Mark 14 (22-31)
March 29, 2009
Patrick Preheim
Intimacy and Betrayal
Mark chapter 14 is painful scripture for me. This chapter chronicles a series of betrayals and betrayal is hard for any of us. Most of us emotionally understand that no betrayal is harder to accept than from those with whom we are closest. I am fortunate to have not endured extreme betrayal from those closest to me (parents, spouse). My formative story of disloyalty is that of divorce within the family. This is small potatoes when compared to such things as incest, rape, adultery, or being disowned. No doubt some gathered this morning have suffered such violence. Reaching out to the betrayer or the betrayed in the midst of these situations is not what I am speaking to today. The good news is that the betrayal in Mark 14, in the hard situations of our lives and the more mild cases is not the end of the story. The good news is that disloyalty is not the end of Mark’s gospel. Mark concludes that betrayal cannot entomb Jesus. Nonetheless, betrayal is part of Mark’s journey to new life. I will get to an examination of the text, but first I invite you into the tension of Mark 14 with a story. This may help move our minds and hearts into the deep theology and ethics of Mark 14.
I remember the dull ache I felt in my chest when my brother told me he was getting a divorce. This happened while I was in university. I suppose I should have known that things were not well with his marriage because they had dodged several of my attempts to invite them over for a backyard BBQ. Had I not been so oblivious to the little signs I might have noticed that my former sister in law had stopped wearing her wedding ring. My brother stopped by on his way home after work and told me the news while we shot baskets in the driveway. Then he went home and I was left alone at my place with only this dull throb in my diaphragm. In that moment I felt isolated, alone, adrift. I did something that I had rarely done before: I called a classmate and said I needed to talk. As I reflect on my reaction from the safe distance of the 21st century I am surprised by these emotions. I was not really close to my brother and his wife and even experienced a certain amount of tension with my former sister in law. It was news of adultery, news of failed reconciliation, news of a pervasive distrust that caused me pain. I am an idealist and sometimes the hardness of reality knocks me down. This was one of those cases.
This week in my life has resurfaced because of the stories in Mark 14. The disloyalty and misunderstanding within the episodes are heightened on account of the intimacy extended to and from Jesus. The first of these scenes takes place in Bethany in which a woman anoints Jesus. The woman displays amazing courage and insight. Jesus is sitting at a table eating with his disciples. It is a private meal. It would have been highly unusual for an acquaintance of the opposite sex to approach a private meal, let alone a stranger. The woman felt so strongly that the anointing must occur that she loosed herself from society’s understanding of manners. She acted out of love, compassion and devotion. Forget about the rules, she says, Jesus must be anointed. The financial value ascribe to her gift highlights the passion she brings. Kings were anointed on the head while the dead were anointed on their body as a preparation for burial. The emptied flask of ointment would have surely run down the head of Jesus onto his body: a king anointed for burial. Jesus took the opportunity to again define himself the servant king who will soon die.
In the midst of this moving narrative we find disciples grumbling about the waste of resources. Judas slips out after the commotion at the table to collude with the chief priests. Perhaps Judas thinks this will force Jesus into claiming his rightful throne with the power most expected of the Messiah, maybe he had simply given up on the tactics of Jesus. In any case he and the other disciples just don’t understand Jesus. In the midst of the woman’s bold, intimate, and prophetic action we see ignorance and malice from the closest friends of Jesus.
How many times do we sit at the table with our family and friends and just don’t understand our loved ones or feel misunderstood? Sometimes we are angry that our spouse “wasted” good money on something beautiful, something good. Sometimes we feel scolded on account doing something generous for another. Yes, betrayals happen for us too.
A second episode of Chapter 14 centers on the Passover meal. (The institution of the Passover is found in Exodus 12). The Hebrews were commanded to come together in their families to mark the deliverance which God was bringing. Jesus and the disciples celebrate Passover together, not with their families of origin. They have become a new community. In the midst of the most intimate of Jewish meals Jesus deepens the bond. His gives the disciples bread and drink which he says are his body and blood. In the same way that the woman prepared Jesus for his imminent death, so now Jesus prepares the disciples for his absence after crucifixion. The bread and cup shared at a ceremonial meal become ways of remembering the life and death of Jesus. Two other times in Mark’s gospel Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and gives it away (6:41 and 8:6). “Take, offer thanks, break, and give” is a formula to help his friends remember a life of service.
The clouds hanging over this scene are the predictions that one disciple in particular will actively deliver up Jesus (the new Pascal lamb) to be sacrificed, and that all the other disciples will fall away. Peter adamantly declares that he will not deny Jesus, and Jesus does not argue with him. On the eve of his arrest how difficult it must have been for Jesus to join in a meal celebrating God’s salvation with those he knew would betray and deny him. He does this and actually provides them a tool to remember him and God’s ministry through him after he is gone. Rather than lash out verbally or run away, Jesus provides a way for his betrayers to remember the grace of God. Jesus understands that his time on earth is short and he will not spoil the time left with a self righteous rant.
How many times do we break bread with those who seek to betray us and who will abandon us when the going gets tough? It happens at family gatherings, at our places of work, even church potlucks. And in fact sometimes we are the betrayers, the ones who promise great things, the ones who will abandon our friends. Oh that we might act like Jesus. I wish we all could remember that our time on this earth is short; that more than self righteous rants we need good gifts to help us when the other is gone. We need to remind each other of God’s grace. How different our disagreements might turn out if we were thinking of good gifts to provide another.
While the setting of the third narrative of Mark 14 shifts to Gethsemane, the theme of intimacy and betrayal continue. Jesus is racked with sorrow and distress. He decides to pray and asks the disciples to stay awake with him. I imagine this to be a type of request for prayer support.
The reaction of the disciples through this whole scene is painful. They make one dreadful response after another. Twice Jesus asks them to keep awake and twice they fall asleep. Judas greets Jesus with a kiss (a very intimate gesture) as the ignition for the arrest. One of the other disciples takes out a sword. I can imagine Jesus wondering where did this sword come from, how long has he been carrying it, and what teachings did he ever hear from me to justify such a thing. The sword wielding disciple then lops off a slave’s ear. In the end, all the disciples run away. The disciples have not only betrayed Jesus physically but have also betrayed his philosophy. A bad day for the friends of Jesus any way you look at it.
And we, too, often find ourselves surrounded by people sleeping when we need support, engaging in actions contrary to our wishes, or running away when we need companionship. And as often, we are the ones sleeping while our friends need our spiritual support, or need our presence rather than our swords, or need us to stick with them in a bind.
An amazing aspect of Mark 14 is that God does not let betrayal carry the day. Throughout each of these episodes Jesus truly proves himself divine in the compassionate way he relates to his betraying disciples. The disciples just don’t get it: they actively plan a betrayal, they sabotage his teachings, they run away. Their disobedience frustrates Jesus, but compassion carries the day. God in Christ does not allow our offenses, or the betrayal of others, to block the divine prerogative of reconciliation. This is what God does, and it is beautiful. It gives us and our world hope. Mark 14 is a testimony to the non-violent atonement (the title of a Denny Weaver book). Christ bears with us and our world’s betrayals patiently waiting for us to come to our senses. The betrayals of Christ put him in solidarity with all who are victims of rejection and suffering. Jesus knows our pain and can lead us from those places that feel like a cross or a tomb. Christ’s response to betrayal reveals his belief in a new future for a new humanity. It is important for us to understand this theology and parallel ethics for we make daily decisions on how to deal with the betrayals of our world.
Lest we think that atonement and reconciliation are simply for the personal realm I bring up the country of Kosovo. We haven’t heard Kosovo mentioned in news recently, have we? Elizabeth Pond wrote about Kosovo’s quiet victory over violent ethnic nationalism in a winter edition of the Christian Science Monitor (Jan 21, 09). She credits the allure of European Union membership as one reason for a transition in Serbian government and policy. For its part leaders in Kosovo have chosen to suppress thuggish behaviour from ethnic nationalists. The article outlines how mafia groups have previously orchestrated acts of violence to maintain political instability which has permitted drug smuggling. Both Serbian and Kosovar leaders have chosen to break the cycles of retaliation and mafia rule which has kept their region in the tomb. And it is working. Betrayal is not the end of their story. Will something like this work in Afghanistan or Dafur or in the Middle East? We don’t know. As in the case of Northern Ireland it took over 30 years of trouble for people to begin choosing reconciliation, and they are still actively choosing it. Public and politicians have responded calmly in the wake of the most recent assignations. Be it in Ireland or Canada, however, the success of atonement depends on the spiritual maturity of the participants. And that is not so different than the personal realm. We have choices when we are the betrayer and the betrayed. Mark 14 is a clarion call for us to confess our misunderstandings, our wilful sins of commission, our sleeping in the garden, our swords lashing out at the enemy. It is also a call for us to believe that the inconsiderate and betrayers can potentially become the foundation of the church’s future.
My brother and former sister-in-law both remarried. We all survived the trauma of that year. I think they learned much about themselves through their ordeal. I am reminded that even in those times when reconciliation does not happen God’s grace continues. My brother has been an important person in his neighbourhood and community, and that is evidence that God can bring something good out of brokenness and betrayal. In his best moments he lets the wounds of the past allow him to be compassionate and caring to others. God is gracious to us all. Let us, therefore, try and be gracious with each other. Amen.