A Seemingly Simple Preparation
Notes
Transcript
Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. Please open your Bibles with me to Mark 14, Mark 14.
We’re about to start a protracted scene that will work itself out in four parts or movements that will culminate in the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. We’ve reached Thursday of Passion Week. I know that many of us call Wednesday “hump day” because it is the middle of the week and once you get past it you will be beyond the hardest part of the week or over the hump if you will. Wednesday of Passion Week seemed to last forever - with all of the conflicts, the conversations and teaching regarding the Temple and the end times as well as the beginning of the betrayal by Judas.
After the time on the Mount of Olives Jesus and His disciples would have retired to Bethany where Jesus had a safe place to stay. As I said, Thursday is going to play itself out in four scenes - the preparation, the past, the passover and the prayer. We’re going to be looking at each of these scenes over the next four weeks. There is a picture that is provided for us in this short paragraph that is always important but that seems to be becoming ever more important as we observe and look at our societal climate. This is the doctrine of Christ’s sovereignty.
If you do not have that idea deeply embedded within your worldview - now is the time to get it. Consider some of these situations that have just occured over the last week - Snopes, the fact checking organization, just ran an article on February 4th “Why Creationism Bears All the Hallmarks of a Conspiracy Theory”. Listen to this quote from the opening paragraph - “Yet while all these ideas will no doubt fade in time, there is arguably a much more enduring conspiracy theory that also pervades America in the form of young Earth creationism. And it’s one that we cannot ignore because it is dangerously opposed to science.” The assertion of this article is that, because we believe in a literal six day creation approximately 6000 years ago and that we are all descended from Adam and Eve, we are dangerous. The conclusion of the article says this “I fear that the creationist conspiracy theory will not be so short-lived. It is driven by a deep-seated power struggle within religious communities, between modernists and literalists; between those who regard scripture as coming to us through human authors, however inspired, and those who regard it as a perfect supernatural revelation. And that is a struggle that will be with us for a long time to come.”
On the same day an article was published on the website Evangelical Focus Europe bears this title “French Minister of Interior says evangelicals are a very important problem”. He also states “We cannot discuss with people who refuse to write on paper that the law of the Republic is superior to the law of God.” And we can try and dismiss this by saying that it’s just France. But as I’ve said the DNA of the French Minister of Interior is no different than the DNA of anyone in the United States Government. And neither is their underlying nature of hating God.
On Wednesday Dr. Albert Mohler alerted us to a law that is being considered in Denmark that would require the transcription and approval of all sermons that will be preached in Denmark speaking any language other than Danish. This could never come to the United States - in 2014 the mayor of Houston attempted this very thing. She asked that five Houston pastors submit their sermons “to determine how the preachers instructed their congregants” in relation to an equal rights ordinance for gay and transgender residents.
Also this week there was a judgement from the Supreme Court lifting the ban on indoor religious gatherings in California. Churches there can now meet at 25% capacity but they still may not sing. This decision is being acclaimed by many - but it misses one salient point. The United States government nor the Supreme Court gives us permission to worship. God governs how, when and where we worship. Not Governor Inslee, not President Biden and not any one of the Supreme Court justices.
Now all of this may seem like a “Chicken Little” perspective that the sky is falling. That is not my point. I highlight these things for our awareness and to help us in appreciating the doctrine of Christ’s sovereignty all the more. It is easy when circumstances are good and easy to say that Christ is in control - see things are positive. It is often harder when things seem to be turning against us to rest in the idea that Christ is in control. For the disciples on this Thursday morning, and for us over much of the last half century, things seemed to be good - at least for 11 of the 12 disciples. They were about to share Passover with their teacher and in a few days they would be heading back to Galilee. Yet the next 48 hours would prove to them otherwise.
The church in Rome wasn’t thriving by any sense but it wasn’t being persecuted yet. Although then, as now, there were rumblings and indications of future trouble. This seemingly innocuous story that we’re going to look at this morning should help us as we seek to grab hold of the idea that in all things Christ is still sovereign and that He is orchestrating events in accordance with His will. And nothing happens until He is ready for it to happen. Let’s read our passage for this morning and then explore this story. Read with me Mark 14:12-16.
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that you may eat it?”
So he sent two of his disciples and told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.
Wherever he enters, tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” ’
He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”
So the disciples went out, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
As we examine this passage, first we’ll have to deal with a time issue. After that we’ll be looking at the disciple’s shift, the Savior’s sovereignty and the disciple’s service.
The time issue is that I have said that this is Thursday making the day before this Wednesday. At the beginning of last week’s text Mark writes “It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread” and now here he writes “On the first day of Unleavened Bread” which by our reckoning of time in the 21st century would make today Friday. But we have to remember and understand how the Jews calculated time. Any portion of a day was counted as a full day - hence Jesus could be crucified on Friday and rise on Sunday having spent three days in the grave. Also at the beginning of chapter 14 Mark was writing specifically about the Sanhedrin (mostly made up of Jews from the Jerusalem area - an important distinction that will come clear in a moment) and so it seems likely that he would be calculating time in accordance with how they did. See even within the Jewish nation they didn’t calculate days the same way - and not even like we do with time zones.
Northern Jews would calculate a day from sunrise to sunrise. Southern Jews would calculate a day from sunset to sunset. Additionally there is the question raised by this text of how Jesus can be killing and eating His Passover meal on Thursday and yet, as many believe, be crucified as Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple. For the Sanhedrin, again mostly made up of Jews from around Jerusalem or southern Israel, Wednesday would be two days before the Passover as they would have killed their Passover lambs on Friday. This would also be the way that Mark himself, being from Jerusalem, would have calculated days.
Jesus and His disciples being from Galilee would have determined a day from sunrise to sunrise allowing them to kill their Passover lamb and have their Passover dinner on Thursday. This arrangement would also have alleviated some of the pressure off of the priests at the Temple of having to kill and roast all of the Passover lambs on one day - that would have been quite a sight. Especially the year that Josephus tells us of when more than 250,000 lambs were sacrificed during the Passover.
Exodus 12, which lays out the instructions for Passover, also tells us that the lambs were to be slaughtered at twilight on the day of the fourteenth or the day before the feast of Unleavened Bread was to begin on the fifteenth.
“The Passover to the Lord comes in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month.
On the fifteenth day of this month there will be a festival; unleavened bread is to be eaten for seven days.
So that is how Jesus comes to be sacrificing and eating Passover on Thursday night but can also be said to be crucified as Passover lambs are being sacrificed in the Temple. None of you were probably concerned about that - but it will be a good conversation piece later on today at a Super Bowl party. “That was a great play - have you ever thought about how Jesus could eat Passover on Thursday night and still be crucified as the Passover lamb on Friday? No, me either but now that you are - let me explain it to you.” You’ll be very cool.
Ok - that’s my only Super Bowl reference.
The Disciple’s Shift
The Disciple’s Shift
Mark reveals something here that should catch us by surprise a bit. He writes “his disciple’s asked Him, ‘Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that You may eat it?” But of course this is how we should expect a disciple to act - to put the desires and needs of the Master first and to do what he could to alleviate menial tasks from the Master’s concern.
This is a shift from the picture that Mark has delivered of these very same disciples throughout his Gospel. Look quickly with me at some examples of the disciple’s behavior towards Jesus.
Simon and his companions searched for him,
and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
Jesus had completed a very successful day of ministry in Capernaum. During the night He had gone out of town and spent the night in prayer to His Father. When morning comes the crowds had begun to gather again and to seek Jesus. The day held promise of another fruitful day of ministry in the disciple’s minds. There was just one problem - they couldn’t find Jesus. They had misplaced the headliner. They had lost Jesus. And when they find Him, instead of seeking to understand their Master’s plans they sought to impose their own. They said “Everyone is looking for you.” Read that as - what are you doing out here Jesus - the ministry is back there. These self-styled church growth experts (with only a few days of ministry under their belt) felt compelled to try and give Jesus advice on how best to perform His ministry. It’s like a brand new seminary student telling a pastor of 40 years that he’s doing it wrong. And it juxtaposes the roles in the relationship - who exactly is the Master and who are the disciples?
He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?”
Jesus and His disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee when one of the sudden, furious storms that body of water is known for engulfs them. Jesus is sleeping in the stern when His disciples - many of them experienced fishermen who had been on this Sea their whole lives - wake Him. Their first words are telling - “Don’t you care?” Add any words to the end of that statement and the thrust or meaning of the statement would be the same. Don’t you care that this is happening to us? How can you be so insensitive to our needs at this moment. Their fear overcame their sense or their respect for the man they had left all to follow.
When it grew late, his disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late.
Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat.”
The disciples had actually been out on their own and had a successful ministry. They returned to Jesus who tells them to come aside with Him for a period of rest. The crowds, as usual, had other plans. Jesus spent the full day ministering to the crowds and the disciples had been marshalled for crowd control. Now here they come to Jesus at the end of the day and ask Him to send the crowds away. On the surface this seems like a legitimate request but there’s also a sense here where the disciples want a break. “Jesus send these people away, get rid of them so we can get a break.” Again they had missed the point that ministry is about people, that Christ’s ministry was about spreading the good news and caring for people and they were thinking of caring for themselves.
He spoke openly about this. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Peter has made a great confession - that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. But not even that knowledge would prevent Peter from taking Christ aside when He begins to teach about His impending death at the hands of the chief priests and rebuke Him. Peter quickly forgets who he is speaking to and instead forces his own narrative on the situation. That will never happen to you Jesus - why are you saying these things. You’ll never keep followers if you keep talking that way. Again the question must be asked - Who is the Master and who is the disciple here?
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they were silent, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest.
Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.”
He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them,
“Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him who sent me.”
John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.”
Oh the dangers of self-promotion. The disciples first get caught arguing about who is the greatest and then when another is working in Christ’s name in a different way then they try and stop him. It is also interesting that this short story comes at the tail end of the passage on the transfiguration when the disciples were in trouble for not being able to cast out a demon. Here is this man having success where the disciples had failed and they attempt to stop him. They have a reputation to uphold and they can’t have another person coming in and taking their spotlight - what little they had. Rather than thinking of the glory of Christ’s name they are only thinking of their own reputation. This last illustration demonstrates the exact same desire.
They answered him, “Allow us to sit at your right and at your left in your glory.”
James and John approach Jesus out of selfish self-promotion asking for seats at His right and left when He comes into His glory. How much more brazen can you be? To promote themselves in such a fashion especially when Jesus had just recently told them “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.”
Yet here there is this shift in attitude displayed - for the first time really in the book of Mark the relationship of Master to disciple is in proper context. “Where do you want us to go and prepare the Passover so that you may eat it?” Service.
Also notice the strangeness of this statement when compared to the scene we have just left. Judas standing before the Sanhedrin promising to betray his Master to them. How different are these two pictures. The picture of an arrogant man refusing to accept the teaching and the role that he has been given compared to those who inquire how may I serve you. There is a difference between having to be told to do something and willingly seeking it out. The respect, the love, the devotion of a willing disciple who seeks what they may do is so much greater than one who stands around waiting to be told what to do.
Yet how often are we like this? How often do we demonstrate all of the characteristics - the “I know better than you” mentality, the fear that drives us to say “God you just don’t care” or the over abundant selfishness that seeks to promote ourselves to Christ instead of humbly following His will - that the disciples have exhibited? When is the last time you woke up and said “God - what can I do for You today?” “God, how can I serve you?” What is it that you desire of me? More often it is God you are amazing and now here is my list of priorities - can we get some movement on these please? How much of a difference would be wrought in our churches is we had a servant mentality rather than one that seeks to receive.
How many of us would look at our Savior - worn as He must be by the weight and gravity of what would take place within the next 36 hours surely and possibly the next 24 - and humbly say “What can I do for you?”
Notice now that He has a plan and He willingly shares it with them as they ask Him.
The Savior’s Sovereignty
The Savior’s Sovereignty
There are many similarities between this event and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem that took place just a few days ago. In each instance Jesus issues cryptic instructions to His disciples - go into the city and you will find a donkey on which no one has ever sat and go into the city and a man carrying a water jar will meet you. In each of these instances Jesus provides more direction - untie the donkey and follow the man. The difference is that the instance with the donkey is a demonstration of Christ’s omniscience whereas this situation seems to have been prearranged.
One of the reasons that I say that is that Christ entering into Jerusalem on the back of the foal of a donkey was prophesied in Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
For Jesus to prearrange His entry to the exact specifications to meet that prophecy would be contrived and open up charges to falsehood - and He would have known the prophecy having been a part of its inspiration. Also the details regarding the circumstances surrounding the donkey are incredibly vague. Having told His disciples that they would find a donkey He goes on to say that if anyone (every literal translation carries this wording and every Gospel has it rendered the same way) should ask you why you are untying the donkey that you should say that the Teacher needs it and will return it immediately. Anyone is a far cry from the specificity with which Christ delivers the instructions regarding the Passover. The reason is that at some point Christ has made prearrangements for this feast.
There are several reasons to draw this conclusion. The first are from the text itself. Christ instructs His disciples that they would be met by a man carrying a water jar. This may seem like an innocuous detail to us today - like saying that they should go into the city and they would be met by a man carrying a cell phone. But this would not be a common sight. In first century Israel it was the job of the women to fetch and carry water jars. Men may regularly be seen carrying water skins but very rarely were they seen carrying water jars. Basically this man that the disciples were looking for would stick out from the crowd like a sore thumb and be easily recognizable.
The second point is the phrase that is to be spoken to the owner of the building. This servant with the water jar isn’t just entering in to anyone’s home or a random person’s home. He has a destination and the disciples would address the owner of this house. The use of the term the Teacher is another clue that this was prearranged as the non-specific title would suggest a prior relationship. The owner asks no questions he simply shows the disciples upstairs to a ready furnished room. Notice also the tenor of Christ’s request - “Where is my guest room” this is not a request of someone to allow Him to use the room and we never see another instance in which Christ simply imposes His will over an individual. Instead this request would support a prior arrangement for Christ to use the room.
The environment of Jerusalem at Passover would have necessitated a prior arrangement. The Passover meal was to be consumed within the city limits of Jerusalem - it was actually supposed to be eaten within the Temple grounds but allowances had been made to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of extra guests in the city. But the meal had to be eaten in the city. Residents were encouraged to open spare rooms for pilgrims to use to eat the Passover but even these would have been limited. So it is not surprising that Christ would have arranged a room in advance. Early church tradition held that the owner of the house was John Mark’s father and that it may have been Mark who was the man carrying the water jar. After Christ’s crucifixion the disciples would have returned to this same upper room. Later in Acts, after James is martyred and Peter is arrested and set free by an angel he goes to the house of John Mark’s mother Mary and this is believed to be the same house.
A final reason to believe that this room was prearranged by Jesus is that He, having a grasp of the situation and knowing what would happen during this Passover, had reasons to remain clandestine until all things that He needed to accomplish were completed and the time was right for His arrest. He knew all men’s hearts and He knew of Judas’ treacherous deal with the Sanhedrin. All of the cryptic instructions to His disciples were meant to keep the location from Judas so that he could not betray Christ to the Sanhedrin one second sooner than Christ intended. Every event surrounding Christ’s life and His impending arrest, trial and death was superintended by God and all took place in accordance with His plans and His timing. Jesus made sure that nothing could interfere with that.
How amazing is it to know that we serve a God who is so in control and so knowledgable about every single event that He can arrange events before the reasons for them even become reality. What I mean is knowing that Judas would be making his deal with the Sanhedrin Christ had entered into this agreement without letting the disciples know - so that there was no way that Judas could betray their location. Luke records for us the words of Christ that would be spoken later this evening “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Christ knew what the next day would entail for Him but He still had things to accomplish and no one would derail those desires. So He sets this room up and sovereignly directs all events to support Him being able to eat the Passover with His disciples.
Speaking of God’s sovereignty Martyn Lloyd-Jones said “The Bible does not deal with trivialities, with mere incidents of time. Nations may rise and fall, but God’s plan goes steadily on. Furthermore, the plan will not be modified to suit the whims and fancies, the likes and the dislikes of any individual or of any nation.” No one would change or alter Christ’s plans one iota. They would be accomplished exactly as He intended.
How would you do - if you were given those cryptic instructions? Would you respond in faith trusting that Christ has all things in control or would you ask for more details, needing to know every step before acting on His direction? How often in our lives are we called or commanded to do something and yet we balk because every detail is not supplied to our liking.
What about our own lives. Do we recognize that the same Christ who ordered every detail of the week of His death is ordering every detail of our salvation and sanctification? We often lament that we aren’t as far along in our faith as we would like to be. But rest easy Christian - that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. We only have to follow His directions.
The Disciple’s Service
The Disciple’s Service
And to their credit this time, this day in Bethany, these two disciples did just that.
So the disciples went out, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
Luke 22:8 tells us that the disciples were Peter and John. These men went and found it just as He had told them. What a wonderful truth that we can rest in today - that things will happen just as Christ has told us they will. That the same Christ who arranged the events this day is the same Christ who is superintending the world today. There is nothing that is happening that escapes His notice and there is no event taking place that is not in accordance with His preordained plan to move this earth toward the day He has designed.
Will we be like these disciples - will we go and do what He has charged us to do? They prepared the Passover. Seems like a menial task but in this moment it was what their Master had ordered them to do so they did it. Are we willing to serve the same way? Even if our tasks are small, even if we don’t have all the details are we willing to go when we are sent?
Introduce Communion.