In Memorial. (Mark 14: 12-25)
As a nation we love to build memorials. A Memorial by definition is an object which serves as a focus for the memory of a person or an event. Sometimes it is a very tall pillar or structure, sometimes it can be a whole building. However, memorials are not always big imposing structures, sometimes they can be mid-size, perhaps a statue, a sculpture or even a fountain. Sometimes something even smaller like a painting or a plaque or even just a stamp or a coin. But it’s not just the British that like memorials, is seems there is a human need to create memorials. Let me ask you the question, if God established a memorial, what would it be like. Interestingly there are two great examples of God instituting memorials and both are referred to in the passage that was read for us this morning.
The first part of this passage told us about preparing for something called Passover and the second part of the passage then tells us about their preparation and what happened during the Passover celebration in the upper room.Then the third part of today’s passage tells us about a new memorial remembrance event, the Lord Instituted on this occasion. So, we’re going to start with the preparation and walk through this passage and see these two memorial events side by side. The Passover and the Lords Supper. The Passover memorial was instituted in the Old Testament. The Lords Supper is instituted here in the New Testament by Jesus Himself. So, let’s pick up where we left off yesterday in chapter 14 verse 12.
On the first day of the Festival 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?’
(Mark 14: 12)
We see here the disciples asking Jesus how and where they going to celebrate their Passover meal together. This makes sense when you realize they were all from Galilee, and they probably didn’t know Jerusalem that well. They are not in their hometown which was 68 miles down the road. So, they say to Jesus how are we going to do this. Here is what Jesus said.
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 room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’
(Mark 14: 13-15)
Does that strike you as a bit strange? Just go into the city and follow some random guy with a water pitcher, follow him and wherever he ends up ask the owner and He will have a large upper room for you.
There is one rather unusual and interesting little fact missed by most people when they approach these verses. How would they know which man to follow, he didn’t say follow the first man you see with a jar of water. Wouldn’t there be 100’s of men carrying jars of water? The answer is NO!!!! Only woman were meant to carry pitchers of water at that time, usually on their heads. It was considered a task only woman did; the wells were usually surrounded by woman meeting and talking and filling their jars and it would not normally have been appropriate for a man to go there. Men usually carried water in smaller leather pouches. So, a man carrying a jar of water in itself would have been quite unusual.
Let me make one final small point about this. Many bible teachers have concluded that the place where they will eat the Lord’s supper will be the same upper room mentioned later in Acts Ch 1 where after the death and resurrection of Jesus the disciples regather for the churches first prayer meeting. Next verse.
The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So, they prepared the Passover.
(Mark 14: 16)
There have been two sorts or preparing going on here, one was by the owner of the house, the man preparing the room, and the other is by the disciples who would be preparing the Passover meal itself. They would have needed four different cups of wine, bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The preparation would have included setting out the unleavened bread and the wine. Also, the preparation of the bitter herbs which involved creating a sauce made of several ripened spices and bitter fruits mixed into a wine paste, not forgetting the roasting of a Passover lamb. So, there is quite a bit involved here but remember this was a memorial meal commissioned in the Old Testament. When men and women today commission memorials we build giant buildings or caste huge statues out of marble or bronze. When God commissions a memorial, he creates a simple meal, not a monument.
The Passover in the Old Testament was an annual fellowship meal. God used Moses to institute the meal, so that God’s people would remember how God had rescued them out of slavery in Egypt. Included in the meal was a paste of bitter herbs to act as a reminder of the bitter time of slavery they spent in Egypt. The meal included the sacrifice of a lamb to remind them of the sacrificial lamb whose blood was placed on the doorposts of their houses so that when the angel of death, passed over the city the houses marked with the blood of the lamb would not have their 1st born son struct down by the angel of death. The meal also consisted of unleavened bread because when the escaped from Egypt they had to mix the meal in a hurry and had no time to wait for the bread to rise and before they fled Egypt.
The point is simply this, the Passover was a memorial, and God’s memorial is a fellowship meal not a monument. So, they are preparing for it, but then next few verses tell us what happened on this particular Passover evening.
When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me.’
(Mark 14: 17)
If you have been following along with us as we have been going through the Gospel of Mark you will know that several times before this evening Jesus has announced that He is going to die. That’s should not be news to you. What is new news is that this is the first time He says that He is going to be betrayed by one of them and when they heard that they began to question who that person might be.
They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, ‘Surely you don’t mean me?’ ‘It is one of the Twelve,’ he replied, ‘one who dips bread into the bowl with me.
(Mark 14: 19-20)
Now, it helps to understand that at the Passover meal the one who first dipped into the cup was deemed to have a place of honour. The leader of the Passover supper would tear the bread dip in the juices from the roasted lamb then dip it in the bitter herbs and pass it on to one who was specially selected to dip it into the cup of wine. So, the passing of the bread to dip it in the wine is potentially a great honour, let’s look what is said next.
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.’
(Mark 14: 21)
So, the first part of this verse says that “it is written”, So, God planned this, and it was always going to happen. The second part of this verse says, simply that the person who does it is going to be held accountable for his actions. One author I read said, I quote.
God had given us wills that are free, his love appeals to us, His truth warns us, but there is no compulsion. It is the awful responsibility of humanity that he can reject the appeal of God love and disregard the warnings of voice. In the end there is no one but our self who is responsible for our sin.
So, they have the Passover meal, and during the meal Jesus announces that Judas would betray Him. The narrative continues.
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
(Mark 14: 22-23)
This is a very familiar passage for us, and we often refer to it or one of the other accounts when we share the Lords Supper together. But, remember here they are in the middle of observing the Passover meal together. The Old Testament memorial, which was a meal, but here Jesus is going to institute a second memorial, one that we call the Lords Supper. What they were used to hearing at this point is Jesus saying, “eat this bread, for this is my body do this in remembrance of me”. Which means at this point a memorial fellowship meal is established but in order to mark his death. Then verse 24 tells us.
‘This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them.
(Mark 14: 24)
We need to talk about this for a moment, what does it mean by a new covenant?
First there was an old covenant, now the word covenant is a word that means a written will, or testament, a promise that has been written down. You will no doubt have noticed that the bible is divided into two parts. The Old Testament, and the New Testament. Covenant and Testament are not words we use much in this day and age. So, what do they actually mean? I wonder if any of you listening have made a Will. A last will and testament is not a contract were two people agree something and write it down. A covenant/testament is where one person says how it is going to be and writes it down, and the other person is just a recipient of it. So, when Jesus talks about a “new covenant”, He is instituting a memorial to a new promise that Jesus shed His blood to pay for the sins of many.
The Old covenant was the Mosaic covenant, were there was a tabernacle where sacrifices would be offered there. But according to the New Testament that old covenant has been fulfilled once and for all by Jesus Christ and because that has been swept away Jesus has established a New Covenant which is sealed by His death and resurrection for our sins. We are now in God family because of what Jesus Christ did for us. It no longer accesses to God through religion, it access to God by relationship.
‘Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’
(Mark 14: 25)
Just a couple of observation worth making here. That verse demonstrates that the kingdom of God, is not present, it’s future. When Jesus comes back, he will set up the kingdom of God. It not fulfilled in the church today as some suggest, it fulfilled in the future by the return of Christ.
One other point. If he is going to die, and then at some point in the future he’s going to return again to drink of the fruit of the vine with us.
Then what lies in-between….. The resurrection.
Jesus makes clear by His institution of the Lords Supper, that after He dies, He is going to be raised, and that He is coming back. So, they then bring their evening to an end this way;
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
(Mark 14: 26)
Summary.
This passage tells us that during the Passover (Which was a memorial of the Exodus) Jesus identifies Judas as the one who will betray Him and instituted the Lord Supper (Which is a memorial of His death). But, the point to note is that when God establishes a memorial he creates a time of fellowship – A meal. Both in the Old Covenant and in the New. So, what is God trying to tell us?
The Passover and the Lord’s Supper are related. The Israelites where slaves in Egypt. We were slaves to sin. In the Passover the destroyer bringing physical death passes over the house marked with the blood of the lamb. The Lord’s supper is a reminder that death will also pass over us because we too are marked with the blood of the lamb. The Passover meal was eaten once a year, the Lord super is eaten much more regularly that that.
The Passover was a family meal eaten in a home, usually eaten at home, in genealogical family groups. The Lords Supper is eaten but by groups of people by faith, in a community of believers. Another way of saying that is we now celebrated it together as the church. The church as the family of God, by faith. Another way of saying this is one of the reasons Jesus Christ died was in order to create (to institute) a community of believers.
Now, I know Jesus Christ died in our place to pay the price for our sins, and I believe that very strongly, but I sometimes think we skip over he fact that Jesus Christ died to institute His church in the world.
Listen to Ephesians 5.
“Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
(Eph 5:25)
There is a very real sense in which Jesus died in order to create a spiritual community, a spiritual family, called the church. I believe He did this because He knew that we cannot grow spiritually in isolation.
It does not happen, it cannot happen. No matter how good the resources you might find online you cannot grow spiritually in isolation. Because who is going to ask you questions? Who is going to challenge what you think, and who is going to call you to account, when you get things wrong? Living in spiritual isolation means you will become a self-reflecting echo chamber. But the most important reason you cannot grow into a mature Christian in isolation is, you won’t have anybody to love, and more to the point you also won’t have anyone to forgive. You may individually choose to love some lovely people, but to love all kinds of people, you’ve got to be in a church.
Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
(Hebrew 10: 25)
Coming together it seems is vitally important to our spiritual development, so much so that Christ himself instituted our coming together regularly as a community. In fact, I would suggest this implies to me that coming together as a community with other Christians will have a greater impact on your Christian life than any preaching I or anyone else might do. That’s not to put down bible study or preaching, it just recognises we are all impacted by each other.
We all need to hang out with other Christians. Every mother in the land warns their children not to hang out with the wrong crowd. Why? Because we are all influenced by the people we hang around with. You need to hang out with other Christians in order to be influenced by them. As well as the forgiveness of sin Jesus died so that people could come together as friends and community into the presence of God. Because within those groups some would be more spiritually mature than others and could therefore constructively influence us on our Christian journey. So, we come together as church so that the spiritually minded can influence the carnally minded. No one person in the church is perfect, but with the body of Christ we all will find people who are examples for us. Some people are wonderful examples of one particular aspect of the character of God, and some exemplify other aspects. That’s why we all need the community.
Jesus gave everything in order to save us, but also in order to create an imperfect but hopefully loving community of people who come together and serve Him and He established a memorial meal so that we will always remember to do that regularly.