Temple Monday
Debate Tuesday
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1. Mark 14 begins two days before the Passover, which is presumably Wednesday. The chief priests and scribes are plotting to arrest and kill him quietly. They want it to happen before the feast so there isn't as much of a crowd (14:2).
They find their opening with Judas, who comes to them offering to betray him. They promise him money in return (14:11).
Mark does not give us a reason. At best, the other Gospels hint that the money was attractive to Judas, but in Matthew he tries to give it back (Matt. 27:3). In Acts he buys a field with the money and dies there (Acts 1:18). [1] These curious remarks have led many to speculate what else might have been going on in Judas' mind, especially given the misunderstandings of Jesus' disciples about what it meant to be the Messiah.
Two common suggestions are 1) that Judas was disillusioned with Jesus or that 2) Judas was trying to force God's hand. Both assume that Judas thought that Jesus would become king when they arrived in Jerusalem. In the second scenario, Judas is full of faith. "God won't let his Messiah go down." So he gives God a little help. Of course, it backfires on him and he tries to give the money back.
In the other scenario, Judas considers Jesus a failure. The kingdom was supposed to come and it didn't. Judas thinks Jesus a fraud -- and why not make a little money to salvage something from this miserable situation. "At least then they won't be after me." Luke and John tell us that Satan had possessed Judas.
But we can't read Judas' mind on this level. All the Gospels tell us is that he was interested in the money.
2. At the beginning of Thursday -- our Wednesday night since the Jewish day began at sundown -- Jesus eats in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. Matthew and Mark have a similar version of the story. [2] A woman with some expensive perfume anoints his feet. It leads some to scoff at how much good could have been done for the poor with the value of that ointment. [3]
It is a melancholy moment for Jesus. She is preparing him for burial. Jesus is not purely utilitarian or mathematical in his values. You would think that the number of "good units" is greater if it goes to the poor rather than to him. But there are exceptions. These are the hours before his death. The poor will always be here to help (and help them we should).
It's a reminder that God's value is higher on the scale than anything else -- the coefficient scales the number up overwhelmingly. I always think of the magnificent medieval cathedrals when I read this passage. Many of them took 100 years to build. How much good could have been done for the poor with that money!
I don't know what God thinks on this one, but the cathedrals continue to give God glory almost 1000 years later. [4] Every poor person in the 1100s and 1200s mattered greatly to God, and the testament of Notre Dame is a witness from them to us. It was an act of worship to build for many, and it continues to praise God.
That is a simplistic view of things, I suspect. But I think of those cathedrals every time I read this passage. And we do know this anonymous woman in Mark. [5] As Jesus predicted, her testimony to him has lasted two thousand years such that we are mentioning her even today (14:9).
3. Jesus eats the Passover meal with his disciples on our Thursday night -- the beginning of their Friday after sunset. There is some ambiguity in the Gospels as to whether this was a Passover meal or not. In John, it would seem to be the day before the Passover meal (John 18:28). But Mark certainly gives us the impression that Jesus and the disciples were eating the meal that night (Mark 14:12).
Whatever the precise calendar was, both options hold related truths. In John, Jesus dies as the Passover lambs are being killed, which tells us powerfully that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). In the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus eats the Passover meal with this disciples, pointing to the coming exodus from their bondage.
Again, whether by Jesus' foreknowledge or prior arrangement, the disciples "chance upon" someone who has a large enough room in Jerusalem for them all to eat. The meal becomes a template for the "Eucharist," the communion services that are held in most churches to this day. Each time we take communion, we remember that night and we look forward to Jesus' return to eat with us again.
It would be easy for us to think of this as a small ceremony because that is the way that we celebrate it. But this was a full meal. They break bread, which symbolizes Jesus' body. After supper, they share a cup of wine, which represents his blood that he will shed in the morning. Mark brings out the significance. If the first Passover was associated with the Mosaic covenant, Jesus is bringing the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31.
The seder meal that Jews eat today at Passover is likely much more developed than the practices at the time of Jesus. It would probably not develop more fully for a couple hundred years. This is an important insight for those who think that contemporary Jewish practices date back to the time of Jesus. Rather, the Mishnah dates to over 150 years after Jesus and the Talmud even hundreds more.
We should not underestimate the impact that the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 and then the total ousting of the Jews from "Palestine" in 136 (bar Kokhba revolt) had on Judaism. These events arguably changed a diverse landscape with varying practices and channeled them toward the shape we know today.
4. After the dinner, they sing a hymn and then head to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. There are caves nearby and perhaps it was their intention to spend the night there. Judas knows where they will be, so it was an agreed on location. Perhaps they are hiding there from the authorities.
Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him three times that night. Peter is incredulous. In his mind, he is ready to fight to the death. What he is not prepared for, however, is for Jesus to go willingly with the authorities when they arrive. They are still expecting a militant Jesus and a kingdom of God by God's action. They are not prepared for a dying Messiah.
Jesus prays. Peter, James, and John can't keep their eyes open. Their spirits are willing, but their "flesh" is weak (14:38). Jesus is sorrowful, even to the point of deathly sorrow (14:34). He knows what he is about to face, and he doesn't want to. He was tempted in every way as we are and yet did not sin (Heb. 4:15).
He asks God to take the cup away from him if it is at all possible (14:36). He knows it isn't. He is expressing human feelings. His will remains resolved (cf. John 12:27). We can share our feelings to God even when we know what his will is. We can vent and not sin.
5. Finally Judas arrives, as Jesus knew he would. He kisses Jesus on the cheek, a sign that Judas had worked out with the men of the high priest (14:44-45). They wouldn't have known which one was Jesus otherwise. Jesus points out the sliminess of the situation. Rather than arrest him in public, they are sneaking out to get him at night. They have swords and clubs. What, am I a thief?
One of those with Jesus who is ready to fight cuts off the ear of one of the high priest's servants. [6] But Jesus has no intention of fighting. When his disciples see this, they abandon him.
A young man -- often thought to be John Mark, the putative author of the Gospel -- stirs out of bed and rushes to see what's going on. He had likely been in the background at the Last Supper. Seeing that he is following them, they try to seize him. Only getting his linen garment, he escapes from them naked.
[1] In Matthew 27:7, the chief priests buy the field and it becomes a place where foreigners can be buried, the "potter's field."
[2] In Luke 7, Simon is a Pharisee and the similar story takes place earlier in Jesus' ministry. In John 12, it is Mary the sister of Lazarus who wipes Jesus feet with her hair, and it is Judas who is upset.
[3] John specifies that it was Judas.
[4] That's a little bit of an overstatement, but it's closer to the truth than the impression "hundreds of years" gives.
[5] John gives a slightly different setting and identifies the woman as Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 12:1-3).
[6] John says it was Peter (John 18:10).
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