There is a Spanish proverb that says: “To a good understander, few words are enough”. If you have ever managed a diverse group of students or workers, you have experienced this. There are always a few of them that seem to grasp exactly what you are saying or the directions you are giving, before you are even done speaking. Yes, they tend to make the manager’s job easier; and some days we might wish that everybody else was like them…

But that is unrealistic for two reasons. First, because everybody cannot be the same. Second, because we don’t want everybody to be the same.

You see, the fact that these select few catch on a lot quicker to what I am saying, than the others, may be as much a function of me as I think it is of them. We seldom recognize this. We never imagine that if it had been another manager, giving their own set of instructions to accomplish this same task, that under those conditions a different sub-set of the group would have caught on a lot quicker. You know why we never imagine this? Because in my mind, I am the perfect manager. How could anyone else do a better job of putting a plan of attack for this task than me?

Do you see what I am driving at?

Yes, there are people with high standards of excellence. But there are also people who happen to think like me. And of course, they will be able to understand “where I am coming from” easier than others.

The point is, communication is a two-way street that has traffic going both ways all the time. Listening is an active endeavor, as active as speaking, and they both are shaped by the personalities of speaker and listener alike.

I think this is one of the reasons why the gospels written by the different evangelists differ in certain details at certain points. It is not that one remembers better than the other. No one ever gave the evangelists the mission to make a second-by-second detailed record of the life of the Messiah. Rather, each one relates to us the story, as it made sense to them.

Again, don’t ever be fooled by the nay-sayers that tell you the gospels contradict each other. They do not. In a court of law, no contradiction could be proven, because there is none. There is no instance where Matthew says “A” happened and Luke says, “A did not happen”. Instead, all four narratives can be woven into a single story by recognizing that there are omissions here and there, in places there are gaps of time not highlighted, and even the subject matter is sometimes arranged thematically rather than chronologically. (I believe the latter happens most often in Luke; perhaps influenced by his Greek upbringing and the formal teaching methods that use logical syllogisms rather than chronological or linear thinking.)

The fact is that each of the evangelists was a believer, a follower of Jesus, And that means, the story of His Life made sense to them… in their own way. And it is that way that they would be most comfortable explaining it to their audience.

Here, as we approach the final days of Jesus, as the cross draws near, as the environment becomes increasingly emotionally charged, we get to see greater differences in the narrative’s emphasis. It is paradoxical because the trial, condemnation, and death of the Messiah is so central to the whole story that we expect it to be the other way… we expect that they would want to practically record the events word by word.

Well, they do, each in their own way. But certainly, the way it is recorded by the youngest of the apostles, John the brother of James, son of Zebedee, is very different from the others. That is one of the reasons I love the gospel of John. He spends an enormous amount of time telling us as much of what Jesus said those last few hours before the trial: Five chapters of John’s gospel (John chapters 13 through 17), all happen in the space of 16 verses in Mark’s gospel, from Mark 14:18 through Mark 14:32.

John needed to hear what he recorded Jesus saying in those five chapters. That is what gave him the strength to be the only one of the apostles that dared to follow Jesus closely to the house of Caiaphas… bringing along his best friend: Simon Peter.

I find this interesting because church historians (Eusebius is one of them) says that Mark (the John Mark we find in the Acts of the apostles traveling with Paul and Barnabas) wrote his gospel based on what Simon Peter related to him.

In John’s gospel, Jesus spends a lot of time that night teaching the apostles many things, explaining some things in new ways, and most importantly, comforting them in advance, trying to bolster their courage in advance of the awful trial they are about to face. John needed to hear that.

Peter, on the other hand – if we go by the record in Mark – seems to derive his strength from Jesus’ assurance that He is in control.

The God who holds the future in His hand

Mark 14:12-16 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they slew the passover, his disciples say to him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the passover?

And He sends two of his disciples, and says to them, Go into the city, and a man shall meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him. And wheresoever he enters, say to the master of the house, The Teacher says, Where is my guest-chamber where I may eat the passover with my disciples? and *he* will shew you a large upper room furnished ready. There make ready for us.

And his disciples went away and came into the city, and found as He had said to them; and they made ready the passover.

This is the second time that Jesus openly demonstrates to His disciples that God the Father is so completely in control of His Plan of Salvation that He knows every choice, every move, that anybody is going to make… in advance. And, therefore, God can use those choices to move His Plan forward.

There is no hint here or anywhere in Scripture that God ever overrides anyone’s free will. He doesn’t need to because He knows exactly how we think. An example of this is one of my favorite stories from the Old Testament prophets, where God has determined to end King Ahab’s reign and life (the worse king Israel ever had). God has determined to have Ahab killed in battle. And He tells him so, in front of Jehoshaphat King of Judah, through Micah son of Imlah.

Before calling for Micah, all of Ahab’s false prophets (prophets of Baal and Asherah), were telling the King that he would succeed in his battle to retake Ramoth-Gilead. But then at the urging of Jehoshaphat, Ahab calls for Micah who was a prophet of the LORD.

1 Kings 22:17-23 And he (Micah) said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil?

And he said, Hear therefore the word of Jehovah: I saw Jehovah sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left; and Jehovah said, Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said after this manner, and another said after that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Jehovah, and said, I will entice him. And Jehovah said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt entice [him], and also succeed: go forth, and do so.

And now, behold, Jehovah has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and Jehovah has spoken evil concerning thee.

Notice that God goes so far as to tell Ahab openly that He is the One that sent the lying spirit into the mouths of Ahab’s own false prophets with the express purpose to lure him to destruction; but even so, God gives Ahab a way out by revealing this truth through Micah.

If you were Ahab, what would you choose to believe? Keep in mind that this is the King Ahab that had met the prophet Elijah and had seen him bring fire down from heaven; the Elijah that had 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah slain before him. So, this is not someone that has no idea of how powerful the LORD is…

Is Ahab going to use his own first-hand knowledge of the power of the LORD and make a safe decision, or is he going to choose to do what he wanted to do all along?

Yep… you know what Ahab chose to do any way…

God knows everything we do and every choice we make, ahead of time. That doesn’t mean that He controls it or forces it; just that He knows it. (Like us watching a recorded version of a football game and knowing ahead of time who wins and how, because we already saw it live. We do not cause that win, yet we know it because it is in our past.)

Here in Mark 14:12-16, Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus a simple question: Where are we having the Passover dinner? And instead of giving them the street address, Jesus chooses to give them the answer in terms that no other human being could ever have done.

Why?

I think it is because He knows their time of testing is coming and He wants to take every opportunity He has to strengthen them, to plant seeds of faith in their hearts. And the way He chooses to do that is to remind them that the Father has the future in His hands. That means that nothing can surprise God and that, ultimately, His purpose will be done… regardless of all evidence to the contrary that the world will try to throw our way.

But still, the testing will come,

and the disciples will suffer through it…

The death of the Messiah will come…

But it has a purpose: so that it can usher in the New Covenant

Mark 14:17-18 And when evening was come, He comes with the twelve. And as they lay at table and were eating, Jesus said, Verily I say to you, One of you shall deliver me up; he who is eating with me.

The first test is the revelation that one of them, one who has shared everything with them, one who was part of their two-by-two mission and healed people and cast out demons… one of those… would betray Jesus.

Can you imagine the shock?

They cannot comprehend how any one of them could do that… And I actually like their reaction. It speaks of how much Jesus’ Life has worked in their hearts: Instead of starting to accuse each other, their reaction is to look inside themselves, acknowledge that they have been faithless and clueless so many times, and ask, horrified, “Is it I?”

Mark 14:19-20 And they began to be grieved, and to say to him, one by one, Is it *I*? [and another, Is it *I*?] But he answered and said to them, One of the twelve, he who dips with me in the dish.

Jesus confirms it will be one of them by quoting from a Psalm of David; proving that there is no surprise here: it was written in advance 1000 years earlier. And then He gives Judas one last chance. (Kind of like Micah did for King Ahab):

Mark 14:21 The Son of man goes indeed as it is written concerning him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is delivered up; [it were] good for that man if he had not been born.

Judas is warned… But we know that, just like Ahab, Judas chose to do what he had already decided.

Combining the narrative of Mark with that of the other gospels we can tell that Judas left the Passover supper soon after this; just before Jesus did, what has been called since then, the Lord’s Supper; namely establishing the sacrament of Communion. But even that is really a warning of the suffering that is to come at them, because they will witness His body broken and His blood spilled.

Mark 14:22-26 And as they were eating, Jesus, having taken bread, when he had blessed, broke [it], and gave [it] to them, and said, Take [this]: this is my body. And having taken [the] cup, when he had given thanks, he gave [it] to them, and they all drank out of it. And he said to them, This is my blood, that of the [new] covenant, that shed for many.

Verily I say to you, I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

And having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives.

And so, Jesus does two things: First, He gives his faithful disciples a new understanding of what the Passover was created to mean and a new way to celebrate it. He is now enacting the New Covenant spoken of by the Prophet Jeremiah…

Jeremiah 31:31-34 Behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day of my taking them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and will write it in their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will pardon their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

And this New Covenant will fulfill the promise found in Isaiah, for all humanity:

Isaiah 49:5-10 …and he saith, It is a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I have even given thee for a light of the nations, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth…

… and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the land, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves …  They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them will lead them, and by the springs of water will he guide them.

That is the Plan of Salvation of the Messiah: A New Covenant for all people that brings eternal life through the forgiveness of sins.

The second thing Jesus does, buried in those verses in a simple phrase, is again pointing out that God is still in control because even though He, Jesus, is the Passover sacrifice, that sacrifice will not be the end of Him:

I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it (with you) new in the kingdom of God.

I added there a detail from Matthew (the “with you”) because it shows that Jesus explicitly told them: this is not my end, this is not our end.

But really, what matters to Mark, what matters to Peter is that it is not Jesus’ end. (This really really really matters to Peter. Remember how he reacted when He first understood that Jesus was talking about his actual death (Mark 8:33).)

The torture, death, and burial of the Messiah is not the end of the Kingdom of God, but rather, the proof of that Kingdom’s triumph, and the fulfilment of God’s Plan of salvation.

The time for that New Covenant has now come.

This pattern is about to be repeated throughout this night. Jesus is completely up front with the reality of the coming trials, completely honest about the suffering that they will face. And instead of Mark recording words of comfort, the comfort He offers is in the certainty that the Plan has not changed and it is going to be fulfilled:

The shepherd will be struck and the sheep scattered…

But they will find Him again.

Mark 14:27-28 And Jesus says to them, All ye shall be offended, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.

Not one of us relishes being told that we are going to fail… much less being told that we are going to turn into cowards. Yet, the whole situation is understandable. The disciples have depended on Jesus at every turn. No enemy has ever gotten the best of Him. If demons have no power against Him, how could mere human beings succeed in capturing and killing Him?

Yet, He has been telling us this is going to happen all along. And when it happens, right before our eyes, we are going to panic. Because if He cannot stop it, how could we ever do anything about it? The instinct for survival is going to take over, and we all will run away.

And again Jesus tells it like it is, using a prophecy from Zechariah, thus proving again that this, as awful, as painful as it is going to be for those sheep, is all part of the Plan. God is still in control.

And then Jesus speaks Hope in a way that only Faith can hold onto it… After I am risen (you see, it is all about the Father’s Plan being fulfilled) then I will go before you into Galilee (implying that you… all of you will make it into Galilee).

That is Jesus’ point: “This is not my end. This is not our end. The fulfilment of the Father’s plan includes you all meeting me again in Galilee.”

Of course, Peter has to have the last word:

Mark 14:29-31 But Peter said to him, Even if all should be offended, yet not *I*. And Jesus says to him, Verily I say to thee, that thou to-day, in this night, before [the] cock shall crow twice, thou shalt thrice deny me.

But he said [so much] exceedingly the more, If I should have to die with thee, I will in no wise deny thee. And likewise said they all too.

Peter tried. Maybe he had to try. Maybe he really thought he could dare to fight… or maybe he is only voicing the deepest desire of his heart that he, when the time comes, that he would have enough strength to stand with his Lord.

But again, Jesus’ response to Peter is telling him the truth. No, Peter, your human courage will fail you, fail you so far that you will even deny knowing Me, three times.

Isn’t this even worse? Wasn’t it enough to tell them all that they would run away? Why add even more pain by telling him ahead of time, in front of them all, that he would be so afraid, so broken, that he would deny his Lord.

Not much comforting going on here…

Or is there?

As we read these verses, we need to imagine what the apostles are about to go through… their whole world is about to come crashing down. Even though Jesus has been telling them over and over that this is coming, we have seen over and over that they don’t get it, that they are even afraid of asking Him about it… that they are in denial.

Isn’t that the way we ourselves respond to awful news?

We don’t want to think about it. We just want to keep on going with life the way it is now…

After all, what does the doctor really know? That doctor cannot predict the future.

Yet… I know that neither can I. And so, eventually, I have to face the fact that I am standing before the unknown, facing circumstances that are outside my control. At the edge of despair.

But that is not the case here. It doesn’t have to be that way…

Because, Peter, if you are with Me in the Father’s Plan, then denying Me three times doesn’t matter. Even if you denied Me a hundred times, I would still Love you. That is why I am telling you ahead of time. I know you will do this… I know right now, and I still Love you right now.

And I will love you then!

We know from the gospel of Luke that this is where Jesus is coming from because Jesus has had Peter in His mind and heart all along, all that night:  Just before Peter said what is recorded in Mark, this conversation happened:

Luke 22: 31-32 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, to sift [you] as wheat; but *I* have besought for thee that thy faith fail not; and *thou*, when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren.

You see, Peter? I have been praying for you. You will be restored!

Let’s go to the other side

Jesus’ approach of telling them the truth in advance is really His way of giving them (and us) assured Hope. He knows what is going to happen in advance. He has demonstrated this power enough times for them (and us) to know that – no matter what comes up next – He knows. In fact, the Father has known for thousands of years. And He hasn’t lost sight of us; and what He has determined will come to pass.

Remember that simple comment by Jesus in chapter 4? “Let us go to the other side.” That was all that Jesus said. And once He got into the boat, He laid down to sleep. A storm came… powerful enough to sink the boat and drown them all… but Jesus had said “Let us go to the other side.”

Do I need any more?

If He said it, it will come to pass.

This is why Jesus chided them on that boat for having microscopic faith. And that lesson continued on the other shore because Jesus does not do anything without purpose. He took them there so that they could see Him cast a thousand demons out of a Gentile man. Freaky as that scene had to have been, they were there with the express purpose of witnessing the power of God defeating the enemy for the sake of even the most pitiful, forsaken, abandoned human being.

This is who our Jesus is.

And He said He would never abandon us.

If we can grasp that, and we can set aside our fears, then what does it matter that we cannot know the future? He knows!

Do we need any more?

Do you see what I am saying? When Peter said to Jesus, “No, I will never betray you, I will stand and fight”. All that Jesus did was tell him: “No, that’s not going to happen.” And Peter doesn’t really need any more comfort than that because Jesus is reminding Peter –  by that answer – that He already knows what is going to happen.

Knowing that is enough…

It ought to be enough.

Because if Jesus Himself has been praying to the Father to take care of me, to protect me, how could I ever imagine that the Father would turn down that prayer from His beloved Son?

John 17:13-21 And now I come to thee. And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world.

I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world; and I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth.

And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word; that they may be all one, as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

There it is, the prayer that Jesus prayed for me and you…

Not that we be taken out of the world (with all its pain and sickness and disappointments) but that we be kept by the Father’s hand protected from evil. That means that that evil, the power of darkness that rules the kingdom of the world, can make all the plans that it wants to destroy my life, to destroy my faith, to break my hope… but it can never succeed. Because…

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand. My Father who has given [them] to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one.

If I believe this, if this is a certainty to me,

do I really need anything else but the truth?

I think that is what Jesus is demonstrating here with His apostles. He is not going to spare them the suffering of seeing Him captured, tortured, killed. He could have… but He knew that for them to carry on His mission, they had to face its reality head on. He knew it would hurt them… and that made His suffering all the greater.

Think about it… Don’t we instinctively try to shield those we love from pain and suffering? Why then let His disciples experience all this? I just said that they needed to understand, to experience, what the reality of His mission was… but maybe that was too abbreviated a statement.

They needed, we need, to come to a radical understanding of Reality, an understanding without which the suffering of this world can seem all the more cruel and arbitrary in the presence of an omnipotent God: This world is not our home!

Yes, we suffer in this world, and so many times we cry out for that suffering to end… and what we don’t see, what we don’t realize, is that getting that suffering removed is not why we are here, alive, right now. We are here, just stepping through, passing through temporarily, learning, preparing, on our way to our Real Home.

There is an eternity in God’s Plan for our real Life. And all He is asking us to believe is that He Loves us so much that He willingly let His Son die so that when we come to that door – the door to that other side – we will be able to turn the knob and walk in.

And if I could just get that fixed in my mind and in my heart, I would be able to settle down a bit, and maybe walk a just little bit more slowly through this life, so that I could take time to look to my right and to my left and see a whole world full of people just like me – suffering just like me – people that I could just reach out and help along.

That is why I am here.

That is why the Father is keeping me in His hand. There is nothing to lose. I don’t need my sickness healed, I don’t need to have every dream come true in this world, I just need to hear the truth from Jesus’ lips and then go forward wherever that truth is taking me.

If He wants me to last just a little bit longer in this world, then He is more than able to heal me. But that is not my concern… that is up to Him. And if He asks me to pray for you that you be healed in this world, then by all means I will… and if He heals you, by all means I will rejoice with you because, evidently, He has still great plans for you in this world.

That is enough for me.

I don’t need any more.