Passover the holiest day, not a day for betrayal

May 5, 2018

Mark 14:12-21

Passover is very dear to the Jewish people; I am sure you recall the event back in Egypt when all who put the blood of a pure lamb without any defect on the doorpost, the death angel would Passover.  But all who did not; the first-born; both child and animal would die.  To prepare for Passover included obtaining and preparing a lamb, bitter herbs, unleavened bread, wine, and crushed fruit.

As you read Mark’s account of this, please listen and take notice of these two things; they ask Jesus a question and then look for His response, and third they did as He told them.  “And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”  And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’  And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.”  And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.”

We have stated that Passover the holiest day, not a day for betrayal, or was it?  It was evening when Jesus and the disciples showed up for dinner.  Now to the Jews even started a new day and Passover had to be eaten at night and finished by midnight.  At the dinner Jesus brought up something new about His betrayal, it was one of the twelve.  Shall we pick-up Mark’s account in verse 18-21.  “And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” ¹⁹ They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” ²⁰ He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. ²¹ For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

As stated above betrayal is very common, but to be the one who betrays God only Son, His beloved Son that He sent as a sin offering to redeem fallen man, I am fearful of what happens to a man who falls into the hands of an angry God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice