Mark 14:1 – It floors me that the leaders of the Jews were searching for a way to kill him. I can’t wrap my mind around how you can be in the position of leading God’s people and get to the place where murder seems appropriate. Wow.
Mark 14:7 – I like the ESV translation of this verse: “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them.” Jesus rightfully points out their hypocrisy. Why the sudden concern for the poor? They’ve always been there and always will be, “whenever you want, you can do good for them.” It troubles me that of the plenty that I have, I spend most of it on myself. Just as troubling is that I get the impression that I give away more than most. It’s a cycle we get trapped in and can be very difficult to move out of, but I hope that I can.
Mark 14:13-14 – This is like the donkey thing when he arrived in Jerusalem. “Go find a guy with a water jar and ask him for a room.” Yeah right. I would have made a lousy disciple, because I’m not sure I would have followed through with that. Sooo …. What promises has Jesus made me that I’m dismissing because it just doesn’t make sense to me? The effectiveness of prayer (what ever you ask for in my name …) come to mind, but honestly I can’t think of others. OK, the promise of gain from sacrifice (no one who has given up homes, fields, family, …), that the harvest is plentiful come to mind as well. It’s easy to treat all of these as religious platitudes rather than facts that should shape the way I live. Am I brushing aside the promises of God because they don’t fit my understanding of the world?
Mark 14:22-25 – I wonder what the disciples were thinking here? He’s speaking of this food as his flesh and blood, of a covenant. I don’t think they were yet on board with Jesus’ mission of salvation, they didn’t yet understand and wouldn’t until he was raised. Just look at their actions between this point and then – betrayal, denial, flight, hiding – to see that. So here they are, and Jesus speaks of truths that have to make no sense to them and they eat and drink. Did they just dismiss it as Jesus being Jesus, cryptic and incomprehensable?