Mark 14:22-42 | Zechariah 13:4-7
We’ll move a bit more quickly through the things of Holy Week in the next couple of days than we did in Matthew.
Today we will read three important moments Jesus shared with the disciples: the communal meal, prediction of the disciples’ scattering/Peter’s denial, and their inability to stay awake while he prays.
These are both beautiful and sad moments. The establishment of the meal is of course foundational and an important element of what he left for us. There are any number of ways he could have told his disciples to remember what he was about to do.
He chose a meal. Think about it.
Mark 14:22-42
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. I assure you that I won’t drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way in God’s kingdom.” After singing songs of praise, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus said to them, “You will all falter in your faithfulness to me. It is written, I will hit the shepherd, and the sheep will go off in all directions. But after I’m raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else stumbles, I won’t.”
But Jesus said to him, “I assure you that on this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
But Peter insisted, “If I must die alongside you, I won’t deny you.” And they all said the same thing.
Jesus and his disciples came to a place called Gethsemane. Jesus said to them, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James, and John along with him. He began to feel despair and was anxious. He said to them, “I’m very sad. It’s as if I’m dying. Stay here and keep alert.” Then he went a short distance farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if possible, he might be spared the time of suffering. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible. Take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.”
He came and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you stay alert for one hour? Stay alert and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.”
Again, he left them and prayed, repeating the same words. And, again, when he came back, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open, and they didn’t know how to respond to him. He came a third time and said to them, “Will you sleep and rest all night? That’s enough! The time has come for the Human One to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up! Let’s go! Look, here comes my betrayer.”
Zechariah 13:4-7
On that day each of the prophets will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies
and won’t put on a shaggy coat in order to deceive.
Each will say, “I’m not a prophet.
I’m a man who works the ground, for the soil has been my occupation since I was young.”
Someone will say to him,
“What are these wounds between your hands?”
And he will say, “These happened when I was hit in my friends’ home.”
Sword, arise against my shepherd,
against the man responsible for my community, says the Lord of heavenly forces!
Strike the shepherd in order to scatter the flock!
I will turn my hand against the little ones.
Prayer
God,
Help me to be faithful today. I know I have had and will yet have moments in which I feel like the disciples at the last supper: in denial, confused, and tired. But help me avoid them all the same.
I ask the same as I interact with people. May I be a person of integrity and trustworthiness, one who people can look to for surety and dedication.
In this way, help me to stick through situations that would otherwise seek to distract me either from production or away from the purpose of it all.
Help me to love.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.