When You Lose Your Shepherd - Mark 14:25-28 Series

Mark 14:25 "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." 26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 "You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written: " 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' 28 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee."

Introduction: What Would You Have Done?

What do you think you would have done if you were following Jesus , and one night after supper you follow him to his favorite prayer spot and a lynch mob shows up, arrests him, beats him to a pulp, and crucifies him? And they try to capture you as well. What would you have done? We know what the disciples did. What should they have done? Peter tried to fight, but Jesus rebuked him. That wasn’t the right response. They all ended up running away—that was no good either. So what should have happened?

The crazy thing is, Jesus says their failure happened because it was prophesied.

Mark 14:27 "You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written: " 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'

That’s from Zechariah. Strike the Messiah down, and all his followers run for the hills. If the Bible says that’s what’s going to happen, what else could happen? If there’s a prophecy in Scripture that says you’re going to fail, do you have any chance?

If not—if their failure was inevitable, then why did Jesus spend so much time beforehand warning them, “Stay awake. Stay alert. Watch and pray so you won’t fall.”

We need to know the answers to these questions because the answer to the question, “What should the disciples have done when Jesus was taken from them?... ” is the same as the answer to this question: What should you do when you find yourself distant from Jesus and you feel like you have no shepherd? So let’s see what Mark has to teach us.

The New Party

From Sadness to Singing

Mark 14 is a dark chapter. Literally, it’s dark—the whole thing takes place at night. And what happens is dark. It’s about three horrible predictions Jesus made about his disciples being unfaithful—first Judas, then the whole group, then Peter.

The first one we looked at last time. One of the Twelve would hand Jesus over to the au-thorities. Jesus broke that news during the Passover meal.

That was a hard conversation. Verse 19 says “they were saddened.” No kidding. Sounds like an understatement. What would it have been like to be with them that night as they left the house? Dead silence? Many churches have a tradition of having everyone walk out of the Good Friday service in silence and sorrow. Is that how it was on the original good Friday?

No, actually. It was the exact opposite.

Mark 14:26 When they had sung, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Singing is what you do when you’re happy.

James 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing.

In verse 19 they’re all sad; in verse 26 they’re singing—what happened in between?

The Messianic Feast

What happened was Jesus said this:

Mark 14:25 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.

That phrase, “the fruit of the vine,” is an expression that refers to rich, overflowing abun-dance. Abundant wine in the kingdom of God—that’s the way the Old Testament prophets often spoke about the glorious messianic banquet in the age to come. For example,

Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this moun-tain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, … 8 he will swallow up death for-ever.

When Jesus comes back in his full glory to eliminate death forever, there will be a party to end all parties. We’ll enjoy the best cuts of meat, and lots of fine wine.

You don’t hear much about this from prophecy buffs, but I have to say, it’s one of my fa-vorite parts about the end times. The kingdom of God will be (and these are two of my favorite words in the English language) all-inclusive.

Drinking the Fruit of the Vine

And it was when Jesus started talking about that banquet that the mood of the whole night changed from sorrow to singing. And yet, of all the communion statements in Scripture, is it fair to say this one is the one you hear about the least?