Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

Players in the Drama of the Cross, Pt 1

Mark 14:1-2

 

Well, we finally completed another chapter!  That means there are only three left in the book.  That means if we continue this rate, it will only take about another 4 or 5 months to finish! 

 

And I will say that as we come to these closing chapters, I certainly don’t want to hurry this section, beginning with chapter 14, leads us to the cross. So what we consider here is the sacred ground of Holy Scripture.  This is what all of the Bible either leads up to or refers back to. 

 

The opening 16 verses of this chapter deal with the players in this drama. Obviously the stage belongs to Christ. He is the featured player in this unbelievable drama but there are bit roles that surround him. There is the role played by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders. There is the role played by Mary who anoints Jesus. There is the role played by Judas who betrays Him. And there’s a role in His preparation for His death played by His followers, the disciples.

 

So what I want to do is walk through these verses and help us see the role that each of these played and how they interact and work around Christ.  But I also want to point out that there is someone who isn’t mentioned here Who is directly involved with what is going on and that is God Himself. In fact, He is the supernatural, heavenly director in charge of what is playing out on earth.

 

Mark 14:1-16

So we have all these characters involved in the story line that are fulfilling their God-given assignments.  But the power behind the scenes is God.  That is the often forgotten or ignored detail fo the crucifixion.  God is orchestrating every detail of the death of Christ. The death of Jesus was not an accident.  It was not a human plan gone bad.  It was not a failed idea.  It was a divine plan.

 

In fact, in Acts 4, Peter says to the Jesus leaders that when they killed Jesus, they were fulfilling what God ahd purposed to do.  Jesus Himself said He came for the express purpose of giving his life as a ransom for sinners. 

 

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has always been the focal point of Christianity, the heart of salvation, the key reality of the gospel and the central theme of the faith. The cross is the centerpiece of redemptive history. 

 

And we see that from the very beginning of time. It is previewed in the garden when God killed a sacrifice to cover a naked Adam and Eve after they had sinned.

 

It is heard in the promise, moments after the Fall and the curse when God reveals a man would come who would be wounded by Satan, but who would crush Satan’s head.

 

We see it pictured in Abel’s acceptable sacrifice. The cross is forecast in the ark that saved eight souls. The cross is seen in the sacrificial ram caught in a thicket and killed in the place of Isaac on Mount Moriah. The cross is pictured in every Passover lambs that were slaughtered in Egypt.

The cross is portrayed in the smitten rock in the wilderness which gave forth water to the thirsty people. The cross is previewed in the serpent lifted up in the desert for healing. The cross can be seen in the action of Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. The cross is anticipated in all Levitical sacrifices. And the cross is specifically prophesied in detail in Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zachariah 12, even down to the very things that happened to Jesus and the very words He said.

 

When John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Messiah, he said, “He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Everybody knew that a lamb was only useful and acceptable to God if it was killed. John the Baptist knew then that the Messiah had to die. They all knew that was what the Old Testament made clear.

 

Move all the way to the end of the Bible in Revelation 13, and there you find that even before Scripture and before creation, Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  That means the plan for the death of Christ predates creation.

 

This was not a good idea gone bad. This is what has been planned from eternity past. The cross alone provides the repentant believer in Christ with the forgiveness of all his sins forever and the promise of eternal heaven and eternal joy.

 

No wonder we sing so many songs about the cross.  They are the ultimate reminder of God’s goodness, His saving love, His righteousness, His grace, His mercy, His wisdom, His justice, His holiness and every other attribute.

That is why all four gospel writers end their histories of Jesus with the details concerning His death and resurrection. This is the high point of all history.

 

And as you know, Jesus had been pointing His followers toward this time.  There are four times in the gospel of Mark just in recent chapters in which He made reference specifically to being arrested in Jerusalem, being mistreated, being killed and rising the third day.  We see it in chapter 8 verse 31, chapter 9 verse 31, chapter 10 verse 33, and in a parable form in chapter 12 verse 7.

 

So this is no surprise to any reader of Scripture and it’s no surprise to Jesus and shouldn’t have been any surprise to those who had heard Him refer to His death. This is where God has been taking Him, as well as all redemptive history, since before time began.

 

And now the time has come. Notice what we read in

 

Verses 1-2

 

Immediately we see the hand of God at work. That is not incidental information. It is the purpose of God that on that Passover in A.D. 30, on the fourteenth of the month Nisan, at the very hour when the Passover lambs were being slain on the Passover at three in the afternoon, Jesus would die. That’s pretty specific.

 

So at the same time when all the Passover lambs were beginning to be slaughtered, the true Passover would die. Now that is exactly the time the leaders didn’t want to have to kill Him. That was the last time they would have wanted to murder Him.

But remember, we are operating on God’s timetable.  They’re not in charge.  They thought they were, but the unseen hand of God is seen in every detail and God’s purpose was to have the Lord Jesus eat the Passover with His disciples on Tuesday night. 

 

He will then be arrested, sentenced, tried, crucified and dead by three o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, removed from the cross by Nicodemus and Joseph and in the grave by six on Wednesday. 

 

He will be in the grave Thursday, Friday and Saturday and out before the women arrive at the tomb on Sunday morning. 

 

It is a very precision timetable that is required to meet prophetic requirements.  God was very specific about Passover and just as specific in giving us the details regarding the crucifixion. 

 

In fact, you would be hard-pressed to put it all together and have everyone where they need to be in human terms.  But this is God’s plan and it will happen just as He designed it to happen. He died right on time and not a moment too late or too eary, in spite of the fact that there were multiple times when people tried to kill Him.   

 

But every time they failed because it wasn’t His time to die. The Lamb would be slain at the Passover on this year on that day. The very details of the schedule were set by God Himself.

 

Now that brings to mind something that is not often stated.  Jesus suffered and died at the hands of evil men, but ultimately, it was God that took His life.

He suffered unjustly at the hands of men, but He also suffered at the hands of God. They punished Him for what He didn’t do, but God punished Him for what He didn’t do also. He suffered as if He was guilty. The most evil act ever perpetrated by evil men, and yet the most wonderful, loving act ever perpetrated by God.

 

It was the worst miscarriage of justice in history and yet the greatest satisfaction of justice in history. The cross is full of paradoxes and conundrums. Even though God killed Him for sins He didn’t commit, God killed Him for sins we did commit and He did it to purchase our salvation. 

 

Now, with that background ing mind, let’s take a brief look at the first group in the drama.  God is directing everything and one of the groups of people involved is the chief priests and scribes.  Let’s identify them as

 

 

We are introduced to them in

 

Verse 1b-2

 

So the one thing that didn’t want to do is upset Passover, and yet that’s exactly what happened. 

So why did they not want to kill Jesus at this time? 

 

Well, it’s Passover.  That means Jerusalem had hundreds of thousands of Jews who had come to town for this most attended feast of the year.

 

 

Now we know they wanted to kill Jesus and they have a plan in mind to get it done.  Matthew 26:3 says they met at the house of the High Priest Caiaphas to plan how to kill Christ. They couldn’t tolerate Him anymore. He came in. He attracted all the interest of the people in that supposed triumphal entry. He attacked their temple. He had taught contrary to everything they believed.

 

So the Chief Priests and the Pharisees convened a council and were saying, “What are we doing? This man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.

 

For the people in the Sanhedrin, it was about politics. The Sadducees didn’t care about theology at all and they were the main players. They were afraid that they were going to lose their freedoms as a nation. They were going to lose some social ground. They were going to lose some political clout and some power because if the people go after Jesus, the Romans are going to come and they’re going to see this as a threat to them. We’re going to be in trouble.

 

So Caiaphas, who was High Priest, said to them, “The only solution to the problem is to kill Him.” And from that day forward, that was their intent.  They concocted some scheme as to how they were going to do it and the only thing we know about their plan was they weren’t going to do it during Passover week.  That’s what Mark says. They were not going to do it during the festival because He’s so popular, there might be a riot of the people.

 

Boy, did they underestimate the crowd!

But they didn’t know the crowd would react like they did, so in their minds, the worst time to stir things up with Jesus would be during the Passover.  But they weren’t in charge!  It was God’s time. 

 

In fact, God moved them so fast, they arrested Him in the night. They tried Him in the morning, had Him on the cross before noon, He was dead by three in the afternoon, off the cross through the request of Joseph of Arimathea, body down, in the grave before the day is over. They couldn’t postpone what God had designed.

 

Proverbs 19:21 says, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel, it will stand.”

 

One of the greatest providential workings of God ever was the murder of Jesus. So the Jewish leaders set their plans but their plans are thwarted and replaced by the plan of God.

 

So we meet the enemies. Next week we’re going to meet the friends, the betrayer, and the followers, the disciples and the role they play and it’s all equally fascinating.

 

Let’s pray.