CHAPTER 14
Read Mark 14 (all 72 verses!) and circle every time the word broke appears. Now read Matt. 21:44. According to this verse how must we come to Jesus?
Watch this old Fram oil filter commercial and tell what it has to do with this verse.
We are to come to Jesus broken like the following video and allow Him to pick up the pieces and put them back together in the shape He wants. Unfortunately (well, actually it's not that unfortunate it just complicates matters) we usually come to Jesus as kids and rather than being broken we just incorporate Him into our lives. Because of that, our lives are a series of breakings where God is peeling off , usually painfully, areas of unbrokenness in order to transform us into the image of His Son. Lets look at this Mark passage and see how this all pans out from these three episodes of brokenness.
1. Read John 12:1-8 and Mark 14:1-11. In these we see that this episode of anointing, done by Lazarus' sister Mary, probably occurred the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Mark is including it out of order because he is explaining why Judas betrayed Jesus. According to John, what was the last straw for Judas?
How much was the perfume worth?
How was it gotten out of the bottle?
What do we learn about brokenness from this episode?
What did her brokenness enable her to understand that no one else seemed to "get"?
Read Mark 12:43. How is Mary like the widow?
Read Mark 10:17-23. How is Judas like the rich young ruler?
Read Mark 14:12-19. Look at the response of the disciples in regard Christ saying one of them would betray Him. What is surprising about the way they responded?
2. Read Mark 14:22-26 and 1Cor 11:23-26. How was Jesus broken at the crucifixion considering no bones were broken?
What if I told you the Greek for broken in this context means "broken off". How was Jesus broken off for us?
Still struggling? Look at "cup" in the following verses and tell what cup Jesus was going to receive and why He wanted to avoid it.
Job 21:20
Isa. 51:17,22
Jer. 25:17,28
Jer. 49:12
Lam. 4:21
Ezek. 23:31-33
Hab. 2:16
Zech. 12:2
Look at the end of verse 36. What is the hallmark quote of a broken person?
Read verses 60-64. Jesus basically incriminated Himself. What does that tell you about Jesus?
3. Read vs. 27-31. What was Peter's bold promise?
Read vs. 66-72. Did he keep it?
Read vs. 37,38. Give one reason why he "chickened" out?
Read John 18:26. Give another reason.
In vs. 72 we see Peter "broke" down and wept. (NIV) The Greek for broke here is epiballo which means to throw one's self upon. Wow, deja vu. Remember how we started (Matt. 21:44)? Peter throws Himself on the Rock. He is broken to pieces. Now Jesus can use him. Read Jesus' cryptic warning to Peter in Luke 22:31,32. Because Peter fell, was broken, and put back together again, what was he able to do?
Peter was one broken leader of the early church. Read Acts 9:1-18 and explain Paul's brokenness experience.
Read John 7:3-5, Acts 15:12-21, 1Cor. 15:4-7. Speculate on the brokenness experience of James, the half brother of Jesus.
Have you had a brokenness moment? Describe it.
Summary
Obviously, the word for today is brokenness. We must fall into Jesus and be broken to pieces so He can put us back together into what He wants us to be. For most of us, this is a lifelong process rather than immediate. When you compare a broken Mary to an unbroken Judas, you see a person who views money and possessions as worthless compared to the Pearl of great price vs. a person who sees Jesus as an investment to cash in on. He was with Jesus for the ride until he saw that the investment was about to go south and Judas "cashed in". Before we are too hard on Judas, we all, like the disciples have a little bit of him inside. Notice when Jesus said, "someone will betray me" they didn't say, "It's Judas isn't it?" They said "is it me?" Even though they had thought they had left everything to follow Him, when the time came we see them hang on to their lives. And when their hope is gone in John 21 we see them going back to fishing. Mary, like the flask of perfume, was spent. It was all or nothing for Jesus. There was no going back and because of this, she alone understood that He was going to die and she anointed Him. She broke the expensive flask (which maybe they bought because Lazarus died and they didn't need it anymore) and poured it on Jesus and the perfume was spent. It was gone. It could be used on nothing again. It was all used on Jesus. Our lives are to be that way. There should be no plan B, no safety net. We are all in for Jesus.
The next episode of brokenness shows that Jesus was all in for us. The agony in the garden probably was caused by a foretaste of the wrath of God, the cup, being poured on Him as our sins were placed on Him. This rejection, not the fear of the agony of the cross, was probably what made Him desire plan B. However, there is no plan B. People say, "I can't believe in a God that is so narrow minded that He would only give one way to get to Heaven. Believe me; if there was another way, don't you think He would have spared His agonizing Son! Yet we see Jesus saying the key phrase of the broken - all in life; "Not my will but Thine be done"
The last episode is when Peter broke down and wept after denying Christ. The Greek word could be translated "to throw oneself upon". When we look at the broken verse in Matthew 21:44 we see the 2 options; throw yourself upon Christ and be broken to pieces so He can put you back together or have Him fall on you at judgment time and be crushed by His judgment like the following video:
Simon threw himself on the rock, was broken, and rebuilt by the resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit as the rock (Peter) that the church was built on. Imagine Saul on the road to Damascus being blinded by the light and confronted that he was trying to stamp out the truth by the Truth. He sat in the dark rethinking his whole wasted life for days until Annanias came to heal him and point the now broken Paul in the right direction. I am reminded of Jacob being broken by the wrestling angel and being renamed Israel. What is it about broken people being renamed? Lastly, James the brother of Jesus making fun of his half brother until his brother raises from the dead and appears to him. When James realized his error he was completely broken and became the early leader of the church.
We all need to be broken to be used. If you are going through trials and trouble take heart that God is chiseling away the unbroken parts of you to reveal His masterpiece underneath.
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