Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 14:12-25 in our “Finished” series. He said that Jesus provides total salvation. Lector: Melissa Morales
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 14:12-25 in our “Finished” series. He said that Jesus provides total salvation.
Lector: Melissa Morales
We are looking at the last 2 days of Jesus' life in this series.
Last week, we said every story shows us why this is good news.
That's how Mark's story begins, chapter 1, verse 1. This is the good news about Jesus.
But if you slow down and think about it, it's not immediately obvious why this is good news.
Perhaps most obviously, we're saying it's good news a man died young.
Doesn't that sound so strange?
I've always struggled with what to do on Memorial Day.
Because it's a day of remembrance. And what are we remembering?
Young men and women who died. Isn't that such a tragedy?
And how do we remember them? We have cookouts, we go to the pool...
We don't think of it that way, but isn't that so strange?
We don't celebrate when people die young.
And what's more, look at all the founders of world religions.
The Buddha. Mohammed. Moses. They all died as old, old men.
Take your pick. All other world religions died old and celebrated.
But Jesus died young. He died naked, beaten beyond recognition, between two criminals.
He died an inch at a time, slowly, in agony, crying out to a God who had forsaken him.
And now we Christians have the audacity to celebrate this as GOOD NEWS.
Even more strange, we say we want to FOLLOW THIS MAN!
How in the world is this possible?
The story today shows us WHY JESUS DEATH MATTERS and WHAT THE DEATH OF JESUS MEANS.
And we will see vividly, experientially, why this is truly the best news the world has ever heard.
The timing of the story is important. Verse 12 tells us it's the Passover meal.
This was probably the biggest dinner of the year in Jewish culture.
It was formal, highly structured.
It was based around 4 cups of wine, with the person presiding over the meal leading people through tangible acts of remembrance. A Memorial Day if you will.
And the whole point was to remember, vividly, experientially, God's rescue of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
The meal was structured to explain through symbolism what happened in the Exodus.
They would progress through each cup, each part of the story, and end their meal singing the Hallel, Psalm 113-118.
We know this is what's happening in this meal because of the timing, because of the wine, and because v. 26 says they finished the meal singing a hymn.
They are participating in a Passover meal.
It would have been familiar to them. Important. But Jesus does something incredibly unexpected.
After the 3rd meal, the person presiding over the meal would take a loaf of bread.
They would work through Deuteronomy 26, and the person presiding would break bread and say
This is the bread of our affliction, which our fathers ate in the wilderness.
Eat this bread and remember what our people have been through.
Remember their affliction. Their suffering.
But what does Jesus say to them?
He follows the script. He takes the bread, he blesses, he breaks it into pieces, and he gives it. Just as their fathers did when they were little. But listen to what he says:
Take it, for THIS IS MY BODY.
Mark 14:22 (emphasis added)
This is no longer the bread of our fathers affliction. This is the bread of my body.
He's saying we no longer remember our father's afflictions, we remember JESUS'.
This is my affliction, Jesus says. My suffering. And it is for. You.
He's powerfully connecting his life, his ministry, and his impending death with the events of the Exodus.
Deuteronomy 26 was preparing you for me.
Just as this meal once explained God's salvation from Egypt, it now explains God's salvation THROUGH JESUS.
See, the salvation from Egypt was a partial salvation, because it was a social salvation, an economic salvation.
And we should care about this!
It's good to be freed from slavery and poverty. This is good and we celebrate.
But...a social and economic salvation is still a partial salvation.
Because if you're set free socially and economically, you will still die!
Your sin still stains, your suffering still wounds. There is more salvation needed.
And so Jesus says more salvation is needed. Salvation not just socially and economically, but salvation from sin, salvation from spiritual oppression, and salvation from death itself.
The disciples' jaws would have been on the ground.
Here is some of what they would have heard through the symbolic act Jesus is performing here.
I'm doing something greater than the Exodus.
I am offering salvation from Satan, Sin, and Death.
I am offering TOTAL SALVATION. All you are for all eternity.
And I am securing it through MY AFFLICTION.
The good news here is that Jesus will make a way for us.
Consider the connection with Exodus.
There is NOTHING in the story that suggests people made this happen.
Moses was scared and hesitant. The people grumbled and complained.
The real heroes are a couple of midwives we know barely anything about.
You cannot read Exodus and think that Israel saved themselves.
The entire purpose of the Passover meal was to remind people in ways they could taste and touch that SALVATION ONLY COMES FROM GOD.
Not human effort or achievement.
And so Jesus says if that were true of the partial salvation in Egypt, it is even more so true of of our TOTAL SALVATION in Christ.
Because it is Christ's afflictions, Christ's sufferings, Christ's death that make a way for us.
This is why Jesus' death is THE CENTRAL EVENT of human history.
All former deaths and sacrifices pointed to it, and all of human life has been lived for 2,000 years in response to it.
History orbits around the death a of a middle eastern carpenter who died young.
That should blow your mind. We changed our calendar for it.
Nothing has changed the quality of human lives and relationships like the death of Jesus.
Nothing has brought about more freedom, more healing, more restoration and reconciliation.
Jesus' death matters because it marks the end of our slavery to sin, spiritual oppression, and death.
Jesus' death matters because it means salvation comes from God, not from us.
And here's what it means for us.
He moves to the fourth cup of the meal. The final celebration of God's rescue from Egypt.
And once again he reshapes our imaginations:
This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many.
-Mark 14:24
It was the body of Jesus that saves us, and it is the blood of Jesus that keeps us.
The Old Testament is the story of God keeping his promises.
He loves his children, and so he does not leave their place in his family up to chance.
What brings you into the family of God will also keep you in the family of God.
So listen. When was the body of Christ given for us? 2,000 years ago.
That means that the reason you are saved from sin, satan, and death, happened 2,000 years ago.
When was the blood of Christ shed for us? 2,000 YEARS AGO!
That means the reason you are SAFE WITH GOD TODAY happened 2,000 years ago!
So unless you can figure out a way to uncrucify Jesus and make him stop loving you, there is nothing that can be done to undo God's total salvation in Christ.
Or, as Paul will say, there is nothing in all of creation that can separate you from the love of God.
This is the first part of the good news. Jesus provides total salvation.
We can only celebrate a person dying young if that death somehow brought about life.
We mourn the death of Jesus, as we do every year on Good Friday, but even that day we call GOOD because his death, his afflictions, his sufferings, his body and blood, provide TOTAL SALVATION.
Not your performance. Not your obedience. Not your promises or achievements.
The body of Christ, given for you sets you free.
The blood of Christ, shed for you, keeps you safe.
But the imagery goes even further.
Remember, Jesus is instituting a new Passover meal for us here.
That meal was meant to explain God's salvation from Egypt in a tangible, experiential way.
So what does Jesus instruct his disciples to do? Eat this. Drink this.
What could this possibly mean?
All other world religions remember the rules their leader gave them to follow.
God is out there somewhere, and you can't go there as you are.
So clean up. Get right. Figure it out. Stop this, do that. On and on it goes.
And these people died as old men telling people what to do.
But when Jesus came near, God came near.
And he died young to make a way for you and I to come home forever.
And here's the wonder of what he's saying:
What is this bread? Jesus said it is his body.
What is this wine? Jesus said it his blood.
And he tells us to take, eat, and drink.
Have you ever considered what happens to the food you eat and drink?
It is absorbed into you. It literally, physiologically, becomes you.
You are what you eat as it were.
This is the deepest, most powerful message of the Lord's supper.
Not only are you saved totally, from sin, satan, and death.
But the Lord himself dwells within you.
He becomes you. Let me give you two quick pictures of this: this is old old Christianity. This isn't he good news. This is what we celebrate:
I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
-Philippians 4:13
Why can Paul SING SONGS OF JOY WHILE IN PRISON?
Why can he be content in poverty, just as he is in wealth?
BECAUSE CHRIST IS WITH HIM.
He has eaten the body and drank the blood, and Christ has become him.
This is why, after all the wondrous theology he writes to the church in Ephesus, he really only asks for one thing in the end:
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21
At the end of it all, this is the good news: Jesus dwells in your hearts.
God is with you. You are not alone, but are safe forever.
God came near. He is becoming you. Because Jesus provides total salvation.
Come to him. Cry out to him. Believe the good news.
Let's pray.