SPEAKER_01 0:13

Today's scripture is taken from Mark chapter 14, verses 12 to 31. And on the day of the 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 whenever he enters, say to the master of the house. And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. They 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. And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. And as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. They began to be sorrowful and to say to him, one after another, Is it I? He said to them, It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping the bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes, and 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. And as they were eating, he took the bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said, Take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I said to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they sang a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus said to them, You will all fall away, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I will go before you in Galilee. Peter said to him, Even though they all fall away, I will not. And Jesus said to him, Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. But he said empathetically, If I must die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said the same. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

unknown 3:25

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

So we are continuing our sermon series on the Gospel of Mark. Today we will be looking at Mark chapter 14, verse 12 to 31, and we'll be exploring together what is the significance of the Passover or what we now call the Lord's Supper for our lives today. So the Passover during the time of Jesus was a massive national and religious festival. It commemorates Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt. It was first mentioned in Exodus 12 that a lamb shall be sacrificed and his blood placed on the two doorposts and the lintel of houses. The flesh of the lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It shall be eaten in haste, as it is the Lord's supper. Exodus chapter 12, verse 12 reads, For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and beast. And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. And Exodus 12 14 reminds Israel that this day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statue forever. You shall keep it as a feast. So during Passover, a great influx of pilgrims will arrive in Jerusalem each spring, causing the population to swell to many times its normal size. Thousands of Jewish pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem to sacrifice lambs at the temple. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that at Passover in AD 66, about 255,000 lambs were slaughtered in the temple. So the Jews celebrated Passover by remembering and recalling their deliverance. And they will always bring a lamb as a sacrifice to commemorate the occasion of the Lord's Passover, the Lord's deliverance of Israel from the Egyptians when he saw the blood applied, the blood of the lamb, the blood of the sacrifice being applied to the doors and the lintels of houses. So the mood of expectancy and urgency characterize all Passover pilgrims, and it likely pervades Jesus' disciples as well. So three times in Mark 14, verse 12 to 16, the word preparation occurs as the disciples inquire where they shall prepare the Passover for you to eat. The you refers to Jesus. The singular pronoun you here mentioned in Mark 14:12 not only establishes Jesus as the presiding head of the meal, you are the host, you are the one that will lead in the Passover. It in a certain way anticipates the words of institution in which Jesus will say in Mark 14, 22, This is my body. You'll see later that Jesus not only presides at the feast, he's not only the host, but he is the feast. He is also the sacrifice. He will say, This is my body broken for you. According to the Mishnah, a Passover liturgy consisted of the recitation of what we call the Hale Psalms, which is Psalms 113 to 118. And the actual meal was divided into four parts, each concluding with the drinking of a cup of wine. So the sequence is like that. First, a blessing was being pronounced by the family head over the gathering when they come for Passover, and it's usually the father that will lead in the prayer of blessing. Then, in response to a child's question, probably the son uh would ask this question why is this night different from other nights? Then the father will recount the deliverance from Egypt according to Deuteronomy 26 verse 5 to 9. And he will say from Deuteronomy 26, verse 5 to 9, and you shall make response before the Lord your God. A wandering Aramaean was my father. So why was he a wandering Aramaean? Because Jacob, uh, which is one of the patriarchs of the Old Testament, originated from Pandan Aram, which is about is is northeastern uh Mesopotamia or Syria. So Jacob was from there, so he was a wandering Aramaean. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, our the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our afflictions, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this land and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And every Passover, the story of Israel, the narrative is being repeated. So the whole family, the extended family, hear the biblical story of God's deliverance of the Israelites. And then the father, after that, would pronounce a benediction over the various foods that symbolizes their bitter captivity in Egypt. Both the hardships and the blessings of the Exodus. Family and guests were then invited to partake the meal. Near midnight, the feast concluded with the singing of Psalm 116 to 118 and the drinking of the fourth cup of wine. So the opening reference to the Last Supper or the Lord's Supper in Mark 14:18, in which Jesus began to say that one of them will betray him, likely comes several hours into the Passover meal. The reference to eating in Mark 14, 18 signifies or signals the third phase of the meal, somewhere in between the proceedings of Passover. And Mark 14:18 tells us 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. Mark 14, verse 22 to 24 reads, And as they were eating, he Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said, Take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Right? We see here that there are several uh verbs being used in Mark 14, 22. He he, as they were eating, they eat, take, bless, break, give, say, and take. So all these actions, uh, short actions, so to speak, signifies the gracious activity of Jesus on behalf of the disciples. He took bread, he blessed, he broke it, he gave it to them and said, Take this, this is my body. Important for us to note that when Jesus said, This is my body, the word body here does not so much refer to the Greek word sarc, which is the flesh, but refers rather to the word soma, which refers to his being, his entire body, his being, not just his uh fleshly nature, but his whole being. So all the activities signifies by the verbs Jesus took, he blessed, he broke and gave, and said, This is my body, signifies actually the gift of Jesus Himself, holy and without reserve, in the self-offering of his body for the disciples. And I think it may have shocked them quite a lot because what is Jesus talking about? This is my body, you know, uh that we are to eat of it, and he goes on to say that this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. So the the phrase, the blood of the covenant, uh alludes to how Moses in Exodus 24, verse 6 to 8, had to throw blood on the people and to remind them that it is the blood of the covenant that sanctifies them. So, in in during the time of Moses, the covenant was sealed by necessity of the blood of an animal which was sacrificed to cover, to atone for our sins. So the New Testament or the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus here, when he said, This is my blood of the covenant, he implies that Jesus' blood is not simply thrown on the community, but is imbibed and received into believers. When Jesus said, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many, he's implying that we ought to receive his life into our hearts and our lives. So in the Old Testament, according to Leviticus 17, verse 11, the life of a creature resided in his blood. So when Jesus said, This cup is uh the covenant in my blood, represents his giving of his very life to us. Jesus, when He when He took the cup and said, This is my covenant in the blood, he's saying that I'm giving you my very life. So Jesus gives his body to us, his whole entire being, holy and without reserve. This is my body. He then also gives us his blood, his very life given to us. So, what is the uh implication or what is the application of this uh passage for Mark's gospel for us today? For us to answer that, we have to take a crucial look at the framing of the passage in Mark's sequence of talk. We will observe that the Last Supper account is situated within another of what we call Mark's sandwich constructions, which I shared before in the Gospel of Mark, the main point is sandwiched between two other related points, and we see that occurring again and again in Mark's gospel, and here again it occurs one more time. So we see in verses 17 to 21 the betrayal of the disciples. Jesus announced just before the uh the the supper during the proceedings that one of you will betray me, and then that at the central uh portion is Jesus' words of institution. This is my body, this is my blood. And then we see uh the next section, verse 27 to 31, the defection of the disciples. So crucially for our interpretation and application today, we see that the self-sacrifice, the self-giving of Jesus, his body, his being given to us, his blood shed for us is contrast is contrasted dramatically with the infidelity and unfaithfulness of the disciples. So, in other words, when Jesus celebrated the Last Supper, it is not the worthy for whom Jesus lays down his life, but precisely for the unworthy. Each time the gospel of Mark is read in his full account, the full narrative from verse 17 to 31, it is a reminder that Jesus did not come for the righteous, he did not come for those who have figured out how to live a righteous life, that their lives are good, their life is good and saintly. But precisely, Jesus came for his cowardly and unfaithful disciples. In the Bible, in the gospels, there may only have been one traitor, Judas, but by dawn we realize that all the disciples, all of them will betray Jesus, if not from greed, then from weakness, from fear, or just simply shrinking back due to being a coward. So the observation of the Passover in Mark's framing of the passage points to Jesus as a Passover lamb who dies precisely for unworthy sinners. Interesting for us to note also that Mark is the only gospel writer who adds the phrase, and they all drank of it in Mark 14, 23. They all drank of the blood of the covenant, but they all will flee and deny Jesus. The word all echoes throughout the remainder of the chapter, recalling both the grace of Jesus in extending his body and his blood for them. And it also recalls the failure of the disciples. They all drank, but they and they all swear allegiance to Jesus. We will not deny you, but they will also all fall away, according to Mark 14.27. And Mark 14.50 tells us they all fled at the day, at the dawn of day. So Martin Luther, in one of his writings, what we call the Heidelberg Disputation in Thesis 28, he writes that the love of God does not find what is pleasing. In other words, God does not come to give his love by finding someone who will please and love him. But he says the love of God does not find what is pleasing but creates. God's love is creative, it creates that which is pleasing to it. He goes on to say that the love of God flows forth from him and it bestows good. Therefore, sinners are attractive because they are love. They are not love because they are attractive. Let me repeat again. Because God comes down and creates and bestows this love, what uh we call God's highest good. And that love flows forth and bestows good, and therefore, sinners are attractive because they are love. We are attractive today because we are loved by God, and it's not the other way around. We are not loved because we are attractive. You know, sometimes all our lives, especially living in a performance-driven society, we live to be good enough for ourselves and for others. We seek to impress and please others and often by highlighting our strengths and the capabilities and downplaying our shortcomings and disabilities. But God loves us in Jesus Christ not because we are lovable or attractive to Him in ourselves, but simply because He loves us. We are attractive because we are love. So each time we see the Lord's table, we are reminded that our Lord Jesus broke bread and poured wine in the company of betrayers and traitors. Such is the love of God that beakens and draws us close. We are attractive because we are love. So a lot of times in our Christian life, uh subconsciously, we always think that we have to be good enough for God in order for us to come to the table or to be acceptable by God. But actually, what comes before this is to know that we are attractive because we are loved. And from the posture of being loved and being accepted by God, then we are able to come before Him and to surrender our deepest and darkest sin into the hands of a Savior who gave His all for us. So what comes in some way logically before even the confession of sin is the knowledge of God's love. God bestows his love freely, openly to us. The highest good, he creates that love and he downloads that love into our hearts. And because of God's love, all of us, regardless of our socioeconomic standing, regardless of our situation in life, whether we are young or old, uh, we are all loved by God. We are attractive because we are loved. So by experiencing the love of God this way, then God beacons us to surrender our deepest and darkest sin. It's only to a God who loves us completely and perfectly can we be open to share our deepest and darkest sin. You know, we wouldn't come before someone when we know that the person will misjudge us, will criticize us, or will condemn us to confess our sin, right? We need to come before a God who is willing to love us despite our sin. So according to Exodus 12, 15 to 20, immediately after the Passover in the Old Testament is significant. Because immediately after Passover is what we call the feast of the unleaven bread. It's the celebration to observe the feast of the unleaven bread. So Exodus 12, 15 reads, seven days you shall eat unleaven bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses. For if anyone eats what is leaven from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. So the feast of unleavened bread is a seven-day biblical festival that commemorates the hasty exodus of Israel from Egypt. The Israelites left Egypt so quickly that their bread dough did not have time to rise or for them to add yeast to the dough. However, in the Bible, leaven also represents sin. And Israel had to remove any leaven in their home that will contaminate them swiftly and decisively, and they shall eat unleaven bread for seven days. That you may be a new lamb, as you really are, unleaven. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. So, in other words, significantly, after experiencing the unconditional free love of God upon our lives, then we need to come before this God and open our hearts before Him and allow Him to deal with the deepest and darkest sin in our lives. Because after the Passover comes the feast of unleavened bread almost immediately. So, in other words, as Christians, we need to deal with sin in our lives. So, contrary to some popular preachers who say that we don't have sin, uh our Anglican liturgy reminds us that we have to deal with sin every day. We have to battle with sin every day. We are not free from sin uh as long as we are in these mortal bodies. We all will know that because if you just find someone who irritates you at work or persistently refuses to change or to listen, whether it's a little child or a colleague at work, or you know, you realize that the sinful nature comes out of you, right? So how can we be without sin on this earth? Right? So we need to deal with sin in our lives, and we do that because we come before a God who loves us completely and freely. We are attractive because we are love. So with that posture, we are reminded that Jesus came to precisely to give his body to us, holy and without reserve. He gave his blood, his very life, to us. Precisely for our sins, Jesus became the sacrifice. He's not only the host of the feast, he is the feast. So we are called in the Holy Communion liturgy to feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. Each time as we come to the table of the Lord, feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving. So today the word of the Lord reminds us that we need to deal with sin swiftly and decisively. A very visual demonstration is in a Jewish home, every year they got to clear sin. Anything liven, whether it's under the table or any part of the room, it has to be taken and uh dealt with and uh removed, right? Because symbolically, we need to be active in battling sin, dealing with sin in our lives swiftly and decisively. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 7, why? Because Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Because God has poured out his love for us by sacrificing his only son for our sin. How can we still live in sin any longer? Paul would say. So the author of Hebrews was writing to Christians who were once enlivened by the reality of Jesus, but they become they became discouraged because of suffering that they had to go through and doubts about whether Jesus really took care of the problem of sin. So the Hebrews was written to assure the believers that don't throw away your confidence, and Jesus is the perfect high priest, the one who is before all things, and we need to lay hold of Christ, who is superior to everything that has gone before. However, he also reminds believers in Hebrews 10 verse 26 to 31, listen to these solemn words. He says in Hebrews 10, 26 to 31, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, then no longer remains a sacrifice of sin, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace? For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. One of the most uh very solemn words in the New Testament, but it calls us to soberness to not treat with contempt the sacrifice of Christ because he has given his life for us and he has shown us that we are all loved by him. We are all loved by him, therefore we are attractive. Brothers and sisters, let us then press in to Jesus. Let us not profane the blood of the covenant in which we are sanctified or outraged the spirit of grace. Jesus has done everything to make a way for us to come to Him. Let's come before Jesus and deal with sin, believing the sin in our life, swiftly and decisively. Because we are coming before a God who loves us completely, who is able to receive our deepest sin, our darkest secret, in which we don't share with anyone, perhaps not even with our spouse, the things that are going on in our minds. Maybe we think it's too disgusting to share with anyone. We can bring it to Jesus because He loves us. He loves us and therefore we are attractive. It's almost like an unlearning we need to do because we live in a society where we are almost daily rated in terms of our performance, in terms of what we must do to be good enough. But the gospel is the reverse. It's not what we can do to be good enough, but what Christ has done for us that is good enough. And we need to stand in awe of the love of God again and again and again because it's only with that posture that we are able to deal with sin in our lives. Because Jesus comes to be the sacrifice, he gave his body to us wholly and without reserve. He gave his blood, his very life to us to deal with sin in our lives. I'd like to close with uh again the words from the Hebrews 4 verse 15 to 16. The author of Hebrews says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So there's a double negation in verse 15 uh highlighted in green. Uh for we do not have a high priest who is unable. So the double negation tells us, in other words, there's no way, there's no way that Jesus cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. There's no way he can. Because Jesus came to be man, he came to identify with human weakness and failings. He was tempted as we are, yet without sin. Whatever that means is, of course, we don't want to speculate how much close to sin Jesus was with. We all know that he's without sin, right? And how how is he being tempted? I think that's something you have to pray and ask him, right? Yet he was without sin. So we are to draw near. And I think as those of us who have been uh Anglicans long enough, we know that the central place of worship is uh we don't call it the altar, but the the the Lord's the Lord's table, right? In every church you go to, whether in St. Paul's, St. Peter's, St. Andrews, or even go to the UK, the US, uh, or even to the global south, you know, in uh every church you go to, the the central place of uh the communion table is always at the center of the church sanctuary. And it's a reminder for us uh as Anglicans that the central our central worship is the sacrifice of Christ. And we are reminded at the end of the day, it's not even uh the preaching uh that is the key focus, but it is what God has done, his sacrifice for us. So let us draw near to the table of our Lord and be assured of his near presence and his ability to deal with every sin in our lives.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

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