Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Mark · About this commentary
This Is My Body, and Gethsemane
Mark 14:22-42
22 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed it, he broke it and gave to them, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body.” · WEB
Bread and cup given as body and covenant blood — and in the garden, the Son's Abba prayer bends a dreaded cup into the Father's will while the watchmen sleep.
Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed it, he broke it and gave to them, and said, "Take, eat. This is my body." He took the cup... "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many" Mark 14:22–24.
Inside Passover's script, Jesus rewrites the center. The bread becomes his body given; the cup, my blood of the new covenant — Exodus's covenant blood Exodus 24:8 joined to Jeremiah's promised new covenant Jeremiah 31:31–34, and poured out for many sounding the ransom note once more Mark 10:45 Isaiah 53:12. The vow that follows — no wine again until that day when I drink it anew in God's Kingdom Mark 14:25 — turns the supper's every repetition into an appointment: a meal held between a death and a banquet.
"All of you will be made to stumble... for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' However, after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee" Mark 14:27–28.
On the Olivet road, the night's failures are foretold from Zechariah Zechariah 13:7 — with the reunion already scheduled past them: I will go before you into Galilee, the promise the angel will repeat at the tomb Mark 16:7. Peter's protest outbids the others Mark 14:29–31 and receives the exact timetable: this night, the rooster twice, denials three.
He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire" Mark 14:36.
Gethsemane is the book's holiest ground, and Mark does not tidy it: greatly troubled and distressed... exceedingly sorrowful, even to death Mark 14:33–34 — the Son of God on the ground, asking if the hour might pass. The prayer holds three clauses in tension without breaking: Abba — the child's address, kept in Aramaic; all things are possible to you — omnipotence confessed, no theological anesthesia; not what I desire, but what you desire — the will's surrender, which is the prayer's answer. The cup is the prophets' cup of wrath Isaiah 51:17 Jeremiah 25:15, and he will drink it; every believer's nevertheless since has been prayed downstream of this one Hebrews 5:7–8.
He came and found them sleeping... "Couldn't you watch one hour? Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation" Mark 14:37–38.
Three times the discourse's command — watch Mark 13:37 — meets the flesh's verdict: asleep, at evening's end, heavy-eyed, without answer Mark 14:40. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak is diagnosis, not excuse; the willing men sleeping through the hour are the same who swore to die with him Mark 14:31. Then the hour arrives on its own feet: Arise! Let's get going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand Mark 14:42 — the surrendered will walking toward the torches.
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