Mark 14:12-26 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Mark 14:12-26

• Mark 14:12-16
• 12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that you may eat it?”13 So he sent two of his disciples and told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.” 16 So the disciples went out, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
  • Again and again we see that Jesus did not leave things until the last moment
    • It appears that He had possible arranged the cold to be ready for His ride into Jerusalem; and here we see that all His arrangements may have been made long beforehand (I say maybe, because I like to leave the possibility of all of this being supernatural/miraculous as well)
  • His disciples wished to know where they would eat the Passover
    • Jesus sent them into Jerusalem with instructions to look for a many carrying an water jar. To carry a water jar was a woman’s duty. It was a thing that no man ever did. A man with a water jar on his shoulder would be very easy to pick out in any crowd.
  • The larger Jewish houses had upper rooms
    • Such houses looked exactly like a smaller box placed on top of a bigger box. The smaller box was the upper room, and it was accessed by an outside stair, making it unnecessary to go through the main room
    • The upper room had many uses
      • It was a storeroom, ti was a place for quiet and meditation, it was a guest room for visitors
      • But in particular it was the place where a Rabbi taught his chosen band of intimate disciples. Jesus was following the custom that any Jewish Rabbi might follow
  • We must remember the Jewish breakdown of days
    • The new day began at 6 PM
    • Up until 6 pm it was the 13th of Nisan, the day of the preparation for the Passover
    • But the 14th of Nisan, the Passover day itself, began at 6 pm. In other words, Friday the 14th began at 6 pm on Thursday the 13th
  • What were the preparations that a Jew made for the Passover?
    • First was the ceremonial search for leaven
      • Before the Passover, every particle of leaven must be banished from the house. That was because the first Passover in Egypt had been eaten with unleavened bread
      • It had been used in Egypt because it can be baked much more quickly than a loaf baked with leaven, and the first Passover, the Passover of escape from Egypt, had been eaten in hasted with everyone ready for the road
      • In addition, leaven was the symbol of corruption
        • Leaven is fermented dough, and Jews identified fermentation with putrefaction, and so leaven stood for rottenness
        • The day before the Passover, the master of the house took a lighted candle and ceremonially searched the house for leaven. Before the search he prayed
          • Blessed are though, Yahweh, our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by thy commandments, and commanded us to remove the leaven
        • At the end of the search the householder said
          • All the leaven that is in my possession, that which I have seen and that which I have not seen, be it null, be it accounted as the dust of the earth
    • Next, on the afternoon before the Passover evening, came the sacrifice of the Passover lamb
      • All the people came to the Temple. The worshiper must slay his own lamb, thereby, as it were, making his own sacrifice
      • In the Temple the worshiper slew his own lamb. Between the worshippers and the altar were two long lines of priests, each with a gold or silver bowl. As the lamb’s throat  was slit the blood was caught in one of these bowls, and passed up the line, until the priest at the end of the line dashed it upon the altar
      • The carcass was then flayed, the entrails and the fat extracted, because they were part of the necessary sacrificed, and the carcass handed back to the worshiper 
      • If the figures of Josephus are anywhere close to correct, and there were more than 250,000 lambs slain, the scene in th Temple courts and the blood-stained condition of the altar can hardly be imagined
      • The lamb was carried home to be roasted. It must not be boiled. Nothing must touch it, not even the sides of a pot. It had to be roasted over an open fire on a spit made of pomegranate wood. The spit went right through the lamb from mouth to other end, and the lamb had to be roasted entire with head, legs, and tail still attached to the body
  • Certain things were necessary and these were the things the disciple would have to get ready
    • There was the lamb, to remind them of how their houses had been protected by the badge of blood when the angel of death passed through Egypt
    • There was the unleavened bread to remind them of the great they had eaten in haste when they escaped from slavery
    • There was a bowl of salt water, to remind them of the tears they had shed in Egypt and the waters of the Read Sea through which they had miraculously passed to safety
    • There was a collection of bitter herbs
      • Horseradish, chicory, endive, lettuce, and horehound
      • To remind them of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt
    • There was a paste called charosheth, a mix of apples, dates, pomegranates, and nuts, to remind them of the clay of which they had made bricks in Egypt
      • Through it there were sticks of cinnamon to remind them of the straw with which the bricks had been made
    • There were four cups of wine
      • The cups contained a little more than half a pint of wine, but three parts of wine were mixed with two of water
      • The four cups, which were drunk at different stages of the meal were to remind them of the four promises in Exodus 6:6-7
        • 6 “Therefore tell the Israelites: I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians.
        • I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery to them
        • I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment 
        • I will take you as my people
        • I will be your God
  • Such were the preparations which had to be made for the Passover. Every detail spoke of that great day of deliverance when God liberated His people from their bondage in Egypt
  • It was at that feast that He who liberated the world from sin was to sit at His last meal with His disciples
• Mark 14:17-21
• 17 When evening came, he arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining and eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be distressed and to say to him one by one, “Surely not I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the Twelve—the one who is dipping bread in the bowl with me. 21 For the Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had not been born.”
  • The new day began at 6 pm and when the Passover evening had come, Jesus sat down with the disciples
    • There was only one change in the old ritual which had been observed so many centuries ago in Egypt. At the first Passover Feast in Egypt, the meal had been eaten standing. But that had been a sign of haste, a sign that they were slaves escaping from slavery
    • In the time of Jesus, the regulation was that they meal should be eaten reclining, for that was the sign of free people, with a home and a country of their own
  • We can see certain great things here
    • Jesus knew what was going to happen
      • That is His supreme courage, especially in the last days. It would have been easy fro Him to escape, and yet undeterred He went on
      • With a full knowledge of what lay ahead, Jesus was for going on
    • Jesus could see into the heart of Judas
      • The curious thing is that the other disciples seem to have had no suspicions. If they had known what Judas was up to, it is certain that they would have stopped him even by violence
      • There may be things we succeed in hiding from other people, but we cannot hide them from Jesus Christ. He is the searcher of human hearts. He knows what is in each one of us
    • In this passage, we see Jesus offering tow things to Judas
      • He is making love’s last appeal
        • It is as if He is saying to Judas, “I know what you are going to do. Will you not stop even now?”
      • He is offering Judas a last warning
        • He is telling him in advance of the consequences of the thing that it is in his heart to do
        • But we must note this, for it is of the essence of the way in which God deals with us—there is no compulsion
        • Without a doubt, Jesus could have stopped Judas. All He had to do was tell the other eleven what Judas was planning, and Judas would have never left that room alive
        • Here is the whole human situation. Og d has given us free will. His love appeals to us. His truth warns us. But there is no compulsion
        • We hold the awful responsibility that we can spurn the appeal of God’s love and disregard the warning of His voice. In the end, there is no one but ourselves responsible for our sins
        • God does not stop us, whether we like it or not, from sin. He seeks to make us love Him so much that His voice is more sweetly insistent to us than all the voices which all us away from Him
• Mark 14:22-26
• 22 As they were eating, he took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
  • First we must lay out the various steps of the Passover Feast, so that in our mind’ s eye we can follow what Jesus and His disciples were doing. The steps came in this order
    • 1. The cup of the Kiddush
      • Kiddush means sanctification or separation. This was the act which separated this meal from all other common meals
      • The head of the family took the cup and prayed over it, and then all drank of it
    • 2. The first hand washing
      • This was carried out only by the person who was to celebrate the feast
      • Three times he had to wash his hands in the prescribed way which we have already described when studying chapter 7
    • 3. A piece of parsley or lettuce was then taken and dipped in the bowl of salt water and eaten
      • This was an appetizer to the meal, but the parsley stood for the hyssop with which the mantle of the door had been smeared with blood, and the salt stood for the tears of Egypt and for the waters of the Red Sea through which Israel had been brought in safety
    • 4. The breaking of the bread
      • Two blessings were used at the breaking of the bread
        • Blessed be thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth from the earth
        • Blessed art thou, our Father in heaven, who gives us today the bread necessary for us
      • On the table lay three circles of unleavened bread
        • The middle one was taken and broken
        • At this point only a little was eaten. It was to remind the Jews of the bread of affliction that they ate I Egypt and it was broken to remind them that slaves had never a whole loaf, but only broken crusts to eat
          • As it was broken, the head o fate family said, “This is the bread of affliction which our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt. Whosoever is hungry let him come and eat. Whosoever is in need let him come and keep the Passover with us
    • 5. Next came the relating of the story of the deliverance
      • The youngest press present had to ask what Madde this day different from all other days and why all this was being done
      • The head of the house then had to tell the whole story of the history of Israel down to the great deliverance which the Passover commemorated
      • The Passover could never become a ritual. It was always a commemoration of the powered the mercy of God
    • 6. Psalm 113 and 114 were sung
      • 113: Hallelujah! Give praise, servants of the Lord;
        praise the name of the Lord. 2 Let the name of the Lord be blessed both now and forever. 3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised. 4 The Lord is exalted above all the nations, his glory above the heavens. 5 Who is like the Lord our God—the one enthroned on high, 6 who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the trash heap 8 in order to seat them with nobles—with the nobles of his people. 9 He gives the childless woman a household, making her the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah!
      • 114: When Israel came out of Egypt—the house of Jacob from a people who spoke a foreign language—2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel, his dominion. 3 The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills, like lambs. 5 Why was it, sea, that you fled? Jordan, that you turned back? 6 Mountains, that you skipped like rams? Hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 8 who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a spring.
        • Psalms 113-118 are known as the Hall, which means the praise of God. All theses psalms are praising psalms. They were part of the very earliest material which a Jewish boy had to memorize
    • 7. The second cup was drunk
      • It was called the cup of Haggadah, which means the cup of explaining or proclaiming
    • 8. All those present now washed their hands in preparation for the meal
    • 9. A grace was said
      • “Blessed are thou, O Lord, our God, who brings forth fruit from the earth. Blessed are thou, O God, who has sanctified us with they commandment and enjoin us to eat unleavened cakes.”
      • Then small pieces of the unleavened bread were distributed
    • 10. Some of the bitter herbs were placed between two pieces of unleavened bread, dipped in the charosheth, and eaten
      • This was called the sop. It was the reminder of slavery and of the bricks that once they had been compelled to make
    • 11. Then followed the meal proper
      • The whole lamb must be eaten. Anything left over must be destroyed and not used for any common meal
    • 12. The hands were washed again
    • 13. The remainder of the unleavened bread was eaten
    • 14. There was a prayer of thanksgiving, containing a petition for the coming of Elijah to herald the Messiah
      • Then the third cup was drunk, called the cup of thanksgiving. The blessing over the cup was
        • Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who has created the fruit of the vine
    • 15. The second part of the Hallel was sung (Psalm 115-118) (Ask for volunteers to turn to, and read these)
    • 16. The fourth cup was drunk, and Psalm 136, known as the great Hallel, was sung (another volunteer)
    • 17. Two short prayers were said
      • All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, our God. And thy saints, the righteous, who do thy good pleasure, and all thy people, the house of Israel, with joyous song, let them praise and bless and magnify and glorify and salt and reverence and sanctify and scribe the Kingdom to thy name, O God, our King. For it is good to praise thee, and pleasure to sing praises to thy name, for from everlasting unto everlasting thou art God
      • The breath of all that lives shall praise thy name, O Lord, our God. And the spirit of all flesh shall continually glorify and exalt thy memorial, O God, our King. For from everlasting unto everlasting thou art God, and beside thee we have no king, redeemer or savior
  • Thus ended the Passover Feast
    • If the fest that Jesus and His disciples sat at was the Passover it must have been items 13 and 14 that Jesus made His own, and 16 must have been the hymn they sang before they went out to the Mount of Olives
  • Now let us see what Jesus was doing, and what He was seeking to impress upon His disciples
    • More than once we have seen that the prophets of Israel resorted to symbolic dramatic actions when they felt that words were not enough
    • It was as if words were easily forgotten, but a dramatic action would print itself on the memory
    • That is what Jesus did, and He allied this dramatic action with the ancient feast of His people so that it would be the more imprinted on the minds of the disciples
      • He said, “Just as this bread is broken, my body is broken for you! Just as this cup of red wine is poured out, my blood is shed for you”
  • What did He mean when He said that the cup stood for a new covenant?
    • The acceptance of the old covenant is set out in Exodus 24:2-8; and from that passage we see that the covenant was entirely dependent on Israel keeping the law. If the law was broken, the covenant was broken and the relationship between God and the nation shattered. It was a relationship entirely dependent on law and on obedience to law. God was judge. And since no one can keep the law the people were always in default
    • But Jesus says, “I am introducing and ratifying a new covenant, a new kind of relationship between human beings. And it is not dependent on law, it is dependent on the blood that I will shed.” That is to say, it is dependent solely on love. The new covenant was a relationship between human beings and God, dependent not on law but on love. In other words Jesus says, “I am doing what I am doing to show you how much God loves you.” Men and women are no longer simply under the law of God. Because of what Jesus did, they are forever within the love of God. That is the essence of what at the sacrament says to us
  • We not one more thing
    • In the last sentence we see again the two things we have so often seen. Jesus was sure of two things
      • He knew He was to die, and He knew His kingdom would come
      • He was certain of the cross, but just as certain of the glory. And the reason was that He was just as certain of God’s love as He was of human sin; and He knew that in the end that love would conquer that sin