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Gospel of Mark #52 ~ (14:12-21)

Started by Al Moak, September 04, 2004, 11:40:53 PM

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Al Moak

Mark 14:12-21
Deliberate Love


How much do we owe our Savior? What did He do that so indebted us to Him? The answers to these questions need to be in the very center of our hearts.

Jesus knew He was to be betrayed; He knew He was to be tried before Pilate; He knew He was to be crucified, and that He would die, be buried, and rise again. He knew the agony that lay before Him. Yet, with all this foreknowledge, Jesus deliberately went forward through all of the events of the end of His earthly life without seeking to avoid any of them!

Those events began with the last meal He would have with His disciples before His death and resurrection, a meal that was also the traditional Jewish Passover. It was natural for the disciples to ask their Master where they might go to prepare that Passover, because they would naturally expect Him to observe one of the most important feasts in the Jewish calendar. He had more reason than they knew.

A reading of Exodus tells us that the Passover celebrated an occasion in which the death angel passed over the houses marked with the blood of the Passover Lamb when God brought death upon all the firstborn of Egypt. Israelite firstborn were spared because of that blood mark on their doorposts, and so, ever afterwards, the people were instructed to celebrate that salvation by eating the Passover lamb. The great passover deliverance was celebrated every year on the 14th of the month Nisan, corresponding to our March or April.

But oh what significance there is in our Lord's celebration of the Passover with His disciples! The apostle Paul referred to that significance when he said, "Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." (1 Cor. 5:7) Just as Israelites were delivered from death by the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb, so God's people are still delivered from the Judgement of God by means of the life Blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

But the wonderful fact before us today is that Jesus Christ our Lord deliberately chose the Passover, a celebration whose meaning He would so beautifully fulfill, as the occasion for His last meal with the disciples.  And He also chose it as the occasion upon which He would institute the Supper we still observe today with both gladness and repentance as we remember what He did for us.

His deliberateness in choosing this occasion is made evident in several ways. We see it first in the detailed knowledge He had of the place where He and His disciples would observe it. He knew ahead of time that the two disciples He sent into the city would meet a man carrying a pitcher of water.  He knew that, if they followed the man and asked his master for a room in which to observe the supper, then the man would have such a room and gladly let them use it. Jesus knew ahead of time every detail of that coming event.

We also see His deliberateness when Luke quotes Him as saying to the disciples, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Lk. 22:15, 16) As our Lord had the lamb slaughtered for this feast, and its blood removed, He was pointedly reminded that His own Blood must be shed. As He cut the meat of the Lamb to distribute it to His disciples, He was vividly reminded that His own Body must be broken. Yet our blessed Lord "desired" to partake of this symbolism with His disciples!

Not only so, but, knowing perfectly that Judas would betray Him, as evidenced by His announcement of it at the supper, He deliberately went through with the supper, the betrayal, and the arrest that followed! His deliberateness is like that of a man who sees a child in the road, about to be hit by a car bearing down upon it, but who throws himself under the very wheels of the car to push the child out of harm's way. He knows what the outcome will be, but he willfully sacrifices himself to save the child.  Our Savior willfully gave Himself.

Our Lord was even more deliberate. He had told His disciples many times that He must suffer and die for them, and in His last supper with them it's evident that He had detailed knowledge of the one by whom He would be betrayed. Yet He deliberately moved toward that suffering, deliberately moved toward His own death on the Cross - deliberately moved to save us who believe Him now and bow at His feet!

The disciples didn't know who the betrayer was. Each of them in turn said, "It isn't me, is it?" The question at the same time indicated both self doubt and yet self assurance. They knew their Master by this time. They knew that He spoke no idle words. They knew, therefore, that when He told them that one of them would betray Him, He was telling the absolute truth. They knew that He knew and that they didn't know. They had a healthy degree of self doubt, a degree that would lead each of them to self examination. They all wanted to know who the betrayer was, not so that they might accuse and judge him, but so that each could be certain it wasn't himself.

We too need to know. Paul said it so well: "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified." (2 Cor. 13:5) A healthy self doubt makes sure of relationship to Jesus Christ while it is still possible to make sure. Doubt toward Jesus Christ is evil, but doubt toward self can save from damnation.

But our Lord had no doubt at all. He knew that He would be betrayed and He knew by whom He would be betrayed. Yet He did not seek to avoid that betrayal. You may recall that He even said to Judas at the supper, "What You do, do quickly!" Our Lord did not shrink from being betrayed.

Our great question should be, why did He do this?  Why did He go through with it? Why was He so deliberate? Why did He Who knew about His own death in such detail yet partake of a supper that symbolized it? The writer to the Hebrews gives us the answer: "looking unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:2) Our Lord walked deliberately into the awfulness of Hissuffering and death because of "the joy that was set before Him."

Joy? How could there be any joy in betrayal, arrest, trial, scourging, and Crucifixion? How could there be any joy in experiencing our guilt before His beloved Father? 

We're given just a hint of an answer in Isaiah 53:10-12. There we read, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I shall divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

He rejoices even in His own betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death - because He foresees the results - as Isaiah puts it, "He shall see His seed." It just means that He foresees every person whom He will save. Isaiah also says, "the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand," and this just means that the Father Himself has pleasure in the salvation accomplished by His Son, and so the Son rejoices that He is able to accomplish it. In summary, He says that "He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied."

What it all means is that our Lord takes great pleasure in our salvation. He wants very much to redeem each of us. He loves us and rejoices over us, each one. How much? Look at the Cross and you have the answer. That's why He deliberately went forward with the Last Supper. That's why He deliberately allowed Himself to be betrayed. That's why He deliberately allowed Himself to be crucified. He did it all because He loved YOU! Let us be in awe and wonder before such a Savior!

Let us do as the apostle Paul said: "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that You present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, for it is your reasonable service." The "mercies of God" are brightly reflected in our Saviour's willingness to go through the most awful agony that could ever be experienced.  Oh how willingly we should present our entire selves to Him!


Chris & Margit Saunders

#1
How can we not give all we are to Him, He  gave and gives to the uttermost.

On a point of order Al, dear bro, why do pastors and others, time and again while breaking the bread say " this is My body broken for you"?
When not a bone in His body was broken, in confirmation of the prophetic Psalm 34 v 20 and Exodus ch 12 v 46.
1 Cor ch 11 v 24 is changed in some versions EG.  the NU does not have this.
    John ch 19 v 36.

Jenny

Thank-you Pastor.

This is such a wonderful chapter.

I like the way you say that "self doubt" is good for us....Yes, it does make us pull our socks up.

Sometimes when I feel afraid of a situation i.e. surgery or circumstances which seem to mount up, I think of Jesus and thank Him.  Really our afflictions are light in comparison and we do "have the joy set before us."...we have our "Way shower"..Jesus had no-one! Bless His Name. He is the first among many berethren. This is so wonderful.

Precious blood of Jesus. Wonderful covering protection for us all.  How often do we claim it?  This is the Christian's right...

Surely as the the roasted lamb (with bitter herbs) was broken on the night of Passover, so was Our Lord's Body broken for us.

Thank-you re explanation  of  "He shall see the labour of His soul"....

Al Moak

You're absoloutely correct in pointing this out, Chris.  First of all, let me say that the only defense I have is the translation I've read from.  I hate to admit it, but I never even gave this a thought!  I certainly should have.  However, in a little more extensive consideration and reading in my footnoted Greek version I see that the word "broken" is indeed present in the oldest versions.  It isn't present in the Sinaiticus, nor in the Latin version, but it is present in the Syrian, which belongs to the Byzantine family of mss, a family that goes back to the early second century.  One explanation is that our Lord's Body was indeed broken in the sense that the spear pierced Him, though no bone was broken.  The upshot?  You be the judge.

Chris & Margit Saunders

Well if I'm to be the judge-- His body was not broken for us, but given for us, amen. :D

Al Moak

Well, I'll accept that, though I don't know about having you as a judge(!)

Chris & Margit Saunders

Hahaaaaa  yes , count your many blessings, and add that one lol. :) ;)