Mark · chapter 14 of 16
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Mark 14 tells of Jesus' last hours before the cross: a woman anoints him at Bethany, Judas agrees to betray him, Jesus celebrates the Passover and institutes the Lord's Supper, prays in Gethsemane, is arrested and condemned by the Sanhedrin, and Peter denies him three times before the rooster crows a second time.
Mark 14 begins the passion narrative. The pace is dense: within a few hours there are an anointing, a betrayal, a meal, an anguished prayer, an arrest, a trial and a denial. The chapter shows Jesus moving freely toward the cross while his disciples abandon him one by one.
It is two days before the Passover, and the chief priests and scribes are looking for a way to arrest him by stealth. At Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman breaks an alabaster jar of very costly nard ointment and pours it over Jesus' head. Some protest the waste, but Jesus says she has done a good thing and has anointed his body beforehand for burial; wherever the gospel is preached what she did will be told. Judas Iscariot goes to the chief priests and agrees to betray him for money.
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, Jesus sends two disciples to prepare the Passover in an upper room. At the table he says that one of the twelve eating with him will betray him. Then he takes bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it, saying it is his body, and takes the cup, gives it to all and says it is his blood of the covenant, poured out for many. They sing a hymn and go out to the Mount of Olives. Peter insists he will never fall away, but Jesus tells him that before the rooster crows twice he will deny him three times.
In Gethsemane, Jesus takes Peter, James and John and tells them his soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. He goes a little farther, falls to the ground and prays: Abba, Father, all things are possible for you, take this cup from me, yet not what I will but what you will. He returns to find them asleep. Judas arrives with an armed crowd and identifies him with a kiss; Jesus is arrested and all the disciples flee. They take him to the high priest, where they seek false testimony against him. When asked whether he is the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, Jesus answers that he is and that they will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power. They condemn him as deserving death. Outside, Peter denies three times that he knows him; the rooster crows a second time, and he remembers Jesus' word and weeps.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Jesus defends the woman, saying she has done what she could and anointed his body beforehand for burial. Her gesture, which others call waste, becomes an act of faith that anticipates Jesus' death.
Jesus gives the disciples the bread as his body and the cup as his blood of the covenant poured out for many. He interprets his death in advance as a sacrifice that inaugurates a new covenant.
In Gethsemane, Jesus prays, calling God Abba, Father, and asks that the cup pass but accepts his will. It shows his true humanity and his complete obedience, even in anguish.
When the high priest asks if he is the Christ, Jesus plainly says he is. He adds that they will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, claiming divine authority, and for this they condemn him.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: She broke an alabaster jar of very costly nard ointment and poured it over Jesus' head. — Mark 14:3
Answer: To betray Jesus to them for money. — Mark 14:10-11
Answer: That the bread was his body and the cup his blood of the covenant, poured out for many. — Mark 14:22-24
Answer: That if possible the cup would pass from him, but that the Father's will be done and not his own. — Mark 14:35-36
Answer: With a kiss. — Mark 14:44-45
Answer: Three times; when the rooster crowed he remembered Jesus' word and wept. — Mark 14:66-72
Mark 14 shows people who fail: Judas betrays, the disciples sleep and flee, Peter denies. In a class or small group you can talk honestly about our own weaknesses and about the fact that Jesus knew them in advance and loved them still. Peter wept, and his story does not end there.
The prayer in Gethsemane teaches us to pray sincerely: to tell God what we feel and to submit to his will. The Lord's Supper invites us to remember with gratitude what our forgiveness cost and to receive it in community. And the woman of Bethany encourages us to give Jesus our best without expecting applause.
Mark 14 ends with Peter weeping bitterly while Jesus is in the hands of his accusers. In Mark 15 he will be taken before Pilate, condemned, crucified and buried.
Mark presents it as the Passover meal, on the first day of Unleavened Bread. The Gospels differ on some calendar details, and scholars discuss how to harmonize them. All agree that Jesus gave the meal a new meaning centered on his death.
Mark 14:51-52 mentions a young man wrapped in a linen cloth who fled naked when Jesus was seized. The text does not give his name. An ancient tradition suggests it was Mark himself, but that is a conjecture.
Only Mark mentions two crowings, both in Jesus' prediction and in its fulfillment. The other Gospels speak of one crowing. There is no contradiction, since Mark gives a more specific detail.