Mark 14:12-25
Let’s continue to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” There are at least two items today in the reading from Mark that are different from yesterday’s reading in Matthew. First, in yesterday’s reading the phrase “a certain man” caught my attention and I wondered who that “certain man” might be. Today it’s very different. Jesus tells His disciples that they will meet a man carrying a jar of water and that the disciples should follow him, that he will enter a house and that they should speak to …the master of the house (vv. 13-14). They were then to ask about a “guest room” and he would show them …a large upper room furnished and ready. (v. 15) In Mark (today’s reading) there is no “certain man” who goes to his own house (Matthew 26:18). Instead they meet an “underling” who leads them to a house where he is not the master. All this lessens the possibility that Matthew’s “certain man” might be the man blind from birth whom Jesus healed and increases the possibility of the master of the house being someone of wealth – someone like Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea. As with yesterday, intriguing…
The second item different today is in the last verse: Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Yesterday’s reading from Matthew included two additional words, “with you”: …when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom. (Matthew 26:29) The two different endings, “My Father’s kingdom” and “kingdom of God” are not an issue (to me). However, “with you” struck me. Yesterday I didn’t mention it, but I wondered at the long delay that Jesus was setting for Himself. He would not drink from “the fruit of the vine” again until the disciples were there with Him to drink it in the Kingdom of God – that is, at least until their death many years later. In today’s reading, without the words “with you”, we have no such delay. Jesus may have met up with His Father between His death and Resurrection or after His Ascension or any time in between those two events. We don’t know.
It’s really nice to have different reflections on these same events in Jesus’ life!
Slava Bohu!