Day 14

Mark 14:10,11 (Part 1)

This is one of the moments in Mark’s account not only of great drama, but also of nearly unbearable tragedy. We do not know what motivated Judas to betray his Lord. Perhaps he had anticipated that
Jesus would be the kind of Messiah who would lead an army to vanquish the Roman oppressors.

Perhaps, whatever Jesus said to the contrary, Judas’ hopes had been fanned by the adulation of the crowds that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem just days earlier. Perhaps Judas felt now, at last, Jesus would his destiny and start the revolution.

But then Jesus names, once again, his sure conviction that he will die. And Judas is confronted with the fact that Jesus is not and will never be the kind of Messiah he expects. And so spurred by bitter disappointment and his own feelings of
betrayal, he offers to betray his teacher to his adversaries.

This is all speculation. There are various clues here and there that might point to this interpretation, but it remains speculation nevertheless. Yet if it is
at all close to the mark, then it intimates a parallel to an earlier scene between Jesus and Peter. Peter too, imagines he knows what it means to proclaim Jesus the Messiah. And Peter, too, is shocked and disappointed by the possibility that Jesus’ destiny might be about shame and death, not power and glory...

VC John