Day Five of Passion Week

Think on these things today.

This will be a full day for Jesus . . . much will be accomplished.

Mark 14:1-2 begins the final stage of Jesus’ life before He was killed. In dramatic fashion Mark sets the stage for what is coming. In two short verses he mentions the Passover and then he mentions the religionists plot to kill Jesus.

In the midst of the Passover meal, there is strife among the disciples.  Jesus shows them His true heart.  The disciples had been arguing over who would hold the leading positions in the government Jesus was about to set up.  The discussion was heated.  They were caught up in the ambition for position, power, and authority.  How the heart of Jesus must have been grieved.  He had so little time left for them to learn that the way to glory is through service and not through position or authority.  How could He get the message across forcibly enough so that they would never forget the truth? It was this that led Jesus to get a towel and a bowl of water and wash the feet of the disciples.  What a picture of service!

In the next few hours, Jesus transformed the Passover into the Lord’s Supper, identified the traitor, gave His parting words, gave the great discourse of John 15 on the True Vine, promised the Holy Spirit to return after He is gone . . . then He went to pray that magnificent prayer in John 17.  And then there was the agony of the garden.  Jesus bore the weight of His own cup of suffering.  He said, “Let this cup pass from me:  nevertheless . . .”  The first act, the first impulse and struggle of His will had come from His flesh; to escape the cup of separation from God.  But immediately, the second act, the second impulse and struggle of His will, came from His Godly nature: not to do as He willed, but as God the Father willed.

Jesus’ surrender to do God the Father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane was critical.  It was in this decision that He was made perfect and was able to stand before God as the Ideal, Perfect Man.  His righteousness was able to stand for every man.  He was able to bear the cup of God’s wrath against sin.

And then the betrayal took place . . . Jesus was arrested . . . Peter tried to defend and  kill one of the guards, but missed and cut the man’s ear off . . . Jesus, being Himself, in compassion picked up the ear and put it back on, healing him.

It had started – there was no turning back.  The worst day of agony  in the history of the world was coming when the best of heaven met the worst of earth.