planned to betray Jesus, and now understood that Jesus knew his heart.  It’s very likely that among the disciples none were more highly esteemed than Judas.  He was above reproach.  He was the treasurer, even though someone like Matthew, the former tax collector, had more experience with handling money.  Judas was a Judean, whereas all the others were Galileean.  Therefore he was probably from a higher level of society, was better educated, even possibly more noble in appearance. And yet we are reminded that God said, “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.”  And Jesus knew what Judas had planned in his heart.

And then Jesus adds a warning for Judas. “For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”  Though the Christ had been prophesied in the scriptures that He would die, (in Isaiah 53 especially) yet Jesus is saying that Judas is still responsible for his actions. Though God appointed that Jesus would suffer for the sins of the world, yet still man who caused His suffering is responsible.  Nowhere in scripture does predestination cancel human responsibility. 

Jesus intended it as a warning to Judas, but also as an opportunity to repent.  Judas could still  have repented.  Perhaps even up to the moment Judas kissed Jesus as a signal to the mob later on that night, he could have still repented.  But like Pharaoh, Judas continued to harden his heart.

Well, at this point, Judas goes out of the room, and the other disciples thought that Jesus must have given him some mission to go buy something that was needed. And so Jesus resumes the Passover meal, and in so doing He institutes the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.  And please note that I try to consistently use the term “ordinance.”  There is another word that is often heard in this regard which is “sacrament.”   Sacrament infers an inherent sacredness by which a certain measure of righteousness is attained.  The Roman Catholics, for instance, believe that as a sacrament, taking the host actually credits you with righteousness. They believe it is a means of salvation.  They also believe in transubstantiation, in which the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ as it is taken.  The Reformation began to move Protestants away from that view, and most evangelical Christians today believe that it is representative, or symbolic of Christ’s body, but it is not His actual body. 

And we believe that Jesus was speaking figuratively.  Because as the Passover meal was symbolic of God’s deliverance of Israel from their sins,  in like manner the Lord’s Supper is symbolic of Christ’s deliverance from the penalty of sin.  Jesus often used symbolic language to teach spiritual principles.  For instance, Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the branches.” That’s obviously symbolic.  Jesus said about Himself that He is the door, He is the light of the world, He is the good shepherd, He is the bread that came down out of heaven, He was the rock in the wilderness, He is the water of life.  In all those expressions we understand them to be symbolic, and so also then is the Lord’s Supper.

Furthermore, Jesus was sitting at this supper in front of them in His natural body, a 33 year old Jewish man, and He was holding out a piece of bread and a cup of wine and saying, “this is My body, this is My blood.”  He was not yet crucified, so He could not be actually offering those things to them as His physical body, but as symbols,  representing what He would accomplish for them on the cross.

So without further debate, it was a symbolic ceremony that Jesus was instituting.  But what does it symbolize?  Well, once again we need to look at the precursor, the Passover meal.  Jesus was declaring that He was the Passover Lamb.  We are the people that must offer an unblemished sacrifice for the remission of sins, that the angel of death might pass over us. We do not have a qualified unblemished lamb that we may offer to God.  The Bible says that there is none righteous, no not one.  The original Passover Lamb in Egypt was a symbol of the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world - which at that time was yet to come.  The Passover pointed forward in faith to the day when Christ would be slain as the unblemished Lamb of God.  The Lord’s Supper points back in faith to the day when Christ was slain as the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

As the Jews ate the Passover meal, they looked forward to that promise which would be fulfilled by the Messiah.  Even so, as we eat the Lord’s Supper, we look back in faith to what Christ accomplished on the cross, the righteous dying in the place of the unrighteous.  The innocent dying for the guilty.  We recognize that we are guilty and that He died in our place.  And then we eat of the unleavened bread, symbolic of receiving the righteousness of Christ which is applied to us by faith.  As He is righteous, we by faith become righteous.  That is why we eat the unleavened bread.  It represents His righteous, sinless body, which was broken for us. 

And then we drink of the cup.  The cup, Jesus said, was the new covenant in His blood.  God made a covenant with man.  A covenant is a binding agreement, a promise, usually sealed with an oath, or a deposit, or sometimes with blood.  Jesus made the strongest possible covenant, when He sealed it with His own blood, the very blood of God.  By faith in the shedding of His blood we are saved.  Romans 5:9 “Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”  

The Old Testament spoke of this new covenant, especially in Jeremiah 31:33-34 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” This covenant between God and man for our forgiveness is ratified by Christ’s blood.

The author of Hebrews  tells us that Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant with better promises.  Though we celebrate the Lord’s Supper again and again, it is in remembrance, not by a continual sacrifice.  The scripture says once and for all His sacrifice has sufficed to be the guarantee of our inheritance in heaven as children of God.  But notice that Jesus says that His blood has been poured out for many.  That is, for those who receive His sacrifice and substitution for themselves.  Those who believe in Him, and who accept Him as their Lord and Savior.  And that is what we are symbolically referring to  when we eat and drink of the Lord’s Supper.  Just as baptism does not save us, but it represents dying to sin and being raised to newness of life, so the Lord’s Supper represents what Christ has done in dying for our sins, and what we have believed and received, and now live with Him in us, and us in Him.

Finally, there is one last statement which Jesus makes in vs. 25, "Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”  In this statement Jesus reveals that the Lord’s Supper not only points back in remembrance to the cross, but also it points forward to the second coming.  When Jesus speaks here of the Kingdom of God, He speaks of the consummation of the kingdom, when Jesus comes for His bride the church, and we are with the Lord, and participate in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.   Jesus is prophesying, in the face of His imminent death, that He will rise again, and He will return to claim His kingdom as it’s King.  It is then not just a solemn remembrance of His death, but also a blessed hope of the resurrection, not only for Christ as the first fruits, but also for us as His bride, who will never taste death but will be raised with a new, glorified body to be with the Lord forever.  And that is something to celebrate.

In vs.26, Mark says that they concluded the ceremony by singing a hymn, and went out on the Mount of Olives.  I would point out that this is the only time we are told in scripture that Jesus or the disciples sung.  I’m sure it wasn’t the only time.  But it’s scarcity tells us that singing did not have the emphasis in New Testament worship that we have given it in the church today.  Now you can make as much of that as you want.  But I think we need to examine what we do today in the church in the name of worship by looking at the example of  the early church.  There were other examples of singing in the church, Paul and Silas singing in prison comes to mind. And both James and Paul instruct us to sing.  

But if we look at the traditional Passover Feast ceremony, then we learn that the hymn they closed the Passover feast with was called the Hallel, which is Psalm 116 to 118.  I wish I could take this opportunity to read them in their entirety, but we do not have the time.  It is particularly poignant though to read some of the verses while recognizing what Jesus was about to go through as He was singing them. We don’t know the melodies of these songs today, but I can’t help but imagine that they were like fighting songs, like marching songs, that stirred up courage and faith in a time of trouble.  And so in closing, I would like to read just a few random verses as they speak so vividly of what Jesus must have been thinking and feeling as He prepared Himself for the cross.

We read Psalm 116 at the start of our service, so I will just read a few from Psalm 118.

Psalm 118:1, 5-6, 8, 14, 16-17, 19, 22, 27-29 . ... 5 From my distress I called upon the LORD; The LORD answered me and set me in a large place. 6 The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me? ... 8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. ... 14 The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation. ... 16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. 17 I will not die, but live, And tell of the works of the LORD. ... 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the LORD. ... 22 The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. ... 27 Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. 28 You are my God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, I extol You.

Let us not forget that Jesus suffered and died for us, that those who believe in Him and accept Him as their Savior and Lord might have the forgiveness of sins and have everlasting life. We are now going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  Let’s pray as we examine our hearts.  

A tale of two loves, Mark 14:1-11

 

Back in chapter 12, you will remember that Jesus was asked, “what is the foremost commandment?”  And of course the answer that Jesus gave was “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”  

Now that should be very familiar to all of you.  However, have you really thought about this foremost commandment of God?  If you consider all of the traditions of all the false religions and false gods of the world, in which of them does their god declare that the most important thing is that you love him?  Fear him, maybe.  Obey him, probably.  But love him?  I dare say that our God is the only deity I am aware of that desires that His subjects love Him, first and foremost.  Now granted, such love necessitates obedience and reverence.  But the overriding principle is that you love Him with all your heart.  That reveals the fact that we are designed to have an intimate relationship to God which is distinct from  any other religion.

Today we are going to look at the characteristics of that kind of love, as illustrated primarily by a woman. And in her actions, we see exemplified the great sacrifice, the great extravagance, and the tremendous effect of such unmitigated love, a love with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  Then in contrast, we are going to see someone that is attracted to Christ, that purports to be a follower of Christ, and yet does not love Him, but loves himself and loves the world. 

Now to be clear, love is not the means of salvation. Faith in Christ is the means of justification.  Faith is the way we are considered righteous before God. Abraham believed God and He counted it to him as righteousness.  However, once we have been justified by faith,  love is the means of sanctification.  Love is the outworking of that righteousness.  Love is how we become like Christ.  We love, because He first loved us. And because we love Him, we do the things that are pleasing to Him.  There was another woman who anointed Jesus with perfume at the beginning of His ministry in Luke 7.  And though Jesus praised her outpouring of love for Him, yet He said “your faith has saved you.” Love was working with her faith.  We are saved by faith, and love is the result. 

Now Mark’s account picks up the story in the middle of the Passover week, two days  before Passover.  Jesus and the disciples are visiting Bethany, which is about 2 miles from the Mt.of Olives in Jerusalem, which is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived, and they had dinner at the home of a man called Simon the Leper.  The Gospel of John  tells us that the woman whom Mark leaves unnamed was actually Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

So Jesus and the disciples are having dinner with Simon the Leper.  And it’s likely that not only  Mary, but Martha and Lazarus are there.  Lazarus, you will remember, was just recently raised from the dead by Jesus. And we might also assume that Simon the Leper was healed by Jesus at some point previously as well, because the fact is that if he were still a leper, no one would have come to his house for dinner.  He would have been an outcast from society.  It’s obvious that he had been healed by Jesus at some point previously.  So it’s a dinner party, and considering what has recently transpired, it was a happy occasion, perhaps even meant to be a celebration.

Now it was customary for the host to provide for foot washing at such events.  That was normally taken care of by the servants of the host. In some wealthier homes, the attendees might even be anointed with perfume.  That might be a luxury provided by a wealthy host.  But in this case, as Jesus is reclining at the table, Mary comes in and begins to tend to Jesus in a most peculiar way. 

Mark tells us that she had an alabaster vial of very costly perfume called nard.  Nard would have been imported from India, and so it was very rare and valuable.  And what is important to understand is that such vials were used as a way of storing wealth.  Perfume such as this was like liquid gold, that was able to be stored and preserved for the future.  Many people did not have access to savings accounts at banks such as we have today, and so this was a way of putting aside money for the future.  Of course, it could be used in small amounts as well for special events, but for the most part it represented an investment.  This particular ointment was kept in an alabaster vial, a translucent, glass vial that was expensive in it’s own right.  

If you look further along in the text, you will notice that the disciples said this perfume might have been sold for 300 denarii.  A denarius was equivalent to a day’s wage, so 300 denarii means that it was worth around $30,000, or close to a year’s wages.  That’s a lot of money for perfume, or better yet, representative of a lifesavings.

But there is more to it than that, I believe.  In those days, it was customary for a young woman to receive a dowry from her family to be used to help her acquire a husband.  Now this worked both ways.  On the one hand the bridegroom gave gifts to the parents, but the woman also had a dowry which was used as a financial gift to the groom from the brides family. Women were not considered in those times in the same way we think of them today. Marriage was many times a financial as well as a social arrangement.  And so the dowry would sometimes be a financial incentive for a woman to get a husband.  And without a husband, a woman had a very poor future.  She was very limited in terms of owning property or having any sort of employment that would provide for her living.  

However, it cannot be overstressed how important marriage was to a young woman in that society.  Much like in our day, many young women look forward to and plan for their wedding day long before they even find a suitor, in hope that finding a husband will be the beginning of  fulfilling their dream of children and a family. And it was even more true in that culture. So I believe that this alabaster vial of very expensive ointment was Mary’s dowry.  And these vials of expensive perfume acted as a sort of savings account for the woman which would become her dowry which was given to her husband.  And in the case that she didn’t find a husband, she could sell this perfume and it would help provide financially for her future. 

So Mary comes to Jesus as He is seated at dinner, and she anoints Jesus, but in so doing she  breaks the vial and pours it on His head and on His feet, and John even tells us that she washes His feet with her hair. What she did must have caused a tremendous affect on everyone there.  It would have just stopped all dinner conversation.  It would have caused everyone to stop eating and just stare in disbelief.  It would have just been a magnificent act of extravagance that dumbfounded everyone present. 

What Mary’s offering represented was an act of sacrificial love. It was a tremendous cost not only in terms of money, but even more telling, in terms of her future.  It was as if she was saying that her love for the Lord was more important than that of the love of a future husband. She was putting all that she had hoped in for this life, in this great act of devotion for Jesus.  I find it very similar to the widow of chapter 12, who in giving an offering in the temple gave two small coins, which Jesus said was all she had to live on.  And consequently, when Jesus saw it, He said, this widow has given more than all the contributors, because she gave all that she had, all that she had to live on.  Though Mary’s gift was considerably more valuable in terms of money, it was no less valuable in terms of worth as it represented all that she had hoped for in this world.  And as such it illustrates the sacrificial, all encompassing love that we are to have for the Lord.

As I have mentioned previously, it’s reminiscent of the love of Jonathan for David.  It was a noble love that David, as a type of Christ, said  surpassed the love of a woman.  That is the love we are to have for the Lord.  It is not a romantic love, but a noble, sacrificial love.  Our hope is not in a mate, not in finding a husband or wife, but our hope is in the Lord, and we love Him supremely above every human affection.  And please understand that Mary’s love for the Lord was not a romantic love. It was on a higher level than sentimental, or romantic love. She loved the Lord more than life itself. More than all that this life might offer.

Mary’s act of love was not only sacrificial, it was extravagant.  It would have been more reasonable to have poured out a few drops, or perhaps as much as a handful of the precious ointment.  That would have been more than generous.  But Mary broke the vial and lavished it’s contents on the head of feet of Jesus.  Nothing could be gathered up and put back in the alabaster vial.  It was spent, it was spilled, it was splashed over Him from His head to HIs toes. John’s gospel tells us that she wiped His feet with her hair.  She kneels before Him and uses her hair to wipe Jesus’s feet.  What a magnificent act of humility, what an extravagant expression of her love for Christ.

Then thirdly, Mary’s act of love effected everyone around them.  Have you ever noticed when someone has put on a little too much perfume or cologne?  There is an almost overwhelming, pungent aroma that pervades the room, or trails the person as they walk by.  Well, Mary just emptied a pound of this extremely powerful, costly perfume on Jesus.  And again, we look to John’s gospel for this detail, and he says the house was filled with the fragrance.  I bet it was.  In fact, I bet Jesus had this powerful aroma on His body and clothes for days afterward.  In fact, Jesus alludes to that by saying to the disgruntled disciples, “she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.”  I suppose that there was still the aroma of Mary’s perfume on His body when they laid the cat of nine tails against His back.

But her act of love not only anointed Jesus with the perfume, but she was covered with it as well.  It was now on her hair.  Her lavish gift of love for Christ anointed herself even as she was anointing Him.  This is an illustration of the verse, “it is better to give than to receive.”  For in giving to the Lord, you bless yourself. In loving the Lord, you are loved. 

And not only did she bless herself, but it had an effect on all who were in the house.  Everyone there had the aroma of this offering upon themselves.  All of them left the house that night and carried with them the tangible reminder of this woman’s unabashed, unmeasured love for the Lord as a testimony to them.  When we love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul and mind and strength, then the world will smell the pleasing aroma of that sacrificial love and it will be a testimony greater than any words can express.

In fact, Jesus said that her testimony was not only going to fill the house, effecting everyone present, but it would also stand throughout the ages to come as a testimony to future Christians of what unmitigated love for the Lord really looks like. Jesus said in vs9 "Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”

 And I would suggest to you that when you truly love the Lord and worship Him with an all encompassing, sacrificial love like Mary had, then it’s going to start affecting others in your house.  So you live with a husband  who doesn’t care about things of the Lord?  The answer is not to nag him to death, but to so love the Lord with an all encompassing, sacrificial love that he cannot help but be affected by it.  Your kids don’t seem interested in the things of God?  The answer is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind.  And when you are consumed with the genuine love of God, that fragrance is going to affect everyone in your house.  Every marital problem, every family problem, every sin problem, finds it’s solution by putting Christ first and foremost in every place in your life.  When you get your love for the Lord right, then those other things are going to start to fall into place.

Well, though it should be obvious to all of us that Mary’s love is one to be emulated by generations of the church throughout the ages to come, yet it seemed to be a sore subject to the disciples.  Mark tells us that some of the disciples were indignant.  John, once again, gives us a little more detail.  He says it was primarily Judas who was indignant. Perhaps Judas was just the most outspoken of the 12 concerning their indignation.  

In vs4, they said, ““Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her.  Notice that they considered the anointing of Jesus to be a waste of money.  They saw it as throwing money down the drain.  In actuality, Mary was transferring her savings from earth to heaven.  She was storing up treasure for herself in heaven, rather than on earth.  

The fact is, the disciples are only focused on the here and now.  As we have seen, they have been squabbling over who will be the greatest in the kingdom.  In  just a day more, they will still be arguing about who is the greatest as they file into the upper room for the Passover Feast, blissfully unaware that this is Jesus’s last meal with them.  But somehow, Mary has gotten a true sense of what is going to happen.  Perhaps the fact that her brother had died and risen again helped her to understand better when Christ taught that the Son of Man would die and rise again.  Or maybe it was the fact that when others were working in the kitchen, or arguing about who would be the greatest, Mary was found sitting at Jesus’s feet, soaking up the words being taught by the Savior.  Somehow, God  revealed to her that Jesus is going to die, and so she has taken this opportunity to anoint Him with her gift of love for His burial.

And that reveals yet another aspect of her love that needs to be emphasized.  And that is the urgency and immediacy of her gift.   Jesus said in vs 7, “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me.”  In just a couple of days, Jesus would be arrested and crucified.  The time for her sacrificial gift was now.  Certainly, the disciples, especially Judas, were being hypocritical in their concern for the poor.  John says Judas said that not because he was concerned about the poor but because he carried the bag and used to pilfer what was put in it.  

But Mary recognizes the immediacy of the need to show her devotion for Christ.  So many times we put off for tomorrow what should be done today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow.  The scriptures says, “Today is the acceptable day of salvation.”  We think we have a lot of time left to serve the Lord.  After I get this done I will really devote myself to the Lord.  After I get to the next level in my job, after I get married, after I move to my new house, whatever our excuse, it’s just an excuse.  Today is the acceptable day.  Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.  Love requires an immediate response. Now is the acceptable time to serve the Lord with all your heart.

But the contrast to Mary’s love is that Judas loved money more than he loved the Lord. He would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  He loved money so much it really irritated him to see Mary lavishly give her life’s savings in one grand gesture of love.  She gave $30000 to anoint Jesus for burial, and Judas sold Him out to be killed for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a common slave. 

I’m sure most of us today are appalled at what Judas did.  We may think that though we might not reach the height of sacrificial love that Mary had,  we would never betray Jesus like Judas did.  But perhaps we already have.  Matt. 6:24 says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” And James 4:4 says, “You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that  friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”  And finally, consider 1John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I’m afraid if we love the world, if we put the things of this world ahead of our love for the Lord, then we have done exactly what Judas did, in selling his soul for the temporal gain of this world. Mark 8:36  “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Let me remind you of something.  Judas was close to the Lord.  Judas was revered by the other disciples.  He was part of the inner circle of Christ.  He had a position of great privilege.  He even participated in the healing and miracles and casting out of demons.  By all measures, he was a leading member of Christ’s church.  And yet, Jesus said he had a devil.  He was the son of perdition. He sold out Jesus for a little bag of money.  Our prominence in the church is not what counts before the Lord.  Our position in the church is not an indication of our love for the Lord. Our esteem by others is not what counts before the Lord.  It is the whole hearted love for the Lord from a pure heart that God sees which is what really matters. 

That reminds me of another disciple.  There was one of Paul’s disciples named Demas. He went with Paul on mission trips, he worked with Paul for a long time.  But finally, Paul wrote, “Demas has deserted me, for he loved this present world.”  He loved the world and the things of this world more than he loved the Lord, and as a result he deserted Paul. And Paul said that such “went out from us, because they were never part of us.”  That’s the same story with Judas, though he was with Jesus and the other disciples for three years, yet his heart was never given completely to the Lord and so he went out from them and deserted Jesus and in the end he was destroyed by his own desires.

Let me just mention one final point in closing.  And that is, even though Jesus was all knowing, and He knew that Judas was pilfering from the money box, yet Jesus never rebuked him, never had that “I got you!” moment with Judas.  Right up to the very end, even when Judas was betraying Christ with a kiss, Jesus was giving Judas the opportunity to repent.  The Bible says that the kindness of God draws you to repentance.  Jesus was very patient with Judas.  

That reminds me of the scripture which says, that in the days of Noah, the patience of God was  kept waiting, waiting for men to repent of their wickedness.  This idea that God is hiding around the corner with a baseball bat ready to whack you over the head if you get out of line is not biblical.  God is patient, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.  Judas never did repent.  He kept hardening his heart, until it says that Satan himself entered into him and he went out from the Lord.  And as a result he never found forgiveness and hung himself in a fit of despair.  

Well, we have seen two contrasting examples of how to love the Lord.  The example of Mary, who gave all her hopes and dreams up to the Lord in a lavish, extravagant, sacrificial outpouring of love, or that of Judas, a self serving, self righteous love of the world and the things of the world.  I wonder which example best describes us? I pray that I might be like Mary, and lay everything at the feet of my Savior and Lord.  The good news is, even if we have fallen short, even if we have sold out the Lord time and time again for the temporal pleasures of this world, the Lord is patiently offering us a chance to repent and be forgiven.  But the time is now.  Don’t put off until tomorrow what the Lord wants from you today.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.