Series Introduction:

Last week we began a new sermon series called “Journey to the Cross” in which we will be following the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection that we will celebrate on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. While that might seem like a lot of time to cover just one week, so much happened in the seven days between the Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the Sunday in which he rose from the grave, that we simply won’t be able to cover it all. The Gospel of Mark is sixteen chapters long, but six of those chapters are devoted to events that happened in this one week. 

Last week we focused on events that took place on Sunday and Monday. We saw Jesus enter Jerusalem with a King’s welcome, as the people shouted “Hosanna in the Highest!” Only for Jesus to see that the people had allowed God’s Holy Temple to be transformed from a house of prayer into a den of thieves. Jesus drove out the money lenders and those who tried to profit off of the poor and needy. He compared the temple to a fig tree that seemed healthy from a distance, but when you drew close you realized it had no fruit. Jesus then taught his disciples how to avoid becoming fruitless in their own prayer and worship. 

For the sake of time, this week we are going to be jumping ahead to Mark 14. Chapters twelve and thirteen are worth reading on your own, but they mostly consist of Jesus’ teachings both in the Temple and in Bethany where he was staying. He taught about the true worship that God delighted in, as opposed to the counterfeit worship that he was receiving from many in Jerusalem. Jesus also responded to challenges to his authority, and prophesied that the days of the Temple were numbered – showing that the old ways were coming to an end, and a new covenant was about to be established that would usher in the Kingdom of God on earth. 

Understandably this caused quite a disturbance in Jerusalem. The religious leaders wanted Jesus to be taken out of the picture, but they feared to arrest Jesus while he was surrounded by the crowds because the people might turn on them or they might start a riot that might anger their Roman rulers. Then, surprisingly, one of Jesus’ own disciples, a man named Judas Iscariot, appeared before the chief priests in order to betray Jesus. They knew that Judas would know Christ’s goings and comings, and that he would be able to lead them to Christ at a time when he was alone and his followers would not be there to cause an uproar. This is where we will pick up in our passage this morning with events that occurred on Thursday, the day before Jesus would take up his cross. 

Scripture Reading:

Mark 14:12-25: And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

John 6:54-58: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Opening Prayer:

Father God, this morning as we have already celebrated communion by taking the bread and the cup, I pray that you would open up our hearts and minds to receive your Word preached. Let the words of my mouth be acceptable to you, and may the meditations of our hearts be honoring to you this morning. We ask all these things in your Son’s holy and precious name. Amen. 

Introduction:

On Sunday Jesus had entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey to shouts of “Hosanna!” On Monday he drove out the moneylenders and wept over Jerusalem and how far they had fallen from the true worship of God. On Tuesday and Wednesday Jesus taught many things both in the Temple and to his Disciple’s in Bethany where he was staying. Now Thursday was here, and it was time to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover. This raised a question among the disciples’ namely  “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”  (Mark 14:12, ESV). 

Passover was one of the most important Jewish festivals, in which the people celebrated their salvation from slavery in Egypt. It was customary for jews to gather together and observe a Passover meal in which each element of the meal was significant and symbolized an element of their salvation story. Because Jesus and his disciples were in Jerusalem, they were at the very heart of Jewish life and Jewish religion. 

The first century Jewish historian Josephus estimated that between two and three million people journeyed to Jerusalem to observe Passover, so it was a fair question to ask. If Jesus had not made arrangements it was very likely that it would be too late to have a passover meal prepared this late in the week. However, just as Jesus had arranged for the donkey to be ready for his entry into Jerusalem, so too had he arranged a place for his disciples to gather for passover. Again, just as he had done with the donkey, Jesus sends two of his trusted disciples with specific instructions on how to find the room where they were able to prepare the passover meal. 

The Passover

There is some significance to the fact that the last meal Christ would share with his disciples before the cross was a Passover meal. Mark’s gospel does not give us the details of the Passover meal, because he probably assumed that his readers would have been familiar with the ritual. Jesus had celebrated the feast from his youth, and had once gone to Jerusalem as a pilgrim when he was a young boy. His twelve disciples were all Jewish and so they knew the feast as well, but because most of us are probably not of Jewish ancestry we may need to  familiarize ourselves with some of the details. 

When Mark says that the disciples were “reclining at the table and eating” (Mark 14:18, ESV) they were probably eating lamb. The central element of the Passover ritual was the sacrifice of an unblemished one-year-old male sheep or goat that had been set aside beforehand on the tenth day. The meat could be eaten only by circumcised males (people who belonged to the nation of Israel) and by those who belonged to their families. The meat also had to be eaten that evening, and whatever was left over had to be burned. 

The lamb of the passover meal was a reminder that when God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt, a lamb without blemish was sacrificed as a substitute for the people. The Lamb’s blood was put over the doorpost of the homes of the Israelites so that the angel of God’s justice would pass over their homes and they would be spared the consequences of their sins. It was in that passing over that the name “Passover” originated. God instructed his people to observe the Passover annually as a way to remember how God had judged Egypt but had given salvation to Israel. 

How appropriate is this setting for what Christ was about to accomplish on the cross. At the very beginning of his earthly ministry, John the Baptist declared that Jesus was, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, ESV). The Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Corinth after the resurrection, called them to live lives worthy of their calling because “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7, ESV). Just as the Israelites of old were spared from the judgment of Egypt by being under the blood of the passover lamb, so too are we in an even greater sense spared from the judgment to come by the blood of the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Just as the Passover reminded the Israelites of their freedom from slavery in Egypt, so the Cross would come to remind Christians of the freedom that Christ brought from slavery to sin and death. Just as the Israelites saw their exodus from Egypt as the turning point for their people, so we see the cross and the resurrection of Christ as the turning point of all history. 

Of course the disciples would not realize this until after the resurrection. As far as they knew, this passover was not unlike the other passover meals they had celebrated, with the exception that they were in Jerusalem and that Jesus was with them. I doubt any of them expected to hear what Jesus was about to say. 

Betrayal:

In Mark 14:18, we are simply told:

And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 

Mark 14:18, ESV

I can imagine more than a few of them choking on their lamb when Jesus spoke these words. The twelve men who were gathered at this table had made up Jesus’ inner circle for the last three years. They had believed when others had walked away. They had been through so many things together. Just four days earlier they had witnessed Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The people had welcomed him as their messiah. They saw him cleanse the Temple of the moneylenders, and they had been at his side as he instructed the people from the Temple grounds and successfully defended his authority against any who would challenge him. And yet now, when the Kingdom of God that they had been hearing about for the last three years seemed so close, they learned that one of them would betray their Lord. 

The next verse, Mark 14:19, says: 

They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” 

Mark 14:19, ESV

The word translated here as “sorrowful” is a term synonymous with grief. It carries the idea of a heavy heart, weighed down by deep sorrow. I also want to point out that this is one of the times when the disciples asked the right question. They did not look around and say “I wonder who he is talking about?” Neither did they begin accusing one another. They looked within themselves and began to ask “Is it I?” Am I the one who will betray my Lord in the end?

I think many of us may be tempted to make the mistake of thinking that spiritual maturity means being elevated above temptation. That is not true. Spiritually mature people are all the more aware of their weaknesses, and realize that the only thing that keeps them from becoming the person they used to be is the grace of God. Similarly, the person who is in the greatest danger of sinning is the person who thinks that they are too good, too wise, or too spiritual to fall into sin. 

As the ancient church father Origin wrote: 

“Each of [the disciples] knew from Jesus’ teaching that human freedom is infinitely changeable and may easily be turned toward evil. It may happen, in the struggle against principalities and powers and rulers of this world of darkness, that one may fall quite unexpectedly into evil, either being deceived or overcome by demonic powers. Thus, each disciple feared lest it might be he who was foreknown as betrayer. 

Origen, Commentary on Matthew

In the next verse Jesus removes any ambiguity, stating that it will be one of his own twelve disciples who will turn him over to his captors: 

He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

Mark 14:20-21, ESV

These are powerful and condemning words to hear, especially from the lips of Jesus. Meanwhile Judas was sitting there and hearing all of this. I wonder what he was thinking. Maybe he was hopeful that while Jesus knew he had been betrayed, he might not have known which disciple it was who had betrayed him. We know Judas had hidden his betrayal well, because none of the other disciples seemed to have even suspected that there was a traitor in their midst. Had Jesus not been the Son of God, I doubt he would have known himself. 

Matthew’s account of this event adds an additional detail that Mark’s account omitted: 

Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

Matthew 26:25, ESV

God’s Word does not give us insight into the mind of Judas. If he was convicted, he did not repent of his sins. He did not change his course. Judas’ story is a tragic one, but it can also stand as a reminder that even those that seem closest to God are still capable of sin. It is a reminder to examine ourselves and not to assume that we are too good, too wise, or too righteous to fall. Judas was given several opportunities to confess and to turn from the path he had chosen, but he chose not to. 

Notice also Christ’s patience and love even in the midst of betrayal. 

“[Christ] could eat calmly with his betrayer. He could patiently be aware of his enemy at his own table and not let on. He did not even refuse the kiss of the traitor.”

Cyprian, The Goodness of Patience

Jesus’ words of warning are stern. Warnings of the coming judgment and the fate of those who will not repent can also come across as harsh and unmerciful. But what is more loving? To tell someone of the danger of the path they have chosen before they reach the end of the road, or to let them continue unwarned into the path of destruction? I believe that Jesus not only knew his betrayer, but loved him up to the very end. 

The Lord’s Supper

There were many more events that happened in the upper room that night. John’s gospel devotes five whole chapters just focusing on that one night in the upper room. Mark on the other hand keeps it short, focusing on the betrayal and the Lord’s Supper that followed. 

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

Mark 14:22-25, ESV

I think it is interesting that Jesus waited until the end for the breaking of bread and the passing of the cup. Like all things Jesus did, I believe there was purpose in this timing. The final night would not end with betrayal, but with a coming together. This is, after all, why Jesus came in the first place. 

Jesus began by taking the bread into his hands. A reminder that Jesus’ life was in his own hands, and that his sacrifice was a voluntary sacrifice. As Jesus himself said: 

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

John 10:14-18, ESV

Jesus gave thanks, broke the bread, and command his disciples to eat. A reminder that his body was going to be broken so that might be healed. In the Old Testament the broken bread reminded the Isrelites of their past sufferings, but now it would symbolize the sufferings of the Son of God to bring salvation to all peoples. 

Jesus then took the cup in his hands, again showing that the sacrifice he would make was his to make. Likewise he gave thanks, and gave the cup to the disciples to drink. A small detail, but one worth noting is that the word we translate as “gave” is in the Greek aorist tense. I won’t bore you with Greek grammar, except to say that this means that the cup and the bread were given once for all. In the same way the scriptures say that his death on the cross would be the once for all sacrifice. 

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

Romans 6:10, ESV

Likewise, when we give our lives to Christ and receive the salvation he earned on our behalf our old sinful identity is counted as dead, and will never return to lay claim on us because we now belong to Christ. 

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Romans 6:6, ESV

When Jesus says “This is my blood of the covenant” (Mark 14:24), he is saying that his blood will establish a new covenant (a new promise) with God. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross, on our behalf, made it possible for mankind to enter into a new relationship with God. 

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation* for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:1-2, ESV   *propitiation – atonement, satisfaction of guilt or debt

What a gift we have received in Jesus. Let us remember the gift of salvation and blessed assurance, that was won for us at such a cost. 

Closing Prayer: 

Father God, as we enter this time of decision, I pray that you would open up our hearts and minds so that we would be able to hear your calling and to respond accordingly. Help us to remember the goodness of Christ, who willingly suffered and died in our place so that we might not be separated from your love. Guard our hearts from pride, and if this morning we realize that we have succumb to sin’s temptations, I pray that you would give us the courage to come to you and receive the forgiveness you so generously offer. If any here this morning do not know you as their Savior and Lord, I pray that they would have the courage to come and talk to me during this time of decision or after the service, so that we could begin a conversation about taking the next step in obedience. We ask all these things and pray all these things in your Son’s precious and holy name. Amen.