Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S53 || Preparing for Sacrifice: Jesus at the Passover Table || Mark 14:12-21 || Session 53 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
Why did Jesus choose to die during Passover? The timing wasn't coincidental but purposeful. Jesus orchestrated every detail of his final days, forcing the religious leaders' hand despite their reluctance to arrest him during the feast.
Mark 14:12-21 reveals how Jesus arranged his last meal with extraordinary precision. When the disciples asked where to prepare the Passover, Jesus gave them specific instructions: find a man carrying water (culturally unusual, as this was women's work) who would lead them to a fully furnished upper room. This wasn't luck but divine providence at work—God arranging circumstances down to the minute. The unnamed homeowner who prepared that space played a crucial role in salvation history, providing the setting for Jesus' profound final teachings to his disciples.
The Passover itself held deep symbolism Jesus deliberately fulfilled. The unleavened bread represented removing sin from one's life, while the sacrificial lamb pointed to Jesus himself—the ultimate sacrifice whose blood would save people from death and free them from bondage. During this meaningful meal, Jesus predicted his betrayal, prompting soul-searching from each disciple who asked, "Is it I?" Rather than confidently asserting their loyalty, they questioned their own steadfastness—a model of spiritual humility we should emulate.
Most moving is how Jesus identified his betrayer as "one who dips with me in the bowl"—a gesture of intimacy and fellowship. Even knowing Judas would betray him, Jesus extended this final act of love. What a profound picture of grace toward enemies! This passage reminds us Jesus wasn't a helpless victim but the divine orchestrator of salvation history, walking deliberately toward the cross to fulfill scriptural prophecies and establish a New Covenant.
Have you considered how God might be orchestrating circumstances in your life? Take time today to reflect on where divine providence might be at work, even in details you've overlooked.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
In our teaching through Mark we have Jesus, who has gone through a series of confrontations with the Jewish leaders. He has been very blunt. He's confronted them in the temple every day and at night he's been going out to Bethany outside the city. He gave a series of very detailed teachings about the destruction of the temple and his second coming. Now, in chapter 14 of Mark, we're going to see where he goes into the upper room and has a meal. As we open today, he's preparing for that. So open your Bibles to Mark, chapter 14, starting in verse 12, and we see here Jesus preparing his disciples for the Passover meal and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Steve, can you start at verse 12 and read down through verse 21?
Speaker 2:On the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, his disciples said to him when do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat Passover? And he sent two of his disciples and said to them Go into the city and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him and, wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house the teacher says when is my guest room on which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he himself will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Prepare for us there.
Speaker 2:The disciples went out and came to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening he came with the twelve. As they were reclining at the table and eating, jesus said Truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. They began to be grieved and to say to him one by one Surely not I. And he said to them it is one of the twelve, one who dips with me in the bowl, for the Son of man is to go, just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.
Speaker 1:As this starts, mark is giving a timeline of what Jesus is doing prior to the last few days and last few hours of his life. It opens up talking about this day of unleavened bread, or period of unleavened bread. Steve, what is this holiday and where did it come from?
Speaker 2:Well, the holiday of the unleavened bread encompasses both the Passover and then after that there was another seven days that was called actually the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So together it was a eight-day holiday that started with the actual Passover. Then the proper name of the next seven days was the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, but people would combine that and talk about the unleavened bread as being all of these eight days and talk about the unleavened bread as being all of these eight days. But it's clearly here talking about the actual Passover itself, because that is the day whenever they prepared the lamb that was eaten on the Passover day.
Speaker 2:Its origins came from the exodus from Egypt. That was the last plague that God had over the Egypt and that was the one where the death angel passed by the houses that had the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and the lentil and killed all of the firstborn within the land of Egypt. After that that forced the Pharaoh to go ahead and let the Israelite people go as they went from Egypt over into their promised land. This day again is a feast of comprising eight days. The first one is the Passover itself, and then the next seven days were the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Speaker 1:And as part of that, if you go back and read the commands that God had given on how to prepare for that, one of the things they were supposed to do was to get all of the leaven out of the house. They were supposed to remove it all and eat unleavened bread for that week, and of course it goes back to when the Jews were being brought out of Egypt. They had to leave very quickly and the bread didn't have time to rise and as part of that ceremony God instituted for every year, they were supposed to eat unleavened bread. Get all of the leaven out of your house. Even now, the observant Jews still do this. But what is the spiritual significance, what's the symbolism of the leaven, and how does that apply to us today?
Speaker 2:Leaven is what we today would call yeast. It's one and the same. The yeast is something that helps the bread rise. It also gives it a little bit more flavor. The significance of getting all the leaven out was that they didn't have time to wait for the bread to rise in order to bake it. They were to cook it without the leaven and it was known as flatbread. It didn't have the taste that you would have with the leaven or yeast in it. The purpose was to signify sin. Yeast or leaven was always been depicted as something as sin throughout all of Scripture. So getting it all out of your house so that there's no leaven there, getting it out of this bread so there's not there. The spiritual significance is of getting sin out of your life so that it's not there to affect your life.
Speaker 1:Exactly, Leaven is always a symbol of sin. In the Passover ceremony they were supposed to get the leaven out. It mentions here in verse 12 that it's the start of unleavened bread, which they're speaking in a general term of the entire eight days. Of course, since this would fall on a Sabbath, then I'm sure they would have to get the leaven out a day or two at a minimum in advance. So I'm sure the common thinking of was there was this period of time here where it was longer than the actual holiday, where we had to go through this process of cleaning the house and getting the leaven out. Then it talks about the Passover lamb and of course that has great significance as well. What is the spiritual application? It says in verse 12, the Passover lamb was being sacrificed. What's the spiritual significance there of the Passover?
Speaker 2:lamb During Passover. They had to take the lamb into their house on the 10th of Nisan and have it there for three days to inspect it, make sure that it didn't have any blemishes and didn't get any blemishes so that it would be pure whenever they sacrificed it on the 14th of Nisan. We've mentioned this in some of our former sessions related to Jesus's coming into the city on the 10th of Nisan during this whole Passover feast. It was done on purpose, but the lamb was sacrificed and then the blood from the lamb was to be put over the doorpost and the lentils, so in other words the side post, and over the head post. That was to signify that the death angel was to pass over that house, that they had done what God had told them to do and that they believed and trust that God was going to pass over and not affect any of the firstborn that were in that house. It was a symbol of shedding of blood.
Speaker 2:And if you go back to John, whenever John first introduced Jesus to the people around, he said behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The people around he said behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This was one of the areas of Jesus himself was known as the lamb. He's the Passover lamb that through his sacrifice, the blood that he sheds on the cross, and through his resurrection, he then takes our sin away, he pays our sin debt that we have. It's through that symbology of the Passover lamb, of an actual lamb and the Passover lamb as far as Jesus Christ being our Passover lamb.
Speaker 1:Just as you said, the original Passover was when God was bringing Israel out of Egypt and the death angel would pass over your house if you had the blood on your doorpost. That was a symbol of being freed or passed over from death. It's also a reminder to the Jews of coming out of slavery in Egypt. Israel was under the cruel hand of the Egyptian pharaoh with all of his false gods. In the Exodus, there's a struggle between Israel and the Egyptian gods, and God comes in and shows that he is the superior one. He is the true God, and because of that, israel was freed from slavery.
Speaker 1:The Passover lamb is the symbol of being freed from slavery, freed from bondage, brought into the promised land of salvation, and of God's wrath through the death angel passing over you. All this was encompassed in the Passover ceremony that is still celebrated to this day. So that's the whole thing. That's all wrapped up here in that first phrase in verse 12, unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed. Now, steve, what a coincidence that Jesus' death on the cross is at exactly the same period that all that's going on. And, of course, it's not a coincidence at all, because who is it that arranged for the death on the cross to happen. We've been talking about this as we've been going through Mark. First question is who was really in charge here, and then, who was our true Passover?
Speaker 2:lamb we have been talking about this that Jesus is in control of this whole situation. The leadership explicitly they don't want to arrest him during this feast period because people from all over have come in. This was one of the feasts where everybody was supposed to come into Jerusalem to celebrate. So the leadership didn't want to arrest Jesus and of course, their idea is to kill him and they're going to have a plot of a way to do that. That. We'll see a little bit later. But they specifically said we do not want to do it during this feast time because we're afraid of the people. They didn't want to upset the people. They didn't want to upset Jesus's followers. That was their desire.
Speaker 2:However, we see Jesus at every step, forcing their hand. He chose to come into Jerusalem during this Passover time and he is choosing to die during this Passover time and this Passover day. He has announced here what we read that there's going to be someone that's going to betray him. He has been preparing his disciples for the last few months at least, if not maybe the previous year, telling them. He began to teach them that the Messiah must suffer first and be handed over to the Gentiles and die and then raise again on the third day. He had told him before that he would be betrayed. Now it is all coming to fruition. It's all coming to a point. Jesus is the one that is forcing this to happen at the correct and appointed time. The leadership thinks that they're in control, but they're really not. Jesus is orchestrating this whole scenario.
Speaker 1:He was orchestrating all of this because he was the Passover lamb. It says there in verse 12, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed. Well, the true Passover lamb was Jesus. They were out sacrificing actual lambs for a meal when Jesus was preparing himself to die on the cross as the Passover. Then this is the preparation.
Speaker 1:At the end of verse 12, the disciples go to the Lord and ask where do you want us to go to eat the Passover? In 13 and 14 and 15, jesus describes okay, go into the city. You're going to see a man with a pitcher of water on his head. Follow him and he'll lead you into a house there. Ask the owner where can we celebrate the meal? Of course, my mind goes automatically back to chapter 2 earlier, where Jesus told them. Automatically back to chapter 2 earlier, where Jesus told them go and you'll find a donkey tied with a colt that nobody's ridden. If anybody asks you, tell them. The Lord needs it. This is yet another one of those instances where he's telling them to go and you will actually find something. Steve, what's the big deal about the man with the water on his head? Why would God take precious time in his word for such a detail?
Speaker 2:Because it is this time when tens of thousands of people have come into the city. How in the world are they going to be able to pick out and find this one person that Jesus describes, that Jesus describes Well, even to this day in the Middle East? There, women are the ones who carried water. They're the ones who went out to the trough to get it. We have stories of the woman at the well when Jesus met her at Jacob's well. We have the stories back in the Old Testament of whenever the servant went to find a bride for Isaac and you had both Rebecca and then Rachel for Jacob coming to the well the women were the ones that traditionally went to the well and carried water. The significance that you have a man carrying water would be somebody that would be easily seen and be easily found, because it would be out of the ordinary for him to do it. To me, it's just another way of showing how all of this is being once again the word I use is orchestrated by Jesus and by God.
Speaker 1:I think it's highly orchestrated by God. This is divine providence at work here. If you're going to go and get a pitcher of water, they're heavy. That's why they put them on their head to carry it. But you're not going to walk around all day long with a pitcher of water on your head. You're going to go out and get the water and come back. So the disciples just happened to get there exactly the time when the man is returning with the pitcher of water and not going out there. So it was really down to the minute that they found this man with the water. So it's another divine appointment and, of course, there's no circumstance to it. It's a divine appointment. God arranged this.
Speaker 1:As you said, steve, men typically didn't have water on their heads. Typically it was the women, and there's several lessons here that can be learned. One is God works out divine providence, even sometimes down to the minute. Secondly, he's also teaching, like the story with the donkey, he's teaching the disciples to trust him. Go and do what I ask, and it'll turn out like I say.
Speaker 1:I think many times in our lives we struggle what should I do? And the Bible tells us okay, do this. And we say well, that sounds unusual, I might want to go follow human wisdom. I think what he's teaching us here is that if we follow the divine wisdom, if we just do what God tells us, then life will turn out just like he says. Just like going and finding a room or finding a man with water on his head. It actually turns out exactly like he says, just like going and finding a room or finding a man with water on his head. It actually turns out exactly like God says. Every other thing in the Bible will turn out like God says.
Speaker 1:If we just merely follow his commands and follow his teachings, then our lives will turn out just like he says. If we're a child of God and we just go through life doing what he wants us to do, we'll see these wonderful circumstances just appear like magic in our path. Of course, it's not magic. It's the Lord arranging these things. An obedient Christian life is a great adventure, wondering what God is going to bring into our lives. Next Then, steve, in the next verse, verse 16,. How do the disciples react to these instructions?
Speaker 2:Well, they went out, just as he told them to do, and they found it just as he had described it. So then they went in and they prepared the Passover from there.
Speaker 1:We could ask ourselves do we ever see God moments? Do we ever just go through life? Suddenly there just happens to be this circumstance where I could do the Lord's work. Well, of course those happen if we just open our eyes. Now I want to talk about this man that has prepared this room. They go into the city, they find the man with the water, they follow him and they say where can we have our meal? They find there a room that's already been prepared. God, through this man, has arranged a fully furnished room. Nobody else had reserved it. As you said, steve, this was a time when many people came into the city and so it was very busy. But yet here is a fully furnished room with everything prepared, nobody else there. Jesus and his disciples can get a moment of quiet where they can sit down and have their meal. First question does Jesus have a place prepared for us?
Speaker 2:He does Glenn have a place prepared for us Over in John, chapter 14, verses I think it's one through three, it says do not, this is Jesus speaking. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you For that. He is preparing a place for us, glenn. I don't know about you, but I am really looking forward to see that place that he's prepared for me.
Speaker 1:The disciples came to Jesus and asked him where should we go? Well, he already had a place prepared. He had a place fully furnished, a whole meal there, it was quiet and they could sit with the Lord and get some teaching from him. I find that tremendous. That's a great lesson. Another one is this owner of this house. We don't know him, we don't know his name.
Speaker 1:It's very possible that there's a lot of things this man could not do. Maybe he's not a great preacher this man could not do. Maybe he's not a great preacher, or maybe he's not a musician that could sing in front of the church, or maybe he's not a good pastor or a church leader. There's a lot of things he probably could not do, but he could prepare a room. He could prepare a room for the Lord. That's a great thing. All of us are like that, don't you think, in the sense that there's a lot of things I can't do, and I know the people listening to me. There's things you can't do, but, just like this man, he could prepare a room.
Speaker 1:Preparing that room allowed Jesus and his disciples to get the last moment of quiet before he goes and gets arrested and dies on the cross. It was the final moments during that time. Because this man prepared this room, jesus was able to give the upper room discourse, which is John, chapters 13 through 16, which is tremendous teaching that we have recorded for us here. Because this man could prepare a room and set up a meal that was ready. Then Jesus had the final moments with his disciples.
Speaker 1:These wonderful teachings were passed on to all of us through all the ages and it was such a great blessing to all of us as well as the disciples. I think that's a great lesson. Maybe we're not great preachers, maybe we're not great church leaders, maybe we're not great theologians, maybe we're not singers or have all these other talents, but we could do something for the Lord and each of us has something we can do. None of us has the ability to just sit on the sidelines and let God's kingdom happen. All of us should do what we can. Steve, don't you think it's important for all people in the church to do at least one thing that they can do for the Lord?
Speaker 2:One of the things, glenn, as you mentioned before, of preparation for the Passover was to get all of the leaven out of the house, and what that entailed was for them to take everything out of the house house, and what that entailed was for them to take everything out of the house, everything no-transcript. Here is this man when the word just says prepare to place. It's something that took work for him to do, that he has laid out the furniture and the table for them to recline at in this upper room. While we might think that sometimes it's mundane things that were given to us that the Lord leaves us to do the Holy Spirit, the real question is can God depend on us to do it? This was something that Jesus had depended on this man to prepare it and to have it prepared in the right way, and he did it. Because there they are, they end up having the supper.
Speaker 2:When we're led by the Holy Spirit to do certain things, we should heed those certain things and not let ourselves get in the way of thinking, for instance, oh, this is just something that's very minor, that the church has asked me to do, or that somebody else has asked me to do, a fellow Christian has asked me to do drive them somewhere or take them somewhere but the real question is can they depend on you whenever you're approached by the Holy Spirit or another Christian? Here is something that I would like for you to do. There are things that we can still do today, in our day and age in order to serve God.
Speaker 1:All of us have a role in the church. Paul made the analogy to the body and he said the hands can't tell the feet that we have no need of you. Moving on in the passage verse 18, they start the Passover meal and of course Jesus is the focus of the Passover. The whole Passover ceremony is still today. The observant Jews celebrate this every year. They call it a Seder service, but Jesus is the focus of that whole ceremony. He is the Passover lamb. The meal itself also points to Christ.
Speaker 1:1 Corinthians 5-7 compares Jesus to the Passover ceremony, where we are to purge out the old leaven out of our lives and Christ is the Passover sacrifice. It also says in verse 18 that Jesus talks to the twelve and says that one of you will betray me. Jesus knew the future. He's predicting it here. Judas had not yet betrayed him, but Jesus, in verse 18, predicts it will happen. Jesus knew the future. He knew that it would happen with certainty and he knew who would do it. Jesus knows everything, even the future. He knows with certainty. The future acts of free creatures. Yet the person is the one making the free decision and that's not an issue either logically or theologically.
Speaker 1:Each of the 12 then says oh, is it I? They were all doubting themselves, saying was it me that's going to betray you? They all doubted their faithfulness to Christ. My lesson here is that if we know we're weak and I think that's what these men were doing they were saying is it me that's going to betray you? If we know we're weak, then we'll go to him and ask for more faith. If, on the other hand, we think we're strong, then we won't go to him and we're going to be tempted into a prideful fall. Each of us should ask ourselves is it I? Am I the one that's going to fail the Lord? Am I capable of disappointing the Lord? I think I know I am in my weak flesh and without the power of the Holy Spirit keeping me on track, I would Steve any lessons on that. That's just kind of a tremendous situation here. He knows somebody's going to betray him. All of the disciples ask is it I?
Speaker 2:Let's camp out there for just a little bit, glenn, because what you've brought out is something that we should pause on and really think about. There's two aspects of that One that you've been talking about that they all doubted amongst themselves. I find that really curious that here they are, following him for three plus years, yet when he says this somebody of course he knows the actual person Somebody is going to betray me. They, like you said, they doubt themselves. They ask well, is it me? I mean, really think about what that's saying about them. And as a person, is it me, am I going to betray you? I just about what that's saying about them. As a person, is it me? Am I going to betray you? I just find that that's interesting.
Speaker 2:And the second part of it is is that Judas actually knew it was him, because he had been out already plotting with the leadership to help them to be able to seize Jesus, and of course, the leadership was wanting to kill him. So we have this situation where Jesus says somebody he knows it's Judas, judas knows it's Judas, but yet these other disciples say is it me? I don't know about you, glenn, but I would hope that if Jesus said something like that somebody here is going to betray me, that my immediate reaction will be well, I know it's not me, because I would never betray you, but yet they all ask well, is it me? I just find that a little bit curious, and we should pause on that and really ponder on it a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so. We should have some self-introspection. Like I said, if we think we're strong, oh, I'd never deny the Lord, that's when we're weak. But if we know we're weak and we go to the Lord and say, lord, I'm capable of doing any sin that anybody else has ever done, then please, lord, keep me from that. That that's when we're actually stronger, is when we go to him.
Speaker 1:He says in verse 20, he says it's the one who dips with me in the bowl, whereas in verse 20, he says it's the one who dips with me in the bowl. That's where I think when he does, that is when Judas knows, hey, the jig is up. That's when he's going to leave, that's when he's going to go out and do the betrayal. I find the dipping of the bread was a tender moment, it was an affectionate moment. They would dip bread in as like a sopping and it was like a tasty morsel. It was a tender part, it was a point of affection. So, even till the very end, jesus is loving. He gives a loving, gentle gesture towards Judas, even though Judas was the one that was betraying him and he knew it.
Speaker 1:Finally, in verse 21, he says there the Son of man is to go, just as it is written of him, and I find it interesting he uses the soft term go, instead of tortured, to death in a very hard term. He's always saying here things that are so profound. He says his death was a fulfillment of prophecy. He does a very soft, tender thing to Judas, who is the one that he knows is going to betray him. So, steve, the tension is mounting in the drama here. We have this tender moment in the upper room, but there's going to be conflict right around the corner.
Speaker 2:I was just looking here at the last part and thinking of what might have been going through Judas's mind because he says it would have been good for that man if he had not been born. In that statement coming from Jesus, judas knows it's directed at him, yet he is still going to go through with this betrayal of Jesus. There's just so much interesting things here that we find out whenever we slow down and read the text with a purpose and go through it verse by verse.
Speaker 1:I think that's why Mark slows down and goes through more detail here in the last part of his book. But we'll still be seeing next time we'll see where Judas actually does the betrayal and we'll see what happens in the garden as we continue to reason through the book of Mark.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
