At Gateway Church in Austin, we continued our series through the Gospel of Mark by focusing on “The Road Once Traveled.”
How do we approach the table of communion, and how does it remind us of Jesus’ sacrifice?
At the Last Supper, Jesus shares a final meal with His disciples, instituting the practice of communion. He breaks the bread and shares the wine as symbols of His body and blood, setting the stage for the sacrifice He is about to make. It’s not just a meal; it’s an invitation to partake in His sacrifice and to live in unity with Him and one another.
Digging Deeper:
Work through the following questions and scriptures on your own or get together with your group, spiritual running partners, or family to talk through what you are learning.
Video Message from Gateway South Austin:
Audio Message from Gateway South Austin:
Message Notes from Ross Sagehorn and Eric Bryant:
So good to be back! Thank you for your prayers for while we were away for our daughter’s wedding!
As I have said before, Gateway South has become like our extended family so I have been eager to share the joy we experienced at my daughter’s wedding with you because your prayers, your investment in me, my wife, and my children over the years helped this experience happen so beautifully!
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been in this teaching series we’re calling The Road Once Traveled where we’ve been taking a closer look at the final days of Jesus’ life here on Earth—from his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, to his death on a cross, to his rising from the grave three days later (which is what we celebrate on Easter in a couple of weeks).
And as we’ve been studying through this particular part of the book of Mark together, we’ve been learning more and more about not just what Jesus said or did, but who Jesus actually is.
And we’re learning that’s really important, because if we aspire to be the kind of people who look and sound more and more like Jesus—how he lived, how he treated people, who he cared for, the kinds of things he fought for—we have to understand his character.
We have to understand not just what he came to do, but also why he came to do it. Jesus’ why informed everything he did.
So, we’re going to dive into some Scripture pretty quickly today because we have a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time.
Let’s take a look at this passage together—if you have your Bibles, or your Bible app (all of this will also be on the screens), we’re going to be in the book of Mark, chapter 14.
This story we’re going to be looking at moves in these three distinct movements or phases, so here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going to break those down together, we’ll see what we can learn about how and why the story is put together the way it is (because all of the gospel writers wrote these stories the way they did for very intentional reasons—they didn’t do anything by accident, as we’ll learn here), and ultimately we’ll see what this story has to teach us about who Jesus is and why his story matters for us today.
This is Mark, chapter 14, beginning in verse 12—here we go:
12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” 16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. – Mark 14:12-16 (NIV)
Quick timeout before we go too far, because it’s important that we understand some of the context here. With some of this very specific language being used—Festival of Unleavened Bread, Passover, Passover lamb—what’s being described is a very specific event taking place, and that’s important.
To understand the context we have to look back at the Old Testament, specifically Exodus chapter 12.
Here’s the quick version of the story, and you can go back and read this in Exodus chapter 12 later when you get home.
At this point in the story, the people of Israel are slaves in Egypt.
Toward the end of the Israelites’ captivity in Egypt—after Moses had already attempted to get Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to let God’s people go free multiple times, resulting in nine of the ten plagues we read about in that part of the story—God gives a very specific set of instructions to the Israelites because he is about to unleash a tenth and final plague on the land, which will result in the deaths of all the firstborns in the land of Egypt should a person or family not follow God’s instructions.
And those instructions were that each family was to take and sacrifice a lamb, and take that lamb’s blood and paint the doorframe of their house with it.
Sounds a little intense, so why does God ask them to do it?
In the Exodus story, we catch a glimpse of God’s love and His justice.
We see His love because anyone who trusts Him – Egyptian or Israelite would be rescued.
We see His justice because He takes the end of injustice seriously – in this case, He brings about the end of the enslavement of His people.
Well, God goes on to tell the Israelites that later on that same night, he is going to pass through all of Egypt and strike down every firstborn—person or animal—of whose family did not cover their doorframe in the blood of the lamb.
For those families who did cover their doorframe in the blood, God will pass over the house and the firstborn will be spared.
Get it?
God would pass over the house. It’s the Passover.
And it happens exactly like God said it would. For those who sacrificed a lamb and covered their doorframe with the blood of the sacrificed lamb, a life was spared.
For those who did not, a life was taken.
And it was this tenth and final plague that prompted Pharaoh to finally say, “I’ve had enough! Take your people, Moses, and just get out.”
So they leave.
And every year after that, at the same exact time each year, God’s people would celebrate that moment of being granted freedom from captivity with an eight-day party, the first day of the party being called the Festival of Unleavened Bread (which is also a callback to when the Israelites actually left Egypt, and only ate unleavened bread, or bread with no yeast, because they were in such a hurry that they grabbed whatever dough they had in order to get out of town as quickly as possible).
Now, that’s a lot of historical context, I get it, but here’s why it’s important for us:
All of this (as the backdrop to the story we’re looking at) is calling attention to the reality of when God brought freedom to his people.
That’s really important, so hang on to that idea as we keep going. It’s all set up.
What’s really fascinating is that this story (in Mark 14) is almost identical to another story found in Mark 11.
We actually unpacked that story together a couple of weeks ago, so maybe some of this already sounds familiar, but let’s do a really quick review.
In Mark chapter 11, Jesus tells two of his disciples to go into a city (Jerusalem), where they will find something very specific (in that case, a colt tied to a fence), and the disciples are instructed to give a reason for why they’re in need:
“Tell them (the owners of the colt) the Lord needs it.”
Now, go back to our story.
The exact same thing happens.
Literally down to the Greek wording; it’s almost unbelievable.
Think about it.
Jesus tells two of his disciples to go into a city (again, Jerusalem), where they will find something very specific (in this case, a man carrying a jar of water, which would have been extremely obvious because that was typically something a woman would be seen doing), and the disciples are instructed to give a reason for why they’re in need:
“The teacher needs your guest room.”
It’s the same story!
Two disciples, sent into the city, to find the thing, because the Lord needs it.
Now, I’ve been nerding-out about this all week, but it gets even cooler. Check this out: Only the endings of these two stories are different.
And Mark is capturing all of this so intentionally.
In fact, get this: Jesus intended these two events to play out in the exact same way, all except for the final scenes.
Jesus orchestrated all of this to happen the way it did; Mark paid attention and wrote it down for us. It’s awesome. But it begs the question: Why?
Why do Jesus and Mark seem to be so intent on us holding these two, totally unique stories side-by-side? Here’s why:
Because how the two stories end, when put together, tells a third story.
The Mark 11 passage ends with Jesus passing judgement on the temple and shutting it down.
Tables get flipped, animals are running all over the place, it’s a wild time, and the religious people get mad.
So, how does our story in Mark 14 end?
Well, we haven’t gotten that far, have we?
One final thing we need to pay attention to during this first movement of the story before we move on is all the secrecy.
Look back at how Jesus is operating: sending his disciples into the city, rather than going himself, to make arrangements for the Passover meal with an unnamed person—likely another one of Jesus’ disciples the twelve wouldn’t have known about—in a location unknown to them (the twelve), the property of another unnamed individual, who seemed way too prepared to house Jesus and his friends, as if this had all been planned.
Seems a little suspicious.
OR (here’s what I think) Jesus really wanted this meal to happen. All the secrecy (which so goes against Jesus’ typical direct communication style, by the way), all the planning. It’s like Jesus was going out of his way to make sure this meal with his friends happened, to make sure this story happened. Why?
Because how the story ends matters.
See, if the reason why Jesus really wants this Passover meal to happen is because he’s going to use it to make a really important point, and if that explains his secrecy, here’s my question:
What is Jesus concerned about that could keep this meal from happening?
Let’s keep reading—verse 17, this is the beginning of the second movement in the story:
17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.” 19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?” 20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” – Mark 14:17-21 (NIV)
And there’s our answer.
The group had a spy, a betrayer.
In fact, if we read the two verses immediately before our story begins, we get an even clearer picture of the threat against Jesus being able to have this Passover meal with his disciples. Check this out in Mark 14, verses 10 and 11:
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. – Mark 14:10-11 (NIV)
See, Judas probably knew that Jesus would want to celebrate the Passover meal with his disciples, and the law was that you had to consume that meal within the walls of Jerusalem.
- That means Judas knew the time, and he had a rough idea of the place.
- This was an opportune moment to betray Jesus to the chief priests..
- The only problem was that Judas didn’t know the exact location where they’d all end up for the meal.
- None of the twelve did!
I think Jesus intentionally kept them out of the loop because the stakes were so high.
Jesus’ desire was to have this meal with his disciples.
And listen, Jesus knew he was ultimately going to be betrayed and end up on the cross at some point.
But he didn’t want this moment compromised by a very real and active threat.
All of this brings us back to the importance of where this story is going.
Where is Jesus going with this, and what is the point he is trying to make that Mark is clearly wanting us to see in the text?
Let’s look at the final movement of the story; this is what we’ve been building up to; this is the second ending to the second story, and Jesus is dropping a bomb—verse 22:
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” 23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” – Mark 14:22-25 (NIV)
We have to understand that what Jesus is saying and doing here is shocking.
We don’t read it that way because either we’ve never been taught the significance of this moment (and that’s okay), or we have but have just read this story a thousand times by now that we’ve forgotten.
Let me see if I can make an analogy for us.
What Jesus is doing here would be like you showing up to your family dinner for Christmas this December and saying something like,
“Hey everybody, I know we’ve celebrated this holiday the same for the last however many years, and we’ve built traditions around it, and we look forward to ugly sweaters, and eggnog, and lights, and giving each other gifts, but how about from now on we make this holiday all about me?”
How would that go over in your house?
I can tell you right now, best case scenario, you’re getting laughed at, worst case, you’re not getting invited back next year (some of you would be okay with that).
But do you see the audacity?
- Jesus is basically saying, “Hey, you know the freedom and liberation from captivity that God brought to our people in spectacular fashion?
- You know how our people have been celebrating that for over a thousand years?
- Remember how God established our people as a nation when he brought us out of Egypt?
- And remember how he said to remember and celebrate those realities?
- Well, from now on, I want you to do all of that in remembrance of me.”
And we might know that Jesus is about to do something that will totally change the game.
You thought freedom from captivity was good? How about freedom from sin and death?
But the thing is, his disciples didn’t know what he was talking about!
But Jesus has been dropping hints. We’ve been talking about it all morning, so let’s bring the endings of our two stories from Mark 11 and Mark 14 together—are you ready for this?
Mark 11: It ends with Jesus shutting down the temple. That web of religious rule-following and self-righteousness, Jesus literally flips it on its head and walks away.
And what does he want to do instead?
We see it at the end of our story in Mark 14: Jesus is about to usher in a new covenant of grace, inaugurate a new kingdom, and make a new kind of life and freedom possible by his body being broken, and his blood being spilled for you and for me.
That old system of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins?
Jesus will become the perfect sacrifice.
That old version of the temple, which now stood as a monument to human institutions?
Jesus will become the new temple, torn down and rebuilt in three days with the resurrection of his body.
That old remembrance of freedom from captivity?
Jesus is about to give us a new reason to remember a better kind of freedom from the grave.
I could say it simply like this:
The old, broken way of doing things is ending. Jesus is offering something better: Himself.
Jesus says, “That old, broken version of religion that actually hurt and burdened more people than it helped? I’m shutting it down, and I’m giving you something even better: me.”
So who is Jesus and why does his story matter for us today?
Jesus is the son of God, who lived a perfect life and died as a sacrifice for your sin, and my sin—his body broken like that bread, his blood spilled like that wine—but he rose from the dead, just like he said he would, so that you and I might experience new life and freedom in his name, from the moment we put our faith in him and for the rest of our lives.
Once again we see God’s justice and love demonstrated in one event – this time God’s firstborn Son gave His life for the sins of humanity!
This gospel of life and freedom in Jesus is the reason why his story matters.
It’s the reason why his story still matters, because his life and freedom is just as available to us today as it was 2,000 years ago, not just so that we go to heaven instead of hell when we die, but so that we can experience abundant life with Jesus right now.
So, what do we do with that?
Because it might be a lot for some of us!
I know it can be for me.
When I think about the ways Jesus might want to bring new life to the very present, still-broken parts of my life, it can sometimes be like, “Okay, so where do we even start?”
So I have a few questions for us that I think might help get us started, and my challenge as one of your pastors is to just be really honest with yourself in how you would answer these. Because at some point these questions might start to feel a little bit intrusive, but that’s kind of the point.
Here’s my first question:
Where are you currently trying to find purpose and meaning in your life?
I could ask the question another way:
What do you aspire your life to look like? What kind of person do you aspire to be?
How you answer those questions might be an indication of how and where you’re trying to find purpose and meaning.
It’s kind of like tracing a river further and further upstream. I’ll give you a few quick examples—see if any of this resonates.
Maybe right now you’re trying to find purpose and meaning in being a really great parent, or a really great spouse. Maybe you’re trying to find purpose and meaning in any relationship whatsoever, maybe because you’re single and you don’t see any purpose or meaning in that.
Maybe you’re in a season of life where you’re trying to find purpose and meaning in the work you do, or your career trajectory, or the next trip you hope to take, or how quickly you can retire.
Maybe for you it’s purpose and meaning in where you go to school, or what you’re studying, or how well you studied it, or what you hope to study someday.
Maybe you’re trying to find purpose and meaning in how you can acquire, save, invest, or spend a ton of money.
Maybe purpose and meaning for you comes in the size of your house or your bank accounts.
By the way, I need you to hear me: None of those things as aspirations are necessarily bad or evil things, but the more interesting question is not, are those things bad or evil?
The more interesting question is, to what extent do they drive your search for things like meaning, or fulfillment, or purpose, or satisfaction, or hope? Because those are some pretty heavy burdens to place on anything or anyone, let alone on things or people that might not actually be able to deliver in the ways you want them to, or need them to.
So where are you currently trying to find purpose and meaning in your life?
Here’s my next question:
How is that working for you?
Again, be honest with yourself. Anybody else have some brokenness going on in their lives, or is that just me?
Have you ever felt the pressure of trying to prove yourself—that you’re smart enough, good enough, pretty enough, whatever? Ever felt the weight of other peoples’ expectations, or the weight of expectation that you put on yourself. Could it be that those areas of brokenness, or anxiety, or fear, or insecurity, or anger, or whatever that is for you are the exact places and circumstances in which Jesus would want to inject new levels of life and freedom?
Many of you know my story or struggling with anger but behind that was really anxiety and control issues.
I’ve done a lot of work with counselors, with my men’s group, and Restore on Monday nights has been a big part of healing for me as I’ve tried to learn to work the steps when I’m going the wrong direction.
So you can imagine how someone with control issues might handle getting ready for his daughter’s wedding.
Early in the wedding planning, the woman we hoped would host the wedding reception at her chateau hung up on me. My daughter was interpreting for me and kept warning me that now was not a good time. To me, if you are asking for a down payment then that is the perfect time to get your questions answered. Now, I could have blamed the fact that perhaps there was some cultural differences between us that led to the misunderstanding. All I knew in that moment was that according to my daughter I had ruined her wedding and according to the woman we wanted to host, she would rather hang up on me and lose our business than work through the cultural differences.
Fortunately, the next day, Adrien, Trevi’s now husband who is French called the woman at the chateau and worked everything out. From that point on, I realized that I was going to have to trust Trevi and Adrien with most of the organizing and to be ok with that.
And I am so glad I did!
We let Adrien and Trevi know the amount we planned to contribute towards the wedding and anything else beyond that was up to them. Adrien’s Dad gave them some money as well. And in the end, what they pulled off with those modest amounts was better than anything I could have imagined!
We had the reception at a chateau! Not a castle but not a house!
Could you imagine if I was unwilling to surrender control what a different experience it could have been?
For me, this is a broken pattern of living that comes from this broken desire I have to control things. For me, it’s an old, broken system.
So what’s yours?
And there’s no shame in it—some of us had to build these systems of thinking and living in order to survive some really tough circumstances.
But as Jesus is wanting to walk you and me into more and more life and freedom, I hope you know that is all those systems are now: old and broken.
Which leads to my last question:
Where might Jesus want to bring something new to your life?
And what could change in your life if he does? Could you imagine?
Again, chances are that the very places we try to find purpose and meaning in our own strength and power are the same places Jesus wants to bring something new. Why?
Because new things become possible when we allow Jesus to bring more and more of himself—his life, his freedom, his grace, his mercy, his rule—to our lives. He can even bring the dead parts of our lives back to life. He can bring hope in ways we never imagined possible.
New life in Jesus is possible, and it starts and continues from now on.
So, just like the disciples did with Jesus nearly 2,000 years ago, we’re going to remember that together by taking communion—by sharing in the bread, and sharing in the cup. We’re going to be reminded that no matter the brokenness that still might be present in our lives, Jesus can always bring life and freedom. True and lasting hope can be found in no other name but his. And he offers himself freely to every single one of us.
Listen to how the apostle Paul, in writing to the church at Corinth, describes the exact same night when Jesus was in that upper room with his disciples. Look at this in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, starting in verse 23:
23 The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” – 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (NIV)
See, we aren’t just remembering that Jesus once lived and died a long time ago, as this sort of never-ending funeral.
We’re remembering that Jesus’ death, and his rising from the grave, achieved for us the means by which we can experience his life, and love, and freedom right now—life, love, and freedom that we could never earn for ourselves, but that he freely chooses to offer us anyway. We’re remembering the kind of savior we have, the kind of king we have. We’re remembering who Jesus is.
Around here at Gateway we have what’s called an open table, which means if you’ve made the decision to surrender your life to Jesus, then you go ahead and take the elements for yourself. If you’ve not made that decision yet, don’t take them (there’s no pressure)—instead, let this be a moment where someone like me reminds you one more time: God loves you, he’s never stopped pursuing you, and the life and freedom Jesus offers is for you too. All you have to do is receive it.
The band is going to play a song over us while you have this moment to remember. And I have to tell you, it doesn’t take long for this song to get pretty big and kind of loud. You might think, “Well that’s not a very helpful way to sit in silence and remember who Jesus is, Eric.”
And you might be right. But I don’t know about you, when I sit in the acknowledgement of what Jesus has done in my life—the hope, and freedom, and healing he’s made possible given my brokenness—it doesn’t take me very long until I want to let my worship get pretty big and kind of loud, too.
So, when you’re ready, take the bread, take the juice, then stand up and worship loud, alright? He’s worth it.
