Sermon from January 20, 2002
Here is the situation. Suppose God gave you the formula for a new soft drink and guaranteed you that it would make Pepsi and Coca-Cola taste like tap water in comparison. What would you do with it? As long as it is nothing but a formula on paper, no one will ever make a dime, and the world will be denied the satisfaction of a revolutionary soft drink.

You will need a business plan and lots of capital, and of course you will need a delivery system that can compete with the global delivery system that has put Pepsi and Coke into nearly every country on earth. Today, I would like to talk to you about a resource to satisfy a world hunger and a delivery system to put the reality into every household on the face of the earth. Mark 14 will help us.

I want you to be aware again of a curious feature that characterizes the last three chapters of Mark. We can see this feature quite clearly in our text today, Mark 14:10-26. The feature I am talking about is an alternation between episodes that center on pivotal events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus and episodes centering on the spiritual significance of Jesus' death. Back and forth the narrative goes right to the end. We began last week in verses 1-2 with the first pivotal event that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. It was a policy decision by Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. They did not know how or when, but they began looking for a quiet way to arrest Jesus, get Him out of public view and then get rid of Him.

The next event took place a few miles east of Jerusalem, but its atmosphere and meaning might seem to come from another planet. A woman breaks a valuable alabaster jar and pours its even more valuable content on Jesus' head in an act of devotion.

Jesus, who foretold His rejection, suffering and death three times earlier in Mark, interprets the woman's act in a way that probably never entered her mind. He said that it anticipated the burial rites that would be accorded Him in oh! so short a time. The consciousness of Jesus corresponds with the policy of the officials and carries the fateful story forward toward its conclusion. The woman's act also teaches us that the suffering Son of God is worthy of our lavish devotion.

Beginning today in verse ten, Mark's story alternates back to a pivotal event that leads to the crucifixion of Jesus. The authorities were looking for an unobtrusive way to get their hands on Jesus and kill Him. They found what they were looking for in about the last place they expected. Verses 10-11 explain.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

We have known since chapter three that Judas would betray Jesus. We do not know why Jesus included Him among the twelve disciples. More troubling to us is our lack of knowledge about Judas' motives for betraying Jesus. Was he a mole planted among Jesus' followers by the Sanhedrin? Did he have loyalties to some other group that had reasons for wanting Jesus taken out? Did he feel betrayed by Jesus' failure to lead a political revolution? Did he feel snubbed by the other disciples, an outsider among insiders, full of lethal resentment? We just don't know. The Gospel of John may offer the best explanation for his betrayal. Satan entered into him (John 13:27). There is always something mysterious about evil of this magnitude.

It is chilling to imagine Judas leaving the company of the other disciples and making his way inconspiciously along the narrow streets of the city to the authorities. It is heart-wrenching that Judas' treachery matches up so perfectly to their desire to arrest Jesus on the sly. Who better would know Jesus' movements? Who better could be sure of Jesus' identity in the dark?

The corruption is complete when the authorities promised to give him money, and Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Did he sneer at the others in his heart as the fateful week unfolded? Did he expend great energy to justify what he was about to do? What was his demeanor during those last forty-eight hours before Passover? We can only guess. We only know the deed and the doer. In the meantime Passover beckoned, and Mark's story alternates back to an episode that centers on the spiritual significance of the coming crucifixion.

Verses 12-16 say this. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

None of the disciples expected the news that Jesus would bring to that meal. When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me."

Judas must have thought the game was over. I don't feel sorry for any fear he felt at that moment. Jesus' announcement stunned them all. Verse 19: They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?" Jesus' reply did not comfort them, and Judas must have been looking for the nearest exit.

"It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me." Then, Judas got a break. He did not know how much Jesus knew or how He knew it, but the next words out of Jesus' mouth gave Judas a momentary reprieve. Jesus said, "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

Is that resignation to His fate in Jesus' voice? Does He know about the betrayal but intend to let it go to fulfillment? I don't know if I can convey to you the power of those words: "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him." The world of the Bible stained the soul of Jesus through and through. He found there confirmation of His messianic vocation. He also found there the conviction that Israel's Messiah must suffer and die unjustly for the sins of the world.

As Jesus utters those words, I believe Judas realizes that Jesus is not going to expose him. Maybe Jesus' resignation to death only hardened Judas' resolve to go through with his perfidious act. Those same words may also have carried a different intention toward Judas in Jesus' mind and heart. Think about it.

Jesus now knows who will be instrumental in bringing about His death, but He says nothing about Judas at the meal. Was he offering the traitor a chance to change his mind? Do those terrible words at the end of verse 21 serve as a genuine, though perhaps last, chance to Judas to step away from the hell he was about to enter? "But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would have been better for him if he had not been born."

Mark leaves a thousand questions unanswered and moves on to the heart of this episode, which offers another insight into the meaning of the coming crucifixion. The words will be familiar. They merit closer reflection in order to benefit us from their spiritual power.

Verses 22-26 tell us what happened next. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

The Church calls them "the words of institution," meaning the words by which the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, was established. We use them every time we remember Him around the bread and wine. To convey something more of their enduring power, I want to show you what Mark has done with these words by comparing them with words from Mark six.

6:40          So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.
14:18        While they were reclining at the table ...

6:41          Taking the five loaves ...
14:22        While they were eating, Jesus took bread,

6:41          he gave thanks and broke the loaves.
14:22        gave thanks and broke it,

6:41          Then he gave them to his disciples
14:22        and gave it to his disciples;

6:41          to set before the people.
14:22        saying, "Take it; this is my body."

6:42          They all ate and were satisfied,
14:23        they all drank from it.

Mark created these parallels on purpose. His purpose is to help us hear the story of Jesus in stereo. When we read the Feeding of the Five Thousand, Mark wants us to be thinking at the same time about the Lord's Supper. And when we read about the Lord's Supper, he wants us to be thinking at the same time about the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The meaning of the miracle in Mark 6 ties them together.

That miracle of satisfying physical hunger points to a greater hunger and a greater satisfaction. We do have other hungers, none deeper than our hunger for God and meaning and a hope that does not disappoint us as so many hopes do. Our life experiences teach us over and over that our own meager resources cannot give such satisfaction. The Feeding of the Five Thousand teaches us to believe that Jesus Christ can. That miracle points to Jesus Christ as the inexhaustible source of satisfaction for humanity's seemingly insatiable hunger for purpose and wholeness and God.

Mark wants us readers to have that meaning in mind when we read Mark 14 and the institution of the Lord's Supper. In turn, Jesus' words in verses 18-25 add to the meaning of Mark six. Two realities in these verses anchor the meaning of Mark six in the life of Jesus Christ.

The first is the death of Christ. The references to Jesus' body, the bread, and blood, the wine, speak of His death. The death of Christ, in a mystery, has released into human life the power to satisfy humanity's seemingly insatiable hunger for purpose and wholeness and God.

The second reality is the Second Coming of Christ. According to verse 25, Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." The power to satisfy humanity's seemingly insatiable hunger for purpose, wholeness and God will endure until the coming of Christ, when all hungers will be satisfied forever. How does Christ deliver His inexhaustible resources to the bilions of earth? We call His delivery systerm the Church.

The Apostle's Creed that unites Christians around the world and throughout the ages has a line that says, "I believe in the holy, catholic church." That does not mean that Christians accept without question everything their pastors and theologians say. It does not mean that Christians expect or imply that the Church is morally above reproach, or that the Church is immune to the characteristics of every other human institution.

It does mean that the Church belongs to that small core of eternal realities, which will ultimately determine the destiny and blessedness of the human race. Thus the Church takes its place alongside the Father Almighty, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life. That is the company it keeps.

The Apostle Paul used an image for the Church that gives us a feeling for the unique place the Church holds as one of the eternal realities, and it also connects with Mark 14. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it (1 Cor. 12:27). The name body of Christ suggests how the Church might bless humanity.

Jesus, as Mark 6 tells us, took five loaves and blessed and broke them and served 5000 people. When he took and broke it at the Last Supper, He was offering, He said, His body to be spiritual bread for all who would come to Him with their spiritual hunger. Then, along comes the Apostle Paul and says that we the Church are His body. We are the loaves, so to speak, that carry His eternal life to all humanity.

It is a daring image, but it is His daring image. Certainly, eternal life is His alone by nature. We participate in it only because He has imparted it to us. But He has imparted it to the Church, and the Church with the Gospel of salvation for the world and its deeds of love and mercy carries His eternal life to other hungry souls, as surely as bread loaves carry life to hungry flesh.

We, the Church, with all our diversity and splendor and folly are the flesh through which the inexhaustible source of satisfaction for humanity's seemingly insatiable hunger for purpose and wholeness and God is delivered the hungry of earth. If we ever believe this, we will never again be able to look at any congregation with anything but awe. We, unlikely candidates that we are, are the chosen, the elect through whom God works, not to exclude, but to include all humanity in His inexhaustible satisfaction.