Human desire is a powerful, motivating force for good or evil. I recall my Dad saying something like this: “Everything in life has its price.” If you want something strongly enough, you’ll find a way to get it, to meet the price. Proverbs 13:19 says, “A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul.” All of us know the truth of that statement.
God created you and me with desires for food, companionship, intimacy, acceptance, and many other things. These desires are good because God doesn’t make anything bad. Saint Augustine reminds us that “sin comes when we take a natural desire, longing, or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it a sin, but a perverse distortion of the image of God in us. All these good things, and all our security, are found only and completely in him.”
How we deal with our desires can set in motion consequences that change our lives today and affect our eternal destiny. Desire and destiny are closely linked.
In our study of Mark’s Gospel, chapter 14, we’ll observe and contrast the desires of several people, and examine the destiny those desires produce. I’ve titled our study “Desire and Destiny.” The text will reinforce the linkage between these two. So, listen carefully as I read Mark 14:1-16.
Our text provides several ILLUSTRATIONS of the relationship between desire and destiny. The illustrations will help us examine our desires and the destiny to which they lead.
The First ILLUSTRATION is,
The Desire of the Leaders
Our text notes that the feast of Unleavened Bread, called Passover, was drawing near. The Passover was celebrated on the first day of the 8 days of Unleavened Bread, and the terms were often used interchangeably. This feast in Israel’s religious calendar was obligatory for men and women. So, Jerusalem was jammed with pilgrims.
The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to kill Jesus. Their hatred of Jesus had been growing almost from the beginning of His ministry. Mark chapter 3 records the healing of the man with the withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath day! Following that miracle, verse 6 records, “The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.”
When someone has such a deeply rooted animosity toward another person and a desire to destroy them, we logically ask, “What’s the reason for this?” Though these men were supposedly the custodians of Israel’s spiritual life, many of them were morally and spiritually bankrupt. They were more interested in maintaining their position than defending the truth.
Their grip on power, status, and wealth depended on their submission to Rome. Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of their fixation with the most minor details of the law, while ignoring the Law’s true intent. They knew they could not peacefully coexist with Him. When Jesus’ ministry drew huge crowds, they became jealous. When Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph just a few days before Passover, Luke records that these leaders petulantly declared, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”
The leaders desired to maintain their position of power and influence. They would brook no opposition, even if it meant putting an innocent man to death, the Son of God, no less. However, their intense desire brought an inescapable destiny, as Jesus warned in Luke 9:24 and 25. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”
Do you know any religious leaders who sacrifice truth to maintain the status quo today? I know people whose reputations have been unjustly “crucified” to protect the reputations of leaders hiding sin personally and in their leadership team. Other leaders have used slander and false accusations to defame character and divide congregations and even families, all in the attempt to preserve the appearance of godliness.
But it will not stand, my friend. Like these men in our text, they may preserve their position and power for now, but ultimately, God will bring judgment. I want to avoid such people’s destiny at all costs, and I hope you do too.
As the religious leaders continued seeking a way to kill Jesus, their desire would seal their destiny. It would also starkly contrast with the following example of desire and destiny.
The Second ILLUSTRATION (of desire and destiny) is,
The Devotion of Mary
What a dramatic change in the narrative! From the scheming treachery of the religious leaders to a transparent act of pure and lavish devotion. Interestingly, this appears to be a “flashback” to the previous Sabbath, recorded in John 12. There, as Jesus reclined at the table, this woman entered the house (John tells us it was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus), broke the seal on a flask of costly perfume, and poured the contents over Jesus’ head.
If this were Mary, this may have been an act of thanksgiving to Jesus for raising her brother Lazarus from the dead. Anointing a guest’s head was a common way to honor such a person at a festive occasion. Typically, you use perfume or cologne a little bit, but she emptied the bottle. We know today that nard or spikenard, also called nard, is the spice taken from a plant that grows in the high Himalayan areas of India, Nepal, and China.
Isn’t it interesting how someone’s extreme devotion to God often makes us uncomfortable and critical? So, the disciples are indignant and angry, huffing and puffing in their self-righteousness! “Why was this perfume wasted? It could have been sold for more than 300 denarii, and the proceeds given to the poor!” They scolded her harshly. These men, who not long before this were jockeying for power, are now suddenly concerned about the poor? Go figure!
With their complaints, the disciples were demeaning Jesus. It was Mary who grasped his real and incomparable worth. She was the first person to realize that the gospel implied suffering fully. The other women of the resurrection story wanted to do a similar thing and anoint the body of Jesus, but they were too late, since Jesus had already arisen from the dead.
Mary’s lavish gift was the equivalent of a year’s wages. Would you be willing to give a year’s pay to honor Jesus? Her desire to worship Jesus should have been commended, not condemned. And Jesus did just that! He said, “Stop bothering her; why are you causing her trouble? She has performed a good and beautiful thing for me. You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me with you.”
Jesus explained that what she had done was within her power. She had the foresight and compassion to anoint His body for burial even before His crucifixion. It was common in that day that the body of a distinguished person was wrapped in aromatics to mask the smell of decomposition. None of those who criticized her had done anything like this. They still refused to grasp the fact that Jesus would suffer and die.
Mary’s desire to worship Jesus impacted her destiny. Jesus promised that this selfless act of devotion would be memorialized in Scripture for all time. The early preacher John Chrysostom praised her, saying, “The simple, beautiful act of a guileless Judean woman is even now being remembered the world over.” Once again, we see how Jesus honored women. They made up such a vital part of the gospel story. In the ancient world, women had a generally low position. Jesus changed that forever.
Again, we see the dramatic contrast between Mary’s desire and destiny when compared with Judas and his choices.
The Next ILLUSTRATION (of desire and destiny) is,
The Desire of Judas
Verse 10 makes a very tragic statement. “Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. So, he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.” How did this happen? Did Satan all of a sudden decide to move in on Judas?
First, we know that two views of the Messiah developed during the intertestamental period. One view was of the conquering King coming to set up His kingdom on earth; the kingdom restored to Israel. This is a prominent theme in portions of the prophetic Scripture. The fact that the Twelve expected Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom is evident from the Gospel records.
The other view was of the Suffering Servant as described in Isaiah chapters 52 and 53 and some of the Psalms. Because these views seemed contradictory, reconciling them wasn’t very easy. Eventually, the Suffering Servant concept was abandoned. The people of Jesus’ day were looking for a Messiah to set them free from the Roman yoke of bondage.
Judas Iscariot: Who was he? The Scriptures give us few details about him, but there are some clues to help us understand his actions. John chapter 12 tells us that Judas was a callous man who didn’t care about the needs of the poor, although he pretended to. He was also a thief and treasurer for Jesus and the Twelve. Jesus knew about Judas’ covetousness, yet He entrusted him with the finances of the little group. Isn’t God’s grace amazing?
Iscariot identifies him as being from Kerioth, a small, nondescript town in the Judean hill country. Judas was the only one of the Twelve from outside Galilee. Like the other disciples, he must’ve seen Jesus as the One who could deliver Israel from Roman bondage. When it finally became apparent that Jesus would fulfill the suffering Servant aspect of the Messiah, Judas was disillusioned and sought an opportunity to betray Him. Judas may also have expected Jesus to walk away from His enemies like He had done previously.
Whatever his motives were, Judas’ desire for money became his undoing. It was the avenue Satan used to “enter” into his heart and affect his choices. All the time he walked with Jesus and the disciples, he had opportunities to embrace the teaching of his Master and make the right choices. But his life bears witness to Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 6:9 of the corrupting influence of money. The desire to be rich leads to many snares and ultimately to destruction.
Judas’ desires guided his choices and would ultimately determine his destiny. He had just witnessed a graphic act of devotion to his Master. However, he failed to understand its significance. Instead, he and the others complained about the waste of valuable perfume. Jesus’ rebuke probably stung him. It may have, as we say, “pushed him over the edge.” It finalized the rift that had been growing between them. Judas could now retaliate against Jesus – and make some money in the process.
And what was his price? According to Exodus 21:32, thirty shekels of silver were the price you paid if a male or female servant were accidentally killed. But what was such a small sum compared to what Jesus promised him? Jesus said in His kingdom, the Twelve would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel! What kind of bargain was Judas making? It was a Faustian bargain, a deal with the Devil. But that’s what covetousness does; it focuses on the immediate and blinds us to eternal realities.
Judas’ goals and the goals of the religious leaders meshed because of their desires, and their destinies were similar, too. Until now, the leaders didn’t know how to arrest Jesus. Remember, they feared the people. Jerusalem was bursting at the seams with Passover crowds. There were the recent events of the Triumphal Entry and Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple. The leaders didn’t know which way to turn. Then Judas shows up! They had what Judas wanted: money. Judas had what the leaders wanted: someone who knew the details of Jesus’ private life and could arrange his arrest privately, away from the prying eyes of the crowds.
What kind of desires do we have? Are we motivated by covetousness? This desire has many different forms. And we see it in both the religious leaders and in Judas. I don’t want to be cynical, but I’ve observed this connection between money and spiritual leaders. Money often purchases access, just like it did in this text. It shuts the mouths of those who know the truth. Either way, it leads to destruction, and woe to you and me if we allow this desire to control us.
Are you disillusioned with God? Has He failed to meet your expectations in some area of life? If so, then we need to “watch out” because Satan will suggest that God is not fair or just; if He were, he would give us what we want. Those kinds of thoughts need to be rejected immediately! We do not want to turn out like Judas.
The evil desires of Judas are contrasted with the final illustration in our text.
The Final ILLUSTRATION (of desire and destiny) is,
The Desire of the Disciples
The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was when they killed the Passover lamb. Robertson says, “The lamb was slain at 6 pm on the 15th of the month, but the preparations began the day before.” The disciples knew Jesus would celebrate Passover; He was an observant Jew. They had kept the feast with Him before. Naturally, they were curious about where they would gather. So, they asked Him about it.
In response, He sent His two most trusted disciples (Luke tells us they were Peter and John) to prepare the place for the Passover meal. He gave them unique but specific instructions. “Go into the city, and there you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him to the house that he enters. Say to the owner, The Master asks, Where is the guestroom where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? He will show you a large, upper room, furnished and ready.”
The rest of the Twelve didn’t know where they would gather. Whether Jesus had decided beforehand with the homeowner or relied on His divine foreknowledge, we don’t know. What we do know is that the place was waiting for them. This was highly unusual in the city, which was so crowded during the Feast days. Yet, the two disciples followed His instructions, which worked out just as Jesus had foretold. So, according to verse 16, they prepared the upper room for the Passover celebration. Little did they know, this would be a Passover unlike any other before it. Their desire would lead to a destiny they could not have imagined.
Each individual or group in this narrative had desires; some were honorable, like those of Mary and the disciples. Some were evil, like those of the religious leaders and Judas. Each had choices that would affect their destiny immediately and into eternity. We know how their choices turned out. We, too, face similar decisions every day of our lives. These illustrations should motivate us to choose wisely in our relationship with Jesus. Our eternal destiny is at stake!
