Today’s passage: Mark 14:12-25
Helpful thoughts:
- Jesus was a wanted man in Jerusalem. God provided a place for He and His disciples to eat the Passover meal and inaugurate the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
- This would have taken place Thursday night. Before the sun comes up on Friday morning, Jesus will be betrayed and arrested.
- The ESV Study Bible calls attention to these four significant aspects of this Passover meal and why Jesus would have wanted to make sure they observed it prior to His crucifixion:
- It (The Passover meal) represented the founding of the nation of Israel.
- Jesus Himself was about to become the true Passover Lamb…this Passover meal was the last in long centuries of celebrating it while looking forward to the Messiah.
- Jesus knew the meal would richly symbolize the giving of His body and blood for the disciples to earn salvation for them
- This Passover meal itself looked forward to the “marriage supper of the Lamb” in heaven.
- Jesus also reveals His betrayer will be one of the twelve.
Questions to consider:
- Which aspect(s) of this Passover meal is/are the most striking? What was the significance? How might our lack of experience with the nation of Israel in the Old Covenant prevent us from appreciating what we read to its fullest?
- How do the connections we see in this passage and in redemptive history remind us of the fact that God is the Author of it all? What grand story has He written? What is our part in it? How can we give Him the praise He is due?