Reverend Jonathan Waits
Sermon: Faithfulness in the Face of Unfairness (Mark 14:1-42)
Date: March 17, 2023
I want you to think about a time when something happened to you that you knew in your bones wasn’t right. Whatever this was completely justified every thought you’ve ever had that the world really is out to get you. You were just minding your own business, not bothering anybody, and from out of nowhere, your whole world blew up. What did you say in that moment? My guess is that it was some version of, “That’s not fair!”
Now, when you were growing up and said that, your parents probably reacted in one of two ways. (And parents, you can go ahead and decide which category you fit in here, your kids certainly will.) Either they expressed some version of, “Oh, I’m so sorry, Honey. What we can we do to make it better?” Or else they hit you with a robust, “Suck it up, Buttercup. Life’s hard and then you die. If you’re going to let a little thing like this throw you off course, you’re in for some rough sailing in the days ahead of you.” I’ll confess, I tend to be the latter kind of parent. I lean in that way, though, because sometimes the world is hard and unfair. That’s just how life works in a world that is broken by sin. The real question is not whether that brokenness is going to land right in your lap at some point, but how you are going to respond when it does.
This morning we are in the fourth part of our journey to the cross with Mark. All this month we have been experiencing the story of Jesus’ final week on Earth before He was arrested, tried, and nailed to a Roman cross. Each week has taken us another step closer to that history-shifting event. Along the way, we have discovered some important things about Jesus and what motivated Him. These, in turn, have pointed us to some important understandings for how we should be living our own lives.
As we got started on this journey in Mark 11, we saw in Jesus’ interactions with the temple system that He has both the authority and the passion to make a way for us to get to God. If we want to get to God, Jesus is the way that is going to happen. We can’t do it on our own. The next week, in Mark 12, as we saw Jesus’ interacting with the religious leaders of the Jews and observing the actions of a poor widow, we came to better appreciate the fact that Jesus values godly humility over worldly greatness. All of our efforts to puff ourselves up and make ourselves look better as if to impress God don’t accomplish much of anything. Humbly trusting in Him and acting on that trust in intentional and practical ways, however, very much gets His attention. Then, just last week, Nate walked us through the challenging chapter of Mark 13. Jesus sketches out a pretty wild vision of the future there that pointed forward both to the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem as well as the still future consummation of all humanity when He returns for judgment. The apocalyptic language Jesus uses is hard to understand and scholars often aren’t totally sure which event Jesus has in mind in a given verse. But Nate brought us squarely face-to-face with the bigger truth of the matter. Jesus came to remove the old and bring in the new. Be on guard and stay awake for it.
Well, Jesus certainly endured some conflict in the first three parts of the story, but as we move into the next phase of this journey today, things are going to start getting a great deal more intense. The plot, as they say, is about to thicken. If you have a copy of the Scriptures with you this morning, join me in Mark 14. We’re not going to tackle the whole chapter today like we have for the past few weeks. We’re going to break this one down into two parts. Today, though, we’ll start right at the beginning of the chapter.
“It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and kill him. ‘Not during the festival,’ they said, ‘so that there won’t be a riot among the people.’” Now, we’ll come back to these verses in a little while, but for now, they help us to get our bearings. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Sunday. Monday he cleansed the temple. Tuesday featured the various debates with the religious leaders and was capped off by what we now call the Olivet Discourse (which, for our disc golf fans, is not the name of a local Jerusalem course). We don’t know much about what all Jesus did on Wednesday, but we do know about a conversation that happened among the chief priests and scribes. Somehow Mark found out about this, probably by way of the conversion of one of the guys in the room who later gave guys like Peter a behind-the-scenes look from their side of the story. In any event, they had finally had enough of Jesus. The only way to end His poisonous influence on the people was to see Him put to death. They had all the motivation they needed. They only needed the means. Well, much to their delight, they would have what they needed there before the end of the day.
As we have talked about before, Jesus spent this final week in Jerusalem staying in Bethany. This would have been a little like staying in Matthews when visiting Charlotte. The city itself would have been so packed with people there wouldn’t have been any room for Jesus’ group to stay there. Besides, Jesus’ good friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had a place in Bethany, and they were more than happy to put up the whole group there.
Now, the next part of the story we see here in the text probably took place earlier in the week than on Wednesday. John tells us it happened on Sunday or possibly Monday evening. Because the events of this story were the direct precursor to Judas’ decision to betray Jesus which he actually carried out on Wednesday, Matthew and Mark both put the story here to help their readers connect the dots. This doesn’t mean they were wrong or being dishonest in their presentation, by the way. Notice as we read that Mark doesn’t try to claim it happened on Wednesday. Rather this is like a flashback scene in a movie that helps explain what’s happening.
In any event, check this out with me in v. 3 now. “While he was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured it on his head. But some were expressing indignation to one another: ‘Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.’ And they began to scold her.”
This encounter has been analyzed endlessly in other places, and we don’t have time to unpack it all this morning. For now, this was a wildly extravagant gesture of devotion whose over the top opulence was sufficiently jarring to some of the disciples—especially Judas—that they couldn’t stop themselves from reacting to it. Jesus quickly put a stop to all of this as He came to her defense. “Jesus replied, ‘Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a noble thing for me. You always have the poor with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could, she has anointed my body in advance for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.’” Look at us fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy.
Well, this was finally the last straw for Judas. Scholars have debated back and forth why he did what he did and we’ll ultimately have to leave the answer to that question to wait until we get to ask God face to face. Whether it was because he got disillusioned or felt like he was going to have to try to force Jesus to step up and be the Messiah he wanted Him to be or something else entirely, Judas decided in that moment to betray Jesus. As a result, sometime on Wednesday when things were quiet, “Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. And when they heard this, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he started looking for a good opportunity to betray him.” He wouldn’t have to look very hard. Jesus Himself would give that to him.
That brings us to Thursday morning. The Passover meal would be celebrated that evening. If you’ve ever heard the Passover is celebrated on Friday, that’s correct. Jews then counted days from evening to evening instead of morning to morning like we do. Because of that, they considered Thursday evening to be part of Friday. The Passover meal itself was a pretty involved affair that required some advanced preparation so that everyone could be in the moment enjoying it rather than stuck serving from the outside looking in. As a result, on Thursday morning Jesus sent a couple of the group in to Jerusalem to get things ready. Kind of like with His instructions in preparation for His ride into the city on Sunday, Jesus demonstrated His knowledge of some prior planning we aren’t told about. “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water [who would have stuck out like a sore thumb as this was considered a woman’s work] 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.”
What happened that evening at dinner would have been pretty intensely disorienting for the group. That night as they were all gathered to celebrate what was for them a little like a Thanksgiving and Christmas meal combined but packed with way more spiritual significance than either of those typically have for us, Jesus dropped a bomb on them. Verse 18 now: “While they were reclining and eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me–one who is eating with me.’” Well, they were all eating with Him. This went beyond what they had a category for understanding. None of them—or at least eleven of them—could have even imagined doing such a thing themselves, and they didn’t suspect each other of being capable of such a thing either. John tells us that Jesus basically told him it was going to be Judas but he still didn’t understand. It just didn’t compute.
Well, as you might expect, this announcement put a bit of a damper on the whole evening. They were so bothered by it that they really didn’t react when Jesus took the symbolism of the meal they all knew well and had been rehearsing their entire lives and completely reoriented it in such a way as to make it all about Him. What Jesus did in telling them they were to eat and drink in remembrance of Him would have been a little like my saying that we are going to make Easter here in a couple of weeks all about my waking up and getting out of bed that morning. This should have offended their sensibilities to the point that they were ready to throw in the towel on Jesus, but it didn’t because they were so distracted by Jesus’ announcement of His impending betrayal.
Seeming to understand how upset they were by the whole thing, Jesus looked at them all worrying themselves silly over which one of them was going to do the terrible deed and said, “All of you will fall away, because it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” In other words, you guys are all going to blow it. But it’s going to be okay, because I’m going to rise from the dead and meet back up with you in Galilee. Of course, given their state of mind, the disciples were not buying this at all. They weren’t going to abandon Jesus! Peter couldn’t contain himself. “Even if everyone falls away, I will not.” Yet even Peter would join the pack. In fact, his betrayal, Jesus said, would be the most stinging. He was going to deny even knowing Jesus before the rooster crowed twice the following morning. None of them could even imagine what was going to transpire in the next few hours such that Jesus could possibly be right, but Jesus knew.
Because He knew, the next thing He did (and we’re going to stop here in the story for this morning) was to go and prepare Himself mentally and spiritually for what was about to happen. John tells us a whole lot more about the conversation He had with them as they made their way from dinner to the Garden of Gethsemane out on the Mount of Olives, but Mark doesn’t include any of that for us. He tells us what happened when they got there. Jesus went to pray. He went to pray and asked the disciples to remain vigilant in prayer themselves. Specifically, He asked Peter, James, and John to pray with and for Him in light of the events about to unfold around them. Given those events, His prayer is really interesting. He doesn’t ask for the strength to do what He has to do, He tells His Father that He doesn’t want to do it. Yet if this is what His Father wants, He’ll trust Him and go forward with it. Listen to this in v. 36: “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.’”
Jesus prayed that prayer several times, and in between He came back to the guys for support. And do you know what kind of support they gave Him? No support, that’s what kind. Verse 39: “Once again he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. And again he came and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him. Then he came a third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come. See, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.’”
What comes next is what we’ll talk about next week. For now, though, let’s take stock of where we are. This was a pretty emotional night for Jesus and the disciples. It was emotional for them for different reasons. The disciples had their commitment and courage brought into question. That’s never a particularly enjoyable experience. Yet their emotional trauma was nothing like what Jesus experienced. One of the things that becomes unavoidably clear throughout this part of the story is that Jesus knew what was coming. He was perfectly aware of the events He was going to be facing in a few hours’ time. He knew that He was going to be betrayed. He knew He was going to suffer. He knew He was going to be abandoned and left alone by His closest followers and friends. He knew He was going to die slowly and painfully. He knew all of that.
Put yourself in Jesus’ sandals for a second. How would you react if you knew all of that? I don’t know about you, but I would be gripped by anxiety and fear and anger and hatred for those who were going to do it to me. I would be looking for any way to get out of it that I could possibly find. I wouldn’t just be praying to ask God to not let me have to do it. I’d have long since thrown in the towel on Him. I would be taking matters into my own hands. I would have gotten out of Jerusalem or at the very least gone into hiding until things had cooled down considerably. I’d be complaining the whole time, too, that the world was out to get me.
Remember how I said we’d come back to the first couple of verses in the chapter later. Here we are. Do you remember what was going on there? I know that was a long time and a lot of verses ago. Let’s go back to it. “It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and kill him.”
Okay, so what does that mean? It means the world really was out to get Jesus! The levers of power in Jerusalem were being pulled in such a way so as to be distinctly at Jesus’ disadvantage. There were machinations happening behind the scenes that were designed and intended to stack the deck against Him. His enemies were coordinating their efforts. They had even managed to get their hooks inside the outermost ring of His inner circle. They were getting information fed to them on where He was going to be and when so that they could pick Him off at a moment of their choosing. (Yes, I know this whole thing was being superintended by God Himself, but you get my point.) The world was out to get Jesus. This was horribly unfair. It was unjust. Nothing about it was right. And yet what did Jesus do? What did Jesus do even though He knew all of this was going on. I mean, His last words to Judas in John’s Gospel were, “What you’re doing, do quickly.” He knew every single thing that was going on around Him. He knew the world was out to get Him. Again then, what did He do in light of that?
Nothing. Nothing, at least, that He wouldn’t have done anyway. He remained faithful to the path He knew His Father was calling Him to walk. He was still patient and kind and generous with His friends. He was gentle and even respectful with His enemies. He was the same Jesus He had always been. His response to the world’s being unfairly out to get Him was to keep walking the path of faithfulness He had spent His entire life walking up to that point.
There’s an invitation here for us, friends. You know as well as I do that sometimes the world isn’t fair. Sometimes the world really is out to get us. Now, sure, most of the time it’s not, but sometimes it really is. And even in the majority of times when it’s not actually, that doesn’t mean it feels any less like it is. And in those moments, our first instinct is to recoil in anger and frustration. The world shouldn’t be this way! (The guys who contributed to the Scriptures rather vociferously agree.) We didn’t do anything to deserve this! (We rarely do anything to deserve the hard times we nonetheless face; that’s part of living in a broken world.) If God were really good, He would put a stop to this! (Whose freedom would you like Him to abrogate, and would you be okay with His taking away yours when you are the cause of somebody else’s trouble?) God doesn’t understand what we’re going through! (Umm…have you been paying attention to the last 20 minutes of this message?)
When Jesus was wading through the muck of the world’s unfairly being out to get Him, He responded with faithfulness and courage. He kept following His Father’s plans anyway. That’s our example, friends. Sometimes life is hard and unfair; follow faithfully anyway. Sometimes life is hard and unfair; follow faithfully anyway.
Now, is this easy? Of course it’s not. We have to actively go against a whole lot of natural instinct if we’re going to be able to do this. It’s kind of like breathing out of your nose when getting measured for braces. Do you remember that experience? I remember the big tray of goop they had to put in my mouth and hold there for what felt like an hour. It filled my mouth to capacity and pretty well totally cut off the airway from my mouth. For a second it felt like I was suffocating. Everything in my brain was screaming out for me to shove that thing out of there and take a deep breath. It took a constant, conscious effort to breathe through my nose.
When life is coming after us in some way and things get really hard, our first reaction is to hit the eject button on faithfulness and take matters into our own hands. When our sense of control is threatened, we start grabbing for it almost frantically. In doing that, though, do we ever actually accomplish very much? Not usually. The really hard stuff of life when the world really is coming after us is outside of our control no matter how much we might want it to be otherwise. Trying to grab control will be like a drowning person trying to help his rescuer swim back to shore. You have to give up and trust or you’ll pull both of you under. Well, rest assured that we’re not going to pull God under, but we can sure make a mess out of His efforts to help us through whatever it is we are facing when we try to take matters into our own hands. Sometimes life is hard and unfair; follow faithfully anyway.
The God we serve is bigger than the trouble we are facing. That’s why Jesus kept going. As much as He knew what the immediate future held, He also knew what the final outcome was going to be. That’s why He told the disciples that “after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” This was right before He prayed to not have to go through it. He knew what was coming and didn’t want to hurt, but He also knew the outcome, and so He stuck faithfully to the path. Sometimes life is hard and unfair; follow faithfully anyway.
If we will let Him, our God can and will work His good plans out through our lives no matter what our present circumstances look like. But what about when things don’t get better? You’re operating from the wrong perspective. If you’re asking that question, you’re only looking at things from the standpoint of this life. That’s not how Jesus looked at them. He knew His life was going to end. But He knew His Father’s plans were bigger than just this life. They still are. Jesus unlocked the doors to God’s eternal kingdom. All of God’s good plans come to full and final fruition there. When we stick with Him even in the face of the world’s worst and most unfair brokenness coming our way, we will experience that harvest along with all those who have similarly placed their trust in Him. Sometimes life is hard and unfair; follow faithfully anyway. That won’t ever be the easiest path, but it will ultimately always be the best one. When we take that path, life will always be our end. Sometimes life is hard and unfair; follow faithfully anyway. And come back next time to catch the next part of the story as we journey to the cross with Mark.