WADING RIVER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

SERMONS IN PRINT

Peter Vibert 2/05/06

Mark 14:1-42 “Betrayed”

“The darkness deepens,” as the old hymn says. Opposition to Jesus from the authorities now turns into a determined plot to kill him, if it can be done out of sight of the crowds who are in Jerusalem for the feasts of Unleavened Bread and Passover. Jesus’ closest disciples show up badly: as the crisis deepens, they fail in critical ways to support him, one of them betrays him, and Jesus knows they will all desert or deny him.

1) An Extravagant Anointing

But in the midst of this, the extravagant devotion of one woman shines out. As Jesus and his friends eat a meal with friends in Bethany, she breaks all conventions by disrupting their meal and then pouring pungently perfumed ointment from India over Jesus’ head. It was expensive – worth a year’s wages, they said – so she was either a wealthy woman, or she had spent all she had to buy it.

Whatever her circumstances, she performs an act of costly devotion that shocks the onlookers, and draws criticism from Jesus’ friends. “A waste of money” – that was probably the least of their objections, but the one they could get away with voicing. Did they really care about money that could have been given to the poor? Probably not. But Jesus sees not only a “beautiful act” of devotion, but a deeper meaning known only to him: she has blessed him by anointing him for his burial – something the other women in his company will be prevented from doing.

So this woman is remembered for her outrageous love, when the carping men are all but forgotten. It is right, says Jesus, to express costly and extravagant devotion to him. He always recognizes and appreciates it, even when others do not, or can only criticize.

2) The Betrayer

Judas, by contrast, is not devoted to but disappointed in Jesus, and throws in his lot with the priests. Was he motivated by money? We cannot tell, and perhaps he could not either. But he made his choice; he picked what he believed was “the winning side,” and he looked for a way of betraying Jesus’ movements to the priests so that they could arrest him out of the public eye.

That he was “one of the Twelve” of course delighted the priests, but left everyone else, from that day to this, appalled that someone who had been so close to Jesus could turn against him in the moment of crisis. But so it sometimes is; and the more honest of Jesus’ followers in every age have been aware in themselves of the ability to turn away from God when the pressure of disappointment, of greed, of calculated self-interest, of threat of persecution, appear in life.

Judas of course unwittingly advances the purposes of God, but he does not know what they are, and so remains morally culpable for his betrayal of Jesus. That God can and often does make good come out of evil does not make God responsible for evil, and does not excuse the people who promote it.

3) The Last Supper

So it is that what Jesus knows to be his “Last Supper” with the Twelve is dominated, in Mark’s account, by the theme of betrayal. The Passover meal commemorated God’s delivering his people from Egypt; in the eating of the bitter herbs and the roast lamb, Jews then and now recall their bitter slavery and God’s curse on the firstborn from which they were protected by “the blood of the lamb” that marked their doorposts.

Jesus’ Passover meal with the Twelve seems to be carried out in a secret location in Jerusalem that was arranged in advance at the home of a local disciple. The unusual sight of a man doing “woman’s work,” carrying a water jar, is the signal to those who are sent to prepare the meal. Did Judas know the location? It would be a perfect time and place to arrest Jesus, while everyone in the city was at home celebrating.

So they feast and give thanks for God’s goodness, and for making them a nation, and binding them together as the people of God. But in the midst of this, Jesus announces that one of them, who is sharing this meal of fellowship and faith, is a traitor. Their response is predictable: not alarm and shock that Jesus will be betrayed, but concern to know “is it I?” Self-absorbed to the end, the Twelve at least have this going for them, that they recognize that any one of them would be capable of such a thing as betrayal. According to John’s longer narrative, in the middle of the meal Judas slips out to go and report to the priests.

Were the other eleven even listening when Jesus gave them bread and wine and spoke again of his death, and the pouring out of himself for them, and the new covenant he was ratifying? Did they grasp then how the Passover meal would be transformed into the Lord’s Supper, the Communion, remembering Jesus as the “lamb that takes away the sin of the world”? We would doubt it.

When the meal ends, traditionally after midnight, they sing the Passover Psalms, and then set out to the Mount of Olives where so many pilgrims camped out during the Feast. On the way, Jesus predicts that the remaining eleven will also desert him, only to be confronted as usual by Peter, who swears on pain of death that he will never turn against Jesus. But Peter does not know what fear will do to him; Jesus does, and warns Peter that before dawn that very night, he will three times deny even knowing Jesus!

4) In The Garden

So they come to the olive grove called Gethsemane. Jesus knows the time is short before Judas will return with priests and temple guards for his arrest. So he prays.

Jesus takes his three closest disciples with him in this moment of crisis, and asks that they too keep watch and pray. He is agitated, deeply distressed, “sweating drops of blood” according to some accounts. His prayer is very simple: that his Father will allow him to avoid what he knows lies just ahead. Not only the arrest, the trials, the flogging; not even death on the cross; but the utter desolation he will experience, the sense that he is God-forsaken, that he is the one who must drink up “the cup of God’s wrath” on behalf of his people.

In the movie The Passion of the Christ, director Mel Gibson introduces the image of a snake into the garden of Gethsemane. Although it is not Biblical, I think it rightly symbolizes that Jesus here faces the great temptation: to abandon his Father’s plan, and to find a way out. You can argue that this is the climax of the story to this point– that here Jesus decides to embrace fully his Father’s will. The words he utters stand as among the most important ever spoken: “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.” Nothing marks out true confidence in God, true discipleship, true faith, like these words.

But Peter, James and John can only snooze. The whole future of humanity, of the kingdom of God, of the Trinity, hangs in the balance! But they are tired, sleepy, and unable to pray even when Jesus himself has asked them to. No wonder they will soon all “fall away,” as Jesus predicted.

5) Discipleship

So what does it mean to be a true disciple of Jesus? To have been near him for three years was not enough. To know his teachings was not enough. To have given up much to follow him was not enough. To be confident of your commitment to him was not enough. To share the bread and wine with him, to hear him pronounce the blessing of the new covenant in his blood, was not enough. To be asked to pray with him was not enough. Confused and tired, discontent and disappointed, twelve men would either fail Jesus, or desert him, or deny him, or betray him. Only one extravagantly devoted woman stands out for her discipleship in this whole account.

What about us? How do we betray Jesus? How often do we want to give up, to turn over and go back to sleep? How often do we fail in the moment of decision and commitment? Are we too concerned about ourselves and our own reputations to even hear what Jesus says to us? Do we suppose that we will be brave enough on our own to face the hard moments, sure that our own resources will see us through? Do we realize that God knows our weaknesses even when we don’t?

Are we at times tempted to join “the other side”? Are we so confused we don’t know what God is up to, and too tired to find out? Are we often tempted to just turn our backs, to run away? Have you been at that point where you simply can’t handle your situation any more, and can only fantasize about “a way out” of your troubles? I can think of at least two people who have told me in recent weeks that they were thinking about running away. They were the honest ones. How many more people dream of it?

Or have we, by the grace of God, reached that point of discipleship where in honest prayer we can say to God, “Please get me out of this situation; nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” Jesus’ example is for all of us to see, if we will but keep awake: tell God the truth about our situations, our fears, our hopes, our dreams; and then place ourselves firmly in his hands and say “not my will but yours be done.” That is the only way be a true disciple, that is the only way to be led through our crises to the place of new life and new hope that lies beyond them.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that in the end, there will be only two kinds of people in this world: those who say to God “your will be done,” and those to whom God says “your will be done.” We can have it our way, and God will allow that if we insist. Or we can have it God’s way, and ultimately find his way is the only way of true blessing.

One of the hardest things to learn in discipleship is to embrace the hard things that come into our lives as being part of God’s will for us. The issue in hardship is always, “will we trust God more?” or will we turn our backs and try to fight our way out? Will we accept that although this is not the way we would have planned our lives, God can and does bring good out of bad, he knows what he is doing, and we need to learn to trust him and embrace his will.

Does that mean we never stand against evil? No, of course not. Jesus stood against some ungodly things, and simply absorbed others. Knowing which is which is a matter of spiritual discernment, part of understanding the will of God. The way to get there is prayer, and learning to say, and mean, “nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”

Let us pray...