Monthly Archives: September 2020

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THE MYSTEERY OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

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THE MYSTEERY OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”
19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” Mark 14:17-21

Why did Jesus disclose Judas’ treachery before it happened? Was it an indication to His disciples that He was well aware of what was happening to Him? Was He showing them that all the unfolding events were part of the prophetic fingerprint of Messiah in the Old Testament? Was He giving Judas an opportunity to back out of his plan, yet knowing full well that it must be so? Although all the prophecies about Messiah would be fulfilled, that did not absolve Judas of the responsibility of his decision.

The disciples’ response to Jesus’ warning is puzzling. How could any of them be about to do something so heinous and not know it? Treachery is not something that happens by accident. The very fact that they didn’t know about it indicates their innocence, except one. He was well aware that he was already spearheading the plan but he kept quiet. What would the other disciples have done to him had they known?

Does Jesus’ conclusion indicate that for Judas, there was no possibility of repentance or forgiveness? “It would have been better for him if he had not been born.” Is He saying that Judas’ mind was so perverted and deceived that he would not understand God’s mercy in his situation? Peter was restored. Why not Judas? Was he so overwhelmed with the guilt of his action that he was driven by hopelessness to suicide?

How does one reconcile God’s will with human choice and responsibility? Scripture does not even try. This event is succinctly summarised in Acts 2:23, “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to a cross.” The sovereign God acts in human circumstances to carry out His plan by working through human choices without, in any way, detracting from human responsibility.

How does He do it? No one knows! This was the Apostle Paul’s conclusion…

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen. Romans 11:33-36

That God is sovereign is an indisputable fact, and we can rest in the truth of His promise…

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

In some mysterious way, God brings good out of everything, good or bad and fulfils His purpose to bring blessing and salvation out of man’s darkest moments.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – PASSOVER – THE BRIDGE BETWEEN OLD AND NEW

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PASSOVER – THE BRIDGE BETWEEN OLD AND NEW

12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: 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 preparations for us there.”
16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So, they prepared the Passover. Mark 14:12-16

Passover was on them. How did Jesus approach this season, with eagerness or dread? How did He feel about His disciples’ three years of training? Had they really understood who He was and what He had come to do? How accurately would they interpret His sacrifice and carry on His mission on earth?

The next step in this unfolding drama was Passover – to Jesus a significant piece of the puzzle. It would not just be another Passover meal, a commemoration of Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt. This time it would be a transition from Old to New Covenant, from animal sacrifice to the once-for-all sacrifice of the Son of God, from many lambs year after year to one lamb for all people for all time.

As a rabbi, Jesus was thoroughly versed in Old Testament prophecy but, more than that, He was fully aware of every prophetic Scripture reference to Himself. He was prepared and equipped for the path ahead but not His disciples. They had not yet caught on to the significance of His coming. How many of them took time out to follow His example of intimacy with the Father? Probably none at this point. They were still spectators of His life – watching and wondering but not yet involved. He urged them to participate but their desire was not yet strong enough to drive their passion.

The instructions He gave for the preparation of the Passover seem to indicate that He had already set up a liaison with a homeowner friend, or that He had a prophetic insight into the events ahead. Whichever way, the disciples followed His instructions and everything happened just as He had predicted.

Unknown to His disciples, this would be His last and most intimate time with them before His arrest. As one reads through John 13-17, one detects a deep tenderness in Jesus in this time with His disciples. What would they remember of those last hours with Him? What would they treasure on hindsight? Once the horror of these events was past and their beloved Master was alive again, what would be uppermost in their minds as they reflected on the drama which had unfolded before them?

Pentecost would change everything!

 

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – ALL GOD’S DAUGHTERS

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ALL GOD’S DAUGHTERS

4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Mark 14:1-11

This is another one of those occasions when Jesus’ mercy and kindness to women offended men. The Samaritan woman and the woman caught in adultery are two other incidents when Jesus treated women with dignity, even when their behaviour was sinful, and the men didn’t like it.

In the Jewish culture of the time, women were viewed as considerably less than men. They were not much more than possessions; their word was not accepted in a court of law; they could be divorced and thrown out on a whim. But Jesus championed women and lifted them to a place of dignity and respect by the way He treated them. He honoured the crown of His creation and often showed men up in public for their high-minded arrogance, an attitude He hated.

Jesus was a rescuer of women. He rescued Mary Magdalene from a life of demonic torment; the Samaritan woman from guilt and shame; the woman caught in adultery from death by stoning; the woman with the issue of blood from isolation and premature death; the woman who was bent over for eighteen years from a life of pain and indignity, (these two women who were outcasts because of sickness, He called “Daughter”), and all the women who followed Him from a meaningless existence.

Most of all, He rescued them from their despised position as less than men. He treated them as equals, honoured them as participants in the great mission of the church gave them an equal share in the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. .

It was the women who braved the hostility of the religious leaders to be near Him at the cross, to follow His body to the tomb and to anoint Him for burial. It was the wealthy women who often provided for Him and His disciples and it was a woman to whom He first revealed Himself after the resurrection.

People who appear in the gospel narrative alongside Jesus will be remembered for many things, but none received the commendation Jesus gave this woman by specifying her place in history, nameless though she was. Was He in fact saying, “You men are so mean-spirited that all you will remembered for is your insensitivity, but she poured out her very best for me”? Could anything be better than that?

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – TRAITOR OR WORSHIPPER?

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CHAPTER 14

TRAITOR OR WORSHIPPER?

​1 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”
3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Mark 14:1-11

It is amazing how God’s timetable overrides man’s plans. Passover was only two days away, God’s time for His Son to be sacrificed as the Passover lamb. Yet the religious leaders did not want to kill Jesus during Passover because Jerusalem was crowded with visitors from all over Israel and they were afraid of an uprising which their action might trigger.

But something happened that set the ball rolling. Jesus was the dinner guest of Simon the Leper. (Was he someone Jesus had healed, since leprosy made a person unclean and an outcast?) A woman gate-crashed the party, unnamed by Mark, but the other gospels seem to indicate that it was either Mary Magdalene, or an unsavoury woman who had responded to Jesus.

As an act of love and appreciation, she doused Him with her most costly perfume – valued at more than a year’s income. This enraged some of the dinner guests – Judas Iscariot, maybe. Why did he react by deciding to sell Jesus to His enemies? Was Jesus’ comment directed at him, showing up his yetzer harah and tipping him over the edge?

What Jesus recognised and valued was the devotion that prompted this woman to sacrifice her most costly possession as a gift to Him. He interpreted what she had done, for her. She may not have recognised her action as preparation for His burial but He did. Not only that, but her act of generosity would immortalise her forever right alongside her Master’s death and burial.

How would Judas be remembered? By his betrayal of Jesus? How would she be remembered? By her lavish gift of love? What an epitaph – engraved on a page of every copy of the Bible in every language and read by every generation throughout history. Traitor or worshipper? And, as always, it was about money, generosity or greed. The story would be told and written, down the ages!

THE GOSPEL OF MARK- KEEP WATCH!

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KEEP WATCH!

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” Mark 13:32-37

What was Jesus’ main message to His disciples then and to us now? “Be alert, keep watch for deceivers.” He was never ready just to give out facts or to satisfy curiosity. He taught for a reason and this time it was to prepare them for hard times ahead.

Jesus often used the illustration of the landowner or householder going away for a season, but always coming back, either to claim his share of the harvest or the householder or businessman coming back to receive what his servants had managed for him while he was away. All of these illustrations draw our attention to the stewardship responsibility and accountability of those left in charge. We must live as those to whom has been entrusted someone else’s property and who are waiting for the master’s return so that his property can be handed back to him either with increase or in a better condition that when he left.

In this illustration Jesus emphasized the watchful, alert attitude of His servants. Those who have been faithful and obedient to the Master’s charge will be ready and will be eager to welcome Him home. Like the bridegroom who returns for his bride, they will be waiting for Him and He will recognise them as His own.

Jesus has no time for the attitude that lives carelessly with the idea that, when the Master comes, there will be time enough to mend their ways. The time of His coming is unknown and unexpected. That is why He has not given us specifics. He is just as interested in the way we conduct ourselves while we wait as whether we are ready for Him when He comes.

What are we to watch for? Two things are specified: watch out for deceivers and watch for the Master’s return. Deceivers will always try to make us feel comfortable in our procrastination or they will lure us away into self-centredness and greed. Jesus is our Rabbi and our model. To be ready for His coming is to be focussed on imitating Him.