Where are we in Gospel of Mark? Last week....
It was a Passover celebration like none other. While presiding over the celebration of the most
significant Jewish feast, Jesus boldly declared that he was the Passover lamb who was soon to die to save his people from their sins. Jesus also stated and that the bread which he broke and then distributed to the disciples was “his body.” Jesus even declared that the wine in the cup was “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." These words were shocking enough. But then in the middle of the Passover meal, Jesus declared that one of their very own–Judas Iscariot–had betrayed Jesus, an act which would soon lead to our Lord’s arrest. Although these dramatic events fulfilled a number of Old Testament prophecies–and Jesus himself had been predicting these things for sometime–the grim reality was finally setting in. The divinely-appointed hour everyone dreaded had finally come. It was now time for Jesus to lay down his life and drink the cup of wrath so that we might be forgiven of our sins. --Kim Riddlebarger