BROADCASTS.com

In our series of studies in the gospel of Mark, we have come to the fourteenth chapter. As you recall, Mark is bringing us to those eventful moments of the last week our Lord spent in Jerusalem and its environs just before his crucifixion and resurrection. In this chapter, Mark does what he has done frequently throughout this Gospel -- Mark brings together certain events and themes which occurred at various times during this week and deliberately places them side by side so that we might see the contrast in certain emphases. Like an artist, he draws together two lines of truth, taking that line of thought which centers around hate, and that which centers around love, and braiding them together. In Verses 1 and 2 you have Mark's account of the hatred of the priests toward Jesus, followed by the story of the love toward him of Mary of Bethany. Then in Verses 10 and 11 you come to the story of Judas' mounting hatred and enmity against Jesus, followed by the story of Jesus' love for his disciples, as exhibited at their last Passover together, and the mingling together of these two themes in the disclosure by Jesus of the betrayal of Judas at the table of the Lord.