Feasting with Foes: The Table of Grace
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction:
Introduction:
Good morning family!
In our passage this morning, we will witness a profound moment where Jesus celebrates the Passover with His disciples. This reveals the impending betrayal by Judas and instituting a new covenant through His body and blood.
This passage should challenge each of us to reflect on the grace extended even to those who betray us, calling us to emulate Christ’s love and forgiveness.
It points to Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb, fulfilling God’s plan of redemption. Through this text, we learn that Christ's grace is not only for the faithful but is extended to all, even amidst their failures.
vv. 12–16) Preparing Passover with purpose:
vv. 12–16) Preparing Passover with purpose:
There is a lot of discussion on the exact chronology of these events between the different gospels, we have probably now come to Thursday of Passover Week.
The disciples little realized this would be the fulfillment and climax of all the Passovers ever held.
Notice they asked the Lord for directions as to where to hold the Passover.
Again it is important to understand Jerusalem was bursting at the seams, Josephus, the Jewish historian, estimated between two and three million people flooded into the city to observe the Passover.
Pilgrims by the thousands came from all over the world. These masses needed housing, food, and commercial arrangements: I don’t know if we can truly understand just how big of an undertaking it was for the city and its resources.
I cannot help but wonder what was going through their minds when the disciples asked Jesus where they were going to celebrate the Passover.
The day of unleavened bread was at hand, and so far as they knew, no arrangement had been made to secure a place for them to observe the Passover. Considering the housing shortage with the influx of people , such an oversight would be unusual.
This episode is structurally parallel to 11:1–7 Jesus telling His disciples to get the young donkey. However, it seems to me the passage actually lends itself more so for the need of security (this is not to say Jesus couldn’t have been a miracle).
Here though in light of Judas agreeing to sell Jesus to the religious rulers, we have a security risk, along with the disciples’ questions, and Jesus’ subsequent directives seems to me to indicate He had carefully reserved a place in advance where they could eat the Passover meal together undisturbed.
Jesus and His disciples were probably in Bethany. And He sent them to Jerusalem with instruction to look for a man…carrying a pitcher of water—this would stand out because it would be rare to see as women usually carried waterpots and men wineskins.
This man would lead them to the proper house. They would then ask the owner to show them to a room where the Teacher could eat the Passover with His disciples.
Tradition claims the master of the house was Mark’s (the author of our gospel) father, this was their home.
Jesus sent two of His disciples to complete this task:
8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”
The owner would show the ma large Upper Room, built on the flat ceiling, furnished (with a dining table and reclining couches), and set up for a banquet meal. The owner also may have secured the necessary food including the Passover lamb.
The Passover feast reminded the people of a spotless sacrifice dying as a substitute for others (14:12).
The previous Passovers were insufficient coverings but sufficient foreshadowings.
Even in the tiniest of details leading up to his death, Jesus displays calmness, control, and compassion (14:13–16).
Consider these 3 points this morning:
Jesus’ love transcends betrayal:
Consider the magnitude of this act. Jesus knowing betrayal is coming still chooses to gather together.
Jesus’ love isn’t limited by human standards or emotional responses. In John 13:1, we are reminded:
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
His love didn’t falter one bit. It wouldn’t even stop him from serving Judas displaying the greatest act of love this side of the crucifixion, washing His disciples feet.
If it had been us, how would we have responded?
29 Do not say, “I will do to him just as he has done to me;
I will render to the man according to his work.”
Jesus doesn’t take revenge or exclude Judas. Instead, He shows grace.
The radical grace of Jesus:
By inviting Judas to the table Jesus demonstrates the radical nature of grace:
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Judas’ betrayal didn’t disqualify him from receiving an invitation to the table, just as your sin doesn’t disqualify you from God’s love.
This grace doesn’t mean for a moment Jesus is indifferent to sin. On the contrary:
24 The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
Jesus acknowledges the gravity of Judas’ actions be still extends love.
A call to follow His example:
This should challenge you to examine your own heart. Are you willing to extend grace to those who hurt you? Here is what the Bible says:
32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Jesus’ example is crystal clear: grace is not earned; it is given, given freely too. Preparing a place for Judas at the table should remind each of us of the New Covenant Jesus established—a covenant built on forgiveness and reconciliation.
vv. 17–21) Predicting betrayal with compassion:
vv. 17–21) Predicting betrayal with compassion:
[17-18] Mark’s gospel abbreviated the events of the meal, where Luke’s Gospel and John’s expands on it a bit more. I believe he does this in order to focus attention on two incidents:
Jesus’ announcement of His betrayal as they dipped bread and bitter herbs into a bowl of fruit sauce together.
And because of Jesus’ new interpretation of the bread and wine just after the meal.
The first Passover, God commanded them to be ready to leave at a moments notice:
11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
However, since Israel came into the Promised Land, they believed they could eat sitting or reclining, because they were at rest in the land God gave them.
As night fell, Jesus arrived at the room with the 12 and they reclined to eat the meal, as was the custom for the Passover. As they ate, Jesus gave them the devastating news one of their number was to be a betrayer.
The phrase he used, ‘one who is eating with me,’ underlines the intensity of betrayal.
To be in Jesus’ inner circles is no guarantee of loyalty to Jesus, and we should beware assigning too much spiritual authority to anyone simply because they hold a position of leadership.
Jesus taught in Matthew 7:16:
16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Simply holding office is no guarantee of integrity.
The proximity of Jesus’ betrayer revealed the depth of sin’s rebellion (14:17–18).
All of the gospels show the knowledge of Jesus, one of the twelve would betray Him. Verse 18 is a quotation from:
9 Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up his heel against me.
This makes it plain some of the agony it caused Christ’s heart. As so often, if we note the OT Scriptures either quoted or paraphrased by Jesus, we can see by what biblical types and analogies he understood his own experience, and thus we, in our turn, can comprehend it more deeply as well.
[19] The first chance was an attempt to stir, I believe, conviction within Judas. Judas was seated there, he heard the words. What were his thoughts I wonder?
He had tried to hide his sin and he had done a good job too. In his mind no one knew about his plot his sin, not even the disciples who were his closest friends.
“Does Jesus know; or is He stabbing in the dark, guessing, suspicious, aware something is brewing?”
Scripture remains silent about the betrayer’s thought, but one thing is known: Judas was not convicted of his sin, at least not enough to repent.
Notice though the other disciples:
They were stirred with deep sorrow (grieved) in their hearts. The word “sorrow” means to grieve, to sorrow with heaviness of heart. Their hearts were gripped with a real burden, a heavy weight of grieving.
They were stirred to examine their own hearts. They asked in turn, “Is it I?” They had matured to a degree, pay attention to the fact they didn’t look for the fault or weakness in the others, but they looked at themselves.
The man who should have been:
Convicted, was not.
Grieving, was not.
Examining his own heart, was not.
Sorrowing, was not.
Repenting, was not.
If you believe even for a moment this couldn’t possibly be you…you are wrong.
Family these two things are critical for us to understand.
To know the weakness of the human flesh, the danger of falling into sin.
41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
To always be examining yourself and not primarily others.
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5 For each one shall bear his own load.
While all questioned their capacity for betrayal, eventually each would be found guilty (14:19).
[20] Reveals, Jesus knew about the monstrous deception; Judas was still bold face lying. Sin as a way of even deceiving the person committing sin.
Judas sat with Jesus, partaking Passover with Him, and being guilty of a terrible sin.
In spite of his sin being known, he felt confident he could get away with it; or just didn’t care any more.
The Bible is clear:
3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
[21] Judas is rightly regarded as one of the most notorious sinners of all time. Even though his actions fulfilled prophecy, his own wicked motive condemned him.
Jesus’ divine sovereignty over the cross never negates Judas’ human responsibility of his betrayal (14:20–21).
Judas will never be able to justify himself before God on the Day of Judgement by claiming, “I was fulfilling prophecy.”
In the warning of Jesus we see a profound love for Judas again. This was his last, fleeting opportunity to turn back from his evil plot. A remarkable thing to remember is Jesus loved both Mary and Judas.
We almost want to think He loved Mary and hated Judas, but that isn’t the case. If you miss His love towards Judas—rejected love, to be sure— if you will miss that love, you miss the whole story. And reread it.
vv. 22–25) Proclaiming covenant with communion:
vv. 22–25) Proclaiming covenant with communion:
A seat at the table with Jesus always includes sitting next to other disciples.
[Never lone wolf it]
[22] When the bread was lifted up during Passover, the head of the meal would proclaim: “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let everyone who hungers come and eat; let everyone who is needy come and eat the Passover meal.”
Everything eaten at Passover had a symbolic meaning. the bitter herbs recalled the bitterness of slavery; the salt water remembered the tears shed under Egypt’s oppression. The main course of the meal—a lamb freshly sacrificed for a household—did not symbolize anything connected to the agonies of Egypt though. It was the sin-bearing sacrifice which allowed the judgement of God to pass over the household which believed.
Jesus didn’t give the normal explanation of the meaning of each of the foods. He reinterpreted them in Himself, and the focus was no longer on the suffering of Israel in Egypt, but on the sin-bearing suffering of Jesus on our behalf.
“This is my Body:” Christians have debated for centuries about the true nature of the bread and the cup.
The Roman Catholic Church holds the idea of transubstantiation, which teaches the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.
Martin Luther held the idea of consubstantiation, which teaches the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine, but by faith they are the same as Jesus’ actual body. Luther did not believe the Romand Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but he didn’t go far from it.
John Calvin taught Jesus’ presence in the bread and wine was real, but only spiritual, not physical.
Most non-denomination’s teach the bread and wine are symbols which represent the body and blood of Jesus.
According to the Word of God, you need to understand the bread and the cup are not mere symbols, but are powerful pictures to partake of —to enter into—as we see the Lord’s Table as the new Passover.
My personal opinion, symbols yet deeply spiritual. If taken haphazardly you can eat and drink judgement on yourself.
Going further than the controversy about the elements of the supper, what they are and what they really mean, the announcement Jesus gives is super important ,
Jesus brings a new covenant. No mere man could ever institute a new covenant between God and mankind, only Jesus is the God-man, the Hypostatic union. He alone has the authority to establish a new covenant, sealed with blood, even as the old covenant was sealed with blood too.
8 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.”
Jesus’ body would be given, and His blood would be spilled so yours wouldn’t have to be (14:22–24).
This covenant is focused on an inner transformation which cleanses you from all sin. The transformation puts God’s Word and will in us. And the covenant is all about a new, close relationship with God.
Jeremiah 31:31–34 (NKJV)
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:
[2] I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts;
[3] and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord.
[1] For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
[25] Jesus has not yet celebrated a Passover in heaven. He still waits for all His people to be gathered to Him and then there will be a great supper—the marriage supper of the lamb (Rev 19:9). This is the fulfillment in the kingdom of God Jesus longed for.
Communion:
Communion:
As we approach the elements, I want us to pause and reflect deeply on what this moment signifies.
Communion is not just a ritual or a tradition—it is a sacred and holy act which invites each of us to remember, repent, and to rejoice in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Jesus shared these elements with His disciples, He redefined Passover. The bread, once a symbol of affliction in Egypt, now is a picture of His body, broken for us. The cup once, a reminder of God’s wrath poured out in judgement, now symbolizes His blood, shed to establish this new covenant.
Family this covenant is rooted in forgiveness and reconciliation, making us new creatures in Christ and inviting us into an intimate relationship with God Almighty.
A moment to remember:
The bread and cup remind us of the great price Jesus paid for our salvation. He is body was broken, His blood was spilled, so we might have life and life everlasting.
This isn’t merely a historical event but a present reality which should shape how we live. Remember as we take the bread, He bore the punishment for your sins. And when we drink the cup remember His blood is what cleanses us from all unrighteousness. But wait there’s more, it secures our eternal hope of being with Him for all eternity.
A moment to repent:
Paul warns us in 1 Cor 11:28-29 to examine ourselves before taking part in holy communion.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
This is a time for personal reflection:
Are there sins in your life which you need to confess?
Are there broken relationships you need to mend?
Are you harboring un-forgiveness in your heart?
Jesus extended grace to Judas, knowing full well the betrayal which was coming. As we take communion, let this remind us of the grace extended to us and to offer the same to other.
Communion is not only a place of remembrance and repentance—it is also a place of rejoicing. When we take communion together, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Meaning we are celebrating the fact His death was not the end, but the beginning of a new covenant and a new life in Christ.
Through His death, burial, and resurrection we have victory over sin and death.
But wait there’s more: communion also points forward to the great banquet, awaiting those who are saved.
Let this one bake your noodle: One day, you will sit with Jesus, face-to-face, and celebrate the fullness of His kingdom. Until that day, we take communion in faith, declaring He is coming again.
Now let us prepare our hearts family. Take a moment in silent prayer to confess your sins, ask for forgiveness, and renew your commitment to Christ.
Pray
[Bread]
[Cup]
Benediction:
Benediction:
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
