Questions for personal reflection and group discussion:
Read Mark 14:12-25 (ESV):
And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” 13 And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, 14 and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.” 16 And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. 17 And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18 And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes 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.” 22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
- Joe began with the words of Joni Mitchell’s 1960’s hit song, I’ve Looked at Love. How does the world’s view of love differ from that of Jesus?
- Imagine being the two disciples following Jesus’s instructions of how to find the room where they would celebrate the Passover together. (We know from other gospels that it was Peter and John.) What impact might an experience like this have had on them?
- What does it communicate to you that each disciple said, “Is it I?” when Jesus said that one of the twelve disciples would betray him?
- Why was Judas’s betrayal surprising? What made it especially terrible?
- What might have motivated Judas to make this decision to betray Jesus?
- What can we do to avoid drifting away from our love of Jesus the way Judas did?
- What was the significance of Jesus’s death being at Passover? How did the historic events that the Israelites were remembering in this celebration relate to what Jesus did for us?
- How did Jesus (in verses 22-24) redefine the meaning of the Passover meal elements? How would his words here have been shocking to a Jewish person?
- Note that Jesus gave thanks to God even for the cup of wine that represented his own death. What are some painful things in your own life that you could thank God for?
- What did you sense God saying to you through this passage and this message?
