PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Mark 14:17-26
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“It would be better for him if he had not been born.” (Mark 14:21)
At first glance these words of Jesus sound like a threat.
But knowing Jesus as I do, I hear his heart expressing concern for Judas.
The day will come when he will look back on what he did and feel terrible.
On that day, when regret fills his soul, he will wish he had never been born.
The shame and the horror of his action will eat him alive from the inside.
And as we know, Judas is gripped by regret, and ends up taking his own life.
Imagine yourself as a parent, speaking to your child about to make a huge mistake.
You can see it will not end well, and that they will endure deep sorrow and regret.
This is the tone of Jesus’s ‘woe’, not a tone of anger and revenge.
I sense the Lord cautioning me sometimes when I am wrestling with temptation.
When I want to say or do something out of anger or discouragement.
‘Don’t go there’, I hear Jesus warn, you will hate where that path leads.
Jesus loves us, and is willing to die to help us; this is the heart behind his warning.
Is there something for me that Jesus is cautioning me about, something I might regret?
PRAYER
Lord, help me to pay attention to those warning impulses I sense within me, warning me against saying or doing certain things. You are trying to protect me, not restrict me.
“I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Jesus drank the cup of redemption which is now the cup of the new covenant in His blood. Jesus indicates that the next he drinks again will be in the new kingdom. I’m thinking he is referring to the great banquet when he returns. I see it has his promise to me – that one day I will be with him and can celebrate the Holy Supper – the 4th “I Will’ of the Passover from Ex. 6:7 “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” Jesus will take me as his own and I may dine with him!!
Further remark re: woe. I see the same loving warning from the God to Cain before Cain murders Abel. Gen 4: 7 “…Sin is crouching at your door: it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” We know he like Judas went ahead anyway. So what about me? I need to recognize that if I try to resist on my own I am likely to fail – however, with the HS helping me, in Jesus name I am able to resist!