The Betrayer Comes

"See, My betrayer is at hand.”
And immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Mark 14:42b-43

In the dead of night and with a useful traitor, the religious authorities finally muster the courage to act against Jesus. Of course they don't come themselves. Jesus knew what was up and called out the plays as they began to arrive in a great multitude armed with swords and clubs. Judas Iscariot has just made a name for himself that will last through this age. The authorities needed a traitor, and Judas provided them one for a mere 30 pieces of silver - the price of a slave in those times. As the gospel of Jesus has spread around the world, so has the infamy of Judas Iscariot. That was probably not his intention when Judas started down this road.

Better for us, I think, to promote the name of Jesus Christ than to make a name for ourselves.

Bucky

Someone Represented Us

And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” Mark 14:36

Jesus, the Son of God, prayed in the garden at Gethsemane one night. Strangely, he did not pray as God praying to God, but as a human praying - a son of man. God wouldn't need to pray that His will not be done, the scriptures consistently tell us that He wants His will to be done. Jesus prays as a man submitting his will to the will of God. How extraordinary! All of this because Jesus was about to be the sacrificial lamb, the scapegoat, that we need to atone for our sins. God the Son knelt down before God the Father and represented us the sinners.

And without Jesus we have no hope,

Bucky

The Test

Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mark 14:37-38

We read some strong words from Peter about not falling, not denying, and even dying for Jesus. The Lord then tested this man's faith by having him keep watch for one hour. Peter failed. Such an easy task for the test too, we think. Some of us have experience in keeping watch, and we know that this is not so easy. Later in the night, a full meal the prior evening, a little walk to get there, and the peace of a night in a garden when everyone else is in bed sleeping combine to make keeping an alert watch difficult. Another difficulty in staying awake on watch can be emotions. Too much fear can make one sleepy. A time of emotional stress, such as the disciples had when Jesus told of His arrest and death during the meal, can cause one to be worn out even without a serious physical exertion. Keeping watch for one hour - not so easy as it may seem in the morning with the sun shining.

Metaphorically speaking, we are keeping watch for one hour while Jesus makes intercession for us with His Father, God. Let us keep watch in the strength of Christ our Lord.

Bucky

See You There

But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. Mark 14:28

News of coming betrayal by one of His own, ceremonial ingestion of His body and blood, and a prophecy of the frightened flight of the faithful disciples, could Jesus top all of that? Oh, why do we even ask? After telling of His coming death in plain terms and metaphor, Jesus tells His disciples that He will be raised from the grave and meet them in Galilee.

Right, boss, see you there.

The disciples at this time could not believe in Jesus and His absolutely certain foreknowledge. Peter will receive his own personal denial prophecy in our Lord's next statement (v30), but he won't believe that either. And yet, all that Jesus said came to pass.

So, when Jesus says that He is returning, I'll see you there!

Bucky

No Way, Prophet!

Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

​

​‘​I will strike the Shepherd,
​​And the sheep will be scattered. 
  -- Mark 14:27

Jesus said the prophet said it, Peter immediately denies it; Jesus says Peter will stumble even harder, and the disciple denies it more strongly even if he must die with Jesus. Hey, it's the old doubling down trick! Denial of denials forgotten, Peter will soon be among those sleeping in the garden while our Lord Jesus struggles in prayer. Jesus knew the prophecies, and He knew the fatigue and difficulty of staying awake at night while waiting on someone. Peter denied the prophecy and intended to be strong in his own might. We know who was proved right.

It is easy for any of us to say, "No way, prophet!" but if the Lord God gave the prophecy, we had better dial back those words and listen. Peter learned a tough lesson. Let us learn from his lesson.

Bucky

Eat, The Bread

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Mark 14:22

Jesus had done some extraordinary things up to this time in His ministry, but then He does this we read in our verse today. Jesus symbolically has His disciples eat His body by way of the bread. As we have read many times before, He will do a similar thing with wine and call it His blood. To the outsider and critic, this eating the body and drinking the blood is grounds for many jokes and much criticism. Symbols, no matter who may scoff, are important to the faith.

A stop sign is already stopped. It does not need to stop. However, it is a symbol telling a driver to stop the vehicle at a certain place. Jesus tells His disciples and us that this symbol of the communion tells us to take Him into ourselves. The body and the blood, we see it as His salvation and His cleansing of us, or His presence by the Holy Spirit and His word by the Bible, and others. As drivers we have at times wished the stop sign that other drivers flagrantly ignored was able to do the stopping for them. In the Communion, we get our wish in that Jesus as He comes to live inside of us by His Spirit, does all the work of saving, cleansing, educating, and in all ways making each of us suitable for presentation to His Father.

May God have mercy on the scoffers,

Bucky

Never Been Born

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 never been born.” Mark 14:21

Hardly could a stronger warning have been given to Judas Iscariot to stop his progress down the road of betrayal. Jesus, the Son of Man, was following the prophecy road to His crucifixion, and He did not need the help Judas was giving. If the betraying man had never been born, then he could not do that terrible act he would become infamous for. It seems obvious to us now, but for Judas the warning goes right by him. Jesus gives the word and off Judas goes to his infamy. Can we pray for Judas these many years later? I believe so. Will it be useless? Maybe, but we can look upon it as a test of keeping our love warm and alive. And it reminds us to pray for those who are alive now, and yet our prayers appear to do nothing toward their repentance.

Pray in love, pray always,

Bucky

Judas, My Social Skills Hero

In the evening He came with the twelve. Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me.”
And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, “Is it I?” And another said, “Is it I?” Mark 14:17-19

It has been written, I read it the other night in Patriot Games by Tom Clancy, that in order to betray one must first be trusted. Here this morning we see Jesus drop a heavy rock into the still waters of the Passover dinner. The twelve disciples are trusted and they trust one another, so much that each has no idea who will do it. As we know from the story, even when pointed out Judas raises no suspicion in the mind of the other disciples. Judas has credibility, he is probably a very likeable fellow. Unlike this writer, Judas has those social skills I have heard about. When Jesus all but stands and paints 'Betrayer' on his cloak, Judas comes out smelling clean and generous. We know from the gospels that the disciples think that Judas left to give some alms to the poor. We also know from the gospels that Judas becomes the worst sort of traitor - the well-liked and beloved disciple sort of betrayer who leaves his Savior to hang.

Maybe I don't need the Judas kind of social skills...

Bucky

Of Course They Did

So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover. Mark 14:16

It reads easily after we know the outcome, but for the doubting disciples in their day the things Jesus said could be difficult to believe. As we read last time, even the seemingly simple things Jesus said required considerable preparation and foreknowledge. Jesus also aligned all He said with centuries of prophecy. Which brings me to think of me. No, not in the usual old selfish way, but as in, "What has Jesus plainly said of these end times that I have doubted?" From our dear brothers in Christ, His disciples, we can see one thing - it will be just as He said it will be.

In Christ Jesus our Lord, love and grace to you,

Bucky

A Pre-arranged Meeting

And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him. Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ’ Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us.”  Mark 14:13-15

Any spy novel could start out in a similar fashion. Some of them may have taken inspiration from this passage of scripture. Meet a person described by a singular feature, follow, give a sign to another, receive the countersign, and carry out your first assignment. Of course this must all be set up ahead of time, and the timing must be arranged. It wouldn't do to have our first contact missed a mere minute or two. We note in the scripture that the room has been prepared, but for whom? Did someone not make an appointment? Or was the appointment arranged by God and made ready for Jesus and His disciples?  From donkeys to Passover meals, nothing in our Lord's final week was left to chance. 

Maybe those things that seem random in life aren't so random after all?

Bucky

The Famous Betrayer

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.  And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.  Mark 14:10-11

The disciples were indignant, then they were embarrassed when Jesus came down on the side of the woman. But one among them went to embittered or maybe even enraged, enough that he decided to betray Jesus to the religious authorities. Judas Iscariot put his name down in history right then. Balaam had held the position of negative lesson in the scriptures for centuries, but Judas blew that old prophet away. Judas even underbid him! Where Balaam spoke of a room full of gold, Judas ends up doing the betrayal for a mere 30 pieces of silver. Of course no fame or money is worth what would soon happen to Judas Iscariot. 

The most charitable suggestion I have read for a reason is that Judas wanted to motivate Jesus to be the Messiah that Judas thought he should be. As we know from the Word of God, Jesus was always going to be the Savior the world needed. Judas could not see that. Don't be a Judas.

Bucky

Answering The Uproar

But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”  Mark 14:6-9

As a memorial to her, I will do my part this morning. The desire to criticize has blown up, the uproar reaction of the flesh had its say, and now Jesus our Lord answers. Priorities, why take the time to criticize and trouble the one doing a good work for Him whose time is so short? And this should not be a surprise to them as Jesus has told His disciples at least three times now that He has come to Jerusalem to die at the hands of the religious leaders and Romans. Prioritize! The time to give alms to the poor will be long, but the time to do good works for the Son of Man is almost up. Jesus defends the one woman, while His twelve disciples act like a bunch of Pharisees. Oh, oh, we want to criticize the disciples now because that temptation to act the Pharisee is still with us. 

Let us instead remember that woman, Mary of Bethany, as we rejoice in Christ today,

Bucky

The Uproar

But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply. Mark 14:4-5

As the sweet smell of expensive perfume oil ravishes the nostrils of the dinner guests, reactions come and an uproar joins the party. Oh, does not criticism come so easily to us? We didn't work to earn the money to buy the stuff. We did not go out to purchase it with our money. And we did not hear the call of the Spirit to do this for Jesus, but we do have that sharp criticism of what ought to have been done with the stuff. Giving the proceeds of the sale to the poor would not earn us any treasure in Heaven since it was not our perfume to begin with, but that sense of self-rightness must sound forth its trumpet! Jesus will have a different opinion from this reaction of ours.

We were not there, you may notice. I placed us there because we have a conceit wherein we like to read the Bible stories and think how much better we would have acted and spoken to Jesus. Utter nonsense. In that time and place, with the same childhood education and religious instruction, we would have been no better. Even today, sharp criticism of good works done unto Jesus still comes easily and quickly to our lips. Next time, let us see what Jesus has to say of this woman's work.

May God bless you this day as we follow Jesus His Son,

Bucky

An Act Of Loving Disrespect?

And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.  Mark 14:3

Pouring any sort of liquid goo, expensive or cheap, over someone's head is usually an act of great disrespect, especially at dinner time. However, Jesus accepts this as a good work for Him, and as a preparation for His burial. How did she know this? Did she know this? In John we find out that this was Mary of Bethany, one of the sisters of Lazarus. We can imagine that Mary did not as a habit go about pouring expensive perfume oil on the dinner guests. How did she know this was the time for Jesus to die and be buried? Was it an act of love and her left hand didn't know what her right hand was doing, as the old saying goes? It is one of the more unusual and unexpected acts to take place with Jesus in the scriptures. And it causes an uproar...

You or I may be called on to do something strange for Jesus, be ready as we stand our watch!

Bucky

Remembrance

After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. Mark 14:1-2

Two days after His talk in Olivet, the murder by trickery of Jesus has become the solution for the religious leaders of Israel. Asking the religious leaders about this a couple of years later a scribe would likely hear a different take on this, such as, "We carried out a successful operation for the removal of a false prophet without upsetting the people." Today we will find similar opposing views on what happened this day 25 years ago in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. In remembrance of those who boarded flights and went to their work. or reported for duty as first responders, and did not return to loved ones that evening, we recall that the One those religious leaders wanted to 'get rid of' is the one answer to the evil in this world today.

Trust in Jesus,

Bucky

Patient Urgency

Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.  Mark 13:33-34

To each his work, Jesus has gone for a time and left to each of us his or her work. But didn't He just tell in the preceding verses about these big events and those persecutions? In our verses for today, Jesus tells of an 'until then' time. We live in that watching time when some are persecuted, some are affected by a war, and others by earthquakes. Most of us reading this will not be facing any of that today. But then there is the doorkeeper whose job of watching is by nature passive, dull, and stuck in the same place. It is not what many young persons just graduated from school want to do. Even some older folks want to be on the move, going forward, working toward, and staying active. The doorkeeper may not get to do all of that. It is on his or her watch though that the other servants are able to go about their duties. Any day the master may return, and so with patient urgency the doorkeeper maintains the watch. It is not the most exciting or glamorous job, but it is important. 

And just think how much prayer that watcher can do while waiting there on watch!

Bucky

After That Tribulation

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.  Mark 13:24-27

After those verses today, there isn't much left to say. Of course we all then want to know the when - day, date, even a month and year. But in verse 32, Jesus lets us know that none of us knows. Occasionally a cult will step up and name a date, and we all immediately know the foolishness of that. It is always amusing to see a representative show up the next morning and try to explain why the cult is still here with the rest of us. But, the rest of us, no matter how far away we may be on the earth or in heaven, will not miss this gathering. Our Lord's angels will be thorough in their gathering, the Son of Man oversees them from the clouds with great power and glory! 

So, we anticipate with great yearning a date we cannot know? Yes, have faith and wait on the Lord Jesus!

Bucky

Out In The Desert

Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.  Mark 13:21-23

The recently completed Burning Man 2026 shows us that large gatherings in the desert are not unknown. The gathering runs about 72,000 persons in a place without food or water, well, most of the time it is without water. The past few years have provided evidence of the dry lake bed occasionally attempting a return to lake status. Of course the warning of our Lord in this prophecy today is not against gathering together in the desert, but what will happen when a claimant to His title takes a gathering and sends them forth to spread the word. Actually, in our day the pretender wouldn't have to send anyone; social media would take care of the spreading of the news. All the false messiah would need is a decent cellular data connection out there in the desert. So be warned, the time may be near for a viral message we must refuse to believe. 

Praise unto the Lord our God on this Labor Day,

Bucky

Even Us Weirdos Glorify Him

For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days. Mark 13:19-20

Sometimes those end times prophecies can be real downers, but they are also so open to imagining. What I want to see are those sixteen-hour days when the days are shortened, as Jesus said. You think a three-day weekend seems short now, just you wait! This is one where we start to wonder about the translation of those old Greek words from the New Testament. Shorten the days? Is that what it really means? Our pastor always said it meant less of the days, as in the tribulation wouldn't go on until everyone was dead. But if you look at the words from the NKJV literally, yeah, it means less than a 24-hour day. How weird! Perhaps it's only me, weirdest of the weird, ya know.

Have a God-glorifying weekend this Labor Day as you rejoice in Him!

Bucky

The Older Face

Let him who is on the housetop not go down into the house, nor enter to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter.  Mark 13:15-18

Now here in our passage today comes a horrifying list. And it doesn't even tell what the old folks are not to do. I suppose with a cataclysm such as would cause these things the old folks are just done for. Can you imagine a disaster coming so swiftly that a person up one set of stairs on the roof must not go inside for anything? How many of us have some sort of 'go' bag ready? Right, me neither, but I move so slowly these days that I figure it won't matter. I might as well stand and face the danger trusting in Jesus my Lord. Now the grammar/speller checker wants to add an 'of' in between those two words, danger and trusting. So, maybe the most horrifying thing today isn't the list at all.

Face the danger, trust in Jesus always,

Bucky