The Passover-King
Mark 14:1-2 (Read 14:1-11)
Introduction: Black Friday
is just past. The crowds, the sales, the excitement the bargains, gifts purchased
to exchange on Christmas. The crowds may have been something like that Passover
week in Jerusalem. Pilgrims arriving for the feast, guest rooms filling up, lambs
being purchased for the sacrifice. In our context in Mark’s Gospel, the blackest
of Fridays was approaching. The greatest transaction in the history of
humankind was about to take place. The reason for the incarnation would soon be
realized. As Isaiah the prophet had written 700 years earlier, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have
turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him [on Jesus] the iniquity of us all…” (Isa 53:6).
Jesus has
been showing His authority throughout the Gospel of Mark… He had authority to
heal, to forgive sins, to cast out demons, to calm the stormy sea. He even
had authority over death. Now, amazingly, He would show that He had
authority to lay down His own life, and to take it up again. He spoke as a
prophet in the previous chapter, revealing the coming destruction of the Temple
which would happen in A.D. 70, while also alluding to His own return in
messianic glory at the end of the age. But the disciples did not yet understand
that the time of His Kingdom on earth was yet future, and the time of His
departure was approaching. Jesus would again show His authority as He guides
the story toward its pre-determined conclusion, in His time, finishing the work
He came to do. No one would take His life, but He would lay it down of His own
accord.
The Passion
of Christ confronts us with some challenging theology, including the
intersection of human responsibility with divine sovereignty. The leaders are culpable
for their rejection of Jesus. They should have recognized their own messiah.
But God had a plan, fashioned within the God-head in eternity past. It was
necessary to accomplish the rescue of His people. Peter seemed to get it
when, on Pentecost, he both rebuked his countrymen for their unbelief, and
affirmed the sovereign hand of God behind the events…
22 “Men of Israel,
hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty
works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you
yourselves know- 23 this
Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,
you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the
pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it…” (Acts 2:22-24).
The story of the passion of Christ is the culmination
of Mark’s Gospel. Everything before, it has been said, was an extended introduction.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is “Gospel,” that is, “Good News,” because Jesus accomplished what He came
to do, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves, He paid a debt He didn’t
owe, because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
Context: After looking ahead to coming tribulation, judgement,
and the return of the King (Mark 13), Mark reminds us that this story will
continue to unfold as planned: according to the predetermined purpose and
foreknowledge of God.
The Maine* Idea: Jesus came as the Passover-King, the Lamb on the
throne, who alone could shield us, by His blood, from the wrath we deserve.
I. The hour
was approaching for the exaltation of the Son (14:1a).
It was now
two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the
chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and
kill him, 2 for they said,
"Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people."
Let’s focus on the first part of verse one as
we consider the revelation of Jesus as Sovereign: He is in control, guiding
the story, to fulfill the Father’s plan. The leaders had been plotting the
death of Christ since His ministry in Galilee. The triumphal entry, the crowds
hailing Jesus in messianic language, the cleansing of the Temple, the repeated
success of Jesus in repudiating the attempts of the leaders to trap Him with
their questions… all of these things have added tension to the story, and
pushed the leaders forward in their determination to put an end to Jesus. Even
so, they had determined not to make a move on Christ during the feast. It
would have been too public, too many people, too likely that it might result in
a popular uprising against the leaders. Such a commotion would also draw the
attention of the Roman authorities, which could turn out badly for the status quo which the leaders were
enjoying. So, they thought it better to seize Him after the feast, to wait
for a time when there would not be so much attention and potential for backlash.
But
Jesus was in charge. He had revealed to His disciples that He would be
handed over by the leaders to the gentiles, tortured and killed, and then be
raised on the third day. They did not understand, and would not, until after
the resurrection. But the timing was determined by the Father, not by the
religious rulers. It had to unfold according to the plan of God, at time He had
determined.
Jesus
came to fulfill the Scriptures, that is, the Law, the Prophets and the Writings
that pointed to His death and resurrection. And it was Passover. The hour was
approaching for the Lamb to be slain. After all, Jesus came as the
Passover-King, the Lamb on the throne, who alone could shield us, by His blood,
from the wrath we deserve. He is Lord, King, He also came…
As Sacrifice:
He came to shed His blood to save His own. Remember the questions Mark is
answering as he writes his account of the life and work of Christ: 1) Who is
Jesus; 2) Why did He come; and 3) What does it mean to follow Him? All three
questions are further answered powerfully in this final section of Mark. He is
the Son of God, the promised Deliverer, the Coming King. But He is not a King
like the nations around them, the nations of the world. He is a Servant-King, a
Passover-King, the Lamb on the throne. In God’s economy the crown and the cross
cannot be separated. We see that picture in Revelation 5:6-12,
6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and
among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven
horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all
the earth. 7 And he went and
took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the
scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before
the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the
prayers of the saints. 9 And
they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to
open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for
God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a
kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." 11 Then I looked, and I heard
around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels,
numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing!"
The Lamb who was slain, who alone was worthy to open
the seals, who by His blood ransomed a people from every tribe and nation, and
who would reign in His kingdom on the earth, is Jesus. How do we get from a
reference to Passover, to John’s vision of a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, next to the throne of Heaven?
By the
first century, the feast of Passover and Unleavened bread had been merged into
a week of celebration, remembrance and worship. Passover was the “defining
feast” of Judaism, one of the “pilgrim-feasts” when those who were able would
travel to the Temple in Jerusalem for sacrifice and worship. It celebrated the
deliverance of the first-born from the angel of death, and the deliverance of
the nation from Egyptian bondage. The tenth and final plague would bring death
to the Egyptians, but the Jews were to kill a spotless lamb, and put it’s blood
over the door and on the door posts of every home. We read in Exodus 12:11-14,
…It is the LORD's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the
land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute
judgments: I am the LORD. 13
The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see
the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you,
when I strike the land of Egypt. 14
"This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a
feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall
keep it as a feast.
And God did as He promised. The Angel of Death passed
over those homes that were marked with the blood. Death came to every home of
the Egyptians. The Jews were told to celebrate that day every year, as a reminder
of what God had done. As clear as that instruction was, it seems that after the
time of Joshua, the nation fell away from celebrating the Passover. We read in
2 Kings 23:21-23,
21 And the king
commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is
written in this Book of the Covenant.” 22 For no such Passover had been kept
since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the
kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth
year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.
This Passover in Mark 14:1, 600 years or so after the time of
Josiah, the Feast would be fulfilled in the Sacrifice of the Lamb. Jesus would
be slain at the hour of the Passover sacrifice. As the blood of maybe a quarter
of a million lambs was being shed in Jerusalem for the feast, the blood the
Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world, was being poured out. He
willingly laid down his life for us. This is the heart of the Gospel message! Greater love has no man than this: that he
lay down his life for his friends. He is sovereign and sacrifice, the Lamb
and the King. And so, the apostle Paul could write to the Corinthians that, “…Christ,
our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us…” (I Cor 5:7). Jesus came as the Passover-King, the Lamb on
the throne, who alone could shield us, by His blood, from the wrath we deserve.
II. The hour
was at hand for the leaders to be exposed (14:1b-2).
It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast
of Unleavened Bread. And the chief
priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill
him, 2 for they said,
"Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people."
We see the leaders exposed as scheming,
murderous conspirators, ironically, plotting the death of their own Messiah! There
is tremendous irony in the unfolding story of Jesus at this section of the
Gospel. The leaders plot against Jesus, planning to put Him to death, yet also
scheming to avoid any backlash from the people or from the Romans. Even as they
reject Him, they fulfill their own Scriptures, adding one more line of evidence that
proves that Jesus is in fact the promised Messiah!
In
addition to the Scriptures, they are also fulfilling the prophesies that Jesus
himself had made to the disciples on the journey to Jerusalem, showing His omniscience
and authority. Three times He told them what would happen…
31 And he began to
teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the
elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three
days rise again… (Mk 8:31).
30 They went on
from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his
disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into
the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three
days he will rise…" (Mk 9:30-31).
32 And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what
was to happen to him, 33 saying, "See, we are going up to
Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and
the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will
mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he
will rise…" (Mk 10:32-24).
And then Jesus says more about why He came, why
His story had to unfold in this manner: “For
even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as
a ransom for many..." (Mark 10:45). Paying a ransom implies delivering
someone from captivity, setting them free. This is why He came. The
scheme of the leaders, unknowingly, carried out the plan that God had
established. Recall that their plans had begun forming almost as soon as the public
ministry in Galilee had begun. After Jesus had healed one man on the Sabbath we
read in Mark 3:6,
The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with
the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Sabbath controversies, calling out the Pharisees for elevating
the traditions of the Fathers on a par with Scripture, paved the way. Jesus’ actions
since His arrival in Jerusalem did nothing to assuage their determination to
kill Him! When Jesus disrupted the commerce in the Temple, casting out the money-changers
and overturning the tables of those selling pigeons, we read in Mark 11:18,
And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were
seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was
astonished at his teaching.
Their minds were made up. The leaders are
exposed as scheming, and also as scared, fearful of rejection by the
people, and of oppression by Rome. The leaders were fearful, they were
afraid of losing their power and prestige. We get a little glimpse into the deliberation
of the Sanhedrin in John 11:48,
“If we let him go on like this, everyone will
believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our
nation.”
And so, their scheming against Jesus exposed their
hearts. Back in chapter 7 of Mark, Jesus had spoken of the things that defile, the
evil that comes from the depths of the fallen human heart…
20 And he said, "What comes out of a person is what
defiles him. 21 For from
within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, 22
coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride,
foolishness. 23 All these
evil things come from within, and they defile a person..." (Mk 7:20-23).
The wickedness in the hearts of the rulers was revealed
by their deceitful scheming against Jesus. In the words of the Apostle Peter,
speaking on the day of Pentecost, they essentially nailed Him to the cross, by the hands of godless men (Acts 2:22,23).
Yet we see further on in that same passage that “God has made Him both Lord and Christ…” (Acts 2:36). They were culpable,
but it was God’s plan. He did it for us. That blackest of Fridays purchased for
us the Gift of Christmas.
What is God
saying to me in this passage? Jesus
came as the Passover-King, the Lamb on the throne, who alone could shield us,
by His blood, from the wrath we deserve.
What would
God have me to do in response to this passage? Black Friday is past, some of you got bargains...
good for you! But let’s remember, this Christmas season, the blackest of
Fridays, we also call it Good Friday, when the true gift of Christmas was
purchased… life and redemption, reconciliation with God… for all who believe. Jesus
is the Son of God, God the Son, the promised Messiah. He came to redeem us,
paying the price for our sins. Christ,
our Passover, has been sacrificed for us, delivering us from wrath
and for worship… to God be the glory!
What does
it mean to follow Him? Mark wants would-be disciples to know that they need to
count the cost. As the world is at enmity with God, under the influence of the
prince of darkness, spiritually dead, that same hatred will be directed toward
followers of Jesus as well. The Bible says, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…”
(2 Tim 3:11). The disciples would experience it. The church in Rome to which
Mark is writing understood it… believers in many parts of the world are
experiencing it still today. And some day, in some way, so will you if you
determine to follow Jesus.
Advent
season is a great opportunity to ask a question about the reason for the day
and turn conversations toward spiritual things. Maybe there is someone you can
invite to Journey to Bethlehem tonight,
it is a perfect opportunity to share with someone who needs to hear the good
news! You could also invite them to one of the Sunday services this month. We’ll
seek each week to connect the message of Christmas with a word about why
He came. As we interact with our
families and friends let’s seek this month to lift up the name of Jesus and
even to speak of the gift that He purchased and holds forth to humanity: The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord… AMEN!
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