The Passion According To Mark.

THE PASSION ACCORDING TO MARK.

Mark 14:1-72, Mark 15:1-47.

I). THE PREPARATION.

Mark 14:1-11.

1. The Plot to Kill Jesus (Mark 14:1-2).

The first thing that we notice as we enter into this passage is that it was the LORD who was setting the timetable for Jesus’ death. It was "the feast of the PASSOVER, and of Unleavened Bread” (MARK 14:1a). In other words, it was the commemoration of the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt. Later, in interpreting and applying these events for us, the Apostle Paul could report: ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7).

The second thing that we may notice is the manipulative plan of Satan that the LORD was using and overruling throughout. “The chief priests and the scribes” (MARK 14:1b) were making an unholy alliance (cf. Psalm 2:2), consulting how they might take Jesus by guile and put Him to death.

But, they said, “not during the feast, lest there might be a tumult among the people!” (MARK 14:2).

2. Jesus Anointed at Bethany (Mark 14:3-9).

Mark next describes an incident in Bethany, in the house of one “Simon the leper.” In a singular act of devotion, “a woman” approached Jesus having an alabaster box full of very precious ointment, and poured it upon His head as He sat (MARK 14:3).

“There were some,” we are told, who “had indignation within themselves” (MARK 14:4). ‘To what purpose is this waste?’ they argued:

‘For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor,’ they continued. And they “murmured” against her (MARK 14:5).

This must have upset the woman; whose humility and spirituality is apparent. Jesus came to her defence: “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? she has wrought a good work upon Me” (MARK 14:6).

When our work proceeds out of a devotion to Jesus, we will find ourselves criticised, sometimes even by our fellow-believers. Yet our heart’s extravagance is a sacrifice of a sweet savour to the Lord. What this woman did was accepted as part of her 'reasonable service’ (cf. Romans 12:1), because her motives and her motivation were sound.

This is not to undermine the place of almsgiving in Christian service. Jesus says that we will always have the poor (MARK 14:7), and we should always minister to them appropriately. This is taught throughout the Bible. Yet for the Christian this is no longer a legal obligation, but a debt of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us through His death and resurrection.

Jesus applauded the woman for her perception that this costly ointment was intended to be kept for His burial (MARK 14:8). It was now poured out in an act of sacrificial giving because His time had come. The woman had had the insight and precognition to thus anoint Jesus for his burial.

“The gospel shall be preached in the whole world.” And wherever it is preached, says Jesus, the fragrance of this woman’s act of devotion shall stand as a testimony (MARK 14:9). And so it is!

3. Judas Offers to Betray Jesus (Mark 14:10-11).

It was at this point that Judas Iscariot, “one of the twelve” (MARK 14:10) went to the chief priests and offered to betray Jesus.

They in turn promised to give him money; and Judas thereafter “sought how he might conveniently betray” Jesus (MARK 14:11).

We see here an example of how ‘the LOVE of money' is the 'root of all kinds of evil’ (cf. 1 Timothy 6:10).

II). PASSOVER AND COMMUNION.

Mark 14:12-26.

The Passover meal was designed to commemorate the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt (cf. Exodus 12:14). Out of it grew our Lord’s Supper, in which we remember what Jesus was accomplishing on this very night, centuries later, in delivering us out of ‘the bondage of sin and death’ (cf. Romans 8:2). It was only apt that Jesus and His disciples should keep the Passover one last time (MARK 14:12), before Jesus fulfilled all it stood for in His Passover sacrifice on Calvary’s hill (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7).

Still in control, Jesus sent two of His disciples with a message to a man saying, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” (MARK 14:14). The two disciples, wondrously, found EVERYTHING exactly as Jesus had said, and made ready the Passover (MARK 14:13-16). In the evening, Jesus came with the twelve (MARK 14:17).

It should have been a happy meal but, under the shadow of the Cross, ‘with bitter herbs they shall eat it’ (cf. Exodus 12:8). Jesus had solemn words to speak (MARK 14:18).

Jesus knew who His betrayer was, even before anyone else in His little group knew. The other disciples did not ask, ‘Is it Judas Iscariot?’ but rather each of them asked, “Lord, is it I?” (MARK 14:19). Well, it was one of them who was dipping in the dish with Him, but woe betide that man. “The Son of man goes as it was written of him,” said Jesus, but “it would have been better for that man (who betrayed Jesus) if he had not been born” (MARK 14:20-21).