Naked Run 14:52 (Mark 14:43-52)

I think what I like best about the Marvel superhero movies is the cameo appearances by comic book icon Stan Lee.

It’s a cinematic tradition that stretches back to the 1980s.

One cameo you might not be aware of was his very first, and it happened on the small-screen.  Stan Lee appeared on TV in 1989 as the jury foreman in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk.

Another little-known cameo was in the 2014 animated film, Big Hero 6.  It’s  based on a Marvel comic of the same name.  Stan Lee makes his cameo in the post credits scene, as an animation.

The 93 year-old has also appeared in a few small screen and off-screen cameos over the years:

He is part of the Amazing SpiderMan ride at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

In Netflix’s Daredevil, his picture hangs on the wall of the local police station, where he appears to be a cop.

In Marvel’s Agent Carter, he’s glimpsed receiving a shoe shine next to Howard Stark.

He also appeared in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a passenger on a train

(BTW: There are over a dozen modern-era Marvel movies that do not feature Stan Lee, as well as many older projects).

I got to thinking about cameos because, since at least the thirteenth century, many competent Bible teachers and scholars have argued that Mark makes a cameo appearance in his Gospel.

They say that Mark is the “young man” following Jesus who runs away naked when the authorities try to grab him.

Is it Mark in a cameo?  Maybe, but it’s doubtful.  Which leaves us to ponder why Mark includes this odd incident.

I hope to show you it is incredibly significant, rich with a simple symbolism used elsewhere in God’s Word to describe the work of Jesus, in an illustration we can immediately relate to.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 With Your Clothes On, You Are Naked Before Jesus, and #2 With His Clothes On, You Are Covered By Jesus.

#1    With Your Clothes On,
    You Are Naked Before Jesus
    (v43-50)

Justin Timberlake first used the term “wardrobe malfunction” referring to the Super Bowl Thirty-eight halftime show snafu.  The phrase has since entered pop culture to describe all sorts of clothing problems.

Long before Janet Jackson, an unnamed young man had an epic wardrobe malfunction, recorded in the Bible.

Before we get to him, we pick-up the story where we left-off – in Gethsemane.  Jesus had just finished praying, and had announced to His disciples that His enemies were arriving.

Mar 14:43  And immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

From the other accounts we gather that the “multitude” may have been an entire cohort of soldiers, numbering 600 or more, not counting the Jewish Temple policemen.  If it seems like overkill, it was; but they wanted no trouble from crowds sympathetic to Jesus.

“Swords” were the weapons of the Roman soldiers who were dispatched to arrest Jesus.

“Clubs” were the weapons that the Temple police were allowed, by Rome, to carry.

If there was ever trouble between the ruling Roman soldiers, and the subjected Jewish Temple police, they would always be bringing clubs to a sword fight.

“The chief priests and the scribes and the elders” meant this was an officially sanctioned action by the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin.  Think of them as issuing the arrest warrant that was being served.

Mar 14:44  Now His betrayer had given them a signal, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him and lead Him away safely.”

We’ve all seen depictions of undercover operatives.  There’s always some kind of signal – a key word or phrase, or some gesture.

It was customary for a disciple to greet his teacher with a kiss.  It could be on the cheek, or the forehead, or on the hand.  It would be natural for Judas, who left during dinner and had been gone for several hours, to return and greet Jesus with a kiss.

Jesus was not all that recognizable.  He needed to be positively identified to the arresting authorities by someone familiar with Him.

Judas didn’t say, “He’ll be the one with the halo”; or, “He’ll be the one glowing in the dark”; or, “He’ll be the tall, European-looking guy, with blond hair and blue eyes, speaking with a British accent.”

Jesus was an average-looking Jew.  The Contemporary English Version of Isaiah 53:2 reads, “He wasn’t some handsome king. Nothing about the way he looked made him attractive to us.”

I’ve explained to you before, based on skeletal evidence, that the average height for Roman soldiers in the first century was 5′ 5″.

Jesus may have been much shorter.  One researcher (a Christian BTW) writes, “From an analysis of skeletal remains, archeologists have firmly established that the average build of a [Jewish] male at the time of Jesus was 5′ 1″, with an average weight of about 110 pounds.”

You’ve heard of the Shroud of Turin.  It is purported to be the actual burial robe of Jesus, with His image inexplicably burned on the cloth.  Scientists, both Christian and nonChristian,remain divided about its authenticity.  There are a lot of unanswered questions. Something to ponder is that the man depicted in the shroud would be close to 6′ tall.  It’s possible Jesus was 6′ tall, but then He’d have stood out from most everyone else, making it hard to see how Isaiah’s description would fit.

“Seize Him and lead Him away safely.”  They needed Jesus alive, to stand accused in a series of rigged trials in order to pull-off their illegal and immoral scheme to murder Him.

Mar 14:45  As soon as he had come, immediately he went up to Him and said to Him, “Rabbi, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.

“Rabbi” means teacher.  For three-and-one-half years, Judas had followed Jesus, and sat under His teaching.  He had even performed signs and wonders in Jesus’ Name.  But he never believed; he never was saved.

Mar 14:46  Then they laid their hands on Him and took Him.

Jesus was placed under arrest.  So far, Judas’ plan had gone-off without a hiccup.  That was all about to change.

Mar 14:47  And one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
Among the disciples, there were a couple of swords.  Two of them, at least, had CCW permits.

It was not uncommon for travelers to arm themselves, for self defense against robbers.  As far as the record in the Bible, this was the only time a disciple exercised his right to bear arms, and defend himself; and it didn’t really go too well.

It was Peter who wielded the sword in Gethsemane.  Mark doesn’t tell us, but John rats him out in his Gospel.

John and Peter must have had some kind of competition.  In addition to telling us that it was Peter who cut-off the ear, John let’s us know that he outran Peter to the empty tomb on the first Easter morning.

It must have been a friendly competition, because they were often ministering together.

The arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane isn’t the best context to mention this, but it’s OK to have fun as Christians, serving the Lord together.  Loosen up a little.

With perhaps 600 Roman soldiers, and numerous Temple policeman, to strike, Peter went after an unarmed man.  He was “servant of the high priest,” there to observe – not a combatant.

It might have ended very badly for Peter and the other ten disciples had it not been for Jesus.  Mark omits it, but we know from the other accounts that Jesus reached out and healed the ear of the servant.

Let’s stop there and point out something about the Bible.

I’ve already mentioned two or three things that happened in Gethsemane which Mark does not report.  When we get to the naked young man, we’ll see that story is something reported only by Mark.

Why are the various Gospel accounts different and selective?  I ran across a fascinating illustration in a scholarly journal article I was reading.  It’s a little long, but I think it’s worth our effort as listeners.

While the events behind the text may be revelatory, they are not inspired and thus not expressly “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (Second Timothy 3:16–17).

That, of course, is not to claim that the events so described in the biblical text did not happen, but simply that it is the Holy Spirit’s accounts of the events that are to be attended to for life transformation, not the re-creation… of those behind-the-text events themselves.

All this to say that the text is not merely a plain glass window that the reader can look through (to discern some event behind it).  Rather, the narrative is a stained glass window that the reader must look at.  A stained glass window is carefully designed by the craftsman in accordance with a particular theme, style, location in the building, size and structure of window, nature and availability of glass, demands of patron, expertise of artist, etc.  The glass, the stains, the lead, the copper, and everything else that goes into its production are meticulously planned for the appropriate effect, to tell a particular story.

So, too, with narratives [in the Bible].  The interpreter must, therefore, pay close attention to the text, not just to what is being said, but also how it is being said and why, in order that the agenda of the author may be discerned.

Mark has something to say beyond the reporting of the events themselves.  He includes, or excludes, information on purpose, according to the spiritual message he is wanting to convey – a message that is different from the ones the other Gospel’s convey.

Mar 14:48  Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me?

Jesus was not resisting arrest.  He let them seize Him.  If He wasn’t resisting, then why the comment about robbers, swords, and clubs?

There are probably lots of reasons we could suggest; I’ll highlight one.  Jesus was not a revolutionary leading a political party.  He was not attempting to force the Kingdom of God upon nonbelievers.  He wasn’t pushing reform, but rather offering regeneration.

That adds another wrinkle to Peter’s misguided swordplay.  Peter’s actions were the exact opposite of what Jesus was about in His first coming.

There will be a Second Coming; and it will be totally different.  Jesus Himself is described as wielding a unique sword in His Second Coming.  Maybe it would be better if I just read it to you.

Rev 19:11  Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
Rev 19:12  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.
Rev 19:13  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
Rev 19:14  And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.
Rev 19:15  Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Rev 19:16  And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

The Cross must precede His Second Coming, crowned; so Jesus submitted Himself for arrest.

Mar 14:49  I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.”

All the prior week, Jesus had been available for arrest.  He was highlighting the sinister nature of their actions – using the cover of night to keep their illegal acts out of the public eye.

What “Scriptures must be fulfilled?”  All of the ones about the suffering and death and resurrection of the Savior.

Most of you have heard some breakdown of this before; but that doesn’t make it any less fantastic.  A guy by the name of Peter Stoner calculated the mathematical probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight of the Messianic prophecies.
(Stoner was chairman of the mathematics and astronomy departments at Pasadena City College until 1953 when he moved to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.  There he served as chairman of the science division).

The probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight of the prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power; or 1 with seventeen zeros after it.  That’s one in one hundred quadrillion.

Jesus fulfilled at least 108 prophecies.  I’m not sure it’s a probability that can even be calculated.

One particular prophecy that was being fulfilled right then is Zechariah 13:7.  Jesus had quoted it earlier that evening; it’s in verse forty-seven, where Jesus said, “for it is written: ‘I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP WILL BE SCATTERED.’ ”

Mar 14:50  Then they all forsook Him and fled.

Check that one off the list of 108.  They scattered, as prophesied.

Jesus had also told them they’d be stumbled.  Expecting the Lord to set-up the Kingdom of God, when He surrendered Himself to the authorities, and would not allow any resistance, their Messianic hopes were dashed.  This amazing Person, Who commanded diseases to leave, and demons to flee, was definitely not going to set up the Kingdom; and they were stumbled by it.

Have your hopes been dashed on some rocky shore of trouble?  Sure they have.  I’ve been stumbled by what I thought Jesus would do in my situation, when it seemed as though He let me down.  His perceived inaction can stumble us.

O, how faithful He is, to love me when I feel He has failed me, when I am the one constantly falling short.

#2    With His Clothes On,
    You Are Covered By Jesus
    (v51-52)

I haven’t talked about “clothes” yet, but I will now that we have arrived at verses fifty-one and fifty-two.  Let’s read them:

Mar 14:51  Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him,
Mar 14:52  and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.

The place to start talking about this is the only thing everyone agrees upon: We are nowhere told who this “young man” is.  Any suggestion is unsupported speculation.

There are quite a number of theories, including that he is the apostle John, or Jesus’ friend Lazarus, or the man who would later prep Jesus’ body for burial, Joseph of Arimathea.

By far the most widely held guess is that it was none other than Mark himself, making his cameo.

It is speculated that Jesus and the disciples celebrated Passover in the upper room at the house Mark’s family owned.  In that scenario, Judas first led the arrest party to the house.  Not finding Jesus still there, they headed off to Gethsemane.

Mark, aroused from his sleep, threw on a robe, and ran to warn Jesus.  Alas, he was too late; Jesus had already been taken.

Mark then decided to follow Jesus.  When the authorities saw him, they tried to grab him, but they only got a handful of his robe, and he fled naked.

Maybe; but probably not, and it is all conjecture.

If we quit looking through the glass asking “Who?” and instead ask “Why?,” we just might see the stained glass.

We don’t need to be Greek scholars to read what Greek scholars have discovered about these verses in the larger context of the Gospel of Mark.

We don’t even need to rely on Greek scholars, because we can find what they’ve discovered for ourselves.  It has to do with the repetition of certain unique words.

The Greek word for “linen” (σινδών) occurs twice in Mark 14:51-52.  There is only one other place in the Gospel of Mark where the word is found, and it occurs twice there, too.  It is when Mark describes the burial shroud of Jesus.

Mar 15:46  Then [Joseph of Arimathea] bought fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen. And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.

If you are reading Mark carefully, especially in the original language, you will make a connection between the double use of “linen” with regards to the young man’s discarded robe, and with regards to Jesus’ burial robe.

While the “linen” robe left behind by the fleeing young man was certainly not the same “linen” robe that shrouded Jesus in the tomb, Mark intends for us to make a spiritual connection between the two.

Mark intends for us to see that Jesus, in His death, took upon Himself our robe.

If you think that’s a stretch, it’s not.  There are other passages in the Bible that illustrate what Jesus did on the Cross in terms of clothing.  He takes upon Himself our filthy rags of sin and self-righteousness in order to die in our place, for our sins.

But that’s not all.  In taking upon Himself our clothing, the Lord doesn’t leave us naked.  He exchanges our filthy rags for His own robe of righteousness.

One of the passages that highlights this exchange is found in the Old Testament, in Zechariah 3:1-5.

Zec 3:1  Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD…
Zec 3:3  … Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
Zec 3:4  Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
Zec 3:5  And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the LORD stood by.

Mark calls our attention to Jesus wearing our robe – our “filthy garments” – by his use of the word “linen.”
Mark further calls attention to the exchange of our filthy garments for a robe of righteousness by his use of two additional unique words.

The single Greek word for “young man (γυμνός) occurs twice in Mark 14:51–52.  The only other time it appears in Mark is at the empty tomb of Jesus:

Mar 16:5  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.

We know from the other Gospels that this “young man” was none other than an angel.  By calling the angel a “young man,” Mark  goes way out of his way to try to connect these two “young men” spiritually, in our minds.

What is Mark trying to show us?  What is the connection between the naked “young man” and the clothed “young man” in the tomb?

The “young man” at the tomb is described as wearing a “white robe.”  The adjective, “white,” is another unique word, found in only one other passage in Mark’s Gospel.  It described Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration:

Mar 9:2  Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.
Mar 9:3  His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

The disciples saw Jesus glorified, the way He’d look after He rose from the dead.

We can apply Mark’s literary clues this way:

Before Jesus died on the Cross, a “young man” was naked.

After Jesus rose from the dead, a “young man” was clothed in a glorious white robe.

Jesus went to the Cross and took our robe – our filthy rags – upon Himself.  But we are not left naked.  He rose from the dead, emerging from the Tomb, glorified.  When you believe in Him, Jesus clothes you with a robe of righteousness.

This interpretation is consistent with what we read elsewhere in God’s Word about our nakedness, and the Lord clothing us.  In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Lord says to the Laodiceans,

Rev 3:17  Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked –
Rev 3:18  I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

A moment ago I quoted the verses that describe Jesus’ Second Coming.  If you were listening carefully, you heard the church described as “clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (19:14).

Have you ever gone somewhere and been inappropriately dressed?  Or better yet, have you ever been turned-away from an establishment because you failed to meet their dress code?

There are still a handful of restaurants in the US, mostly in New York or Chicago, that require men wear a sport coat.  No coat, no meal.

To accommodate you, the restaurant has coats they can provide you.

The entire human race is invited to Heaven.  But to get in, you need the appropriate spiritual clothing.  Your best efforts – your good works – amount to a robe of filthy rags.  On your own, you are dressed inappropriately for Heaven, and entrance there will be refused

God must provide you a robe of righteousness.  It is given to you as a gift, by grace, when you have faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

With your clothes on, you are naked before Jesus.  You need to be clothed with His righteousness.

With His clothes on, you are covered by Jesus.  He gives you His glorious robe of righteousness.

Who was the young man who ran away naked?  It was you, spiritually speaking.

If you’ve received the Lord as your Savior, then you’re like Joshua the high priest, having been outfitted for Heaven.

If you have not received the Lord… Don’t run away naked in the shame of your sin.

Simon Says ‘Sleep’ (Mark 14:32-42)

One morning, 85-year-old Winnie Withers of Indiana got up to pour herself coffee and found to her surprise that she had an 8-foot-wide hole in her kitchen wall.

Somehow she had slept through a vehicle smashing through her house and then fleeing the scene.

Her bed, by the way, was only about 20 feet away from the crash.

Sadly, the pie she had set on the windowsill to cool was never recovered.

Do you think you could have slept through the sinking of the Titanic?  Six-year-old Robert Douglas Spedden did.  His story was immortalized in 1994 in a book titled, Polar the Titanic Bear.
Written by his mother soon after they survived, then discovered and published by a relative decades later, it is the account of that night as seen through the eyes of sleeping-Robert’s stuffed bear.

What about you?  Is there something you once slept through, much to your own surprise or dismay?

At this point in my life, I think I could sleep through just about anything.

One of the worst, if not THE worst, sleep-throughs of all time has to be the account of Peter, James, and John nodding off while Jesus was praying in Gethsemane.  Not once, but three times.  It prompted Jesus to ask, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour?” (v37).

The other eight disciples didn’t fare much better.  We’re not told that they slept, but it’s clear from the various accounts that they were completely passive in the situation.  They might as well have been sleeping.

We’re going to look first at the eight, and then at the three.  I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions: #1 Are You Passive In Obeying Jesus?, and #2 Are You Powerless To Obey Jesus?

#1    Are You Passive
In Obeying Jesus?
(v32)

We tend to concentrate on Peter, James, and John, overlooking the other eight disciples.  Not so fast!  They were there, too, and we can glean a few things from them.

Mar 14:32  Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”

Jesus had shared one final Passover meal with His disciples.  It was also, for all practical purposes, the last Passover, because the Lord was about to be sacrificed on the Cross as the final (Passover) “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”

By the way, there will be a Passover celebration in the future, during the Kingdom of God on earth, after Jesus’ Second Coming.  It is discussed in Ezekiel 45:21-25.  The Passover held at that time in the Millennial Kingdom is not a memorial to the Exodus; it is a memorial to the Cross, and to the true Lamb.  Jesus will officiate at that celebration as He did with His disciples and it will look at His death as the final, perfect Passover Lamb.

The group, minus Judas the traitor, was on its way to spend the night outdoors, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.  Specifically, they were going to Gethsemane, a favorite and well-known spot for Jesus to repose.

After being quite stealthy about planning the Passover meal, Jesus returned to His normal habits.  He hadn’t wanted Judas to betray Him at the meal; now the time had come for the Lord to endure His agony leading up to, and on, the Cross.  He went to exactly the spot He knew Judas would lead His captors.

“Gethsemane” is a compound word that means olive press.  It was a working olive grove, with a press to crush the olives into olive oil.

Multitudes of Bible studies have been delivered regarding the comparison between the crushing of olives and the spiritual crushing of Jesus.
I can’t add anything to them; I just make passing note of it as an incredibly symbolic stage for the drama that unfolds.

Jesus is going to take Peter, James, and John further with Him into Gethsemane.  First He instructed eight of them to “sit here while I pray.”

Let’s call them the Waitful Eight.

I understand why very little is written or said about the Waitful Eight; but that doesn’t mean they are insignificant in this account.

I’m going to suggest that they could have gotten more involved with the action, but instead remained overly passive in their obedience to Jesus.

Let’s first set the scene.  The Jews followed, and still follow, a lunar calendar.  Passover always falls on the night of a full moon.

Why is that important to our discussion?  Full moon over the Mount of Olives means lots of light.  It means the eight, even though left further behind, would have been able to see Peter, James, and John, as well as Jesus.

Are you familiar with the term, “blocking,” when used in the theater?  Lines are what an actor says on stage; blocking is where and how an actor moves onstage.  Blocking is largely determined by the director.

I see Jesus “blocking” this scene.  It’s an unfolding drama, on the stage of Gethsemane, and He put His ‘actors,’ all eleven of them, exactly where He wanted, and needed, them.

The eight who were blocked further out must have been there by God’s design.  The events of this night were too important for Jesus to overlook any detail.

We’re not told what that design was, so I want to be careful, and not make-up anything.  However, if we’re careful, I think we can say a few instructive things about the Waitful Eight.

I sometimes wonder about one of them in particular.  Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist, then obediently left to follow Jesus.  He was used by God to introduce his brother, Peter, to Jesus.

Scholars always list him as being fourth in importance, after Peter, James, and John.  James and John, by the way, were also brothers.

(It’s possible that the other James in the group was Matthew’s brother; Alphaeus is listed as father of each.  We can’t be certain because Alphaeus was a common name).

Peter and the brothers, James and John, got to attend some amazing events: They were in the room for the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead; they accompanied Jesus up the Mount of Transfiguration; and, now, they were closest to His agony in Gethsemane.

Why draw the line at three?  Why one set of brothers, and not Andrew and Peter as well?

It is a bedrock principle that God is not a respecter of persons.  He loves, and forgives, and showers His grace upon, all of His followers with equal passion.
We know, therefore, that it wasn’t because of some flaw, or failing, in Andrew, or the others, that Jesus somehow chose Peter, James, and John.

The three in the inner circle didn’t earn their spot.  In fact, I think we could make a pretty good case that Peter was often a liability.  It wasn’t that he was more, or the most, spiritual of the bunch.

Your assignment is no indicator of God’s pleasure, or displeasure, with you.  It is simply the place where the Lord can most effectively conform you into the image of Jesus.

At least we are familiar with Andrew.  Most of us are hard-pressed to name all eight of those who were told to “sit here while I pray.”

Let’s discuss their assignment.  “Sit here while I pray.”  Does that command mean they were prohibited from doing anything else?

For example, they could see – in the light of the full moon – Peter, James, and John, nodding off to sleep.  They probably had heard Jesus’ instructions to the three, and Jesus’ comments every time He came to them and found them sleeping.

Do you think it might have been a good thing if, say, Andrew, upon realizing his brother and the others were sleeping, went over to them to awaken them?  Or at least threw stones at them?

Again, we can’t say any of this for sure… But it is true, of us, that we can obey Jesus so passively that we fail to serve when an opportunity is right in front of us.

Jesus had given His disciples plenty of experience in this area.  On His way to heal Jairus’ daughter, the Lord had been stealthily touched by a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years.  Knowing the urgency of His mission to get to Jairus’ house, Jesus nevertheless stopped to minister to the woman.

Jesus was always seeing some way of serving His Father.  There was nothing passive about His approach.

Told to “sit and pray,” the eight could have done more; but they apparently did not.

Do you think, later on, Peter got on his little brother, saying, “Andy, why didn’t you wake me up?  Don’t you know how embarrassing it is to fall asleep on watch with Jesus?  I could have used some help, bro.”

We all have our individual assignments.  We all have our gifts.  Beyond them, we need to develop greater spiritual situational awareness, to overcome our naturally passive obedience to Jesus, and do more than the minimum.

We all know what a ‘comfort zone’ refers to.  I’m saying we can also have a spiritual ‘passive zone’ that keeps us from serving.

Look around, with spiritual sight and insight, and serve the Lord.

#2    Are You Powerless
To Obey Jesus?
(v33-42)

Did your parents ever talk about the Sandman?

Not Spiderman’s nefarious foe, but the mythical character in folklore who puts people to sleep and brings good dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto the eyes of people while they sleep at night.
He’d be justifiably shot as an intruder here in Kings County.

Peter, James, and John wanted to stay awake, but their eyelids grew heavier and heavier as the early morning hours progressed, and they missed-out on Jesus’ incredible talk with His Father in Heaven.

Mar 14:33  And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed.

I struggle to expound upon the agony of Jesus.  He was fully God and fully man, about to be nailed to the Cross where the Bible says He would be “made sin for us” (Second Corinthians 5:21).  It’s all beyond my comprehension; or at least beyond my ability to articulate.

I simply cannot fathom Jesus’ trouble and distress.  It is too deep, too intense, for any of my words.

Mar 14:34  Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”

I find it interesting that even though what He must suffer, He must suffer alone, Jesus wanted company.

There is what is called “the ministry of presence,” and we can all practice it.  You will need the help of God the Holy Spirit to know what to say, and what not to say.

In Jesus’ case, He didn’t need advice, or to be told cliches, like, “It’s all going to work out,” or, “God is in control,” or, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”

He wanted them to be present, at a distance.  Their presence would be enough to strengthen Him.

Mar 14:35  He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.
Mar 14:36  And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

God is omnipotent, but there are things even He cannot do, e.g.,

God cannot lie.
God cannot sin.
God cannot learn anything new.
God cannot be wrong.

The “hour” Jesus spoke of was probably the entire suffering that lie ahead of Him.  Anyone facing what He was facing would want to escape it.

He called it “this cup.”  The cup is a familiar Old Testament symbol for God’s judgment being poured-out upon sin.

Jesus knew His suffering and death couldn’t be avoided, so why pray that way?  For one thing, it highlights that His death on the Cross is the only way for mankind to be saved, and for creation to be restored.  If there were any other way, then Jesus need not die.

There is no religion, or philosophy, that can conquer sin and death and Satan.  No other name can save a lost human being besides the name of Jesus.  No one can come to the Father, except by Him.

It takes great faith to say, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”  It means you trust God to do what is best in your situation.

It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask for things like a healing, or a miracle.  It simply means that you trust God to act in love, working all things together for the good.

Mar 14:37  Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour?

The reference to “one hour” probably doesn’t mean sixty-minutes, but to however long Jesus had been praying.

In sympathy for the boys, Luke’s Gospel says they were groggy on account of their exceeding sorrow.  They were physically and psychologically spent from everything Jesus had said up to this point.

You’re going to have times in your life, maybe long seasons, even, when it seems as though what Jesus is telling you is hard to bear, nearly impossible to endure.  You will be physically and psychologically spent – even with the Lord walking with you through it.

You can still have joy – a joy unspeakable and full of glory.  But there will be times when you depend upon the Holy Spirit to interpret your deep groanings to God, because words fail to capture your pain and sorrow.

All three were asleep, but Jesus addressed Peter.  Hey, if you want to lead, and if you’re going to brag about being the one in the group who stands apart, then you’d better be ready to produce.
Jesus had changed Simon’s name to “Peter,” meaning Rock. (John 1:42).  Why did Jesus occasionally call Peter “Simon” after He had changed His name to “Peter”?

Probably because Simon sometimes acted like his old self instead of the rock God called him to be.

In this case, Peter had claimed he was able to resist any attack.  But he wasn’t even capable of fending off the Sandman.

Mar 14:38  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus knew Peter would fail; yet He encouraged him to victory, knowing that the resources are found in watching and praying.

Jesus knows I will fail; He knows you will fail.  Our resources are in watching and praying.  If we practice them, we will be prepared when the testing comes; we will be ready for the traps that are set.

The “spirit” which was willing refers to their human spirit, which we might call our mind, will, and emotions.  They definitely wanted to do what the Lord asked.

“The flesh” refers to our unredeemed humanity.  We are born with a sin nature and even after we are saved, the tendency to disobey God and to sin remains within us.

If the flesh wins out, how is it “weak?”  Isn’t it strong?

The flesh is strong.  To paraphrase Darth Vader, we could say of just about any human being, “the flesh is strong with this one.”

What Jesus meant is that if you try to accomplish something spiritual in the energy of the flesh, it will fail; you will fall.  In that sense, it is weak.  It is weak to produce anything spiritual.

Mar 14:39  Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words.

It doesn’t mean Jesus recited the exact same prayer.  It means He spoke in the same manner, along the same lines.

Jesus addressed God as “Abba, Father.”  It was an intimate, informal way of addressing God.  He certainly wasn’t reciting some formal prayer; or using vain repetitions, thinking He would be heard.  He was talking to His Dad; to His Papa.

Mar 14:40  And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.

Round two was another loss for Peter, James, and John.  “Heavy eyes” sounds like it was tough rousing them.  I understand that all too well.  Often Pam can’t get me to wake-up so she must leave me in the living room to wake-up on my own.  When I awaken, I try to keep my eyelids as closed as possible while I stumble off to bed.

“They did not know what to answer Him.”  Today we’d say they were busted.  The Lord had already identified the flesh as the problem.  No use offering-up any excuse.

Mar 14:41  Then He came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
The commentators have very different opinions regarding the tone of Jesus’ voice throughout this encounter with Peter, James, and John.  For example, was He now chiding them, as some suggest?
Or was this a tender comment, as He came upon them enjoying the last peaceful sleep they’d have for quite some time?

Kenneth Wuest, a renowned Greek scholar, translates it, “Keep on sleeping now and taking your rest.”

I like that.  I can hear Jesus saying that.

How do you receive the Lord’s speaking to you, through the Word of God?  Do you immediately assume He is chiding you?  Or that He is being tender with you?

It makes a big difference, because that is also how you will share the Lord with others.

“It is enough!,” exclaimed Jesus.  He meant something like, “It is time!”

Whenever I had to wake-up the kids, I’d always say something like, “Wake up!  It’s time to go to school.”  That’s what Jesus was doing for His guys.

“The hour” had come for Him to be the Lamb led to the slaughter as the substitute for all mankind, as the sacrifice for our sins.  It wasn’t a moment Jesus had been preparing for just thirty-plus years.  He’d been preparing for it from eternity past.

Before the foundations of the earth were laid, God knew His creation would be plummeted into sin by the disobedience of the man and woman He would create with free will to choose.

Why not create mankind without free will?  It’s another thing that is impossible for God.

We maintain that it would be impossible for God to create a being in His image, with the capacity to love, if they had no free will to choose.

Mar 14:42  Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

Physically, Jesus was much more exhausted than His disciples.  Yet He had managed to stay up well into the next day in order to seek His Father in prayer.

Luke, who was a physician, in his account wrote, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly.  Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (22:44).

Jesus didn’t act exhausted.  He continued to ‘block’ the scene, as its director.  He got into position to meet the captors so He could surrender to them, while simultaneously putting His men in a safe place.

His praying had prepared Jesus for what was to come.  His great agony in Gethsemane gave Him the spiritual strength to endure the hours of suffering that lie ahead.

The difference between Jesus and the eleven wasn’t that He was God, and that they were men.  While He was on the earth, Jesus voluntarily set aside the prerogatives of His deity and acted as a man.

The difference between Jesus and the eleven was the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ life.

These same guys, after Jesus rose from the dead, would be told to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from Heaven.
On the Day of Pentecost, that promised power came upon them in the Person of the permanently in dwelling Holy Spirit.

This same Peter had no Simon-like weakness in preaching the Gospel.  The eleven plus a twelfth they chose, Matthias, went on the turn the world upside-down with the Gospel.  Their boldness is still reverberating through the centuries, right up to here and now.

I don’t want to completely excuse the eleven for their lack of power.  While it is true that the Holy Spirit was not indwelling them, nor had He yet come upon them in a Pentecost-sense, they could have known His empowering.

They were arguably better off than any of their Old Testament heroes, having been companions of Jesus.  Heroes like Joshua and Caleb and David, who each experienced the Holy Spirit coming upon them to accomplish mighty deeds.

The eleven could have watched… Could have prayed… In the power of the Holy Spirit.  Instead they were powerless when they needed Him the most.

How much more do we have power.  If you’ve been born-again, God the Holy Spirit indwells you, permanently.  He doesn’t come and go.

In addition, like the original disciples on the Day of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you is your promise, too.

In fact Jesus specifically tells us to ask for the Holy Spirit’s power to come upon us:

Luk 11:13  “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Jesus was addressing believers, encouraging them, and us, to “ask” for the Holy Spirit.

In our quiet closing time, talk to Jesus about any passive obedience there may be in your life…

Ask Him for the Holy Spirit to be poured-out upon you, for boldness to obey Him…

If you are not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, you can receive the forgiveness of your sins.  Jesus is your Lamb; He took your place, dying for your sins, to save you.

The Third Time’s The Harm (Mark 14:26-31)

“I before E, except after C.”

Armed with that foundational rule of English grammar, you’re ready to tackle the most difficult spelling tests.

Of course, there are exceptions.  The rule doesn’t apply when the two letters makes a long ‘A’ sound, as in neighbor and weigh.

There are other exceptions to the rule.  Lots of them.  Of the 14,189 IE and EI words in the English dictionary, 3,994 of them are exceptions to the rule.  That’s over 28%.

It’s even worse than that.  Of the 5,000 most frequently used IE and EI words, 47% are exceptions to the rule.

Maybe things are more stable in the realm of mathematics.  “All prime numbers are odd” – except for the exception, the number 2.

I’m highlighting “exceptions to the rule” because of something I see in the Bible this morning.

Jesus tells His eleven disciples what is about to happen to them, even quoting Scripture to enhance His own words.  Jesus says, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP WILL BE SCATTERED'” (v27).

Peter immediately, vehemently, disagrees.  He puts himself in a different category than the other ten, saying, “Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be” (v29).

Peter heard Jesus say “All of you will be made to stumble,” but he thought himself to be the exception in the group.

Let me put it this way: Peter thought himself the exception to God’s rule over his life.

God’s rule over our lives is our point of contact with this episode.  Do we expect His rule over our lives?  Do we think there are exceptions?

I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions: #1 Are You Expectant Of God’s Rule Over Your Life?, and #2 Are There Exceptions To God’s Rule Over Your Life?

#1    Are You Expectant
    Of God’s Rule Over Your Life?
    (v26-28)

It was once common, or at least not all that unusual, for pastors to release a record album.

Or maybe it was just Jimmy Swaggart.  I knew he had an album, because someone gave it to me as a gift.  I didn’t know that his discography includes at least 50 albums, spanning 1978 to 2015.

They are produced by Jim Records.

Our own Pastor Chuck Smith released three albums.

“This is pertinent how?,” you ask.  Because our text begins with Jesus singing.

Mar 14:26  And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus and His disciples met in an upper room in Jerusalem, to share what would be their last Passover meal together.  We talked, at length, about how Jesus was the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world; about how He was the final sacrifice for sin that every previous lamb anticipated.

At one point, Judas left the table, going off into the night to betray Jesus to the religious authorities.  After Judas was gone, Jesus spoke of His impending death on the Cross, and He gave His followers a memorial to observe until He returns for us.

We call it the Lord’s Supper, or Communion… And we talked at length about it, too.
All that being done, Jesus led the eleven in singing.

If we are going to be like Jesus, we need to sing; and we need to sing with others, lifting praises to God.

Whenever the subject of worship comes up, someone is quick to point out that singing is not the only way we worship the Lord.  It might not even be the primary way.  We should have a lifestyle of worship – praising the Lord by our conduct at home, at work, in school, at church.

While I say “Amen!” to that, it does not follow that I don’t need to sing to worship God.  I do need to sing, because Jesus did.

Doesn’t matter if you can’t carry a tune.  Even Pavorotti falls short of the perfection in Heaven.  God doesn’t care what you sound like.

I’d like to address you who don’t sing very much in church.  You say you don’t like to sing, especially in a group?  I bet you join in the National Anthem at a ball game, and probably even Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch.

Ever sing along to the radio?  In the shower?  It’s starting to seem as though it’s only in church you won’t sing.

We’re talking about expectancy, so let me put it this way: You should expect to sing when you’re in a meeting of the church; and Jesus expects you to sing.

We are to be “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).

Mark says “they sung a hymn.”  During Passover, the feasts of Tabernacles and Weeks, and on Hanukkah, a certain set of hymns was customarily sung.  They were Psalms 113 through 118, and were called by the Jews, the Hallel (praise) psalms.

I picked-out a few verses from them.  Think of Jesus singing them, knowing that He was on His way to betrayal and death.

Psa 116:3-4  The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!”

Psa 116:8-9  For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Psa 116:13-15  I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD now in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.

Psa 118:13-14  You pushed me violently, that I might fall, but the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.

Psa 118:17-19  I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. The LORD has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, and I will praise the LORD.

Psa 118:22-23  The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.

This singing was the original musical starring Jesus; call it Jesus Christ, Super Savior.

It must have greatly encouraged the Lord to sing these hymns to His Father, with His followers.  As He sung, He knew that God’s Word could not fail, and that God’s work through these men would be established.

Mar 14:27  Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP WILL BE SCATTERED.’

Earlier that evening, at dinner, the Lord had dropped the betrayal bombshell, telling them that one of them would hand Him over to the authorities to be murdered.  Now He uttered another seemingly dark statement.

“Made to stumble” conveys the idea of being caught in a trap.  They would be caught and overwhelmed by what would happen to Jesus that very night.  It would stagger their faith and shake their confidence in Him as the Messiah.  It would challenge their loyalty to Him.

But note that Jesus was telling them in advance so that they could overcome it by faith.  They could expect it.

We’re told to expect traps to be set for us as we walk with the Lord.  We’re told to expect the trying of our faith:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;

Joh 16:33  “… In the world you will have tribulation…”

The eleven were given specifics.  They would be made to stumble  in just a few hours, as Jesus was betrayed, and killed.
The fact that our trials are generic until they manifest themselves doesn’t mean God is any less aware of them.

And we, too, are promised the empowering we need to be overcomers through faith in Jesus Christ.  The entire verse in John reads,

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

To enhance what He had predicted regarding the eleven, Jesus quoted Zechariah 13:7, applying it to Himself as the Shepherd, and the eleven as His sheep.

Kinda cool to realize they were in the Old Testament.  When Zechariah wrote those words, he didn’t know it, but the “sheep” he was talking about were Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Thaddeus, Bartholomew, Thomas, James the less, Matthew, and Simon.

They didn’t need to see their names there; they knew it was them.

We are likewise to be found in the New Testament; we don’t need to see our names there.  Every place the church is mentioned, the Lord is talking about us, His beloved.

Every now and then, when you’re reading the Bible, insert your name.  This is what Romans 8:31-32 sounds like in the GV – the Gene Version:

Rom 8:31  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for [Gene], who can be against [him]?
Rom 8:32  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for [Gene], how shall He not with Him also freely give [Gene] all things?

If the eleven were listening with ears to hear what the Spirit was saying, they’d have concentrated more on what Jesus said next:

Mar 14:28  “But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

Jesus was resigned to His death.  He expected death – death by crucifixion, just as the Scriptures predicted.

But Jesus expected He would be raised from the dead.  “I shall not die, but live,” they had sung; and, “You shall deliver My soul from death.”

We do not serve a dead Savior.  Our God has conquered death, and with it, Satan and Hell.

I’ve explained before that what we call Christianity is not a late-entry into the world’s religions.  What we believe didn’t originate in the first century with the teachings of Jesus.  It originated before the centuries, in eternity past, and was introduced in the beginning, at creation, in the Garden of Eden.

No religion or philosophy pre-dates the promise of God to visit the human race to solve the problem of sin and offer us eternal life.

Perhaps most precious in this saying of Jesus was the promise that they could see Him again in Galilee.  They should expect to see Him.

Even though they’d stumble, they could be restored, and be with their risen Lord in the not-to-distant future.

Have you stumbled?  Maybe you’re face down right now.  You should expect the Lord to speak a word to strengthen you, and to bring you back into fellowship with Him.

He’s not here to condemn you, but to convict you, then convince you that you can be restored.

I like what my friend, Pastor Mike Morris, told the men at our final Meat on Monday.  He said that if he told you to leave New York and come to California, you’d immediately understand what was meant, and what to do.

It is like that when you are told to repent.  People act confused, like it’s somehow hard to figure out; but it isn’t.  You must agree with God about your sin, then leave your sin, turning away from it, and return to walking with the Lord.

I think it is easily proven that Jesus submitted Himself to His Father, then expected His Father to rule over His life moment-by-moment.  In the only incident we can be certain of from His childhood, when Jesus was twelve and got left behind at the Temple, when He was found He said, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49).

His life, by the way, was for three decades extremely plain and ordinary, as Jesus grew-up in tiny, rural Nazareth, then worked in His earthly father’s carpenter shop.

I mention those early years of Jesus, those dull years, to emphasize that you and I need not be some kind of Christian superstars in order to expect God’s rule over our lives.  It is our Father’s joy to lead us and to guide us along our way.

Your life may seem boring, spiritually, but God is into it.  He is not a respect or of persons.  He is just as excited about you as He is about everyone else.

We like to say that God has a plan for our lives; and I believe it to be true.  That being the case, I should live with the expectancy that He will reveal it to me as I submit myself to His rule.

#2    Are There Exceptions
    To God’s Rule Over Your Life?
    (v29-31)

Peter thought so:

Mar 14:29  Peter said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be.”

Not a very flattering assessment of the other ten.  Peter could have spoken for all of them, and argued that none of them would stumble.  His assessment was that the lot of them were capable of stumbling, while he was not.

Obviously there is a study here about taking heed when you think you’re strong that you not fall.  You’re always better off admitting your weakness, and relying upon God’s strength to get you through.

Jesus had spoken His word – what is now part of the Word, the Bible – and He enhanced it by quoting the Jewish Scriptures.
“All” of the Shepherd’s sheep would be made to stumble, and to scatter.  Not some; or a few.  “All” of them; that was the clear, amplified Word of God.

Peter heard the word and immediately excepted himself from it.  “Not me, Lord; You just said “all” of us would be made to stumble, but I’m the exception to your rule over my life.”

Mar 14:30  Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”

I’m going to recommend a book to you.  The title is misleading, and not referring to what you might think.  The book is The Life of Christ in Stereo.

It’s what scholars call a harmony of the Gospels.  You might have seen books like that.  Typically they have four columns, one for each Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).  Usually categorized by subject, it shows what each of the writers had to say about the same events.

The Life of Christ in Stereo is quite different.  It is a compilation of the actual words of all four Gospels arranged chronologically, with none left out or added.

On the book jacket it says, “This is the life-time work by Johnston Cheney, whose final moment on earth followed by just a few days the completion of this book.”

I mention it because Cheney shows, by compiling all the accounts, that Jesus warned Peter twice about his coming denials, and that Peter actually denied Christ three times on two separate occasions that night and morning.

It’s not our purpose this morning to prove that there were two warnings and two sets of denials.  I mention it to stress that Peter most definitely heard the words of Jesus, and had time to mull over them, but still chose to except himself from them.

We live in a time in which the authority of the Bible is being challenged, by both the world and those who profess faith in Jesus.  It reminds me of that discussion about the Pirate’s Code in Pirates of the Caribbean.  Captain Barbosa explains, “the code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.”

The Bible is rapidly deteriorating into a set of guidelines.

The challengers may not put it in this language, but they are saying, “We hear what God said in the Bible, but we are the exceptions to His rule over our lives.”

Maybe an example would help.  Some of the most controversial and divisive issues of our day have to do with what is abbreviated LGBTQ.  The initials in LGBTQ refer to the global community of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.  The Q stands for Questioning.

By the way, if the reports in the news are true, officials in California have decided that second graders ought to be ‘Questioning’ their sex and gender.  The article I read, at breitbart.com, said, “California is the first state to adopt the LGBTQ rights agenda formally into its public schools, as part of a new history and social studies curriculum that will reach children as young as the second grade.”

Let’s discuss transgender for a moment.  I want to give you a fair, unbiased definition:
Transgender is a term used to describe people who may act, feel, think, or look different from their biological (or birth) sex.  The word transgender is used to include many groups of people who… feel that their sex assigned at birth does not accurately describe them as a person.

In the LGBTQ community, they differentiate between sex and gender this way:

A person’s sex refers to his or her biological status as either male or female.

Gender, they emphasize, is the state of being male or female used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones.

Thus a person might be a man, biologically, but identify with society as a woman.  You hear transgender’s say things like, “I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body.”

It’s no longer even as simple as a man identifying as a woman, or a woman identifying as a man.  Your friendly internet giant, FaceBook, has added more than 50 custom gender options for users who don’t identify simply as “male” or “female.”

I’m not going to list any of them; that’s not the point.

What is the point?  God has plainly said, in His Word,

Gen 1:27  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Gen 5:2  He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.

Jesus further validated these words when He said,

Mar 10:6  But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.’

Male and female.  It encompasses sex and gender.  Those are the only two categories.

God does not create generic persons, who are free to decide their own sex and/or gender, but “male and female,” in His own image.”

God’s Word speaks with authority.  God created us male and female, to enjoy intimacy in a monogamous, heterosexual relationship, between consenting adults, to last as long as we live on this earth.

We cannot claim to be the exception to His rule.  People with what I’d call ‘genuine’ gender issues are not exceptions to God’s rule over their life.

But that is just the starting point.  If, for example, someone tells you that he has felt all of his growing-up life like a woman trapped in a man’s body, he is probably telling you the truth.

What will you tell him?

I’d like to think we are prepared to minister to folks in the LGBTQ community.  That if, say, you’re a visitor today, and identify with that community, you see that we are speaking the truth in love.

You need both truth and love in a harmony that can only be produced by being filled with God the Holy Spirit.

It was Jesus Who validated His Father’s male and female categories; that’s truth, and it cannot be altered.

It was Jesus Who went to the Cross, to die for everyone, so that you could be saved from sin; that’s love, and should not be diminished.

We don’t make-up the truth in God’s Word, and neither can we alter it, or treat it as mere guidelines.  It is up to us to apply it in love.

Mar 14:31  But he spoke more vehemently, “If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all said likewise.

In verse thirty, Jesus got pretty specific with Peter, talking about the crowing of the rooster.  He gave Peter a time table, to indicate how serious He was that this was going to happen.

It should have shook Peter to his core.  His response ought to have been, “Lord, what can I do?,” or “Lord, please strengthen me.”

Instead, he further excepted himself.  He was ready, he said, to die, rather than deny.

Peter exerted a bad influence on the other ten to also consider themselves exceptions.  He tipped the scales, as it were, for those who might have humbled themselves had it not been for Peter’s boasting.

Our peers, even in the church, aren’t always the best influence.  It’s best to not compare yourself to others.  Look further, to Jesus, and walk with Him.

To make the point about excepting one’s self from God’s rule, we used a big example.  Truth is, it is in the smaller things that the greater danger lies.

Anytime we are lax in our walk, we are acting as though we are the exception to God’s rule over our lives.

We talk a lot about the End Times.  One thing we are told will be a characteristic of the End Times is that believers would become lax in fellowshipping with one another in meetings of the church.

Heb 10:25  not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

I can’t tell anyone how often they must attend church; I don’t want to, either.  But I will say that far too many professing believers take their church attendance lightly.  Some almost never attend.

The word in Hebrews is clear; therefore these who draw back are excepting themselves from God’s rule over their lives.

I’ve used transgender and church attendance as examples.  I’m guessing not too many here today have transgender issues; and you are here today, so church attendance is not an issue, either.

Until we are with the Lord, all of us will have some issue or issues where we are excepting ourselves from God’s rule.

Talk to the Lord about your issues, and then leave New York for California.

Because You’re Mine, I Wait For Wine (Mark 14:12-25)

When the article is titled, America’s 14 Strangest Mascots in High School Sports, you’ve got to read it.

In the interest of time, I’ll give you the top five:

#5    Webb HS in Tennessee – the (Webb) Feet
#4    Aniak HS in Arkansas – the Halfbreeds
#3    Frankfort HS in Indiana – the Hot Dogs
#2    Watersmeet HS in Michigan – the Nimrods
#1    Poca HS in West Virginia – the (Poca) Dots

Don’t shout it out; just think about it.  What would you choose as the mascot for Christians?

With reverence, you should choose, as our mascot, the Lamb.

“Lamb” is the favorite title given to Jesus in the most triumphant book of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  He is called “the Lamb” about twenty-eight times.

When He first appears in Heaven, the apostle John says,

Rev 5:6  And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…

Not just a Lamb; one that appeared to have been sacrificed.

Thinking back to His coming to earth, Jesus was born with lambs, and He was first attested to by shepherds out in their fields, tending their flocks.

When He was introduced to begin His ministry, John the Baptist declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

This imagery would mean a great deal more to us if we were first century Jews; and if it were Passover season.  It was then, annually, at the Temple, when tens of thousands of lambs were sacrificed one-by-one by the priests on the altar.  Their meat would then be taken by the offerer to be the main course for a very special celebration – the Passover meal.

In our verses, Jesus and His twelve disciples were celebrating their third Passover together.  It would also be their last, because Jesus was about to go to His death on the Cross.

Jesus took advantage of the Passover to reveal two incredible truths to His disciples:

He revealed that He was the Lamb being slain for their sins; and,

He revealed that He was the Lamb Who would come again for their salvation.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 God Prepared Himself The Lamb To Take Away Your Sin, and #2 God Prevailed Himself The Lamb To Come Again For Your Salvation.

#1    God Prepared Himself The Lamb
    To Take Away Your Sin
    (v12-21)

In the Garden of Eden, in the aftermath of Adam and Eve’s willful disobedience, God explained that He would Himself come into the world of men in order to atone for sin.  To show them what it would entail, God killed animals on their behalf, in their place, as substitutes; then He clothed Adam and Eve with their skins.

It’s a good bet the animals God killed were lambs.

Fast forward to Abraham.  In the twenty-second chapter of Genesis, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah.  At one point Isaac questions his dad, asking him, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (v7).

Abraham answers, “My son, God will provide Himself the lamb” (v8).

Modern translations read, “God will provide for Himself the lamb.”  But that takes away the prophetic aspect of what Abraham said.

Abraham, prophetically, says, “God will provide Himself the Lamb.”  In other words, God would come in human flesh and offer Himself in our place, as our substitute, as the Lamb.

(Some centuries later, it would be on that very spot that God the Father sacrificed His only begotten Son, Jesus, as He died on the Cross).

Fast forward from Abraham to Moses.  Tasked with delivering the Israelites from Egypt, through him God brought a series of ten plagues to convince Pharaoh to let them go.  The final plague was the death of the firstborn throughout the land.  A death angel was coming, and the only way to be saved was to sacrifice a lamb for each household, then put its blood on the doorposts.

The homes that were covered by the blood of the lamb were passed-over by the death angel.  To commemorate their deliverance, God instituted the Feast of Passover.

Hundreds of thousands of lambs had been sacrificed from Genesis up to the third Passover Jesus celebrated with His disciples.  All that was about to change.

Mar 14:12  Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?”

Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan (March-April), the first month of the Jewish religious year.

The Passover observance was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in commemoration of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of the month.

The Jews commonly referred to the entire period of time as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, rather than insisting that Passover was its own, separate feast.  In verse twelve, it was the 14th of Nisan, Passover, the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

His disciples asked Jesus where they’d be eating their lamb.  Normally this was a family meal, or family and friends.  The twelve, eating Passover with Jesus, indicated a deep, intimate fellowship between them.

By the way: In the first century, the Passover feast could only be eaten in Jerusalem, and venues to do it, for travelers, were at a premium.

Mar 14:13  And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.
Mar 14:14  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ‘
Mar 14:15  Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us.”

The word that comes to mind, reading these instructions, is clandestine.  Why all the secrecy?

We know from the previous verses in this chapter that the religious leaders were seeking to arrest and murder Jesus.  Judas had agreed to betray the Lord to them.  A Passover dinner while the multitudes were all indoors might be a good place to seize the Lord, so Jesus went full secret agent.

Judas handled the finances for the ministry.  I’d venture that he normally made the Passover arrangements.  Not this time.  The Lord didn’t want Judas to know where the meeting would take place.  The other Gospels tell us that Jesus sent Peter and John on this strange mission.

It would be odd to see a male servant carrying a pitcher of water.  He was their initial signal.  Everything else would fall into place.

Jesus knew these things supernaturally.  He hadn’t made any arrangements beforehand, but God the Holy Spirit had gone ahead of Him.  The master of this house either knew, by some revelation, that Jesus would need the room; or, for some reason he couldn’t fathom, no one had approached him to rent out the space.

God is always working behind the scenes to provide for His will to be done.  If we remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit (like Jesus was), and obedient (like Peter and John were), and perform our regular work (like the servant did), and wait on the Lord (like the master of the house did), we will be part of this great adventure of spreading the Gospel.

Mar 14:16  So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.

I don’t want to get super-technical, but I should mention that there is debate among good Bible scholars as to whether or not this meal really was a Passover meal, or just a regular meal on the day before Passover.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in their Gospels, present it as taking place on Passover, on Nisan 14.

John, however, insists that Jesus was being crucified just at the time the Passover lambs were being slain in the Temple, putting it a day before the dinner.

There are several ways to reconcile this.  The most credible way is explained by this quote I came across:

Thursday night is the Passover celebration for all of the Galilean Jews.  In the Galilee, they celebrated their Passover on Thursday because they mark the Passover day from sunrise to sunrise.  The Judean Jews in the south celebrated their Passover on Friday because they marked the Passover day from sunset to sunset.  This difference we know from the writings of the Jewish Mishnah…

I would also suggest that there is a practical argument.  Josephus, the often quoted Jewish historian who was alive at the time, suggests that as many as a quarter of a million lambs were sacrificed at Passover.  That’s probably exaggerated.  The most conservative guess I ran across was twenty-thousand lambs.

A LOT of lambs needed to be slaughtered in a very compressed period of time.  It may have been a practical necessity to extend Passover to more than one day.

Mar 14:17  In the evening He came with the twelve.

What was the Passover like?  How was it celebrated?  Many of us have been to the presentation of what is called a Passover Seder.  The word “Seder” means order.  A Passover Seder follows a certain order as you work through the meal.

Many of the rituals in the modern Passover Seder were definitely not part of the first century observance.

The Bible gives very little instruction about the order of service. Most of what is in a modern Seder is extra-biblical tradition.

For example, after the conclusion of the modern Seder’s prayers, it is a custom to pour a cup of wine for Elijah, and open the front door of the home to see if he has come.

That custom was added much, much later in history, and was not something Jesus did with His disciples.

As far as the meal itself, the only elements we can be certain of in the first century are the lamb, the bitter herbs as a dipping sauce, unleavened bread, and diluted wine.

One Jewish historical source described the Passover Jesus would have celebrated this way:

[After the meal] Jesus says the Motzi [the blessing over the bread]; He says Kiddush [the blessing over the wine] and then they sing Psalms (Hallel).  In other words, the entire order is Shulchan Aruch [the meal itself], Motzi, Kiddush, Hallel… and it’s over!

I’m not trying to take anything away from the importance of the meal.  I just think we need to be careful when it comes to the many things that have been added to Passover.

I hate being a downer by telling you all this.  But you know what was a real downer?  What Jesus told His disciples.

Mar 14:18  Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me.”

That’s no light dinner conversation.  That’s awful.  Can you even fathom the weight of it?  One minute you’re enjoying Passover and the next you are outed as a potential traitor.

Jesus knew it was Judas, so why trouble the other eleven?

Jesus’ comment is a good example of how to “hear what the Spirit is saying.”  It was only meant for one, but all contemplated it.

There is always something just for you as the Word is taught; but you must take it all in to discover what is uniquely yours.  Sift through it to find your particular treasure.

Mar 14:19  And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, “Is it I?” And another said, “Is it I?”

“Sorrowful” was not the usual feel of Passover.  It was intended to be joyful.  This one was different entirely than any they’d ever celebrated in their lives.

Kudos to them for asking, “Is it I?”  Even though the true translation is more like, “It’s not me, is it?”, at least they were entertaining the possibility that in a moment of weakness any one of them might betray the Lord.

It was a “but for the grace of God, there go I” moment of clarity.

Mar 14:20  He answered and said to them, “It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish.

Jesus’ answer only added to their misery.  He wasn’t giving them a clue.  He meant to emphasize the heinous nature of the betrayal.

It was one of them, a person who even at that moment, while eating dinner with Him, was lying in wait to hand Him over to death.

In his Gospel, John lets us know that he asked Jesus directly, and that he found out it was Judas.  The others did not suspect.

Mar 14:21  The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him…

Stop there for a moment.  The entire Old Testament pointed to the coming Son of Man Who would be God’s final lamb.  God promised it, and He provided Himself for it.

But, simultaneously, Judas could have repented:

Mar 14:21  … but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”

This is a “woe” of sorrow, indicating “that man” might have chosen otherwise.  As I explained at some length last week, God’s providence does not necessitate pre-determining Judas’ fate as the betrayer who would be damned to Hell.

Judas was not predestined for Hell.  God doesn’t do that.  He’s big enough to provide for His plan without that kind of cruelty.

“Never been born” isn’t the kind of thing you’d say if someone was predetermined from eternity past to do this terrible deed.  You’d say he “needed to be born.”  But, as I said, God provides for His plan without entrapment.

Jesus was about to be betrayed.  He would be killed.  It would unfold just the way the prophet Isaiah said when he wrote,

Isa 53:7  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.

At that moment, in that upper room, Jesus was fulfilling God’s promise to provide Himself the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, “led as [THE] lamb to the slaughter.”

Did the twelve realize all this?  Probably not; but everything they needed to put it together was right there, in that room.

#2    God Prevailed Himself The Lamb
    To Come Again For Your Salvation
    (v22-25)

The Passover meal was over, but Jesus was just getting started.  He did something wonderful with some bread and a cup of wine – something we still do today.

Mar 14:22  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Mar 14:23  Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
Mar 14:24  And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.

Question: Did Judas partake of this bread, and this wine?

Most competent Bible scholars say, “No, Judas certainly did not partake of this part of their supper.”

The Passover meal must have been over when Jesus spoke to the eleven about the bread and the wine.  Jesus didn’t change Passover; He fulfilled it, and then He established something brand new.

The writer to the Hebrew Christians described the change saying,

Heb 10:5  Therefore, when [Jesus] came into the world, He said: “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU DID NOT DESIRE, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME.

The “sacrifice and offering” of the lambs through the centuries were a temporary measure until Jesus came.  He was God in human flesh; that’s the “body… prepared for” Him.  In that incarnation body, He was God’s final Lamb.

Throughout the centuries, Christians have debated the exact meaning of the body and blood of Christ.  The eleven guys sitting around that table would have understood that Jesus was using figurative language.  The bread represented His body; the wine represented His blood.

Instead of getting lost in theological arguments, I like the simplicity of what William MacDonald said:

He “took” – humanity upon Himself; He “broke” – He was about to be broken on the cross; He “gave” – He gave Himself for us.

We can’t get so caught up in discovering what the bread and the cup mean that we forget to do what Jesus said to do with them. We must “take” and “eat.”

How are we supposed to “take” and “eat?”  Obviously the exhortation is, first and foremost, spiritual.  We are to appropriate Jesus’ death on the Cross by believing He is our Savior.

As to how, practically, we observe this, the apostle Paul gives us valuable instruction on just what Jesus meant by “take” and “eat.”

1Co 11:23  For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
1Co 11:24  and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
1Co 11:25  In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
1Co 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

In Corinth, at least, the church gathered weekly, on Sunday night, for a pot-luck.  After eating, they would take bread and wine together.  Simple; but powerful.

We have a lot of freedom regarding the bread and the wine.  Paul said “as often as you eat… and drink.”  There’s no instruction on how often, so it’s up to us.

There’s no instruction on how to serve the elements, so it’s up to us.

There’s no instruction on whether or not children may partake, so it’s up to us.

There’s no instruction on where to serve the elements, e.g., only in a church service, or in your own home, so it’s up to us.

There’s no instruction on the type of bread, or the potency of the wine, so it’s up to us.

We’ve chosen, for now, to share the elements as we gather on the last Wednesday night of every month.  We like to have you come forward and get the elements for yourself – to receive them for yourself.

We also have the elements upstairs, in the Prayer Room, every Sunday morning.

We encourage you to share bread and the cup at home as often as you like.

We can get lost in the details, e.g. demanding the bread be unleavened, or that we use wine and not grape juice.

It’s not a ritual that must be performed in a prescribed manner, with just the right elements.  It’s a memorial, and the Lord has graciously given us a great deal of freedom to enjoy it.

In verse twenty-four of Mark fourteen, Jesus mentioned a “new covenant.”  It implies an old covenant; and that old covenant was the Law of Moses.

Passover is a good example of the old covenant.  You sacrificed a lamb, in your place, and God could receive you into His presence.  But your sins were only temporarily covered; and you needed to keep on sacrificing lamb after lamb.

Under the new covenant, God sacrificed Himself the Lamb for you, and when you believe, He receives you into His presence justified, having been forgiven your sins.

In the new covenant He gives you His Holy Spirit, to indwell you, and to empower you.

Jesus said His blood “was shed for many.”  It doesn’t mean it is restricted to a certain group.  It’s a comparison.  What one man did by dying affects the entire larger group – the “many.”

Jesus is the Savior of all mankind – especially those who believe.

Mar 14:25  Assuredly, I say to 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.”

This statement is Jesus’ promise He prevails as the Lamb.  About to be betrayed, then murdered, He spoke of His ultimate victory over Satan, sin, Hell, and death as something already accomplished.

He was specifically envisioning His future return to the earth to establish the promised Kingdom of God.

We see this in the Revelation.  He steps forward, as the Lamb Who was slain.  He opens the seals on a seven-sealed scroll.  As He does, the seven-year Tribulation unfolds upon the earth, until finally He comes back in triumph.

When He does – come back, that is – there will be a great feast upon the earth.  Jesus said He would fast from drinking “the fruit of the vine” until He can drink it with us in that glorious celebration.

It’s a token of His love for us; it’s romantic, for lack of a better word.

Is there something you really, really want to do, as a couple?  Let’s say the opportunity came for one of you to do it.  Would you take the opportunity?

Now I’m sure your spouse would graciously say, “Go ahead; I don’t mind.”  But I’d recommend you pass, because it’s not the doing of it that is important.  It’s the doing of it together.

Jesus is saying, “I can’t wait until we’re together, on the Millennial earth, feasting, and fellowshipping.”

Mean time, Paul said “we proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”  We should therefore emphasize His coming whenever we share the elements – remembering His excitement to see us in person at that table.

If the disciples were paying attention, they could have gone from despair to delight.

They despaired at the announcement of Jesus’ betrayal by one of them at the table.

They could delight at the pronouncement of the future feast involving eleven of them, and multitudes of others.

Are you desperate today?  Has some illness, or injury, or injustice, assailed you?

God prevailed Himself the Lamb to come for your salvation.  He has begun in you a good work, and will perform it until the day you are with Him.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a seat reserved at the table, and a glass of wine waiting for you to drink with Jesus.

I Love The Smell Of Spikenard In The Meeting (Mark 14:1-11)

They’re called Air Smell-it-zers.  They were named after howitzers, only they emit smells, not shells.

They can be found all over Disney parks, emitting smells in certain areas to match the surroundings.

You’ll notice the scent of baking cookies and vanilla on Main Street USA, salty sea air in line for Pirates of the Caribbean, fresh citrus on Soarin’, and the scent of honey on Pooh’s Adventure.

The smell-it-zer operates like an air cannon, aiming the scent up to 200 feet across a room toward an exhaust system.  Guests traveling on the moving vehicles pass through the scene as the appropriate scent drifts across their path.  Regulated by computer, the scent can be triggered for a fresh aroma just prior to each vehicle’s arrival.
A powerful fragrance is at the center of our Bible study.  It is spikenard, a rare an expensive oil from India.  Mary pours it over Jesus’ head and feet in order to anoint Him.  She didn’t need a smell-it-zer for the aroma to fill the room.

As powerful as the smell may have been, the significance was in its symbolism.  Jesus said of the anointing, “She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial” (v8).

The disciples of Jesus had a different response to the fragrance of spikenard; especially Judas.  He despised it, and planned how he might betray Jesus.

These two contrary responses remind us of another place in the Bible that uses fragrance as a divisive symbol.  In Second Corinthians 2:15 & 16 we read,

2Co 2:15  For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
2Co 2:16  To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life…

In that room some two thousand years ago, Mary was the aroma of death to one; and the aroma of life to others.

Today, in whatever rooms we are in, whether we know it or not, we give-off the aroma of eternal life, or eternal death.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Doing What You Can For Jesus Is The Fragrance Of Eternal Death Among Those Who Are Perishing, and #2 Doing What You Can For Jesus Is The Fragrance Of Eternal Life Among Those Who Are Saved.

#1    Doing What You Can For Jesus Is The Fragrance
    Of Eternal Death Among Those Who Are Perishing
    (v1-2 & 10-11)

The history of body odor is fascinating.  The ancient Romans, for example, were fanatic about overcoming body odor.  Not only did they bath all the time, they bathed in perfume, and even perfumed their pets, and their horses.

The Middle Ages were ripe with body odor.  The church frowned upon nakedness, even in a bath; so folks quit bathing.  Only the wealthy could afford perfumes and ointments to mask their stank.

Have you ever heard the expression, “Mum’s the word?”  In 1888, Mum was the name of the first trademarked antiperspirant.

Everdry came next.  It should have been called Neverdry, because of how long is stayed wet after application.  It also stained your clothing.  Use too much of it and it ate through your clothing.

Who knew it was so hard to smell good?

The action surrounding the aroma of Jesus’ anointing stinks.

Mar 14:1  After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death.

Passover was the annual observance in commemoration of “the passing over” of the houses of the Israelites by the death angel in the killing of the firstborn in Egypt.

It was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan (March-April), the first month of the Jewish religious year, and it continued into the early hours of the fifteenth day.

The Passover lamb would be chosen four days prior, then slain on the afternoon of the fourteenth and eaten after sundown, which according to Jewish reckoning started the next day.

The Passover observance was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in commemoration of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of the month.

Thus it was either Tuesday or Wednesday of the final week of Jesus on earth.  In “two days,” He would be crucified just as the lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple, in fulfillment of the prophecies that He was the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

Talk about corrupt leaders.  The top religious leaders in Israel were seeking some “trickery” by which they could apprehend and murder Jesus, who they knew to be innocent of any crime.

Do schools still use the program, Character Counts?  It does; count, that is, in all of us, but especially in our leaders.  Character is a better predictor of what a person will actually do than their promises.

Mar 14:2  But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”

There were tens of thousands of pilgrims in Jerusalem.  Maybe hundreds of thousands, if you trust the math of the Jewish historian, Josephus.

“Not during the feast” doesn’t mean they were against acting while it was Passover, because they did act during Passover when the right opportunity presented itself.

It meant that they had to be cautious and stealthy.  The crowds favored Jesus and the religious leaders could not risk a riot were they to take Him openly to kill Him.

They got just the opportunity they needed, from a most unlikely source – one of Jesus’ own followers.

Drop down to verse ten.

Mar 14:10  Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.

Never ascribe to Judas any positive motives.  Some do.  They say, for example, that he was trying to force Jesus to act as Messiah by engineering a conflict between He and the religious leaders that would force the Lord to establish the Kingdom.

That is a motive made-up by extra-biblical writers.  The one motive ascribed to him in the Bible is greed:

In his Gospel, John records that Judas was the disciple who held the money bag for the ministry, and that he regularly stole from it.

John also reveals that Judas led the criticism of Mary anointing Jesus with the costly ointment because it could have fetched a pretty penny, giving Judas more to steal.

When Judas goes to betray Jesus, he wants money for it.  The infamous thirty pieces of silver he received may have been a down payment, with more to come after the deed was done.

Judas may have had other motives, but he was greedy, for sure.

We don’t glorify greed; we believe it to be a bad quality.  But do we understand how very bad it is?  It is no minor sin.

Mar 14:11  And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.

They had a man inside, deep under cover.  Except that Jesus knew about it.  The disciples didn’t know; but Jesus did.

Don’t think, however, that Judas was predestined to betray the Lord from eternity past.  Don’t think that he was predestined for Hell.  As the story unfolds, the Gospels show that Jesus gave Judas space to repent.

If Judas had repented, God would have fulfilled the prophecies about his betrayal another way.  We call the other way God’s providence.

How can I say that with confidence?  I say it on account of the glimpse we get of God’s providence in the Old Testament book of Esther.

Esther was the queen in Persia just when a wicked anti-Semite named Haman convinced the king to issue a decree that the Jews be exterminated throughout the kingdom.  Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, wanted Esther to go before the king, in order to beg for the lives of the Jews.

But there was a problem; two problems, actually:

The king didn’t know Esther is a Jew; she had kept it hidden from him.

To add to her dilemma, if you went before the king without an invite, he might execute you; and it had been quite some time since Esther had been invited.

Mordecai was unmoved by Esther’s dilemma.  He said to his niece, “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

It seemed to be Esther’s destiny.  In the context of what we are illustrating, you might say she was predestined to go before the king and save her people.

But if you read the story carefully, you’ll see that she had a real, free will decision to make.  She could have refused.

What would have happened if Esther refused?  Mordecai tells us:

Est 4:14  “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place…”

God seemed to have provided Esther an opportune moment.  But, if she chose otherwise, God would have provided deliverance for His people some other way.

Judas could have repented.  He did not, and, instead, is infamous for betraying Jesus just as Jesus was about to die for Judas’ sins.

The aroma in that room was, for Judas, death.

You and I are the smell of death to those who are perishing.  That can be a good thing.  Here’s what I mean.

Sometimes a bad smell can be a good thing.  Natural gas is odorless, but they add a substance called mercaptan so you can detect potentially fatal gas leaks.  It’s the smell of death that leads you to life.

If you are a Christian, you smell like Jesus.  Too much time out in the world will interfere with the aroma of Jesus, causing you to stink.  That’s why Jesus will wash the feet of His disciples – to symbolize the daily defilement of being in the world.

Sin has a stink of its own.  It certainly overpowers the aroma of Christ coming from your life.  But you can be washed again-and-again by the blood of Jesus, shed on the Cross to forgive your sins.

Day-in and day-out, know that your aroma of Christ can fill a room, leading those nonbelievers in proximity to have to confront their own mortality and eternity.  Give them a whiff!

#2    Doing What You Can For Jesus Is The Fragrance
    Of Eternal Life Among Those Who Are Saved
    (v3-9)

In most walks of life, we admire and applaud a person who is totally dedicated to their pursuit.  In fact, we expect them to go far beyond what would be considered average or normal.

But when a believer in Jesus Christ expresses wholehearted devotion, even Christians tend to scoff.  We label that Christian a fanatic, and urge them to dial it back a few notches.

Mary went full-fanatic, and we see the reactions of her peers.

Mar 14:3  And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.

First of all, you couldn’t dine with lepers.  Jewish law forbade it.

Second of all, Jesus never met a leper that He didn’t heal.

This guy must be Simon the former leper.  I think he kept the designation “the leper” to emphasize the healing Jesus had performed upon him.  It was his testimony.

Plus, it was something he could have fun with.  Imagine meeting him, and having him introduce himself as Simon the leper.  Freaky.

Some of us could have a designation, could we not?  Gene the drunkard; Pam the pothead.  You get the idea.

The “woman” was Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha.  We know that from the other Gospels.

We see her always as Mary the worshipper, as opposed to her sister, Martha the worker, because of a dinner recorded in the Gospels when Martha complained her sister wasn’t helping her.

Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part, by sitting under His teaching.

It doesn’t mean worship always trumps work.  In the Thessalonians letters, the apostle Paul has to rebuke believers who have quit working to wait for Jesus to return.  He says, at one point, if they won’t work, don’t feed them.

There’s a time for work, and there’s a time for worship.

“Oil of spikenard” came from India.  It was “costly,” “three hundred denarii” (v5).  It was worth a workingman’s wages for an entire year.

This wasn’t something Mary went out and bought that afternoon.  It was probably a family heirloom, probably her wedding dowry.

It was costly beyond money.  It was precious to her on many levels – financially, emotionally, psychologically, socially.

She “poured it on” Jesus’ head, all of it.

I’d be the first disciple to say, “Weird!”  But that’s because I’m not always sensitive to something more spiritual going on, below the surface.

Mar 14:4  But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted?
Mar 14:5  For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply.

As mentioned, Judas led the criticism, because he was a thief.  But it’s clear the other eleven disciples shared his indignation.

Their criticism was logical, and you might even say it was spiritual in that they were thinking about the poor.  But, as we will see, they were wrong on every level.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean logic must be set aside, except that sometimes, logic must be set aside!

If everything you do as a believer, while serving God, makes perfect sense, and is arrived at by careful planning, then you’re probably not hearing from God.

God told Abram to leave his home.  He didn’t tell him where he was going.  He walked by faith, and though we now admire him, had we encountered Abram in his early days, we would have thought him to be a fanatic.

At one point God renamed him Abraham, which means father of many, or multitude.

Can you imagine Abraham meeting new people?  “So, you’re the father of many; how many kids do you have, anyway?”

For a long time, the answer was, “None.”  Then it was “One.”

There are moments when logic must be set aside in favor of the obedience of faith.  I can’t tell you when those moments happen in your life.  But they must, if you’re following Jesus.

Mar 14:6  But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.

The disciples must have had a lot of “that moment,” moments.  This one was, “that moment when you misinterpret someone’s worship for waste.”

Rocky Balboa was big on reputation.  “They don’t remember you,” he counseled a troubled teen; “they remember the rep.”

Mary had a rep for worship.  The boys shouldn’t have been surprised by her extravagance.  In fact, they ought to have been wondering what she was going to do.
What is your spiritual rep?  If you don’t have one; or if it’s not a good one; there’s still time.

We should make it a goal to not “trouble” other believers.  There are times for teaching and admonishing, for correcting and rebuking.  What I’m talking about here is something different, where through your insensitivity you say things that trouble someone for no good reason.

Mar 14:7  For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always.

I don’t want to get too far off topic, but I find this conclusion about “the poor with [us] always” very insightful.  It establishes that believers are not going to create a utopia on earth.  The entire time Jesus is absent from the earth will be marked by hardship and suffering.

Back to the dinner Jesus was enjoying… It seems Jesus was emphasizing priorities.  At that moment, during His last days on earth, ministering to Him was a higher priority than feeding the poor.

Ask a Christian what his or her priorities are and you’ll likely get this list, in this order: God… Spouse… Family… Job… Church.

We need, however, to quit understanding these as a list of descending importance and realize they are all, simultaneously, our top priority.

For example over the years I’ve had people tell me that they are making their family more of a priority, and the result will be that they won’t be serving in the church anymore; or even attending very much.

(I’ve never had someone tell me that they are making their family more of a priority, and the result will be that they won’t be going in to their job very much).

But you don’t push one priority to the side in order to emphasize another.  I remember part of a Bible study from Pastor Don McClure.  He quoted the verse in Ephesians that tells us, as believers, to “walk circumspectly.”  He explained that “circumspectly” can mean, in every direction at once.

How can a person walk in every direction at once?  You can’t, at least physically.  But you can, spiritually, as you are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We have to stop thinking we can only have one priority at a time and walk circumspectly in all of them.  In the Spirit, you can fire on all these cylinders at once; and you should.

“Me you do not always have” has to be understood in the context of Jesus’ promise after His resurrection that, by the Spirit, He will be with us always.

So what did He mean here?  I think the answer to what He meant is in the next verse, where He tells us why Mary anointed Him with the spikenard.

Mar 14:8  She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.

Jesus meant that He would only be with them, in His current incarnation, for a few more hours.

All of Jesus’ followers had heard Him speak of His impending death.  Only Mary really heard Him, and only Mary acted upon it.

How much she knew is questionable, but she must have figured that, if Jesus was crucified, there would be no time to properly anoint Him for burial.  So, do it now.

It is a frequent complaint, and an emotional pain, that we wish we had said something, or done something, before a loved one’s death.  Mary did not want to have those regrets.

Mar 14:9  Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

Here we are, more than two thousand years removed from this dinner, in Hanford, remembering Mary’s act of worship.

Every now and then, someone astonished Jesus.  In the Gospel of Matthew, a centurion comes to Jesus, asking Him to heal his sick servant.  The centurion believes Jesus can do it by a word, without even seeing the sick servant.  Jesus is said to have “marveled.”

Here in our verses Jesus is obviously excited about what Mary has done.

You and I can make Jesus marvel.  He can be excited about us.  It doesn’t have to be a great thing; just something genuine, from a heart of worship and adoration and belief.

One day, when we see Jesus face-to-face at His Reward Seat, He wants to marvel.  He wants to excitedly say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

There is a phrase I want to return to, in verse eight, that forms the basis of our two points regarding this story.  It is, “she did what she could.”

How do you read that?  Because there is a wrong way to read it, I think.

If we read it, “Well, she didn’t do very much, but she did what she could,” then I think that is wrong.

Mary did everything she could in light of the Lord’s prediction that He was about to die.  She was in a unique position to minister to Him; and she went the distance.

I’d venture to say that no one else in Jesus’ immediate party had anything of any value with which to anoint Him for His burial.

Mary did.  And she gladly, generously, did all she could.  She didn’t measure out a few drops, as a symbolic gesture.  She broke the flask, giving it all in one act of extravagant worship.

If Mary had been like the other disciples, she might have turned to them, and complained.  “Why am I the only one who needs to sacrifice?  Why am I the only one stepping-up?  Why don’t you dip into the money bag and buy some anointing oil of your own?”

That way of thinking is a good way to ruin an act of worship, by the way.

It fell to Mary, who had the oil, the heirloom, the dowry; and she did what she could.

Each of us can do many similar things in service to the Lord.  I’m suggesting there will be a time, or times, in your life when there is something only you can do.

Don’t think that makes you indispensable; it doesn’t.  Remember Esther – If she refused to act, God would not be held hostage.

But it gave her the opportunity to do what she could.  And we will have that opportunity; those opportunities.  God is not a respecter of persons.

Jesus had told His disciples He was going to die.  Mary did what she could about it.

Jesus has told us He is coming back for us, to resurrect the dead and to rapture the church, at any moment.

Talk to the Lord and discover what it is that you can do for Him in the light of His imminent return.

Then do it.

A Mite-y Heart (Mark 12:41-44)

It’s arguably not their best film, but my personal favorite from Pixar is Monsters Inc.  There’s just something about that whole monster-in-the-closet thing that resonates with my inner child.

Mike and Sully are great, but you gotta love Roz.  She is a slug-like monster in the movie who is the administrator for Scare Floor F.

Or so you’re made to believe.  At the end of the film, it turns out that Roz is an agent of the Child Detection Agency (the CDA).  She reveals that she was undercover for two and a half years at Monsters, Inc., and that Mike and Sully nearly ruined it all when Boo came through the door into the monster world.

All of her lines of dialog are classic, but the most infamous has to be when Roz says to Mike, “I’m watching you, Wazowski.  Always watching.”

I thought of that scene in particular because, in our Bible verses, we find Jesus watching as the worshippers in the Temple make their offerings.  It’s a reminder that Jesus is always watching us, too.

If we’re not careful, we can think of Jesus’ watching us as if it were Roz-like and creepy.  It isn’t; it’s a blessing, a privilege, and something to get excited about.

Jesus draws our attention to one poor widow, who puts into the offering everything she has.  In this short account, and in His brief commentary, Jesus will reveal what He watches to see and to say about our lives as His followers.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Jesus Watches To See What Your Treasure Is, and #2 Jesus Watches To Say Where Your Treasure Will Be.

#1    Jesus Watches To See
    What Your Treasure Is
    (v41-42)

People-watching is something we all engage in from time-to-time.  Our favorite place to do it is at Disneyland.  There’s that bench along Main Street, towards the upper end, recessed from the street, that provides the absolute best vantage point to people-watch.

Jesus has been teaching in the Temple.  It’s Passover week, probably Wednesday, and just days before the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.  The Lord takes a break… To watch people make their offerings.

That fact alone is somewhat startling.  Time is short, and therefore every moment is precious.  Yet Jesus determines that the best use of His time is to watch worshippers.

Whether He knew it by omniscience or by a Word of Knowledge given to Him by the Holy Spirit, the Lord was watching for one particular worshipper: A widow, who would give her entire livelihood.

Mar 12:41  Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much.

Jesus had been teaching in what was called the Court of the Gentiles.  It was so-called because non-Jews were allowed to gather there.  God intended the area to be a place of what we would call evangelism.  Gentiles who were seeking God could meet Him there.

The Jews, in general, despised Gentiles.  Think Jonah and you’ll get the idea.  They did not care to see them converted to Judaism.

They had turned the Court of the Gentiles into a marketplace, where they sold pre-approved sacrificial animals, and where they exchanged foreign currency into the currency necessary to make your monetary offering in the Temple.

The activities made it unwelcome to Gentiles, and impossible for them to learn about God.

That is why Jesus overturned the tables and drove-out the merchandisers.  He sought to restore the Court of the Gentiles to its original purpose.

The action in our verses takes place in the next courtyard, The Court of the Women.  It was so-called because Jewish women could go there, but no further.

In this court was the treasury, where free-will offerings could be made.

Today the church has a variety of means to receive offerings.  Some fellowships restrict giving to the Agape Box (or the Offering Box).  Others, like us, utilize the box but also receive an offering as an act of worship during the service.

There are a number of electronic or on-line options for your giving:

You can have your bank send a check.

You can make your offering via PayPal.

Some churches have installed ATM’s in their lobby, to encourage you to give.

In the first century Temple, in the treasury, there were thirteen receptacles for receiving contributions.  They were chests, but were called Shôphār because of their trumpet-like shape.  Each bore an inscription indicating what the money would be used for.  On six of them was the inscription, “Freewill-offerings.”

The shape and the size and the material used for the opening necessitated putting in just a few coins at a time.  Have you used those coin-counting machines?  You can only feed so many coins at once; and they make a lot of noise as you do.

At Christmastime we watch the version of Scrooge that stars Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge.  Famously greedy, at one point he sings a song, saying, “Jingle, jangle, coins when they jingle make such a lovely sound.”

If you were paying attention, you could make a pretty good guess as to what type of coins, and how much money, a worshipper put in the Shôphār.  Thus the Lord noted that “many who were rich put in much.”

We almost instinctively want to criticize the rich for not putting in more.  There is no sense of that; not here, anyway.  It’s simply an observation.  Nothing is said about these rich worshippers making a big show about their offering.  It would seem that they were sincere in their desire to support the work of the Temple.

They weren’t giving sacrificially, but they were contributing.

We’re going to see that these verses are not about money; not really.  But since they describe giving, I think a word or two about it is appropriate.

Don’t worry; your wallet is safe.  We are not going to take a second offering.

Giving ought to be a joyful, freely chosen activity, whose amount and regularity is determined between you and the Lord.

Don’t get me wrong.  We don’t take giving lightly.  Giving is an important spiritual discipline and an act of worship.  In one of His talks, Jesus said “when you give,” not “if you give.”  And He spoke of it as having similar priority as praying and fasting – so it is definitely something important and spiritual.

People have financial advisers.  A good one will review your portfolio, and your investments, then suggest strategies for maximizing your money.

The Lord is a great financial adviser.  It’s a good idea to ask the Lord if your current strategy for giving is furthering God’s Kingdom.  One way you’ll know you’re giving is furthering the Kingdom is if it is sacrificial; because sacrifice is another principle of New Testament giving.

To summarize: Your giving should be joyful, freely chosen, regular, and in an amount determined between you and the Lord that requires some level of sacrifice.

Mar 12:42  Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans.

I’m terrible at converting foreign currency.  I simply cannot do the math in my head.

The “mite” was a Greek copper coin, the smallest coin in use. Mark at once related it to the coinage with which his Roman readers were familiar.  The quadrans, the smallest Roman coin in use, was one-fourth of the copper coins.  Her gift therefore had the value of one-sixty-fourth of a common laborer’s daily wage.

Please check my math, but I think that’s about $1.00 considering the current minimum wage in California.
This poor widow, at that precise moment, was what Jesus came to see.  It’s what He was watching to see.  She was the greatest sight in the Temple that day.

Let’s put that into perspective.  In just two verses, at the beginning of chapter thirteen, we will read,

Mar 13:1  Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!”

The disciples of Jesus were mostly simple, rural Galileans.  Mainly fishermen.  They weren’t big-city boys.  Jerusalem was a place of wonder for them, and especially the Temple.

The first century Temple is sometimes called Herod’s Temple.  King Solomon had built the first Temple, which was destroyed when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586BC.  The second Temple was built by the Jews after they returned from their seventy-year exile.  The person chiefly responsible for its construction was Zerubbabel.  The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe the building of Zerubbabel’s Temple.

Herod the Great undertook the construction of a magnificent Temple on the same site, partly to win favor from the Jews and partly to further his already well-deserved reputation as the genius builder of outstanding public and private buildings.

It was still considered the second Temple, not a third, because it was a build-out.

I discovered something interesting, that I did not know.  Construction was started in 20BC, but was not completed until 64AD.  The work went on for 60 years after Herod died in about 4AD.

The Temple was still under construction when we read the New Testament Gospels.

I think the ongoing construction added to the disciples’ excitement.  Every year, when they pilgrimaged to Jerusalem for one of the three major feasts, the Temple would be further along, having some new feature they could marvel at.

It’s like your anticipation watching them build the new Star Wars Land at Disneyland.

The Temple area measured about thirty-five acres, crowning the highest point in the city of Jerusalem.

They employed 10,000 skilled laborers and, according to the historian Josephus, since the laity could not enter certain parts of the building, 1000 Levites were specially trained as builders and masons.  They carried out their work so efficiently and carefully that at no time was there any interruption in the sacrifices and other services.

Stones averaged 10 tons, but some weighed up to 400 tons.  The walls were about the height of a twenty story building.

Although the entire structure was called the Temple, the true Temple was the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.  A building of shining white marble and gold, with bronze entrance doors, it was said that you could not look at the Temple in daylight as it would blind you.

Listen to this description of the activity in the Temple:

On their arrival pilgrims could hear the sounds of the Levites who sang and played musical instruments at the entrance.  The pilgrims would circle around the Temple seven times and then watch the various rituals, sit under the columned porticos that surrounded the plaza and listen or talk to the rabbis.

This wasn’t the first time the disciples had seen the Temple, but every time they did, it wowed them.

In the midst of all that opulence and activity, the most noteworthy thing, the most beautiful, the thing dearest to Jesus, was the offering of this poor widow.  She and her two measly mites were greater to Jesus than the structure and its activities.  All of Heaven paused as she dropped her two mites, while all on earth overlooked her.

We like to see magnificent sites.  We travel great distances, at much expense, to see them.  Some are genuinely breathtaking.

You know what takes away God’s breath?  (If I might use that expression).

You do.  I do.

Or, at least, we can.  We take God’s breath away when He is our greatest treasure, and when He sees that expressed in and through our lives.

We’re going to read, in verse forty-four, that this poor widow gave everything she had, her entire livelihood, holding nothing back.  It was a physical representation of the spiritual reality that her life was a living sacrifice, offered totally to God.

Have you heard the story of the pig and the chicken?  A pig and a chicken lived on a farm.  The farmer was very good to them and they both wanted to do something good for him.

One day the chicken approached the pig and said, “I have a great idea for something we can do for the farmer!  Would you like to help?”

The pig, quite intrigued by this, said, “Of course!  What is it that you propose?”

The chicken knew how much the farmer enjoyed a good healthy breakfast.  He also knew how little time the farmer had to make a good breakfast.  “I think the farmer would be very happy if we made him breakfast.”

“I’d be happy to help you make breakfast for the farmer!  What do you suggest we make?”

The chicken answered, “The farmer loves bacon and eggs!”

The pig, very mindful of what this implied, said, “That’s fine, but while you’re making a contribution, I’m making a total commitment!”

While others in the Temple made their contributions, the poor widow made her total commitment.

The apostle Paul told us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.  It must therefore be possible, along our way home, to do it.

Everyday I have opportunities to bear fruit by abiding in Jesus.  As I do, I’m totally committed to Him, and my life is being offered as a living sacrifice.  I simply yield to Him, and I am then enabled by Him to do His will.

Ah, but the world and the devil appeal to my flesh, and I don’t always bring forth fruit.  I sometimes yield to the flesh, not the Spirit.

No worries; I can repent, and Jesus gives me endless second chances from His boundless grace.

(BTW: If you’ve never read it, or if it’s been a while since you have, make it a point to read Why Grace Changes Everything, by Pastor Chuck Smith).

Through all my ups and (mostly) downs, He is watching me.  Not to clobber me, but to rejoice over me, as moment-by-moment and day-by-day He molds and shapes me into His own image.

The earth… Our solar system… Our galaxy… The universe… Only exist as an environment in which the Lord can watch me… Watch you… And take delight.

#2    Jesus Watches To Say
    What Your Treasure Will Be
    (v43-44)

I said earlier that this account wasn’t about the money.  If it were, then what Jesus said next would make no sense.  He’s going to insist that the two mites were greater in value than all the other contributions combined.

Mar 12:43  So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury;

We can’t immediately criticize the boys for not being with Jesus.  He may have given them assignments.  We said, in a previous study, that Jesus, in addition to overturning tables, prohibited foot traffic in the Court of the Gentiles, and that His disciples may have been stationed at entrances as bouncers.

Nevertheless I think we can say that it is always good to be with Jesus, and to see what He sees, and to see it from His perspective.  Jesus invited the twelve to look beneath the surface, to see the spiritual, in the widow’s actions.

Two mites was not “more.”  It was far less.  This must be some heavenly math.

Thanks to heavenly math, any one of us can out-give the richest man in the world.  The amount you give, in one sense, is irrelevant.  What is relevant is the condition of your heart, and it’s motives for giving.

Think of it this way: If you made a contribution, today, of $1.00, it can be more valuable to God than all of the other contributions combined.  And, I suppose, that in some spiritual sense, that can be true for each one of us, regardless the amount we contributed.

Mar 12:44  for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

There is nothing wrong with giving out of your abundance.  We get very excited about large offerings.
Over the years we’ve received a few.  Let’s face it, money allows us to do more ministry.

The Lord is simply pointing-out that God values the giver more than the gift.  The amount you give is secondary to your motivation.

That’s why Jesus could say that the poor widow “put in more.”

This poor widow had no idea that Jesus was watching her.  As far as we can tell, she never heard His commendation of her giving.  She didn’t know she was the basis of a powerful teaching, that has endured through the centuries.

This is one reason we downplay recognition for giving.  I don’t think plaques on furniture in the church, or bricks with your name on them, are things that really honor God.

Can you imagine Jesus commissioning a plaque that said, “This is the Poor Widow’s Shôphār?”

There’s another sense of the phrase, “she put in more.”  We are told, in several places in the Bible, that we have the opportunity, while on the earth, to store up treasure, or rewards, in Heaven.

While the widow put her coins in the Shôphār, they were being put in her heavenly account as well, at a much greater valuation.

The widow’s two mites may convert to a quadrans on the earth, but in Heaven they translate into a fortune, where there is no chance of deterioration or theft.

Many of you probably lost money in your investments this week due to the British deciding to leave the European Union.  They’re calling it Brexit.  USA Today ran an article titled, Dow Slammed Again on ‘Brexit Blues,’ Drops 260 Points.

In Heaven, your investments can only gain.

What if I told you that some fund would only gain, and that it would gain astronomically?  You’d put more in, wouldn’t you?

“Put in more” is a great slogan for encouraging spiritual investing.

This widow put in her entire livelihood.  But are we to suppose that she always gave every cent to the Lord’s treasury?

I’m gonna go on record and say, “No,” because, at some point, she needed to eat.

I’m not trying to take anything away from her commitment; it was extraordinary.  I simply do not want us burdened thinking that we must take vows of poverty.

Jesus once told a rich young ruler to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow Him.  He didn’t tell everyone to do that.

Christianity does not demand we divest of everything we own and live day-by-day.

Somewhere between selling everything, and giving out of our abundance, is where we live, and where we give.  I cannot set the bar for your lifestyle.  We read in Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall…”

While your giving is always to be sacrificial, there will be times in your Christian walk that you will have the opportunity to give above and beyond.  To take a risk.  To do something God is leading you to do, even though it makes no financial or logical sense.

You might give your grocery money for the week to someone who needs it… Or your house payment… Or your gas money.

There are thousands of scenarios where an investment opportunity will present itself; a heavenly investment opportunity.

Jesus is watching you to see where your treasure will be.  He wants to heap reward upon reward upon treasure in Heaven, reserved for you.

God is not stingy.  If anything, He is extravagant.  Read the description of the city we are going to live in, the New Jerusalem.  You can find it in the last two chapters of the last book of the Bible, The Revelation of Jesus Christ.

It is constructed from precious metals and gemstones.  It features, for example, streets of transparent gold, and twelve humongous gates, each made from a single pearl.

God is a giver.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…”

In his final address to the Ephesian elders, the apostle Paul reminds them one more time of his own example when he had been with them.  Then Paul told them to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

These words are not contained anywhere else in the Bible. Apparently they were part of the oral tradition handed down from those who had been with Jesus during His earthly ministry.  As such, this saying must have been a common one in Jesus’ ministry.

By our fallen nature, we are takers, not givers.  But by God’s sanctifying grace, He wants us all to grow to be givers.  As we do, not only will others be blessed, but so will we.

Are you a giver?  Could you be described as generous?  Jesus was and is.  To be a Christian is to be like-Christ.  If He is generous, so must we be.

I’ll close with this story from the devotional, Our Daily Bread:

Years ago, a lady was filling a box for missionaries in India.  A child came to her door to give her a penny, all that the child had, to be used for the Lord.  With this coin, the missionary bought a tract and put it into the box.  Eventually, this gospel leaflet came into the hands of a Burmese chief, and God used it to bring him to salvation.  The chief told the story of his conversion to his friends, and many of them believed in Christ and threw away their idols. They built a church there, sent out a missionary, and at least 1,500 natives were converted.  All this, and probably more, resulted from a little girl’s gift of one penny for Jesus (Our Daily Bread, 12/70).

The Real Housewidows of Jerusalem (Mark 12:35-40)

I almost met Tim Burton.

He’s the renowned director of such films as The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands.  He directed Alice Through the Looking Glass, which is in theaters now.

Geno and I were in Tarzana, at a Peet’s Coffee Shop, waiting for a vintage guitar store to open.  I don’t remember the exact sequence of events, but at some point we were talking about a Tim Burton movie that was about to be released; I think it was The Corpse Bride.

Another customer overheard us, and interjected something pretty technical about the film.  We responded, but I didn’t think much of it.  I think Geno knew it was Tim Burton.

My second clue came when the barista called him, “Tim.”

In my defense, I’d never seen a picture of Tim Burton, so I did not recognize him.  Nevertheless it was an epic celebrity fail.

A much bigger fail can be found in our passage.  The first century Jewish religious authorities failed to recognize Jesus as their Messiah.

True, they had never seen a photo of their Messiah; but their Scriptures presented a pretty good word picture of Him.

Their problem was they were only considering part of the picture painted by God’s Word.

You and I have never seen a photo of Jesus; but we have a complete picture of Him, now that we have both the Old and the New Testaments.

It’s important we see Jesus as He truly is revealed, in every facet, if we are to succeed in revealing Him to a world perishing and in need of the salvation He offers.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two questions of my own: #1 Are You Revealing Jesus As He Is Presented In The Word?, and #2 Are You Revealing Jesus As You Are Present In The World?

#1    Are You Revealing Jesus
    As He Is Presented In The Word?
    (v35-37)

Speaking of the movies, a common plot-point is for the king or prince, or the queen or princess, to throw on a disguise and go out among the common people.

Think Aladdin in the Disney animated feature named after him.  Jasmine is in the marketplace, in disguise.  She sees a little boy struggling to grab an apple off a cart, so she gives it to him.  The vendor thinks she’s stealing it, and threatens to cut off her hand, until Aladdin swoops in and saves her.

Jesus wasn’t in disguise.  It’s just that the Jews weren’t thinking their Messiah would be more than a man.  They could have known, but they were only seeing part of what their Scriptures said about Him.

In our verses, Jesus is going to give them the whole picture.

Mar 12:35  Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?

“Answered” doesn’t mean that Jesus was asked a question.  He was responding to being peppered with questions.  Having answered everything thrown at Him, He now had a question of His own.

He was addressing His own disciples, but there were plenty of scribes within earshot.

We need a name for this kind of evangelism – where you are having a private conversation that is purposely loud enough for others to hear.

How about, “Loud-missions?”  Or, “Amplified Bible?”

Scribes were the revered teachers of the Scriptures.  Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees had scribes.  The common people depended upon the scribes to interpret God’s Word for them.

They taught, accurately I might add, “that the Christ is the Son of David.”

“The Christ” means their Messiah.  It is a letter-for-letter translation of the Greek word christos, meaning “the Anointed One,” which is a translation of the Hebrew word for “Messiah.”

The title “the Anointed One” recalls the fact that in ancient times a man was made king by being anointed with oil.  It represented the Holy Spirit coming upon him.

The teaching that their Messiah would be a son, the royal heir, of David, was strongly taught in the Scriptures.  For example:

Psa 89:3  “I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David:
Psa 89:4  ‘Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations.’ ”

Psa 132:11  The LORD has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: “I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body.

Jesus was, of course, a physical descendant of David, “the fruit of [his] body” – otherwise the Jews could have immediately countered any claim He might have to be their Messiah.

Here is where it gets interesting.  Jesus quoted another Scripture that the scribes knew described their Messiah.

Mar 12:36  For David himself said by the Holy Spirit: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, TILL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES YOUR FOOTSTOOL.” ‘

Notice that it says “David himself said by the Holy Spirit.”  It’s quite an incredible phrase.  It teaches the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.

The biblical doctrine of inspiration is not dictation.  As evangelicals, we view the Bible as a genuinely human product, but one whose creation was superintended by the Holy Spirit, preserving the authors’ works from error without eliminating their specific concerns, situation, or style.  We call it “verbal, plenary inspiration of the original manuscripts,” by which we mean that each word (not just the ideas or concepts) was meaningfully chosen by the human author under the superintendence of God.

The verse is from Psalm 110.  It is one of the most quoted psalms in all the New Testament – five times directly, and other times indirectly.  It is maybe the most quoted Old Testament verse.

The heart of interpreting it, or misinterpreting it, has to do with identifying who David is talking about when he says “My Lord.”

I get the impression from Jesus that the scribes passed over this question.  They knew it was a description of their Messiah, but they could not make sense of it.

I can tell you what at least some Jewish scholars say today to try to make sense of it.  First, they argue that the two words for “Lord” are different; and they are correct.  The first is YHWH, “Jehovah,” while the second is the Hebrew word, Adonai, meaning “my Lord” or “my master.”  They therefore say that the second reference is to a mere man.

The kind of master that is meant, however, is made clear in the whole psalm.   The psalm shows that the reference is to One who is more than a mere man.  It is clear in context that both names refer to Persons of the Godhead.

Second, Jewish scholars argue that, since this was a psalm, it was meant to be sung by the Levites about David himself, not about a descendant of his.

Sorry; wrong.  Because, if that were true, Jesus Himself was misinterpreting it.

In the next verse, it is clear that Jesus was indicating whoever is being described is not David, but is their Messiah who both preceded David and descended from David.

But even more convincing is that Jesus identifies this Person as Himself, even more clearly, at the end of the Revelation, when He says, “I, Jesus… am the Root and the Offspring of David…”

Mar 12:37  Therefore David himself calls Him ‘LORD’; how is He then his Son?” And the common people heard Him gladly.

David calls this Person “Lord.”  He wasn’t talking about himself; this is not Levites singing to or about David.

The only possible interpretation was, and is, that this Person both preceded David, and followed him, in history.

Check this out: Jesus wasn’t merely talking about the interpretation of some Messianic verse.  He was talking about Himself.

Remember, this is occurring during Passion Week.  On Palm Sunday the crowds had hailed Jesus as “the Son of David,” shouting their Hosannas!  (Matthew 21:9).

Prior to that, He’d been hailed as the Son of David by others; for example, by blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10).

In effect what Jesus was saying was, “Do you understand that I, the Son of David, am also his Lord; that I, being a man, and David’s descendant, preceded him because I am also God?”

Put this teaching together with other verses, e.g., Isaiah 7:14,  “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

That’s why I said earlier that the scribes could have known that their Messiah would be more than a mere man.

Next notice the phrase, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, TILL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES YOUR FOOTSTOOL.” ‘

This verse, these words, are packed full of doctrine.  The psalmist foresaw their Messiah being rejected by the Jews, ascending to Heaven to sit at God’s “right hand,” until He could return as King once all enemies were vanquished.

We have the benefit of hindsight to understand that this is exactly what occurred, and is yet unfolding in human history.

The scribes didn’t see Jesus as He was drawn for them in their Scriptures.  We need to make sure we don’t do the same.

In his book, The Original Jesus, author and pastor Daniel Darling lists ten Jesus’ of our own making.  I’ll list them, but in the interest of time, I can only expand on one or two or three.

He lists Guru Jesus, Red-Letter Jesus, Braveheart Jesus, American Jesus, Left-Wing Jesus, Dr. Phil Jesus, Prosperity Jesus, Post-Church Jesus, BFF Jesus, and Legalistic Jesus.

Guru Jesus is the wise, winsome, slightly supernatural figure who fits nicely alongside other religious titans like Buddah, Muhammad, Vishnu, and others.  This is a safe Jesus, who will only ever tell us good, affirming, uplifting things, but doesn’t bother us with dangerous talk of the Kingdom of God.

Braveheart Jesus has come to help men recover their masculinity.  This Jesus is a response to a very real crisis in the culture: a crisis of manhood.  But a Christ-shaped masculinity isn’t defined by hyper-masculine tough talk and cuss words – both of which have become common in pulpits across America.

BFF Jesus is a friend of sinners, who offers personal salvation by faith.  However, the BFF Jesus of some of our modern worship songs sounds less like the righteous ruler of Revelation and more like Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriend.  He’s needy and clingy.

The particular Jesus’ listed are the observations of the author.  Don’t get bogged-down in them, except to see that it is easy to present a wrong, or at least an incomplete, picture of Jesus.

It might be good to ask yourself, “Am I presenting one of these Jesus’?  Or maybe some other Jesus?”

Our best defense against drawing the wrong picture of Jesus is the systematic reading and study of the entire Bible.
The Bible is, after all, about Jesus; He said so Himself:

Heb 10:7  THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME – IN THE VOLUME OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME – TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’ ”

Have you ever seen those renderings of planet earth from space that start to zoom in, getting closer-and-closer, until you see your own house and yard?

The first one I can recall was the opening of the Tom Hanks dark comedy movie, The Burbs.

If you only look at the zoomed view, you’ll get a totally skewed perspective on the larger world.

Same is true with God’s Word.  You need all of it, commenting on itself, to get the real Jesus.

We cannot afford to over-emphasize or to under-emphasize anything in the Bible.

The only way I know of doing that is to take it all in, as the inspired word of God, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, book-by-book, over-and-over again.

Even then, we must be careful to not force upon the words our own political or patriotic or psychological templates.  We need a humility of heart, a submission, that allows God to show us the Original Jesus.

#2    Are You Revealing Jesus
    As You Are Present In The World?
    (v38-40)

Since the scribes taught about God and godliness, it was natural to expect they’d be good representatives of God.

After all, studying and teaching others the Word of God should have a profound effect on you, right?

Right – but not in their case.  With their skewed picture of Jesus, their behavior fell far short of being godly.

Mar 12:38  Then He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes…

Jesus was not hesitant to issue warnings.  The teachings you listen to, and the books you read, can be harmful.  There are false teachings, and doctrines of demons, that can lead someone to an eternity separated from God in eternal conscious torment.

The content of the teaching ought to be examined, but so should the character of the teacher.  Jesus is going to bust those scribes whose behavior reveals evil, ulterior motives.

Mar 12:38  Then He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces,
Mar 12:39  the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts,

We should not conclude that all scribes were bad, or equally bad.  We saw, earlier in the chapter, a sincere scribe, who Jesus said was “not far from the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus was setting forth tests whereby His hearers might determine the character of the scribes in whom they would put their trust.

The scribes to avoid were those who had a certain way of walking.  They purposely moved in such a way as to call the utmost attention to their long, swishing robes.  We might say they sashayed.

In the pulpit, there’s a fine line between being engaging and becoming entertaining.  It’s of course wrong to judge motives, but some guys, and gals, are obviously over-the-top in their presentation of the Word of God.  It becomes more of a performance than it is preaching.

The “greetings in the marketplace” were something more than saying “Hi,” and asking, “How are you?”  Because of their position as teachers, these guys were shown honor and respect.  That’s OK, until some of them expected, for example, to be kissed on the hand when greeted.

I remember after my confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church, having to wait in line to kiss the bishop’s ring.  It was weird, to say the least, but I was under the distinct impression that I’d be lost forever if I didn’t do it.

I can appreciate proper respect for position.  I remember a scene from the TV political drama, The West Wing, where a certain reporter didn’t stand when the President of the United States walked in.  President Martin Sheen gave an articulate scolding to her about the need of showing respect for the office, not the man.

Because I’m a pastor, I get called a lot of names.  Reverend… Pastor… Pastor Gene… Pastor Pensiero… PG… and Gene.  For a while one dear brother, who misread the text, used to refer to me as Pasture.  I didn’t have the heart to correct him.

(Of course, because of who I am, I get called a lot of other names!).

“The best seats in the synagogue” were on the bench at the end of the room before the chest where the Scripture scrolls were kept.  It faced the audience and was reserved for the leaders and people of distinction.

It is customary in many denominational churches for the elders and maybe the deacons to sit on the stage during the service, behind the pulpit, facing the congregation.

I’m sorry, but I can’t think of anything more awkward.  Instead of listening to the Word being taught, I’m looking at those guys, to see their reaction.  Or to see if they’re paying attention at all.

Especially with so many of us using our phones or tablets as our Bible, think of the potential for distraction as these guys post on Facebook during the sermon.

“The best places at feasts” refers to the places on the reclining couches reserved for the most honored guests.  Today we’d refer to it as the head table.

Mar 12:40  who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”

One of the commentaries I consulted explained the relationship between scribes and widows, saying:
As one of their functions, scribes serve as consultants in estate planning for widows.  Their role gave them the opportunity to convince lonely and susceptible women that their money and property should either be given to [them].

How low can you go?  Cheating widows for personal gain is just slimy.

We believe it’s best to not ask for money, but to let God move on the hearts of His saints to give.  We talk about money when the text talks about it; and then we are careful to not come across as needy.

In thirty years, we’ve never been wanting.

Pretentious, long prayers were another hallmark of the slimy scribes.  In public, they prayed extra long and extra loud, using the best King James English, in order to appear spiritual.  Their eloquence and breath control and articulation was like that of a stage actor playing the part of a godly man.

Every now and then, when we open up for congregational prayer at a service, we’ll have someone ‘pray’ a Bible study.  It quickly becomes clear that they have a point they wish to get across to others, and they do it by pretending to pray, when they’re really preaching.

Jesus painted a pretty good picture of these guys.  His hearers would recognize many of the scribes as having these tendencies.

Their godlessness was far more serious than we might think.  Jesus said, “they will receive greater condemnation.”

The “condemnation” in question is eternal, at the final judgment.  A final judgment which, by the way, will be meted-out by Jesus.

We know that all the wicked dead, all those who have died rejecting Jesus, will be raised from the dead simultaneously, to be judged and then cast alive into the Lake of Fire to suffer eternal conscious torment.

You can read about it at the end of chapter twenty in the last book in the Bible, the Revelation.

If all nonbelievers are to be thrown into the Lake of Fire, how is it that Jesus spoke of “greater condemnation” for some of them?

Another way this question is sometimes asked is this: “Are there degrees of punishment in Hell?”

Biblically, the answer is “Yes.”  Allow me to read a few verses:

Mat 11:20  Then [Jesus] began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:
Mat 11:21  “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Mat 11:22  But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.

Luk 12:47  And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luk 12:48  But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few…

Heb 10:29, “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

If the Bible speaks of greater condemnation for Chorazin and Bethsaida than Tyre and Sidon; of one slave receiving more punishment than another; and of a more severe punishment being reserved for those who trample underfoot the Son of God, then it would seem that there are degrees of punishment in Hell.

Beyond that, I have no idea exactly how those more severe punishments will be meted out.  And we can be sure that the torment of all nonbelievers will be unrelenting.

Christian means Christ-like.  It’s a basic fact of Christianity that the world gets its picture of Jesus from observing you and me.  It’s a like-it-or-not situation.  It goes with the territory; it’s part of the package.

The word “represent” has become a popular shorthand to encourage someone to be and to do their best.  If you tell me you’re going to be in a competition of some kind, I’ll just say, “Represent,” and you’ll understand what I mean.

If you do well, I might say to you, “Way to represent.”  It’s understood that the folks who saw you got a good impression of those in your group.

We – and by “we” I mean believers in Jesus Christ – ought to start using the word more.  We can remind ourselves, and each other, that, both in church but also out in the world, we represent the Original Jesus of the Bible.

Let’s do it in a manner that we can joyously say to one another, “Way to represent!”

If you think about it, when we see Jesus at His Reward Seat, and He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” isn’t He really saying, “Way to represent?”

Lethal Caesar’s Taxes! Taxes! (Mark 12:13-34)

I voted!  I trust you voted as well.

I’m always fascinated by the different political parties on the ballot.  In addition to Republican and Democrat, you could register American Independent, Green Party, Libertarian Party, or Peace and Freedom.

There are more than 30 additional national political parties that were not represented on the California ballot.  Among those parties:

The Humane Party is a national political party with a focus on animal rights and a sustainable economy.  Founded in 2009, the party requires all candidates, officers, and board members to sign an oath abstaining from the use of animal products and services. The party’s goals include abolishing the property status of animals, and replacing the electoral college with direct democracy.  Their logo features a red-white-and blue cow skipping across the continental United States.
The United States Marijuana Party is a cannabis political party in the United States founded in 2002 by Loretta Nall specifically to end the war on drugs and to legalize cannabis.  I can only assume they get very little done at their conventions.

I was thinking about all of this because our Bible passage in the Gospel of Mark has a lot to do with first-century Jewish politics:

First, Jesus is going to be asked a question about Jews paying taxes to Rome.  The mixed group who ask Him include a few Pharisees and a few Herodians.  The Pharisees were against paying taxes to Rome, whereas the Herodians were essentially a political party and very much pro-tax.

Second, Jesus is asked a question about the resurrection from the dead.  It may not seem like a political question until you understand who was asking Him.  It was the Sadducees, who did not believe in an afterlife.  Meaning they were all-about prospering as much as possible under the Roman government of Israel.

After Jesus deals with those concerns, He gets asked a third question – what we might call a spiritual question.  Although spiritual, Jesus’ answer impacts the kind of citizens we ought to be in whatever nation we might find ourselves; or in whatever condition our nation is in.

I began to wonder what kind of questions I am… Or we are… Mostly asking Jesus.

I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 When You Talk With Jesus, Is It Mostly About Your Material Prosperity?, or, #2 When You Talk With Jesus, Is It Mostly About Your Spiritual Passion?

#1    When You Talk With Jesus,
    Is It Mostly About Your Material Prosperity?
    (v13-27)

“Read my lips: No new taxes!”

That was the enduring sound byte from his 1988 Republican National Convention speech that became the cornerstone of George H. W. Bush’s victory.

Taxation is always a volatile subject, and never more so than in first century Israel.

Mar 12:13  Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.

The Pharisees are thought to have originated in the 3rd century BC, in days preceding the Maccabean revolt, when under Greek domination, there was a strong tendency among the Jews to accept Greek culture with its pagan religious customs.

The rise of the Pharisees was a reaction and protest against this tendency among their fellow kinsmen.  Their aim was to preserve their national integrity and strict conformity to Mosaic law.

They started well, with the best intentions.  They later developed into the self-righteous and hypocritical ritualists we meet in the Gospels.

The Herodians were not a religious sect, but, as the name implies, a political party, who fully supported the dynasty of Herod.

These groups could not disagree more with one another.  The Pharisees opposed all things Roman, while the Herodians supported Rome.

The Pharisees opposed paying any taxes to Rome.  After all, Rome was an oppressor.  The taxes you paid went directly to fund the soldiers that kept you subjugated.

The Herodians were all about paying taxes, in order to enjoy safe travel on the Roman roads, and be able to enjoy free trade from all over the world.

They thought a question about taxes was sure to baffle Jesus.

Mar 12:14  When they had come, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?
Mar 12:15  Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?…”

A lot has been said about their prologue being flattery, but I see it more as sarcasm.  While it is accurate to describe Jesus as “true,” and as not showing favoritism, and as teaching sound doctrine, these are things you can say to be condescending.
It was like saying to Jesus, “You think you’re the Messiah, then answer this, smart guy!”

Mar 12:15  … But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.”

Their “hypocrisy” was that they had joined forces to oppose Jesus.  They hated each other – it’s just that they hated Jesus more.

I think it’s telling that Jesus had to ask for a “denarius.”  He didn’t carry any money.

Mar 12:16  So they brought it. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”

The image was probably that of Tiberius Caesar, and the inscription read in Latin: “Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of the Divine Augustus,” and on the reverse side: “Chief Priest.”

This inscription originated in the imperial cult of emperor worship and was a claim to divinity, which was particularly repulsive to Jews.

If Jesus were to simply answer, “Yes, pay taxes,” He would be siding with the Herodians, thus alienating Himself from the common people, and the majority of Jews.

But if He said, “No, do not pay taxes,” then He could be classified as a traitor to Rome, and an insurrectionist.

(He would, in fact, later be accused of saying just that, but it was a lie).

Mar 12:17  And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him.

We normally jump right in to a discussion of the Christian and government.  Yes, this answer by Jesus does instruct His followers to pay their taxes.  It’s applicable to believers in every age, under every government.  As William MacDonald writes, “The believer is to obey and support the government under which he lives.  He is not to speak evil of his rulers or work to overthrow the government.  He is to pay taxes and pray for those in authority.”

But listen carefully.  There is something else going on with Jesus’ answer, something that reveals a deeper insight.

The Jews were suffering and struggling under a godless government because they had rejected godliness.  They had to deal with the image of Caesar because they had rejected being made in the image of God.

The Jews were only subject to Rome because of their own national sin.  God intended for them to be an independent nation, a theocracy.  But all through their history, they rebelled against the authority of God, and each time He answered by raising-up Gentile nations to discipline them.

And that is why Jesus goes beyond the answer and adds, “Render… To God the things that are God’s.”  If they had done that, they would not have been in the terrible predicament they found themselves.

It’s an election year, and we should vote.  Just remember when you do that our hope as a nation is spiritual, and it starts with the church being the church, staying on point in its mission.

Next a group of Sadducees came with a question:

Mar 12:18  Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:

Religiously, the Sadducees only accepted as Scripture the first five books of the Bible, the ones written by Moses.  They denied the existence of a spiritual world with angels and demons; they did not believe in an afterlife, believing that your soul perished at death.  Therefore they said there was no resurrection from the dead.

They crafted a question designed, they thought, to show how silly it was to think there was a resurrection from the dead followed by an afterlife.

Mar 12:19  “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.
Mar 12:20  Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.
Mar 12:21  And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring. And the third likewise.
Mar 12:22  So the seven had her and left no offspring. Last of all the woman died also.
Mar 12:23  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.”

This command of Moses is called the Law of Levirate Marriage.  In their tribal society, it insured that your line of descendants would continue if you were to die childless.

The Book of Ruth revolves around this law, as you see Boaz step forward to marry Ruth.  He was the closest blood relative who was willing and able to step forward and marry her.  The system worked!

Mar 12:24  Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?
Mar 12:25  For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Let me quickly dispel an error some people fall into.  We do not become angels after we die.  Every time a bell rings, no angel gets his wings.

This is one of those statements that causes believers a lot of grief.  We have a notion that husbands and wives will live happily ever after in the hereafter.  But, according to Jesus, there will be no marriages in Heaven.

(This sort of kills Mormon theology, by the way).

Why no marriage?  Think of it for a minute.  God established marriage for companionship, and for procreation.  In Heaven, you won’t be alone; and Heaven will be populated by those who have been born-again by faith in Jesus prior to eternity, not by people being born in eternity.

As far as we can tell, angels do not reproduce other little angels; and its in this respect we will be like them.

I know what some of you are thinking: If there’s no sex in Heaven, I’m not going!

C.S.Lewis explained it like this, in his book, Miracles:

The letter and spirit of Scripture, and of all Christianity, forbid us to suppose that life in the New Creation will be a sexual life… It is not of course necessary to suppose that the distinction of sexes will disappear.  What is no longer needed for biological purposes may be expected to survive for splendor… We [now] know the sexual life; we do not [now] know, except in glimpses, the other [better] thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it… where fullness awaits us.

With Lewis, we trust that something better awaits us.

What could be better?  I don’t know, but I can say this.  The Bible teaches there is one marriage in Heaven.  It is Jesus Christ married to His bride, the church.

We each have that to look forward to and we will all enjoy, together, perfect companionship, forever.

Notice Jesus said, “when they rise from the dead.”  He clearly believed in the physical resurrection, and next He proves it to the Sadducees from their own self-limited Scriptures.

Mar 12:26  But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’ ?
Mar 12:27  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.”

Moses wrote as if the patriarchs of Israel were still alive after death.  Thus the argument that there was no afterlife, and no resurrection, was absurd.

Even though the Sadducees asked what sounded like a spiritual question, they’re motivation was material.  Since they did not believe in an afterlife, and believed in annihilation after death, they were all-about prospering now, in a material sense.  They tended to be wealthy and held powerful positions, including that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin.

They worked hard to keep the peace by agreeing with the decisions of Rome and they were more concerned with politics than religion.

These two questions, from the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees, revealed that they were focused upon the here-and-now.  They were concerned with their own material prosperity.

I’m not saying that is always a bad thing; but if you could ask the Son of God a question, would it really be about whether or not you had to pay taxes?

Or, in the case of the Sadducees, would you try to get God Incarnate to agree with you, that this life is all there is, so you may as well eat, drink, and be merry?

They were in this horrible condition because they had turned away from following God:

We said that the Pharisees were a reaction to the efforts of Greeks pressuring the Jews to adopt their pagan ways.  The nation of Israel was in that predicament because of their own sin.  Had they kept following God, there would be no need for Pharisees who called for separation from oppressors.

In a free, independent Israel, the Herodians would not exist, because Herod would never have been over them.

Likewise there would be no tolerance for Sadducees who conveniently tore out most of the pages of their Scriptures in order to figure a way to prosper while the nation was subjugated.

The answer was right in front of them.  They were talking to Him.

What do you talk to Jesus about, mostly?  It can be a good litmus test for keeping you from concentrating on material things when spiritual things are so much more important.

#2    When You Talk With Jesus,
    Is It Mostly About Your Spiritual Passion?
    (v28-34)

If I asked you, “How many commandments are there?”, you might say “Ten.”

If you asked a first century Jew, he would say, “Six hundred and thirteen.”

The rabbi’s had gone through the Scriptures and identified six hundred and thirteen separate commandments.

The 613 commandments include 248 “positive commandments,” to perform an act, and 365 “negative commandments,” to abstain from certain acts.

Since some laws seem heavier, or more important, than others, the Jews liked to ask rabbi’s which commandment was the greatest.

Mar 12:28  Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”

Scribes were teachers whose office was to interpret the Law to the people.  They were held in high regard.  Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees had scribes.  This one was probably a Pharisee, seeing he thought Jesus’ answer regarding the resurrection was a good one.

By “first commandment of all,” he meant the most important one.  If you were stranded on a desert island, which commandment would you take?

Mar 12:29  Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
Mar 12:30  AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ This is the first commandment.

He began with the opening words of what is called the Shema, which derives from the Hebrew word “Hear!” [šema‛].  It consisted of Numbers 15:37-41 and of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21. This was recited twice daily – morning and evening – by devout Jews.

Nothing new in this answer; other rabbi’s would say the same, and the Jews were already giving it priority, at least in their rituals if not in real life.

But Jesus wasn’t done answering:

Mar 12:31  And the second, like it, is this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

By “second” Jesus did not mean it was less important.  In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus said it was “like” the first commandment, meaning it follows necessarily from it.

You’re not obeying the first if the second doesn’t flow from it.

Jesus quoted from Leviticus 19:18.  “Love” for self is the instinctive desire to promote one’s own good.  This command demands that you must exercise a love equal to that which you have for yourself toward your neighbor.  In Leviticus, “neighbor” meant a fellow-Israelite, but in the New Testament, Jesus expanded it to include a much wider audience, especially in the telling of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

It’s interesting to note that the first commandment Jesus cited summarizes one tablet of the Ten Commandments, while the second commandment summarizes the other.  The four on the one tablet have to do with our relationship with God, while the six on the other have to do with our relationships with others.

Mar 12:32  So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.
Mar 12:33  And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

This scribe of the Pharisees put truth ahead of political correctness and social status.  He knew Jesus had answered the question beautifully, and once and for all.

He recognized that ritual sacrifices, important though they were, could never substitute for loving your neighbor.  He understood that you must do the law, not just hear it and go through the motions.

Mar 12:34  Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that no one dared question Him.

Let’s refresh our understanding of what can be meant by “the Kingdom of God.”  It can mean one of three things:

The Kingdom of God refers to God’s rule over His creation.  Even though mankind sinned, in the Garden of Eden, God has not abdicated His throne.  He remains in charge, overruling by His providence, to redeem creation and restore all things.
The Kingdom of God is also the literal rule of Jesus Christ (the Messiah) on the earth, on David’s throne in Jerusalem, Israel.  It was promised the Jews in their Scriptures.  When Jesus came the first time to inaugurate it, He was rejected, so it was postponed.  He is coming back a second time, when He will establish the Kingdom of God on the earth for a thousand years, then take believers into eternity.
Thirdly, the Kingdom of God means His spiritual reign in the hearts of individuals, from Genesis through the Revelation.

How was this scribe “not far from the Kingdom?”  Well, for one thing, he was talking directly to the King.  He was quite literally a few feet or less away from Jesus.

More importantly, this was an invitation to salvation.  “Not far” is still too far if you never make it where you’re going.  The scribe needed to receive Jesus as His Savior, repent of his sin, and submit to Jesus’ spiritual rule in his heart.
Apparently you can come close to being saved, but still be lost.

Does that describe anyone here today?  Have you been born-again by receiving Jesus Christ?  If not, you’re close, because the Holy Spirit is here to convict you.  But you must respond as He frees your will to receive the Lord.

“After that, no one dared question Him.”  It was obvious they were never going to get Him to say something His press secretary would have to explain away.  Their best guys all went down in flames, and one of them was close to becoming a convert.

Keeping with the theme of politics, Jesus’ answer to this question affects us in that we live-out His command to “love our neighbor as ourself” in society with others.

In other words, whichever of the 30+ political parties I belong to, I must still be recognizable as a follower of Jesus Christ.  He is to be my exclusive passion, from which I determine how to live among others to bring them the Gospel first, and betterment of life along with it.

So… Are your talks with Jesus mostly about your spiritual passions?  Are you asking Him to go on filling you with His Holy Spirit, so you can have boldness as His witness?

Take advantage of the time we’ve set aside, right now, and turn your heart toward the Lord.

The Days Of Wine And Posers (Mark 12:1-12)

Some years ago, Pam bought me a coffee plant.  I thought it was such a great gift idea that we had a plant sent to friends in Mission Viejo CA who enjoy both coffee and gardening.

I promptly killed my plant.  I figured the same fate was in store for the plant we gifted.  To my surprise, about 3 years later, I received a picture of the plant thriving.  It was now a tall coffee bush, and it was bearing coffee cherries.

Our friends brought us some of the crop and together we began to process them by removing the beans.  I learned how to soak them, and sun-dry them.  I kept our friends informed with pictures and videos texts.

I eventually roasted the beans, resulting in the best worst cup of coffee I’d ever had.
Although not very tasty, it had been super fun going through the process, and especially sharing it with friends.

In our Bible passage, Jesus is going to compare the spiritual leadership of the nation of Israel first to wicked vinedressers, and then to builders who lacked wisdom.

In our discussion of the details, we might miss an important point.  In both of the endeavors – in the vineyard, and in the building – there was to be joy from sharing a relationship with God.

Jesus intends for us to understand that He wanted to enjoy walking with them in the vineyard, and working with them on the building; and that He intended the enjoyment to be mutual.

Enjoying Jesus in our walk, and in our work, will be our application as I organize my thoughts around two points: #1 Think Of Your Walk With Jesus As A Vineyard Where You Enjoy Cultivating Fellowship With Him, and #2 Think Of Your Work For Jesus As A Building Where You Enjoy Constructing On His Foundation.

#1    Think Of Your Walk With Jesus As A Vineyard
    Where You Enjoy Cultivating Fellowship With Him
    (v1-9)

The Parable of the Vineyard seems sort of stand-alone to us, but that was not the case for a first century Jewish hearer.  Jesus’ audience would have immediately thought of the fifth chapter of the Book of Isaiah.

Let me read to you what they had most likely memorized.

Isa 5:1  Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.
Isa 5:2  He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.
Isa 5:3  “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
Isa 5:4  What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?
Isa 5:5  And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
Isa 5:6  I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it.”
Isa 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

The Lord says, plainly, that Israel is the vineyard.  Trouble was, they were not walking with Him.

The prophet Jeremiah records their behaviors.  He says that, among other things, they were oppressing the poor and widows, and that they were worshipping idols in the Temple.

On account of the failure of the people of Judah to walk with the Lord, God would “lay waste” the vineyard.   After many warnings, He would allow them to be overrun, and taken captive, by the nation of Babylon.

As Jesus tells the Parable of the Vineyard, the leaders perceive He is speaking about them.  Like the leadership during the time of Isaiah, they had failed to walk with God.  Apart from genuine repentance, they, too, were headed for destruction.

Once you understand the background, the parable itself is pretty straightforward.

Mar 12:1  Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.

This is the only parable Mark records, though there were others. He edited his comments to make certain points.

We do well to edit our comments about Jesus, submitting them to the Holy Spirit, so that we say just what is helpful and needed – no more, no less.

The construction of the vineyard, and the leasing of it, was all standard stuff in their culture.  It establishes that the owner had done everything possible to insure the success of the endeavor.

Don’t overlook that this was a mutual project.  The vinedressers had a lot of work to do, for sure; but the owner had also put in lots of effort.  Together they would produce, and enjoy, the fruit and it’s by-products.

Mar 12:2  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.

The owner would receive either grapes or wine, at a prearranged rate, as payment from the lessors.

Mar 12:3  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

This is where the parable goes extreme.  This type of response was unheard of.  It was shocking, immoral, and, of course, criminal.

The vinedressers treated the servant, and by extension the owner, as if he were the criminal.  They acted as though he were trespassing on their property, and as if they had the right to do him harm.

Think of that.  God saw the religious leaders who were hassling Jesus as men who had expelled Him from His own nation.  They were men prone to violence, e.g., oppressing the poor and the widows, and heaping religious burdens on the average person that they were not willing to help them bear.

Not everyone who claims to know the Lord is saved.  There is coming a time in the future, at the end of the seven-year Tribulation, when a grip of people will think they have been serving God, but to whom Jesus will say, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…” (Matthew 25:41).

I’m not suggesting anyone here, who professes Jesus, is headed for Hell.  I am suggesting that it is all too possible for us to think we are right on track, right on target, right on time, in our walk with the Lord, but it’s a poor self-evaluation.  What we need is a Spirit-evaluation.

The psalmist approached the Lord and said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart…” (139:23).  “Search” is a word used of deep exploration, not merely a surface examination.  Who am I below the surface, beneath the exterior?  God knows, and can show me.

Back to our parable… If you were the owner of the vineyard, how would you respond to the return of your servant, empty-handed and beaten?

Mount up, gird your swords, there be vinedressers to kill.

Yet that’s not what happened.

Mar 12:4  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.

The particulars are not that important, except to note that the violence escalated.  This second servant suffered a massive head wound from stones being hurled at him.

If you were the owner of the vineyard, how would you respond to the return of your second servant, empty-handed and wounded?

To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, “Hello, I am the owner of the vineyard.  You wounded my servant.  Prepare to die.”

Yet that isn’t how the owner responded.

Mar 12:5  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.

Before we talk about the owner, what about these servants?  Seeing what happened each and every time, they nevertheless went as they were sent, faithful to their master at any cost.

The servants in the parable represent the prophets that God sent to Israel time-and-time again.  Most were mistreated, and many were killed.

Jesus would lament over Jerusalem, saying,

Luk 13:34  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!

The first martyr of the church, Stephen, would say to the Jews,

Act 7:52  Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,

We quoted Isaiah.  He is said to have been sawn in half, lengthwise, while inside a hollowed-out log.

I know what you’re thinking; “Good thing I’m not a prophet.”

No, but you are a disciple, and as His disciple, your life is not your own.  Serving the Lord might cost you everything.

Annually, around the globe, according to certain sources, over 100,000 believers are martyred every year.  That’s about one every five minutes.

I hope those statistics are greatly inflated.  Nevertheless you see that biblical Christianity is an all-in proposition.  You belong to the Lord as His servant.

The owner was crazy-longsuffering, way past anything you’d expect.  You might even suggest he was wrong for letting these guys get away with it.

This touches, ever so slightly, on the criticism most nonbelievers have of God, that He allows evil to not only exist, but to prosper.  They think He ought to do something.

They don’t understand that when He does what He’s ultimately going to do, they, too, will be lost for eternity, having rejected Jesus.  His crazy-longsuffering waits for them.

The owner of the vineyard had one last move.

Mar 12:6  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
Mar 12:7  But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
Mar 12:8  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.

Something obvious struck me.  Jesus was speaking to them about Himself, and about His mission, and about what they were going to do to Him.  I wonder at the tone of His voice, and the expression on His face.  I wonder if Jesus wept through these words:

Wept for Himself, because of the sheer horror of what awaited Him at their hands, and at the hands of the Romans.
But also wept for them – knowing what was coming afterwards, in judgment, both temporal and eternal.

Finally the owner must act in justice and not with mercy:

Mar 12:9  “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.

That is precisely what happened when Titus led the assault on Jerusalem around 70AD, destroying the Temple, resulting in the dispersing of the Jews around the world for the subsequent two thousand years.

God has made unconditional promises to Israel that they will enjoy a physical kingdom on this earth.  Jesus came offering the kingdom, but when He was rejected, it was postponed.  He will establish it in the future, at His Second Coming.

God is not through with His beloved vineyard.  We see, since 1948, Israel a nation again – the miraculous fulfillment of many prophecies.

We also read the future history of the Jews, in books like Daniel and the Revelation.  Jesus will return to Jerusalem, set up His Kingdom, with Israel as the center of the Millennial earth.

Jesus said, after the son was killed, that the owner would “give the vineyard to others.”  Who are the others?

The apostle Paul said, at the end of the Book of Acts,

Act 28:28  “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!”

Gentiles have not replaced Jews as God’s vineyard.  Gentiles and Jews alike are being added to the church.  The church is a mystery not revealed until the New Testament.  The church will continue to grow until Jesus comes to resurrect the dead from this age, and to rapture living believers.  Then He will pick-up His dealings with the Jews, as we read especially in the Revelation.

Don’t lose, in all this, the fundamental understanding that God wanted to enjoy the fruit of His vineyard, and that He intended the enjoyment to be mutual.

The Lord portrays Himself as providing everything necessary for the success of the vinedressers.  His expectation was of huge, healthy grapes, in abundance, that would continually produce a great vintage.

Wine, in the Bible, is often a symbol for joy, and especially for a shared joy.

It’s so hard to try to make this point about shared joy, because of our preconceptions.  As soon as I mention “wine,” we mostly gravitate in our thinking to issues of whether or not a Christian can, or should, drink alcohol.

I’m more sensitive to the topic this week because I’ve been following an on-line forum of pastors that have exchanged over 200 posts back-and-forth in heated discussion about alcohol and the Christian.

I don’t drink; I find in the Bible that drinking alcohol is a liberty, but I counsel that Christians must be uber-cautious exercising all their liberties, and that certainly applies to alcohol.

Having said that, getting back to my point – this whole vineyard metaphor says, “Enjoy walking with Jesus.”  Be refreshed; be joyous; cast your cares upon Him; let Him shoulder every burden.

Be not drunk with wine, but go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.  Under His godly influence,

Eph 5:19  [speak] to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
Eph 5:20  giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 5:21  submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Ask yourself today, “Do I enjoy walking with the Lord?”  You should, in a greater way than when you get together with your very best friend over a refreshing beverage or meal.

#2    Think Of Your Work For Jesus As A Building
    Where You Enjoy Constructing On His Foundation
    (v10-12)

I’m not a big fan of buying things that require assembly.  I don’t really have a mind for constructing things.  Beyond my own ineptitude, I have found over the years that more-and-more stuff that needs to be put together comes with instructions that are poorly translated into English.

Since so many products come from China, the translation is being called Chinglish.  Here is an example.  It’s for a remote controlled car:

Please parent must read:

Inside contain smallspare parts, and please not to put the entrance inside, and the in order to prevent result in the asphyxiation.

For avoid dangerous, the absoluteness can’t give not the full and  3 years old child swim to play.

Please not in the road to wait the dangerous place to swim to play.

Unless the normal usage, refresh battery in the car, may result in damaged, become angry, leak the liquid.

As we return to our text, Jesus tells the religious leaders that they are poor builders.  In their case, the instructions were clear.  But they did not recognize the cornerstone of their building, and instead cast it aside.

Mar 12:10  Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE.
Mar 12:11  THIS WAS THE LORD’S DOING, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?”

This is a direct quote from Psalm 118:22-23.  It was a popular psalm around Passover.  The Jews thought it mostly meant that, even though their nation was rejected by the Gentiles, one day they would be established as the cornerstone of all the nations, when their kingdom was established, and their King on His throne.

They thus thought of the psalm as Messianic, but not as applying to their own rejection of the Messiah, Who was the true cornerstone.

The analogy drew from ancient construction practices.  Builders typically rejected stones until they found one perfectly straight that could serve as the cornerstone, which was critical to the symmetry and stability of the entire building.

Here He claimed to be the cornerstone, or we might say, the foundation, for what God wanted built.  Because Jesus didn’t ‘fit’ what the Jewish leaders were looking for, He was rejected.

“This was the Lord’s doing” refers to Jesus remaining the cornerstone even though rejected.  As I mentioned earlier, and as we often mention, God has a plan for Israel, and His plan is intact and on track.

“It is marvelous in our eyes.”  Do you marvel at God’s plan for humanity?  We should.  He created a free being, who chose badly, plunging both creature and creation into catastrophe.

But He immediately spoke of how He would resolve the crisis, and redeem and restore all things.  As we read the Bible, we see this drama of redemption and restoration unfold, culminating with the first coming of Jesus, and then His Second Coming, and then the creation of a new earth and new heavens.

In seven thousand years of human history, no one has come up with an explanation for the human condition that can rival the truth of God’s revealed Word.  There are religions and philosophies and psychologies and ideologies galore.  Most of them are absurd at best, or the doctrines of demons at worst.

Biblical Christianity alone can claim the inner transformation of the heart of a man, and the ultimate glorification of that man, to dwell with God in eternity.

I studied philosophy and psychology at a high level.  I’m not claiming to be smart, only that I was exposed to the very best men had to offer, by the very best secular professors.

I could tell, even as a nonbeliever, that the explanations of men fell far short.  They could not pierce between the soul and the spirit, and get to the heart of the problem.

God can, and He did, for me, in 1979.  I saw myself; I saw my sin; I met my Savior, and was born-again, born from above, born spiritually.

Mar 12:12  And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.

Marvel superheroes have brought us adamantium and vibranium as the hardest materials known to man.  A heart in rebellion against God is the hardest substance in the universe.  God incarnate, filled with God the Holy Spirit, with a long resume of miraculous acts, speaking the living Word of God, did not penetrate these men.

Jesus is, and will be, the cornerstone of a revived Israel, after His Second Coming.  Mean time, He is the cornerstone – the foundation – of the church.  The apostle Paul wrote,

Eph 2:19  Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Eph 2:20  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,

The first century apostle’s and prophets laid the foundation.  The Christians who follow them are called upon to build upon the foundation.  In First Corinthians 3:10-11 we read,

1Co 3:10  According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
1Co 3:11  For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Rather than launch into a discussion about working for the Lord, the point we are emphasizing is the mutual joy we can derive from working with Jesus.

The work itself can be brutal; we spoke of martyrdom as a real possibility for any believer.

But even in martyrdom, we read stories of the saints experiencing an unspeakable joy as Jesus was with them.

It seems harder to have this joy in the mundane than in martyrdom.  And when what we thought we were building with the Lord seems to collapse, we are anything but joyous.

Have you experienced a collapse?  Has your life imploded?  Are you clearing-out rubble even now?

Your Father in Heaven, and the Lord, Jesus Christ, understand what you’re experiencing.  Look at what they were building, for Israel.  See how it was ruined by sin.

But see, too, how it is being redeemed; how all will be restored.

Don’t lose the joy of the presence of God, whether your work for the Lord is prospering, or seems to be perishing.

There is joy in working together with Him, and in believing that all things will work together for the good, for those who love Him.