The First Gospel - Judas and Jesus

Okie dokie. Well we are, it's funny I'm a dad so I say things like okie dokie.

It's the 13th Sunday of the year but we are in the 12th week of our series going

through the book of Mark and after today guys there's only two Sundays left

before Easter and Easter is kind of like a moving holiday it's all based on the

lunar calendar and things like that and so it changes exactly where it's at each

year but you know when when you are a pastor in a church you're always kind of

like going oh when is Easter you know like man it's coming up quick so the same

way that some people feel about the end of summer or when is Christmas coming

you know like for Christmas break or something like it's like okay Easter

where's it gonna land so it's only two more Sundays and we're gonna finish up

this series on Easter Sunday so we hope that you plan to be here on that that

day April 9th it's the same time as always as we celebrate the resurrection

of Jesus and so today as we just have a few weeks left in the book of Mark let's

go ahead and jump right into Mark chapter 14 and if you don't have a

Mark 14 · chapter mention

physical Bible of your own you're welcome to take one from the bookshelf

out in the lobby or just download one from any of the digital app stores and

we have a tradition of just giving the scriptures our full attention when we

read them and so you can do that any number of ways one way you can remain

seated if you'd like or if you'd like you can stand with me as we read the

scriptures mark 14 starting in verse 12 it says this on the first day of the

festival of unleavened bread when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb

Jesus's disciples asked him where do you want us to go and make preparations for

you to eat Passover 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 the disciples left went

into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them so they prepared the

Passover when evening came Jesus arrived with the 12 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 they were saddened and one by one they said to him

surely you don't mean me it is one of the 12 he replied one who dips bread

into the bowl with me the son of man will go just as it is written about him

well to the man who betrays the son of man it would be better for him if he had

not been born while they were eating Jesus took bread and then he and when

he'd given thanks he broke it gave it to his disciples saying take it this is my

body then he took a cup and when he'd given thanks he gave it to them they all

drink from him this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many he

said to them let's pray God of every tribe every tongue every color every

nation we thank you for the Bible for the scriptures thank you that they have

persisted throughout the millennium we still have them to read and consider

today whatever you have for each of us individually and us as a congregation

to learn and pray that stick it would become a part of the framework of our

faith we would become more like your son amen amen you know have a seat okey-dokey

I so the first thing I want to point out is mark is doing what he always does

right I I continually try to draw us back to this idea that that he's he's an

author and he's giving us details you always have to ask like why is he giving

these specific details and he's giving us a detail that connects us back to the

bigger story what bigger story the story of the Israelite people right mark says

on the first day of the festival of unleavened bread when it was customary

to sacrifice the Passover lamb the disciples asked about the Passover meal

now the Passover meal and this festival they both point all the way back to the

Exodus all the way back to when God had Moses lead his people out of bondage we

find that in the book of Exodus and God had it brought nine plagues against

Israel's captors up to that point and the night of the tenth plague was the

night of the first Passover meal the lamb was sacrificed as a symbol that his

people would be saved from the angel of death that tenth plague and that they

would be freed from their slavery anyone that marked the doorway of their house

with the blood of the lamb would be saved and safe and then the bread that

they would eat at that meal even still when when people that are Jewish

practice a Seder meal practice the Passover they eat unleavened bread and

the bread was unleavened to make a point it was meant to symbolize that they had

to be ready to go they didn't have time to sit around and wait for dough to rise

it's like all right we get it put in there cook it let's eat it because at

any moment God would deliver them and they would be potentially on the run for

me just every year since then Israelite people would eat a meal that would

remind them of that first night still today this still happens and what we

read today Jesus has been lining things up seeing how things were leading to

this meal for a while so as mark is getting toward the end of the story here

right he's only got a couple chapters left remember he's been thinking about

this how am I gonna put this together as he's winding this story down he's

actually ramping the imagery up and the connection to their history so when mark

says 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 the reader the hearer

should already be expecting that something significant is going to happen

something that will give them a new layer understanding to the old story but

now before we circle back around to that last meal let's look at what leads up to

the meal because the second thing I want to point out is the way that the

disciples had learned to trust in Jesus the kind of faith that they had developed

what do I mean so Jesus says go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water

will meet you follow him say the owner of the house he enters the teacher ask

where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples it takes

a lot of trust to follow these kinds of instructions if I told you go over to

cool beans the owners and then ask if I can have coffee if I said go over to

Brewster's the owner is Jeff ask if I can have a burger see if I just see if he

has any wings he can bring over if I said go over to the bank at cows the

owners are Jose and Sarah I was just talking to Sarah this morning when I was

in there ask if I could have an omelet they know me I know them they know I'm

good for it but if I told you go downtown Rock Island and you're gonna

bump into a lady with a cane follow that lady where to where she lives and and if

you do what you do that happens you go downtown happens to be a lady with a

cane and she gets on the bus so you're like okay I'm gonna get on the bus and

then she gets off the bus and so you get off the bus the same stop and then you

follow her up to her house and just as she's putting the key in the door she

turns around and she maces you right in your face these disciples were willing

to follow Jesus in a way that felt foolish or even risky that might make

them feel like oh is this really going to happen but they were willing to do

this because of everything that Jesus had shown them why was this risky

because we're talking about Rock Island and I'm talking about places that I go

to all the time but Jerusalem at Passover would have been packed it's

hard for us to comprehend think about like when the World Series happens to

be in your favorite city or when the Olympics goes to a certain city or I'm

trying to think of just the biggest possible thing just think about Mercado

on fifth during the week and then think about Mercado on fifth on a Friday night

like this is Passover at the Passover Josephus a Jewish historian said that at

Passover that Jerusalem would swell to over 2 million inhabitants now Josephus

is known and known exaggerator so we don't know if he's actually telling the

truth but our best estimates are that during the Passover there was an extra

100 to as many as 900 extra thousand people over a million people all

together in Jerusalem so let's consider when Jesus says go in the city and a guy

carrying a water jug will meet you just how many guys could there have been in

the whole city of Jerusalem carrying a water jug only one I mean I I doubt it

and this isn't even the first time that Jesus has done something like this in

Mark 11 Jesus says this go into the village in front of you and immediately

as you enter you will find a cult on which no one has ever sat how he knew

that I don't know he's Jesus untie it and bring it to me if anyone says to you

why are you taking this just say the Lord has need of it and I'll bring it

back here immediately when he's done with it

Jesus says go follow a guy with a water jug go take someone's donkey today these

kinds of things would be called stealing and stalking I was thinking about today

like going like fight club style and just handing everyone an envelope of

something they had to do on the way out but Jesus had given his disciples a

thousand reasons to believe that it would be okay that it would work so they

were willing to look foolish or risk being foolish because they did they

found things just as Jesus had told them how often do we find things just as

Jesus had told us maybe not often enough and maybe it's because it's not that

often that we just do exactly what Jesus said this last week and community table

the focus was listening to the spirit and what we did was we asked everybody

in the group if they had a challenge that they were dealing with so that they

that we could all collectively listen to the Holy Spirit on their behalf and see

what God might be saying to that person and so someone shared the challenge we

all prayed we sat silently we prayed the Lord's Prayer and I gave the

instruction listen we're not looking for paragraphs we're not looking for advice

looking for Bible verses we're looking for a phrase that the Lord might be

saying and after we prayed one person have it had a Bible verse and one

person had a phrase that was an encouraging phrase and that person that

shared their challenge before they left said they felt encouraged and like they

had more peace they took the risk of sharing and we took the risk of

listening and saying out loud what we felt the spirit might be saying to us

and it was worth it because we found things just as the spirit had told us

Jesus knew there'd be a cult for him to ride if Jesus knew there would be a guy

with a water jug to follow if he knew there'd be a house with a guest room

where they'd eat their meal all of this should lead them and lead us to believe

Jesus knows things that we don't and it should lead us to believe whatever Jesus

says next so when he says truly I tell you that one of you will betray me one

who is eating with me there should be no surprise that he's right

now if you're Judas and you're sitting at the table maybe you're surprised but

here's the thing that isn't the most surprising thing that happens at that

table that I don't think it's the thing that we're supposed to focus on I think

it's what comes next because after he says that he knows who will betray him

then he passes the bread in the cup he gives the symbol of his bread in his

body to his betrayer when I was 18 I started working at this camp up in

Michigan and I probably told this story at some point we've been doing this for

nine and a half years so who knows it's a camp called Beach Point in Allegan

Michigan a little tiny town up there in the mitten and I only found out about it

because a friend of mine at Bible study named Patty Taylor had worked there

previous years and I was at a Bible study on Monday night at the very

beginning of summer and she said hey we're looking for more counselors for

camp and then I said oh tell me about it she told me about it and I was like oh

yeah and she said oh I could get you an interview on the phone right now and I

had an interview with with Mark David Heiser David Heiser is one word so we

just called him mr. D and mr. D had an interview with me on the phone that

night at Olin's house here in well the over here in Moline with someone in

Michigan and he said yeah yeah you sound great we'll hire you and so literally a

few days later I just I went to my mom's house my mom and dad the next day said

hey I got a job at a camp up in Michigan where what's that oh I have no idea but

we're gonna go and so I ended up working there that summer with Patty and a bunch

of others and then the next summer Patty wasn't there anymore and it's kind of a

new mix of counselors every year there's a good mix of people that have been

there but then there's new counselors and there's a new guy and a gal there

and the impression was very much that the girl was had long-time Christian that

the guy had just become a Christian and in a lot of ways it was kind of it felt

like one of those he was dating a Christian girl and so he became a

Christian because he was dating the Christian girl and they saw working at

the same camp as a way for them to spend the summer together and he and I it's not

like we didn't fight with each other we just butted heads a little bit and I

think that the camp counselor knew that kept putting us together to do things

and at one point he finally said you know what you know camp isn't for me like

this is like three weeks in so camp isn't really for me I'm gonna I'm gonna

go home and it was Saturday night and Patty had come to visit all the camp

counselors for the weekend just to see how things were going and we were gonna

go have like a movie night at someone's house I think it was summer's house on

Saturday night and I drove with Patty because Patty was the reason I even knew

about this camp in the first place and as we're driving she's like how's the

summer going and I'm telling her all about this guy that I can't stand and and

how I like I'm just like I literally the words came out of my mouth I can't wait

till he's gone and she said you know Craig

Jesus gave the bread and the wine to Judas too I was like Patty why you got

to say things like that because those kinds of realizations they force you to

ask how do I practice this how would I even participate in this how do I open

my heart to people that don't feel like they are for me that I can already feel

like I can tell that even though we're at the same table now that later tonight

they're gonna be handing me over to my enemies well we we participate with this

first by remembering that Jesus loves our enemies he says love your enemies

pray for those who persecute you if someone slaps you on the cheek turn your

other cheek to them also someone takes your outer garment offer them also your

undergarment if someone makes you walk a mile offer to walk another mile with

them if someone steals do not try to take it back Jesus loves our enemies real

or imagined question is will be will we love our enemies the way that Jesus does

Jesus gave Judas the bread and wine after he announced that he knew that he

would be betrayed Judas still betrayed him Judas still handed him over so Jesus

isn't saying that doing the right thing will make anyone else do the right thing

listen I I know like I've I am your pastor one of them and I know the truth

is that right now I've had conversations with people in this room about this

subject and as much as some of you feel like this is directed at you it is

directed at me right now because there's people in my life and I really don't

want to forgive and that I really do not want to give them space because I just

think they're gonna hurt because I have given them the bread and the wine plenty

of times and while Judas still betrayed Jesus and while Judas still fell away we

need to hear this that Judas isn't our example Jesus is Jesus is our example in

the blueprint discipleship that we have here there's a reason that forgiveness

is the last thing before we get to work because it's the most difficult thing

and it's not until we do all of the other things we start pulling away the

layers we start to abide in prayer we meditate on the scriptures we listen to

the spirit we begin to practice our faith then we get to a place where we go

well there's nothing left except to forgive we have been forgiven

pardon me as I blow my nose

so last thing I want to share is this the message of the Passover is still

true for us today but it does take on a new meaning because of Jesus any house

any heart that is marked by the blood of Jesus is saved just like the bread is

unleavened because you got to be ready to go there is no time like today to

receive the bread to receive the cup to maybe believe in Jesus in a way that you

haven't yet you may feel like you have been the enemy of God Jesus gives

himself to everyone at the table everyone at the table gets Jesus and it

may seem foolish it really may seem foolish to follow a guy downtown and

look for someone that has a cane and get on a bus and see if it leads you to

getting to serve Jesus but you just might find that things are just the way

he said they would be and I hope that today as I let the Holy Spirit work on

me to believe in him in new ways and to learn to forgive in new ways that I will

find things just the way he says they will be amen let's pray

Oh Jesus you gave all of yourself very literally every bit of your body every

drop of your blood you gave for us for the world to believe to believe that you

are the Son of God and to believe that you show us how to the life that you

reconcile us to God not pray that today that we would find you in the place that

you say you want to live inside the door of our heart in our lives as our one and

only forever I pray that even now that you would move our hearts about who to

forgive and how to forgive appropriately and in a healthy way that she would help

us to be foolish in the moments that we need so that as we come to your table we

understand what it is that we're doing amen