The Good Book Club, Sunday, 7 Feb 2021. Mark 14:1-11. some things to think about

In this morning's TGBC reading, Mark gives us the background treachery of the authorities devising a way to kill Jesus, which enter Judas Iscariot for a betrayal that to this day is unfathomable. Mark lays the foundation for the Last Supper with its institution of Holy Communion, then the time in the olive grove, and Jesus' arrest. I have The Passion of the Christ on dvd to watch about this time every year, and will be doing that soon. The film opens at night, foggy or misty, under the same moon that you and I can see today, with Jesus among the trees as the tension begins to build unbearably. Watching it is part of my time-honored observance of Lent and Holy Week. I wish it were short enough to show in our Sunday School class but it is not.

The second scene below, with Jesus having supper at the home of Simon the Leper, being anointed with a vial of costly perfume, is different from gospel to gospel. Others present the story differently, maybe at the home of Mary and Martha and, in Gospel John, their brother Lazarus. Was the ointment poured on Jesus' head or on his feet? The story varies, but a constant is the presence of Judas, brooding about Jesus, perhaps some sort of bitter resentment, a grudge? Disgust that the messiah isn't going to be a military hero like king David? 

In Mark not so, but as others tell it, Judas personally taking offense at the woman's waste of costly nard that could have been sold and Judas, an embezzling thief according to a different storyteller, could have been entrusted with the money as the group's purser, now he won't get it.

Looking at the story as a 21st century Christian, how do you feel about the charge that using costly nard on Jesus was wasteful? Are those present saying Jesus isn't worth it? Of course, within Mark's gospel Jesus is aware of what lies ahead for him. And some scholars regard the anointing as a precursor to the women coming to Jesus' tomb to anoint his dead body. But remember, nobody in that room that night knows what we know!

So further to contemplate Judas! Why do you think Judas betrayed Jesus, what was Judas' motive, reason? On another level, some scholars have said Judas was figurative, signified the Judeans' rejection of Jesus, what do you think about that? 

On still another level, do you think Judas' treachery was divinely predestined? Indeed, was Jesus' own passion, death and resurrection foreordained? Doesn't Mark's gospel make it seem so as part of his agenda about the suffering messiah? Or was it a trainwreck, God's plan of salvation gone off the track because of human mischief? If the Passion of the Christ was predestined, how is it that Jesus at supper condemns Judas? 

Was Judas repentant in Mark's gospel? (Try to avoid mixing Bible stories as everyone does with the two Nativity stories and creating a new gospel of your own imagining!). If Judas was remorseful, repentant, was he forgiven and welcomed into heaven, or do we need to worry ourselves with God's domain! What IS "heaven" anyway?

Or was Judas predestined for damnation? Might an Episcopalian and a Presbyterian differ on that? 

Was the brutal end of Jesus' life the will of the Father? If so, could we call it sin, evil? Can evil ever be God's will? If foreordained and nobody had real Free Will, wouldn't that absolve all humans of guilt, even the guilty ones? If there was guilt, who was guilty? Can God himself be guilty? How about if God is in cahoots with Satan? Ask Job. Ask Moses. Read Joshua and ask yourself. 

Here's the reading.

  

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away, and the chief priests and scribes were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus and kill Him. “But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.” 

While Jesus was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke open the jar and poured it on Jesus’ head.

Some of those present, however, expressed their indignation to one another: “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 

But Jesus said, “Leave her alone; why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful deed to Me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want. But you will not always have Me. She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial. And truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” 

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this, and they promised to give him money. 

So Judas began to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus.