Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:1-5, 14-16; Luke 22:1-6; John 12:2-8
This scene takes place on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning by the Jewish reckoning, in Jerusalem and Bethany. In Jerusalem, the Jewish authorities scheme and plot their knavish plans; they must kill Jesus at the earliest possible moment, but not during the festival. While they plot, Jesus reclines in Bethany, a short distance away, where a woman enters the house and anoints Him with a jar of very expensive perfume; the jar she used would have cost a year’s wages for a working person; a year’s wages!
The people in the room are shocked at the extravagance of this and they rebuke the woman harshly, after all that could have been sold and used to help the poor. If you think about it, it’s difficult to disagree with those people, but Jesus told them to knock it off…
“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Mark 14:6-9
If you stop and think about what Jesus tells them here, you can’t help but be struck by a few things. First off, Jesus implies that what this woman has done for Him is even more important than helping the poor, at least that it was of a higher immediate priority since He wasn’t to be with them much longer. Then notice His little jab: “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.” (v. 7) Every time I read this, I wonder if any of those rebuking the woman would be willing to donate a whole year’s wages to the poor if they were talking about using their own money, and not that of this woman… Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but it almost strikes me the same way as when people advocate raising someone else’s taxes for a poverty program.
Next, Jesus takes another step toward the cliff when He tells them that woman had done this to prepare His body beforehand for burial which He knew was now less than three days away. In verse 9 is a little prophecy: Where ever the gospel is preached, people will speak of the woman’s actions… and considering that I’m writing about it now 2,000 years later from halfway around the globe, I guess He was right. The passage concludes with Judas slipping out to make his deal with the devil to betray Jesus to the authorities― the die is cast.
Remember the way chapter 12 ended? After a long day of attacks that Jesus rebuffed, and then after Jesus went on the offensive at the Temple Courts, Mark took us to the scene of the widow’s offering, and Jesus told us about a whole new system where people would set aside the things and ways of this world to give God everything they have in His service. Then, the tumult of the Olivet Discourse in chapter 13, and now, well after sunset that night, this woman offers a sacrifice for Jesus, by pouring a whole year’s wages over His head in the form of expensive perfume. Another act of devotion, another act of self-sacrifice, another sacrifice of self, another glimpse of the Kingdom that was now standing at the door, ready to burst upon the earth.
Earlier that day, the reaction of the worldly leaders was to agree to kill Jesus. Now, one of His own disciples reacts by slipping away to make the final arrangements for His betrayal to those same leaders. Will this cycle ever end?
I don’t know, but all these years later it still continues.
Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:17-25; Luke 22:7-18, 21-23; John 13:22-26
Mark, as was his custom, approaches this subject with an economy of words, with verses 12-16 being about Jesus’ instructions for preparations, followed by a brief description of their meal. As we might suspect, everything went just as Jesus said that they would. When the time came for the meal, Jesus tells the group that one of them will betray Him.
Naturally, they were shocked. “Surely you don’t mean me Lord” seems to be the universal reaction to this, and Jesus narrows it down a bit in verses 19 and 20, and then in 21 He tells them that He will indeed allow Himself to be taken, as the Scriptures have foretold. All of this talk of betrayal, and Jesus’ knowledge of who would do it and when, is there for a reason other than just to make a good story, for it documents that Jesus went willingly; a very important point. No one forced Jesus do anything that night, for He was there for the purpose of doing the Father’s will, to accomplish the Father’s purpose. That this would involve arrest, humiliation, torture, pain and death would not stop Him from going through with this purpose.
I wouldn’t suggest that Jesus was looking forward to the experience, for He was human and faced the same physical weaknesses that the rest of us have. In fact, the added reality that He was also divine, with all of its power and authority most likely made His task more difficult, for it was necessary for Him to restrain His divine power and endure His human pain.
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Mark 14:22-26
It wouldn’t appear that the disciples quite comprehended yet what Jesus had just done, let alone what He was talking about, but obviously the pieces would soon fall into place for them. For each of us, we are fully aware of what has just happened in the story, for we commemorate it each Lord’s Day in our worship. Maybe it is better here that I simply suggest that each of us pause in our busy day to reflect upon the significance of what Jesus was about to do for humanity in the hours that followed this dramatic scene, and to rededicate ourselves to His service.
Final Hours Together
Mark briefly describes the time Jesus spent with the disciples after their last meal together, quite a contrast with the several chapters John gave to the “Farewell Discourse.” Mark breaks this into three short scenes:
Mark 14:27-31
Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:31-35; Luke 22:31-38; John 13:21-38
Peter’s determination to remain loyal to Jesus is admirable, but sadly, it was not to be… at least not yet. Jesus knew that, but He also knew that Peter would fail, and along with the rest of them he would cut and run when things got too tough. He cited the prophecy from Zech. 13:7, and if your mind works as mine does, this citation begs an oddball question: Did Peter fail because of the prophecy, or was the prophecy made in the first place because God knew Peter (and the others) would fail? I struggled with this for a long time before I stumbled across the obvious and simple answer to the riddle. Peter and the others fell short because they were relying on their own strength and will not to fall short, therefore they fell short because their reliance was ill placed. Later, as Apostles, none of them fell short when the going was tough, really tough, for their reliance was upon God and they were sustained by His strength and not merely by their own.
Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46; John 18:1
The scene in the Garden of Gethsemane is a poignant one, where Jesus prays fervently, filled with angst that the cup should pass from Him if possible, yet the Father’s will and not His own should be done. Clearly, His human side wanted to find a way out of what He was about to endure, and yet His love for the Father and for humanity was stronger; His devotion to God’s eternal purpose won out. Yet while this gut-wrenching scene is playing out, the disciples fall asleep!
I seriously doubt they fell asleep on purpose, but here too, they relied on their own strength and not upon God as they would later. The outcome of this ill-placed confidence is always the same, and we should really remember that.
Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:47-56; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:2-11
On come the goons from the temple guards, with Judas in the vanguard. Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.
Of course we know this as one of history’s great ironies; Jesus commented on it in the other accounts. I get the same chill seeing people today who loudly profess their love and devotion for Jesus, and then watch them do everything in their power to run people away from His church. … but then that’s just me. Did Judas really think he was doing Jesus a favor, forcing His hand so that He would raise an army and take the city by force as some have suggested over the years?
I have no idea what Judas was really thinking; maybe he just needed the money, or maybe he was under demonic influence, or maybe he was the only one who understood fully what Jesus was there to do and wanted to help out… I can’t imagine! What I do know is that the stage was now set for the pivotal drama of all recorded history.
Of course, the disciples fled, and it would appear that there were more present than just the disciples, for in the final verse we see a young man, little more than a boy, who is swept up in the confusion, and who escapes the guards by slipping out of his garment and running off into the darkness naked: Meet our author everyone, for I am convinced that this was none other than Mark himself.
There’s an old saying about excuses. OK, well maybe it isn’t all that old, but it’s a pretty good one, at least I think it is a good one. True it isn’t famous or anything… fine, you got me, but it is what I say about excuses:
When you’re looking for an excuse, one is as good as another.
That night, the Jewish authorities were looking for an excuse to kill Jesus, and they really weren’t all too choosy about their excuse as long as everyone could keep the story straight; after all this guy was pretty popular.
Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:57-68; Luke 22:54, 63-65; John 23:24
Jesus on trial before the full cast of Jewish authorities: Can you imagine anything more ridiculous? The Son of God actually on trial before a group of corrupt hypocrites cowering behind their fancy robes, their meaningless earthly positions, desperate to maintain the magnificent fiction of their own self-righteousness, and all this for what reason? So they can truthfully preserve a lie; so they can lawfully continue their corruption; so they can graciously continue in their oppression.
E.G. Marshall once said that “truth is stranger than fiction… especially if you change it to make a good story”. No changes are necessary for this story; it is just strange.
The biggest problem these clowns have is that their fake witnesses keep contradicting one another. Evidently, the witnesses for the prosecution weren’t very well prepared to give testimony; at least they seemed to be forgetting their lines. Maybe they had a few drinks beforehand and kept going off script, who knows? In any event, they were screwing up the phony trial. Jesus wasn’t helping them; He kept declining comment. There’s an old saying in politics: “When your opponent is self-destructing, get out of his way.” Jesus was staying out-of-the-way in this fiasco, until…
The high priest finally asks Jesus directly the critical question: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
That did it, that’s what the high priest wanted to hear: blasphemy!
Jesus has assumed onto himself the rights or attributes of God in His reply, and under the Law, He must die for His crime… unless it had been a truthful answer. Because this was a high tribunal of the religious leaders, all of whom were genuinely interested in finding the Truth in holiness and all righteousness and propriety, did the high priest examine any facts that might substantiate Jesus’ claim?
Certainly not; he was only seeking an excuse to kill! Jesus was condemned immediately, spat upon and taken away and beaten.
Meanwhile, Peter, just outside in the courtyard, denied Jesus three times. (Mark 14:66-72) The next morning, the Jewish religious leaders, those great paragons of God’s Law and the supremacy of everything Jewish, take Jesus to the unclean Gentile dogs and beseech them to murder an innocent man, sent by God to deliver them.
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