MARK 14:12-50                                    THE LAST SUPPER & JESUS’ ARREST                                                    Day 24

For months he had been warning them it was coming. Beginning in Caesarea Philippi after he asked who they really thought he was. Peter spoke up quickly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus commended Peter, but reminded him this knowledge came from God, not from any human revelation.

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16:21)

The disciples were not ready for this. Peter rebuked him, “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus rebuked him sharply: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me” (Matt 16:23).

About a week later, he took Peter, James, and John up a mountain and was “Transfigured” before them as Moses and Elijah came to talk with him about his coming departure in Jerusalem (Luke 9:30). Coming down the mountain, Jesus charged them not to tell anyone what they’d seen “until the Son of Man had risen from the dead” (Mark 9:9). They kept quiet, but wondered among themselves what “rising from the dead” meant, but were afraid to ask him.

As they were traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem for that fateful Passover, Jesus again said to them,

See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise. (Mark 10:33-34)

But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask…. (Luke 9:45)

As the hour neared, Jesus arranged to keep the Passover with his disciples. At that meal, he elevated the Passover into a remembrance of his body and blood. His body, he said, is given for you; his blood, “poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:19-20).

The final temptation came following the supper, in Gethsemane. How different this garden encounter was from that in Eden! The tempter was there while Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:41-46). As he prayed, the disciples whom he had asked to keep watch with him, slept. Before sunrise, they would flee, and one would deny three times that he even knew Jesus. But Jesus was faithful to his Father’s will.

Another of them brought his enemies to arrest him, identifying Jesus by kissing him. Jesus asked, “Would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48).

Jesus taught openly in the Temple all week. They had not arrested him then because they feared the people who hung on his every word with delight. The people loved it when the Jews tried to trap Jesus in his words with difficult questions – and he made them look foolish every time. Instead of arresting him openly, they took him in the dark of night while he was away from the adoring crowds.

But that is the way of evil. Men love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil (see John 3:19-20).

This begins the darkest hour of the STORY, but take heart! Sunday’s coming when the Light will burst into view!