Day 14: Devotion and Deceit (Mark 14:12-52)

Welcome back to our study in the Book of Mark and it's Thursday. And the way I want to go about this, we've got your text, we're going to look at chapter 14, beginning at verse 12, and we'll go all the way to verse 52. But I want you to think with me, what was going on, perhaps, in Jesus’ mind? What would you say to those you love the most, you spent three and a half years with? You know you're going to turn all the ministry over to them.

What knowledge, what experience, what should He say? When is He going to say it? How will He use this great tradition of Passover that celebrates what God did in Exodus when they came out of Egypt? What does He want to get across? We're going to learn all of that. One of the things I thought might be really helpful for you is, you know, putting all the Gospels together.

Let me just give you a context, if you will, of here's what happened that night from all the other Gospels, and then we're going to walk right through each section of this passage, and out of each section I'm going to try and come out with my best understanding of maybe what's the message behind it?

They're going to eat the Passover in classic tradition - Jewish fashion. So, they're going to prepare for that. They're going to enter this upper room, and Jesus, we know, according to John 13, He's going to wash their feet, because none of the disciples were willing, even after all this time, to wash each other's feet. He will identify Judas as the betrayer. We'll see that in this text, and Matthew also mentions that After supper, Judas will leave, and then Jesus will institute the Lord's Supper.

He'll take those elements that have traditionally been, let's remember the Exodus, and we'll hear very, very shortly, this is My body, this is My blood of the new covenant.

His final words and teaching will happen in the upper room. They will sing a hymn together, it comes out of, traditionally, they would sing all or part of Psalm 115 through 118. After they sing a hymn, they'll walk through a place where He will give more instruction about abiding in Him, and then He will be outside, a place called Gethsemane, where He's going to pray.

And He'll take three of His key disciples and ask them to pray with Him. And then Judas will come, Judas will take a group of people and He'll be arrested. And that's the flow of what's going to happen in this night.

Now let's look at the preparation for the feast. We pick it up in chapter 14 of Mark, beginning at verse 12. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, Where do You want to go to make preparations for You to eat the Passover? So, He sent two [of] His disciples, telling them, Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.

Say to the owner of the house he enters, The Teacher, ask, Where is my guest room? Where may I eat the Passover with My disciples? He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.

The disciples left and went into the city and found things just as Jesus told them. So, they prepared the Passover. When evening came, Jesus arrived with the twelve. While they were reclining at the table, He said, I tell you the truth. One of you will betray Me. One who is eating with Me. They were saddened. And one by one, they said to Him, Surely not I. It is one of the twelve, He replied. One who dips bread into the bowl with Me.

The Son of Man, will go just as is written about Him. But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread and He gave thanks and He broke it. And He gave it to His disciples saying, Take, eat, this is My body.

This is a big change. All through the Old Testament they talked about a new covenant. Jeremiah talked about a new covenant and a new way where, the Spirit of God would actually live inside. No one would have to be taught of the Lord that the Spirit would come and empower people to walk in a new way.

And Jesus is taking this deliverance out of Egypt, this great history and this great deliverance that they've for, now, hundreds and hundreds of years celebrated and now He's shifting it and saying, this is My body. And then afterwards, likewise, He gave thanks and He offered it to them.

And then He took the cup and He says, This is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. He said to them, I tell you the truth. I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the Kingdom of God. And when they'd sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

He tells them to prepare for the Passover. He gives them all the necessary ingredients. He tells them where, tells them how. They do it like normal. We learn that, they don't have it together.

And you know what, that's kind of encouraging. Can you imagine face to face relationship with Jesus for, over three years? And you're still looking at one another saying, Hey, I'm not going to wash anybody's feet. I mean, you know, there's servants to do that. And I may not be the top guy here, but I'm certainly not going to do that. And the absolute humiliation they would have experienced when Jesus came in and washed their feet.

Some of the strongest messages we ever give to other people is not what we say, it's what we do. You know, in Mark 10:45, Jesus gave some inkling about why He came. He said, For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Literally, He would come to lay down His life as a substitute for your life and my life. And on this last night, He's showing them that that's not just a theological concept. He actually serves them. And they recognize, and I'm sure they felt ashamed, and many of you know the story where Peter says, not me.

And so, they have this moment where, again, He flips the paradigm. He's the King, and the King becomes the servant. And the theme of the book here is that Jesus is the servant who sacrifices His life to serve others and who's willing to suffer to die and pay the price. And now He's bringing this to a climax. And as He does, He tells them, in advance, that He's going to be betrayed. But even in this, He offers an olive branch, if you will. You know, He makes it public. Judas knew what he was going to do. Jesus knew what he was going to do.

He literally kind of gave him a last chance, if you want to repent, right? And he chooses not to. And so, we have a time where the traitor leaves, He institutes the Lord's Supper. And now Jesus is going to prepare His friends for failure and we pick it up in verse 27.

He says to them, You will all fall away. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and sheep will be scattered. But after I have risen, you know, if you happen to be able to have your Bible open with me, underline that this is really important. But after I have risen. I will go ahead of you into Galilee.

Peter declared, even if all fall away, I will not. I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, Today, yes, tonight, before the rooster crows twice, you will disown Me three times. But Peter insisted, Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You. And the others all said the same thing.

And here's the deal, if I was in that room, and you were in that room, we would have all said the same thing. We would have all said the same thing. There's no way we would flee. We don't know the weakness of our own flesh. We don't know what we would do under pressure. But Jesus knows us. He understands our weakness. He understands that our best intentions sometimes fall woefully short.

And so, He says to them, He's preparing them because there's only one thing worse than failing. It's failing and thinking there's no recovery and God can never ever accept you again. Jesus is telling them in advance, You are going to fail. But He gives them hope. That line, He says, But after I have risen, it's a done deal. This is going to happen.

By the way, hope is not wishful thinking that things will get better or be nicer someday, some way. When the word hope is used in Scripture, it's an absolute certainty because God promised it and you can bank on it, even though you can't see it, and even though it's in the future, and even though all the circumstances around you feel like, I don't have any hope.

And so, He's saying to them, I'm trying to prepare you. The message is, you are weak. You don't know the extent of your weakness or your flesh. Are you ready for this? Jesus understands.

You know, I've done a lot of counseling with a lot of people over the years. And, some of the hardest people to help are people that by and large are very strong-willed. And I can do this and I'll work harder and I'll make this happen. And often because of that, they can be very successful in a number of things and then they get faced with what we all get faced with. Failure. They mess up. They make a mistake. It's a weak moment.

And whether it's in their marriage or whether it's in business or whether it's integrity or in some way, they really fail. And when they fail, it's catastrophic. Because they really believe down deep, if you know, if you're really committed, if you will power, I can make this happen. And there's a lot of Christians living their life that way. And it doesn't work.

And because it doesn't work, then what we have to do is we have to start faking it. We have to start pretending. We have to start projecting that we're more loving and we're more holy and we're more disciplined and we're more caring than we really are. And the difference between who we present ourselves to be and who we really are, that's that very thing that He warned us about - hypocrisy.

And the most miserable people in the world are not people in woeful sin. They enjoy it for a while, the consequences are coming. The most frustrated people in the world are people that really know Jesus. And one of the evidences of your salvation is that when the Spirit of God lives in you, and you're doing what you know is wrong. It grieves the Spirit and it brings a level of, division in your soul. And a level of self-hatred when you see, This is what I'm projecting or this is who I know I need to be. And yet you're not living that life.

And Jesus, in His great love preparing them, says, Every single one of you He's going to fail me. And they all denied it. Then He, sings a hymn, He follows the traditions, and then they begin to take the walk where He's going to have the biggest battle of His life. Mark my word, the biggest battle was not on the cross. The biggest battle was in the garden.

Verse 32, they went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James and John along with Him and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. Luke will tell us that He was so deeply distressed that it's actually a medical condition that under extreme, extreme, extreme pressure, the blood vessels can begin to burst. And it says He was sweating and there was blood in His sweat. He's in agony.

In fact, He says, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He said to them, Stay here and keep watch. Memo. Jesus needed people. Yes, He was God. But He went through this as fully human. Jesus needed a small group. Jesus needed people to stay here. And the word, watch here, it's not just like stay awake. That's certainly part of it. But it's watch, be alert, support Me, stay with Me, pray.

In Mark 13, where He used that word, watch and stay alert, it was used often for, this is how you need to pray. You need to pray, you need to be aware of God's presence, and you do it with alertness.

And He says to them. Stay here and keep watch. Going a little further, He fell to the ground and prayed, If it is possible, may this hour pass from Me. And then He uses this tender word, Abba, Father. He said, Everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Your will, not Mine.

That was emotional. It was a battle. He's struggling. Everything emotionally in the humanity of Jesus did not want to go to the cross. Was it the thorns? Was it the beating? He already predicted He's going to be mocked, He's going to be spit on. Those things had a role, but I think the big role was far different. For the first time in all eternity, when Jesus will take on your sin, and my sin, and the sins of the whole world, what we know from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is, He will become our sin offering.

And for the first time, the Father will turn away because He's holy, and He will, literally, absorb the wrath of God. There'll be a separation for a time in the eternity in such a way when Jesus becomes our sin offering. And He's agonizing. He's agonizing. Is there a plan B? Nevertheless, whatever You say, Lord, You're My Father. I'm going to model. I will be obedient.

So, He returns to His disciples and found them sleeping. Simon, He said are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you don't fall into temptation. And then He gives us, The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. He understands. He understands you. He understands me. That's why we need people. That's why we need His Spirit. That's why we need His Word. He's trying to help them.

Once more He went away. Are you ready? He prayed the same thing.

Executing the truth will come and it'll be difficult, it'll be painful, it'll be physical, it'll be terrible. But the battle is going to be won or lost in prayer.

Once more He went away and prayed the same thing, and when He came back again He found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They didn't know what to say to Him.

He returned a third time and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look! The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes My betrayer.

Notice the word. Rise! It doesn't say, Let's stand here and wait for Judas. And that mob and that group to come here. This is how you do spiritual warfare. Jesus had resolved in His heart, Not My will, but God's will be done. The time is now. Let us rise and go.

And He moves toward the very crowd that's going to arrest Him. And there's a principle there. When you're struggling and when I'm struggling, we need to get the promises of God, we need to remember who God is, we have to be willing to do whatever He says, and once we come to that resolution in our spirit and in our soul, then we step forward. By Your power, Lord, by Your grace, Lord, I'm going to obey You even though every emotion in my body wants to do the opposite of what I know obedience is.

Verse 43, Just as He was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the chief priest, the teachers of the law, and the elders.

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them, The one I kiss is the man. Arrest Him and lead Him away under guard. Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, Rabbi, and kissed Him. The men seized Jesus and arrested Him.

Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest cutting off his ear.

Am I leading a rebellion, said Jesus, That you come out with swords and clubs to capture Me? Every day I was with you teaching in the temple courts, and you didn't arrest Me. Notice where Jesus goes. But the scripture must be fulfilled.

Jesus, to the very end, was a man of the Word. Over and over, that last night, the scripture must be fulfilled. The shepherd, when He is stricken, what? The sheep will scatter. He quoted that in the upper room.

Then everyone deserted him and fled. A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus, and when they seized him. He fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

So, what do we get? He came to the point of absolute surrender. And God gave Him the strength to win the battle over the enemy, to be willing to surrender all and say, Lord, Your will, not Mine.

And the message to Judas and the message to the disciples and the message to us is there is something more powerful than evil. And that something is love. And I believe what Jesus was saying to those disciples through that evening and in all that He did and how He responded to the arrest and His willingness to go through what we'll look at on Friday when He's crucified is that He understood that they needed to understand more than anything else, the depth and the nature of His love.

Jesus prepared His closest followers for lives of incredible impact and power while living amidst relentless persecution and pain by doing three things. One, He reminds them of the extent of His love. He's willing to give all. Two, He teaches them the depth of His love. And three, He demonstrates to them the unconditional nature of His love.

He will forgive Peter. He gave Judas a chance. He died for all the world, including the people that came with the clubs and the torches and the guards that tortured Him. And the unrighteous religious leaders who will have a mock trial and trumped up charges - injustice and corruption and evil.

The Apostle Paul would say, Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. And that's what Thursday was all about. Coming to the point that I'm willing to love to that extent. On Friday, He'll actually do it. And on Sunday, we will experience the reward. See you next time.