Doug Van Pelt

Crowd Control & MURDER

In Mark 14, we are going to read about Jesus being anointed, the Last Supper, a bloody prayer time, the arrest of Jesus, and His mockery of a trial in the middle of the night.

For His very last full day on Earth as a normal man, Jesus had a roller coaster of a ride. The teachers of the Law were plotting on a way to arrest and kill Him, "but not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot." He was reclining at a table at the hom of Simon the Leper. A woman comes in and breaks a har of pure nard and anoints Jesus' head with it. John 12 identifies the woman as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Some of those present grumbled when they saw this, calling it a waste, which "could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor."

Can you imagine someone using between $24,000 and $40,000 (depending upon how you calculate the "average wage" here in the US) worth of perfume on someone's hair? It must've filled the house and even parts of the neighborhood with the aroma.

Jesus defended the act, though, saying, "Hey, you'll always have the poor with you, and you can help them any old time you want, but you won't always have Me. She did this to prepare Me for My burial."

Wow! Shouldn't the disciples present there have FINALLY gotten the clue that Jesus was about to die? It appears they did not.

I love the fact that Jesus said, "What she did will be told about whenever the Gospel is preached throughout the world." Here in this blog this prophecy shows itself to be true once again.

I wonder if Jesus could still smell the nard while He was getting brutalized in His severe punishment and torture. Supposedly, His later whipping with a cat-of-nine-tails was enough to often kill the victim, shredding his back and legs so much that they would "bleed out."

But we're jumping ahead again. The text goes on to talk about the Last Supper. I bet Jesus was breathing in and "drinking up" the experience, kind of like Troy Palomalo was doing at the end of the Super Bowl. The camera showed him with his head tilted back, eyes wide open, taking it all in. Jesus foretold His disciples on where to celebrate the Passover. During the meal Jesus told them that one of them would betray Him. One by one they all said, "Surely not I?"

Would it have been wrong for the disciples to figure out who it was, drag him outside and beat the crap out of him? Knowing the Ultimate Price that would be paid by all of the events soon to come, it's a good thing that the ugly process wasn't stopped. So many events happened where history could have been reversed. Pilate could have shown himself to have a backbone and refuse to hand Him over for crucifixion. He could have listened to his wife, who told him not "to have anything to do with this innocent man," because she was tormented in a dream about this. You could play it back like a movie, and every step that could have gone in more than one direction refused to be sidetracked, plowing on to one conclusion - the death of Jesus.

I'm told the Passover has several incredibly rich details that prophetically point to Jesus. The bread, I'm told, is kept in a 3-in-1 napkin pouch, and they take the unleavened bread, which is pierced with holes and has stripes from its preparation, out of the middle pouch, like the second part of a tri-une compartment; and is broken like the body of Jesus. Then there are apparently several different cups used in the Passover. The cup of Plagues is a fun one for the kids, where each dropped poured out is a cue for the kids present to call out which plague it represents, but the cup for the end of the meal was supposedly the cup of Redemption. This is probably the cup that Jesus raised and said, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." This truly celebrates our redemption.

Peter sticks his foot in his mouth one more time by announcing before the group that, "even if all fall away, I will not." Before the rooster crowed at daybreak, he denied Him three times. Wow, that must've stung.

Jesus took Peter, James and John along with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He prayed, asking God to "let this cup pass from Me" but He also included in the same breath, the word, "nevertheless," which began a statement like that in our Lord's Prayer: "...not My will be done, but Your will be done." Right here near the end Jesus kept representing us as humanity. He had disrobed Himself of His divinity in that He did not grasp what He could. He humbled Himself by showing ultimate restraint in a situation that was so intense that He sweat drops of blood. That's stress, big-time.

If you ever feel like God cannot relate to the stress you're going through, remember this night. He knows stress.

In the midst of criticizing His disciples for falling asleep on Him the third time, He was arrested. A giant group of men, armed well, came to arrest Him. I can only imagine what any of those men thought later. I wonder how many of them came to believe when Jesus gave up His Ghost and breathed His last - when the earth quaked and the sky turned black. Or perhaps they converted later when the church started exploding in and around Jerusalem. Or I wonder if they died a non-believer. One day they'll have to face the image of them in front of an innocent Man in the Garden, with a club or sword in their hand. I wonder if they had their "game face" on at the time. I bet they are filled with sorrow when they realize what they were a part of.

I can imagine that any of those soldiers that later did believe must have felt a life-long and deep loyalty to the Messiah that they had helped kill, knowing His forgiveness cost Him everything.

Peter started cussing when he was accused of being a Christ-follower. Then a rooster crowed and Peter realized he was a weak failure, and he broke down and cried. At least he did the absolutely right thing when he realized his failure -- he wept before God. That's where you can find forgiveness and restoration.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at February 3, 2009 12:43 PM