Weeping and remorse...

Matthew 27:3,4
Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
Mark 14:72
And immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said the statement to him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And throwing himself down, he began to cry.

While Mark’s gospel tends to be more succinct than the others, we know that other events were taking place while Jesus was suffering on the via crucis, the way to the cross.

For example, Mark does not provide much detail about Judas’ remorse and suicide. Only Matthew and Luke (Acts 1:18-19) recount Judas’ struggle with the consequences of his decision to betray Jesus. Judas’ motives were not entirely clear. But John, who like Matthew knew Judas, attributed his actions to greed: “He was a thief and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it” (John 12:6). Whatever Judas’ initial thinking, by sunset on Good Friday Jesus was dead and he believed it was his fault. He knew he could never face the disciples again. He almost certainly felt deep anguish because of his actions. It was more than he could endure.

Sometime before dawn on Good Friday in the High Priest's courtyard, Peter realized that he had been so concerned about his honor and saving his own neck that he had denied Jesus, just as the Lord had said he would. In Luke’s account the disciple made eye contact with Jesus: “The Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord how he had told him ‘Before the cock crows today you will deny Me three times’” (Luke 22:61). Peter threw himself to the ground and wept bitterly.

After His resurrection, Peter was lovingly but pointedly held accountable by the Lord with three admonitions to put the flock of God above His own honor and reputation (John 21:15-17). The disciple was left with the knowledge that God can redeem anything. Peter was also left with a lifelong appreciation for the importance of humility. He wrote, “You younger men… clothe yourselves with humility toward one another for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves before the mighty hand of God that He might exalt you at the right time, casting all your anxiety upon Him for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:5-7). 

Peter’s denial of Jesus occurs in all four gospels. In humility, Peter made sure that what he had said and done was on the record. 

We all make mistakes. In a country and culture founded on individualism and capitalism, without even realizing it we can prioritize personal financial gain or our own agendas above following Jesus. We can prioritize personal honor, reputation, and social standing above Him. And while we know (and love to quote) that all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28), we also know that mistakes have consequences.

May we humbly cast our cares and the burden of our own failings upon Him who cares for us. 

Wishing to satisfy the multitude, Pilate...

Mark 15:12-14
Pilate was saying to them, “Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?” And they shouted again, “Crucify Him!” But Pilate was saying to them, “Why? What evil did He do?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify Him!”

The way of the cross (“via crucis”) begins with a difficult decision for Pilate.

The Roman military prefect had to have known of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Among the quarter million pilgrims who had swelled the city’s population during the Feast of Unleavened bread, there were likely thousands of followers of Jesus of Nazareth. He had heard rumors of this Man’s power over sickness, the weather, and evil spirits. There was one report that Jesus had raised someone from the dead.

 
The religious leaders were pushing for Jesus’ execution. They raised the specter of insurrection to Pilate: “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that He Himself is the Anointed One, a King” (Luke 23:2). The prefect’s job was to maintain order, extract taxes, and suppress insurrection by whatever means necessary. The Jewish leaders knew exactly which buttons they needed to push. They could not be seen as responsible for Jesus’ execution. They needed Pilate.

But Pilate knew in His gut that Jesus was innocent and no threat to Roman rule. “I have found no guilt in this man” (Luke 23:14). Credible witnesses could have told the prefect that they had never heard Jesus say anything against Rome. And Pilate doubtless had enough experience with the personalities of the Sanhedrin to sense their scheming and manipulation.

Finally, Pilate’s own wife had experienced nightmares about Jesus. She passed word to Pilate, “Have nothing to do with that righteous Man, for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him” (Matthew 27:19).

 
The first step in the way of the cross was Pilate’s difficult decision.

By now there was a crowd of onlookers who sensed blood and who were stirred up by the chief priests to insist on Jesus’ death.

 
Pilate had options. He could have just delayed judgment, waited until the feast was over and the crowds of pilgrims had returned home. He could have just kept Jesus in prison and waited.

In general, the more important the decision is, the more time one should take in making it.

A person’s life is such an important decision, arguably the most important of all decisions.
Unless it isn’t.

Unless others’ lives don’t outweigh other factors in the minds of those making the decision: power, control, position, wealth, recognition and reputation.

 
“Wishing to satisfy the multitude… Pilate delivered Jesus over to be crucified” (Mark 15:15).  
Pilate washed his hands of the decision (Matthew 27:24). History has not been so kind or forgetful.

 
The way of the cross began for Jesus as the victim of a hasty, cruel, uninformed decision.
In following the Savior, we may find it so for us. 

I am and you shall see...

Mark 14:61,62
Again the high priest was questioning Him and said to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see ‘The Son of Man sitting at the right hand of The Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven’”

Mark 15:2
And Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He answered him and *said, “You yourself say it.”

“You’ve given everything away!” (Vinzzini, “The Princess Bride,” 1987).

 
The first half of Mark’s narrative pointed to Jesus’ authority over evil spirits, sickness, the wind and waves. He taught with authority. He stood up in defiance to the traditions and Pharisaic ways. But He was very careful about any claim to being Messiah. Instead, He referred to Himself as “Son of Man,” a phrase in its simplest form that was a common way to refer to being human.

 
In the second half of Mark’s gospel, Jesus reveals His fate: “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31, also 9:31, 10:33,34). When Jesus first said it, Peter rebuked Him. This was not the Messiah’s path. He was to win, and not lose. Jesus rebuked Peter in return (Mark 8:32,33).

It was in Jesus’ these two trials – likely a span of a couple of hours - that the truth finally came out. He made clear who was and what was to come of Him.

The Chief Priests point-blank asked Him if He was the Messiah and He told them He was, adding the prophecy of Daniel to His use of the title “Son of Man” (Daniel 7:13,14). With the priests, Jesus also crossed the line in using the phrase “I am,” which in His Aramaic tongue sounded dangerously (and intentionally) close to Yahweh's name, the Aramaic and Hebrew verb “to be” (Exodus 3:14). It was enough for the Chief Priest to dramatically rend His garments and break the Torah Law himself, (the High Priest should never tear his clothes, Leviticus 21:10).

Before Pilate, Jesus deftly admitted to His kingship without giving the Governor any specific statement to catch Him: “You have said so” or “You yourself say it.” John’s account includes the reassurance to Pilate that Jesus' Kingdom was not a direct threat to the Roman Leader: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Pilate concludes his interrogation, “I find no guilt in Him” (John 18:36-40).

Jesus had “Given everything away:” Messiah, coming King, Lord.

He knew who He was.

 
As we see Jesus’ boldness in declaring who He was to those in power, we should consider what our own response would be.

Perhaps we could start with something simple.
Jesum sequimur.
We follow Jesus.

May our lives reflect that truth (Romans: 12:2).

Have a blessed, intentional fourth Sunday in Lent. 

Are you also with the Nazarene?

Mark 14:66-68
And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.”

The High Priest’s courtyard had become a court of public appearance. Accused by a young servant-girl, Peter denied following Jesus. He countered the accusation by implying that this girl was a fool. “I don’t know what you’re talking about” and by implication neither do you. He repeated his denial three times, an account so important to the narrative of Holy Week that it appears in all four gospels.

 
What was the apostle thinking? What was he afraid of?

Peter was not a coward. All three Synoptic gospels recount that one of the disciples struck a slave with a sword in Gethsemane and John identifies the assailant as Simon Peter (John 18:10). Peter asked to be let into the courtyard and could probably have slipped away in the darkness at any moment if he sensed the risk of arrest (John 18:15,16).

 
The potential physical threat was real. But Peter was facing a more immediate danger. “And Peter followed [Jesus] at a distance, right into the courtyard of the High Priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire.” (Mark 14:54).

The High Priest’s courtyard had become a court of public appearance. Honor was at stake.

- The need for honor and the fear of being shamed and ridiculed.
- The need to be thought well of and fear of disdain and disrespect.
- The need to win and fear of being on the losing side.
- In a patriarchal culture, the shame of being accused by a woman in front of a group of men.

 
At that moment, Peter’s honor was more important to him than his allegiance to Jesus.

 
We have all had these moments where our need to be liked, to be accepted, to be considered a part of the in-group shapes our response to a question about Christianity or Christ. Though prompted by the Spirit, we suppress the sense to speak of Him or to speak up in another’s defense.  

Peter knew dishonor. He had denied the Master. He wept as he heard the cock crow and He remembered Jesus’ warning (Mark 14:27-31). “We want to stay asleep, but the rooster’s cry is to wake us up. And part of what Peter had to hear is that he is not as strong as he thought he was. Neither are we. That’s why the sound of the rooster’s crowing—as painful as it is to hear—is actually grace” (Russel Moore, Christianity Today, March 2025).

 
Peter encouraged Jesus’ followers in his day and those who seek to follow still: “Therefore gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

 
And so we hope. For grace. 

Beating Him with a reed and spitting on Him

Mark 15:16-19
So the soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. And they dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to greet Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him; and kneeling, they were bowing down before Him.

Before the Roman soldiers humiliated Him, Jesus had already been scourged (Mark 15:15).

The Roman scourging was repeated blows on the back by “a whip consisting of three or more leather tails that had plumbatae, small metal balls or sheep bones at the end of each tail.” The effect of the repeated blows of flogging with this instrument were devastating. When it was finally over, Jesus was likely close to death from the shock of blood loss and loss of bodily fluids.

But that wasn’t enough for His torturers.

 
After beating Him nearly to death, they shamed Him in front of the crowd of soldiers who took turns mocking His claim to kingship, wrapping Him regally in a cape. After wedging a wreath of thorns on His head they repeatedly struck Him on the head with a reed staff, spat on Him and kneeled in feigned homage. The Chief Priests’ soldiers had done the same thing prior to delivering Jesus to the Romans, spitting on Him, beating Him and slapping His face (Mark 14:64,65).

 
The behavior of the soldiers towards Jesus should give us pause.

 
The Roman legionnaires had likely been in service since mid-to-late adolescence. They had likely been exposed to beatings and humiliation throughout their training and subsequent service. As soldiers, they had been exposed to violence and had the moral injury of hand-to-hand killing. Some might even have developed an appetite for aggression and cruelty. In this latter case, they might have developed a total lack of empathy and compassion, thus explaining their continued need to violently shame and humiliate Jesus.

 
Moses asked to see God’s glory. But he could not see the face of God and live. Instead, the Lord passed before the patriarch unseen and called out,

“Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Exodus 34:6).

 
In the Praetorium on the last morning of His human life, the Son of God confronted “anti-God:” all in mankind that is the opposite of the character of God. Jesus brought His entire life, His character and His teachings into that moment. By mid-morning, His face was bruised and disfigured, stained with His own blood and the spit of His tormentors. He had endured unimaginable shame. And it was only just beginning. 

 It was for us. “The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isaiah 53:6).

 
We see what Moses couldn’t. In Jesus  we can see the face of God.
When Moses heard the voice of Yahweh, "He made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship” (Exodus 34:8).

May be join Moses, prostrate in worship before Him. 

"Are you the King?"

Mark 15:1,2
And early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Sanhedrin, immediately held council; and binding Jesus, led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate. And Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He answered him and said, “You yourself say it.”

The Roman military governor (prefect) Pontius Pilate’s only interest in Jesus of Nazareth was as a potential threat to the fragile civil-political order of the troubled Judean province. Pilate was likely a career soldier who chafed at dealing with these kinds of trivial complaints from the ruling priestly order. But Mark records the chief priest’s anger with Jesus after His symbolic disruption of the money exchange and buying and selling of sacrificial animals in the Temple courtyard. “They began seeking ways to destroy Him because they were afraid of Him…” (Mark 11:18).

 
Pilate was only willing to meet with the religious leaders “early in the morning” because the Jewish leaders charged with maintaining the peace were worried about this Rabbi’s influence. What worried them, worried him. The potential danger was particularly acute during the Passover when the city swelled with as many as 100,000 additional pilgrims, many of whom camped outside the city walls for the week-long festival of Unleavened Bread. He could not afford to have the Chief Priests unhappy nor to have unrest while the deliverance from captivity in Egypt was being celebrated and remembered.

All four gospel writers record the same fundamental question from Pilate: “Are you the King of the Jews?” (Matthew 27:11-14, Luke 23:2,3, John 18:29-38). And in all four gospels Jesus answers in the affirmative, with John providing additional dialogue, “You say correctly that I am king. For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37).

 
“Who is Jesus to you?”

We have considered these words before. It is among the most important questions anyone will ever answer. For those of us who call Jesus Lord and King, we must follow the declaration with a probing analysis of the kinds of things we are devoted to following instead of Him. For those who haven’t realized that truth yet, they will. “Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess… that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:1011).  

Pilate was unconvinced. “I find no guilt in Him” (John 19:6). If Pilate thought Jesus was the threat that the Chief Priests alleged, the Governor would not have offered the people a choice to release Jesus or a notorious insurrectionist Barabbas (Mark 15:11). Instead, the mob clamored for Jesus’ death.

 
The crowds are clamoring still. And the question of His kingship remains.

Pilate failed to see Him as king.
Would those in the crowd see that we are any different? 

Seeking testimony to put Jesus to death...

Mark 14:53,55-56
Then they led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together… Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent.

It was still night.

 
Word reached the household of the High Priest that Jesus had been captured. The High Priest hastily sent runners to members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious council of priests and Pharisees. Those specifically summoned by the High Priest were predictably sympathetic to his desire to see Jesus’ humiliation and death. They also had to awaken those who had expressed willingness to testify against Jesus. In time a group had gathered.

 
The full council was 71 people but only 23 were considered a quorum. For the Sanhedrin to meet at night, without adequate notice to all members, at the High Priest’s residence (where there was almost certainly not enough room for all the members), in the early morning before the Sabbath were all illegal. But ironically and despite their allegations against Jesus, strict adherence to God’s Law and their traditions were not their highest priorities.

 
The false testimony included charges that Jesus had spoken against the Temple. “We ourselves heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this sanctuary made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands’” (14:58). But it was apparent to all that the testimonies of the various “witnesses” were inconsistent and certainly not sufficient to condemn Jesus.

 
The High Priest took a different tact.

He questioned Jesus directly, asking Him specifically, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (14:61). He asked the same question that John the Baptist had sent His disciples to inquire of Jesus months earlier: “Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for someone else?” (Matthew 11:3).

Retired Pastor, Missionary and Evangelist Dick Landis summed up the question that all must eventually confront and answer, in this world or the next: “Who is Jesus to you?”

Jesus answered John’s disciples: “The blind receive sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does stumble over Me” (Matthew 11: 5,6).

 
The Sanhedrin had stumbled.

Imprisoned by the system they enjoyed, infected by the power structure and prestige they relished, deaf to Jesus’ words, they were impoverished spirits, blind to the One standing before them and dead to the truth He proclaimed.

 
As we consider the last day of Jesus’ life and the trials He endured, we must at least ask whether we are carrying convictions and conclusions about Jesus the Messiah, His words and what He asks of us that have left us hard of hearing with clouded vision. 

Let us not stumble, too.

Are you still asleep? It is enough, the hour has come...

Mark 14:41
And He came the third time [to Peter, James and John asleep], and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Judas knew where to find the Master.

He led officers of the chief priests (the temple guard), some Pharisees, and perhaps elements of the Roman cohort and their commander across the ravine of the Kidron to Gethsemane, the garden of the olive press. It was a place where Jesus often met with His disciples. They came with lanterns and torches and weapons. (John 18:1-12).

It was a location away from the crowds of the city that included many of Jesus' followers. Perhaps Jesus was thinking of their safety, intentionally creating conditions that would have prevented the opportunity for an uprising and potential massacre by the Roman soldiers stationed in Jerusalem for the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread.

As they left for Gethsemane, Jesus said something puzzling to His disciples: “Let him who has no sword sell his robe and buy one, for the Scripture must be fulfilled in Me, ‘And He was classed among criminals,' for that which refers to Me has its fulfilment” (Luke 22:37). By evoking the words of Isaiah 53, Jesus accepted the mantle of the prophet’s Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:12), a role with anticipated consequences about which He had repeatedly warned His disciples, (Mark 8:31–35, Mark 9:30–32, Mark 10:33-34). His disciples could not fathom what He was talking about.

 
They assured Him that they already had two swords. The pair was not enough to resist a contingent of the Roman cohort, but probably enough to ward off thieves who might be lurking in the darkness. The weaponry was enough to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy but not enough to have a meaningful impact on what was to happen that night. Jesus responded to them, “It is enough (sufficient)” (Luke 22:36-38).

After several hours, they were all asleep again despite His urging, almost begging that they remain awake, watch and pray with Him.

 
He looked westward alone, down towards the ravine and could see a file of torches and lanterns making their way towards the garden. Perhaps the muffled clang of metal armor, shields and weapons echoed through the hills.

 
Jesus woke them up. “Are you still resting? Are you still asleep?”
“It is enough,” (apechō, sufficient, to have wholly or in full, to hold oneself, to have received).

The stage is set. The players have assembled. The curtain rises. The next act is about to begin.
“Get up. We must be going. The one who betrays Me is at hand” (Mark 14:42).

 
Enough swords. Enough sleep.
I have settled and steeled My heart.
You have slept away your time for abiding, for vigilance and prayer.

Violence and betrayal, evil and injustice are upon us.
His followers were not ready. They had been caught asleep.
“They all left Him and fled” (Mark 14:50).

 
May we not scatter with them but rather steadfastly watch, pray and face the evil with Jesus. 

Have a blessed, contemplative third Sunday of Lent. 

Not what I will but what You will.

Mark 14:36
And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

It is perhaps the most profound aspect of faith we can ever discover.
Jesus demonstrated it in His prayer at Gethsemane. Matthew, Mark and Luke included this prayer in their accounts of His last night in the garden.
“Yet not what I will, but what You will.”

 
It is the very thing Jesus had taught His followers to pray:
“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10).

It is what He repeatedly referred to when He received pushback from the religious authorities:

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).

He came to do the will of the Father.

 
Sunday faith is comfortable.
We are good with answered prayers.
We enjoy the Father's blessings.
We like to have a Savior and the promises of heaven.
But following His will is another thing altogether.

 
We all have examples:
I didn’t want to break up with my high school girlfriend. But it happened.
I wanted to get into grad school after college. But I didn’t.
I didn’t want to lose my father before I was 35 years old. But I did.
I didn’t want to live in the city. I was afraid. But here we are.

 
For Jesus the will of God was more difficult than we will ever imagine.
Within 18 hours of His prayer, Jesus had suffered, died and was buried.
But within 60 hours of His prayer, His tomb was empty, His followers were rejoicing, and the authorities were scrambling to figure out what had happened.

 
He can do anything. But He might not do what we ask.
It is not that He didn’t hear us.
It’s that His will is not based on ours.
He is at work. “Thy Kingdom come.”

This is a prayer He always answers.

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

It is how we can pray and support one another:
“For this reason also, since the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord …” (Colossians 1:9,10).

Faith is focused on God, “The gaze of the soul upon a saving God” (A.W. Tozer)
Faith requires endurance.
Faith is demonstrated by obedience.
Faith is sustained by hope.
Faith is the witness of the believing community.

And faith is our willingness to submit to the will of the Father through Jesus Christ His Son. 

Could you not keep watch for one hour?

Mark 14:34,37,38
And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” …And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus had warned His disciples. “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered’” (Mark 14:27, quoting Zechariah 13:7). It was Peter “the Rock” who had boasted, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not” (Mark 14:29). Jesus predicted Peter’s eventual three-fold denial before the cock’s second crow (14:30). I suspect that Peter never forgot the shame of that exchange and his behavior that night.

 
All Jesus asked them to do was to stay with Him.
“Remain here with Me and keep watch.”

 
When Jesus returned to Peter, James and John the first time, He said to Peter, "Simon are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour?" (14:37). It is possibly a coincidence. But perhaps it was something Peter distinctly remembered as he recounted this story to his young brother Mark, the gospel writer (1 Peter 5:13). Jesus didn’t call His disciple by the spiritual name he had been given, “Petros: the Rock.” He called him by his birth name “Simon.”

The disciple was not behaving like a rock. Strong spirit perhaps. But weak flesh.

 
Jesus was distressed, troubled, “deeply grieved to the point of death.” What He wanted from His three closest friends was their company. “Remain here (menō, abide, dwell, continue, endure). Keep watch” (grēgoreō, be awake, pay attention, be vigilant).
Be with Me. Stay with Me.

There is plenty of debate these days about sympathy and empathy.

We can never know exactly what another person is feeling, particularly those whose life experience is different than our own. But that doesn’t give us a bye. “I can’t really know how you are feeling, and I don’t want to ruin my good mood, so I will just try to convince you that you shouldn’t feel that way!”  

At very least, with sympathy we acknowledge that another is feeling.
And with empathy, we join them there. Humble spirit. Common flesh.

 
After Jesus’ arrest, Peter followed the crowd at a distance, “Right into the courtyard of the high priest” where he was sitting with the household servants by the fire (Mark 14:54). Peter may have fallen asleep in the garden. He may have misunderstood and ignored Jesus’ predictions of His impending death.
But at least now he was awake. He was courageously alone.
And He was as close to Jesus as he was able to be.

“Refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say ‘They are My people.’ And they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God’” (Zechariah 13:9).

Abba! Father!

Mark 14:35,36
And He went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me!”

Luke 22:44
And being in agony He was praying very fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.  

It was raining that night in Gethsemane.

 
Jesus was distressed, deeply grieved to the point of death (Mark 14:33,34). Luke says He was “in agony” praying fervently. Sweat was raining to the ground like a hemorrhage (22:44). And although not specifically mentioned, I imagine tears were raining too.

 
Jesus was soaked with sweat. Perhaps His face was smeared with tears.

 
Jesus was also on the ground. Walking a short distance away from them, but still close enough for them to see Him and hear His prayers through their drowsiness, Jesus had dropped to the ground (pipto, to descend from a higher place to a lower). He was either sitting, kneeling or lying prostrate. Or perhaps at different times, He was doing all three.

We don’t know how long this period of prayer continued but the fact that Jesus returned to Peter, James and John three times suggests that it was an extended period, perhaps hours.

 
Jesus appealed to the power of God who could do anything, declaring that “All things are possible for You!” The cup before Him was the suffering and shame of the cross, the cup of the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all humanity’s ungodliness, unrighteousness and suppression of truth (Romans 1:18). The cup was bigger than just the consequences of my personal sins as I might superficially surmise. It was the cup of wrath against sin and death itself.

 
He asked whether it could be removed, whether there might be another way. Perhaps the words of one of the Hallel Psalms He had just sung with His disciples during Passover was still in His mind: “The cords of death encompassed me and the terrors of Sheol came upon me. I found distress and sorrow. I called upon the name of the Lord, O Lord I beseech Thee, save my life!” (Psalm 116:3,4).

But amid His earth-wrenching grief He remembered one simple truth.

He was crying out to “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithful truth” (Exodus 34:6). It is the first description of Yahweh’s character found in Scripture, spoken to Moses who was also prostrated before the Lord in worship (Exodus 34:8).  

And Jesus called His Father, in Aramaic “Abba,” using the first word that He had probably spoken as an infant. In this moment of profound grief, He knew the comfort of Abba whom He was convinced was near and listening. And it gave Him strength.

“I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my supplications” (Psalm 116:1).  
True for the Psalmist.
True for Jesus.
True for us.

 
We love you, Lord. 

Sit here until I have prayed...

Mark 14:32,33
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here until I have prayed.” And He took with Him Peter and James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled.

After His last supper with His disciples, when the prayers and songs of the Passover meal were completed, Jesus left the city of Jerusalem and walked with the disciples to the west, about half a mile to Gethsemane, a garden of olive trees with an olive press (gath-press, shemen-olive).

 
The location was across the ravine (“winter-flow”) of the Kidron, a wadi that filled with a torrent of water during the latter rains of the rainy season. Its rocky bed was likely dry or had diminished to a trickle by the time of Passover.

It was late at night. The garden was deserted. Anyone who was staying there during the festival of Unleavened Bread was likely asleep. It was dark under the cover of great olive trees, many of which had been there for centuries.  And as His disciples nodded off, perhaps thinking that this was their camp site for the night, Jesus was increasingly alone.

 
Mark says that Jesus was distressed, (amazed, greatly wondering, alarmed) and troubled (heavy, uncomfortable, “not at home;” the strongest of three Greek words for depressed). Knowing what was ahead, He was in a very different place emotionally than His closest friends and companions. They were oblivious.

 
It all weighed heavily on Jesus’ soul. There was the grief of saying good-bye to friends who didn’t know they might not see Him again. There was the weight of being betrayed by a disciple who at best misunderstood what Jesus was trying to accomplish; one who thought his own approach would be better than his Master’s. At worst, Jesus saw the presence of the Evil one in Judas, a friend with whom had just shared a meal.

 
He also anticipated that His disciples would desert Him: “You will all fall away,” Jesus had said to them (Mark 14:27). Peter’s bold and blustery denial would come back to haunt him. Three times. And this was the one Jesus was counting on to lead the disciples after His departure (Mark 14:30). Jesus felt that too.

 
We see the gathering darkness of our world. A day doesn’t pass that current events don’t amaze and alarm us. With the loss of work for many among us and the impending threat of much more, we bear the heaviness of our times.

But we take comfort in following our Savior who was forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, one well acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). 

Not to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many

Mark 10:43-45
“Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many”

Twice in Mark’s gospel Jesus refers to servanthood. 

And both times it was in the context of His disciples’ grappling for grandeur.

 
In the first, they argued about which of them was greatest (9:34). The second was after James and John requested the seats of honor in His coming glory (10:37). In both cases Jesus rebuked them with the vision of a servant: “If any of you wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (9:35), “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant” (10:43).

 
But Jesus also referred to Himself the same way. “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” (10:45). With this statement He directly evoked the imagery of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. New Testament writers quote this passage multiple times in reference to Jesus. Jesus invokes Isaiah’s prophecy Himself on the way to Gethsemane (Luke 22:35-38). The prophet’s words are pivotal in understanding Jesus’ Good News and how the early church understood Him.

 
Throughout history scholars have argued whether Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) referred strictly to the nation of Israel or to Jesus the Messiah.

Was it either or?

I suspect that as is often the case, the answer is “both/and.”

The passage refers to “We,” Yahweh’s chosen people of Israel, who introduced monotheism and became the foundation of faith to three major religions embraced by half the world’s population; to whom we have been grafted through faith in Christ (Romans 11:17,18, Galatians 2:28,29).

 
It refers to “He,” Jesus the Messiah, the one who has foretold His betrayal, suffering, death and resurrection three times already in the gospel of Mark; who saw Himself as the Suffering Servant and who the early church saw the same way (Mark 8:31–35, Mark 9:30–32, Mark 10:33-34).

It is “both.”
But it is also “and.”

It also refers to “Me,” to each of us as followers of Jesus the Lamb of God embracing the example of Jesus; trying to demonstrate His attitude of emptying Himself, taking on slavery, servanthood and humility, willingly suffering and sacrificing ourselves for the sake of the Kingdom and our King (Philippians 2:5-11).

When we come to the communion table, remembering with thanksgiving the Eucharist instituted at the Last Supper, all three – We, He and Me - are crystalized in the bread and wine that He declared to be His body and blood. We willingly take Him to ourselves - His broken body and the life of His blood – declaring our communion with the saints and with the Savior, accepting that we are the many for whom His life was given as ransom.

We needed a Savior. We needed to be saved.

And as we embrace His call to follow Him in a world promoting power, the accumulation of wealth, the practice of violence, the subversion of truth and the exploitation of the weak and powerless,

 
We know we need the Savior still.

Have a blessed, restful second Sunday in Lent

Of God

Mark 14:22-25
And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

John 6:53
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.”

In Jewish Talmudic thinking when a person died, their body and soul were separated. The soul was thought to dwell with the body until burial and so the body was not left alone until the burial was completed, usually within 72 hours. At the Last Supper, as He offered the bread and wine, Jesus could have referred to His upcoming death as the separation of His body and His soul.

“This bread is my body. This wine is my soul…” 

But that’s not what He said.

 
Instead, He referred to the separation of His body and blood.

The metaphors He chose suggested violent death, the separation of blood from body before death.

The imagery anticipated the death He ultimately suffered.

Certainly, Jesus hoped that His followers would see the connection between His death and the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians confirms this: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). But to His Jewish disciples, Jesus knew that other Temple sacrifices would also come to mind.

In keeping with the Torah, twice every day at around 9:0 AM and 3:00 PM an unblemished male lamb was sacrificed in the Temple and offered up along with an offering of flour and wine (Exodus 29:38-42, Numbers 28:1-8). This Tamid (“perpetual,” "continual") sacrifice was offered with prayers and benedictions that people knew by heart and would pray themselves at these times of day. They were prayers for redemption, forgiveness of sins, for the coming of the Messiah and for the resurrection of the dead.

With the twice daily Tamid sacrifice, there was an accompanying promise of God’s presence:
“I will consecrate the tent of the meeting and the altar… and I will dwell among the sons of Israel and be their God” (Exodus 29:44-46).

And there was a promise of His glory:
“It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be set apart as holy by My glory” (Exodus 29:42,43).

Jesus' invitation to us to partake of His body and blood was also an invitation of participation into His life of sacrifice.

“The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11).

 
The blood of Christ marks the doorway of our lives, visible to all.
The sacrifice of His body and blood gives us life.

We become the “continual” Tamid offering in Him.

 
The promise remains. He consecrates us. He abides with us. He meets with us.
And by His presence in us, He is glorified.

“Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). 

My blood of the Covenant

Mark 14:22-25
And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Peter and John made sure the Passover dinner was ready for their Rabbi and His disciples.

The lamb was purchased, sacrificed in the Temple then prepared in the home where the meal would be celebrated, typically on the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The meal had to be eaten within the walls of Jerusalem, traditionally by a group that included at least ten men, the “minyan” (count) needed for God to be properly sanctified.

A small but significant portion of Jesus’ words from that Passover meal are preserved for us in the Synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke as well as Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (Mark 14:22-25, Matthew 26:26–29; Luke 22:14–23; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ).

 
- The Blessings / Giving of Thanks. These were likely the words typically spoken at certain points in the Passover meal just as they are in the modern day Passover Seder (“order,” “procedure”) dinner:
"Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz."
"Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”
"Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, boreh p'ri hagafen."
"Blessed are You, God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.”

- The significance of bread and wine. There were several dishes consumed at the meal Perhaps the item of greatest note was the Passover Lamb. Meat was not a usual part of their diet and was reserved for special occasions. Jesus could have highlighted any of these items. He chose bread and wine and made the symbolic connection of them to His body and blood.

 
- The connection between covenant and blood. All four accounts include references to the symbolism of the wine as Jesus’ blood. In fact, this is the only place in Mark’s gospel where the word “covenant” is mentioned. A covenant is a deal, a compact, an arrangement. A covenant sealed in blood is of special, deep significance whether it includes the blood of sacrificial animals or the blood of the two covenant parties mingled as a symbol of their deep, abiding commitment to the pact and to one another. Those who enter a blood covenant are forever bound together in a relationship characterized by loving-kindness (khesed): strong, steadfast, generous and gracious love.

 
This is the covenant Jesus instituted at this Passover meal, His Last Supper.

It is the New Covenant promised through the prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34).

It is the way that the Lord has chosen to commit Himself to us.

 
And it is the way He expects us to be committed - in love that is more than mere love -
to Him and to one another. 

The disciples prepared the Passover

Mark 14:16

And the disciples went out and came 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.

Nine plagues had passed: water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness (Exodus 7:14-10:27).

Still the descendants of Israel were enslaved by the Egyptians. Pharaoh refused to let them go.

The ruler was stubborn with a “hardened heart.” He could not escape his cultural perspective and the sense of societal balance that his gods decreed. He had no obligation to respond to the demands of slaves from the lowest class of Egyptian society. The very idea was absurd. These people were also the low-cost manpower that sustained the Egyptian economy. Pharaoh was influenced by the same reasoning that has enslaved and resigned people to poverty throughout history. It was the natural order of things.

 
And so, Yahweh sent one more plague (Exodus 11).
Passover (Hebrew peh'-sakh) was a remembrance the last of the terrible, tragic plagues: the death of every firstborn in Egypt “from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the first born of the slave-girl” (Exodus 11:5). The people were to sacrifice a lamb for each household, take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and lintel of their houses. They were to eat the meal with the unleavened bread of haste with their loins girded, sandals on their feet, and staffs in their hands. “It is the Lord’s Passover… For when I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague shall befall you” (Exodus 12:11-13).

 
Pharaoh was convinced. “Get out from among my people. Take your flocks and herds as you have said and go” (Exodus 12:31).

The people left as they had prepared: in haste.

This story was in the minds of Jesus’ disciples as they prepared the Passover dinner. They remembered the deliverance of their ancestors from Egypt, when “They cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 26:7,8).

 
Judea had been under Roman rule for nearly a century. Before the Romans it was the Greeks, the Persians, Babylonians and Assyrians, each empire in succession rising and falling with the people of Israel under the oppressive reign of foreign kings and emperors. The Babylonian captivity had never really ended. They had never since been free. That history and the weight of continued Roman occupation was never far from the people’s minds.

 
But the Passover that Peter and John were preparing was different. There would be one more death of a Firstborn Son. Once more unbridled suffering, grief and death would take an innocent life.

 
The American general Douglas Macarthur of the last century said that a good leader is expected to look backward as well as forward.

But he must think only forward.

 
His disciples couldn’t see it yet. They likely still hoped for revolution.

But Jesus’ could. He was thinking forward.

He was about to unleash a different revolution.

Where do you want us top go prepare the Passover?

Mark 14:12-16
And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?” And He sent two of His disciples…

Jesus sent just two of His disciples to arrange the Passover meal, a key celebration on one night of the multi-day, weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread. Luke says Jesus sent Peter and John (Luke 22:8). Judas had already decided to betray Jesus (Mark 14:10,11). By keeping the arrangements relatively secret, Jesus ensured that the betrayal would not occur during this last meal with His disciples.

What Jesus had to say and do was too important.

Jesus directed Peter and John to go to the city and look for a man hauling a clay vessel containing water. What the man was doing was considered women’s work, so he would likely have been easily noticed. Whether this was miraculously divine insight by Jesus, or Jesus’ detailed planning (or both!) they found the man who led them to a furnished upper room where they made arrangements for the meal.

Mark’s gospel repeatedly highlights Jesus’ ministry through shared meals and “table fellowship.”

 
It is “wonderfully telling” that Jesus spends so much of his tour ministering through food. Only in Mark’s gospel does Jesus heal Peter’s mother who then prepares a meal for Him. He eats with tax collectors and sinners, plucks grain on the holy Sabbath, eats bread with his disciples who eat with unwashed and “defiled” hands, declares all foods clean, feeds and eats with a multitude of foreigners in a desert in a Gentile land (Mark 1:29-31; 2:15-17; 2:23-28; 7:1-15, 17-23; 8:1-10, R.S. Frederick, 2013).

Much of the disagreement Jesus ran into with the religious authorities – especially early on – was related to food and the company Jesus was keeping while eating (Mark 2:15-17, 23-28; 7:1-15). The table had become a place of exclusion to the Jewish people instead of a place where foreigners were welcomed. Jesus' discourse about the sheep and the goats is one of hospitality: caring for strangers with food, drink, and clothing. For the infirm and imprisoned, it means taking hospitality to them, including the gift of one’s presence (Matthew 25:31-46).

 
Reconciliation between people through hospitality and table fellowship was a key theme of Jesus ministry and a characteristic of the early church. Peter stayed in the household of Cornelius the Roman centurion, sharing table and roof with unclean foreigners who were also hated enemies (Acts 10:28,48).

 
But the message of reconciliation was “broader than food.” It was not just about interpersonal reconciliation. It was at its deepest level reconciliation between God and humanity, forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

“When Jesus wanted to explain to His followers what his forthcoming death was all about, He did not give them a theory, a model, a metaphor or any other such thing; He gave them a meal, a Passover meal” (NT Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, 2016, p. 182).

 
And with the bread and wine of Passover, Jesus showed them exactly what He meant. 

Judas went to the chief priests in order to betray Him

Mark 14:1,10-11
Now the Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might kill Him. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went away to the chief priests in order to betray Him (“hand Him over”) to them. And when they heard this, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he began seeking how to betray Him at an opportune time.

Judas saw it more clearly than Jesus did.
He was going to have to force Jesus’ hand.

While there are a range of factors that likely influenced Judas, he was probably disappointed with Jesus. The Messiah was supposed to liberate the Jewish people from a century of Roman occupation. Judas was confused by the antagonism of the religious leaders and perhaps optimistic that if they could talk, they could work it out and join forces. He had seen Jesus do it with Nicodemus, a member of the ruling Council (John 3:1-21). This was the story Judas told himself.

 
But the religious leaders did not intend to work it out. They didn’t intend to find a compromise that allowed Jesus to continue to criticize the delicate religiopolitical order that they had created between the Temple, the Romans and the puppet-king Herod. The High Priest Caiaphas said, “It is expedient for you that one man should perish for the people and that the whole nation should not perish” (John 11:50). This was the story he found himself in.

On the surface it just looked like greed. Judas kept the money box, and while he argued that the perfume used to anoint Jesus might have been sold and given to the poor, in reality “He was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it” (John 12:5,6). The exchange of money was always part of the betrayal deal. “What will you pay me to hand him over?” (Matthew 26:15). The pursuit of wealth is a powerful driving force. This was the story as it appeared to others.

But there were also larger forces at work. Since the first chapters of Mark, there was a celestial tension between Jesus, the Kingdom of God and “the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Several of the gospel accounts point to the Enemy entering and influencing Judas’ behavior (Luke 22:3, John 13:2). This was the story behind the story.

 
Like Judas, our lives are a tapestry of different narratives, different stories.

- We can be well meaning, but wrong.
- We can unknowingly become caught up in the schemes and machinations of men.
- We can blindly allow our personal agendas to drive our attitudes and actions.
- We can miss the kingdom of heaven and be deceived by evil.

 
Jesus is the golden pattern woven through the tapestry of all our life-stories.
He works things together for good. He redeems us body and soul. He delivers us from evil.
And there is a bigger story.

Jesus chose to be handed over on our behalf.
And that leaves us with a daily choice:
Will we follow Him? And what will our followership look like?

 
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed Himself up for me”

(Galatians 2:20).

Have a blessed Lenten weekend.
Let us encourage one another with these truths. 

She has done what she could

Mark 14:6-8
But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She did a good work to Me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me. She has done what she could; she anointed My body beforehand for the burial.”

An unnamed woman lavishly anointed Jesus’ with rare perfume that was so valuable that it would have cost the equivalent of a year of workers’ wages.

Some reclining at the table with them were indignant (literally “bent out of shape”). They muttered to each other, “What a waste? And for what purpose? This perfume should have been sold and the money donated to the poor.”
 
Jesus told them to leave her alone and challenged them with their reference to the poor.
 
Jesus' quote from the Old Testament regarding the poor acknowledged our great responsibility: “For the poor you will always have with you in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land’" (Deuteronomy 15:7-11). Those who were listening knew the whole passage. Our commitment to the poor is the perpetual work of His followers and the church: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

The poor are a priority. But the woman’s act had urgent significance. “You do not always have Me.”
 
With her anointing, she acknowledged Jesus: who He was, what He said, what He did and was going to do as King, as Prophet, as High Priest and suffering servant. In the Old Testament kings (1 Sam. 10:1), prophets (1 Kings 19:16), and priests (Exodus 28:41) were anointed to their offices. The word “Christ” itself means “Messiah” or “anointed One.” As Jesus said, the anointing also anticipated His burial. His followers did not really understand any of this.
 
This woman’s act had additional meaning. She anointed Jesus as an act of love, echoing the only other reference to spikenard in the Scripture: “While the king was upon his couch, my spikenard gave forth its fragrance. My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh” (Song of Songs 1:12-13). Like this woman, our life of following Jesus should be one of progressively deepening love for the Savior, something that has characterized the lives of the great saints throughout history.

Those around the table were scolding and shaming the woman. But Jesus had something different to say about her, something that He said only once in the gospel. And it was in reference to this woman and what she had done: “And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman did will also be spoken of in memory of her” (14:9).

As we begin our observation of Lent we start by remembering this woman.
We honor the symbolism of her bold and generous act.
And we join in her confession of love. 

"There came a woman with an alabaster jar of perfume"

Mark 14:3-5
And while He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster jar of perfume of very costly pure nard; and she broke the jar and poured it over His head. But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they were scolding her.

Simon was no longer a leper.
Otherwise, he would not have been hosting a feast in honor of Jesus.

 
He may have been the leper Jesus healed earlier in His ministry (Mark 1:40). Or he could have been another fortunate soul whose life’s curse of being isolated by this contagious disease was ended by the merciful touch of the Savior. Now, this man who formerly was touched by leprosy, who was touched by Jesus’ healing power, likely greeted Jesus with an embrace and welcomed Him to a feast in His honor. The Rabbi’s fame and recognition was on the rise among the people. Increasingly He was being acclaimed as the Messiah.  

It was common for the host of a feast to provide fresh water scented with a few drops of expensive perfume to wash the dust of the road off the head, face, and feet of their guests. But this woman went to the extreme, broke the small white jar and poured its entire contents on Jesus’ head and hair. (The broken jar could not be reused; its contents were committed to the purpose.)

 
The unnamed woman perhaps unknowingly saw a different future for the Master as she anointed His head with the spikenard oil.

 
Mark has spent the first half of his gospel explaining how Jesus established His authority over unclean spirits, sickness, weather, wind and waves. He taught with authority. He debated and defeated the religious leaders (chapters 1-8). Peter recognized Him as Messiah (8:29), and Jesus was transfigured and appeared in glory before Peter, James and John on the mountain (9:2).

 
But despite Jesus having told His disciples at least three times that betrayal, suffering and death was what awaited Him in Jerusalem, they didn’t understand Him (Mark 8:31–35, Mark 9:30–32, Mark 10:33-34).

 
The woman in Simon’s house seems to have understood what others missed.
As she lovingly anointed Jesus, she was acknowledging Him as Messiah (Christ, christos, "anointed One"). 

As we begin Lent together, we can allow this woman's example to lead us to focus on Jesus: who He is, what He said, and what He has done for us.

And how our lives should reflect His light, even in the gathering darkness.