Jeremiah 11:18-20; 1 Timothy 6:12-14; St Mark 14-15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
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.” They began to be sorrowful and say to Him one after another, “Is it I?” Why would they each ask such a question? Ought not a man know for himself whether he was plotting to betray Jesus?
Each man asked because his conscience troubled him. They feel guilty because they are guilty. This is the weight of the Law. It always accuses. It always condemns. In their hearts they had each considered the possibility.
There can be little doubt concerning the day to day living conditions of the Twelve. Moving from town to town. Wandering the wilderness. Run out of villages. Like a deployed soldier holed up in some mountain village, longing for normalcy and peace, each of them at some point ached for the comfort of home.
What St Paul writes concerning his own troubles and persecutions: in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, riots, labors, sleepless night, hunger, treated as imposters, and yet are true - all of these are an accurate description of the disciples’ own lives in following after our Lord. After one sermon to the rich young man, when He said, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (Mk 10:25), Peter worriedly asked, See, we have left everything and followed You. What then will we have? (Mt 19:27).
Betrayal would have meant a return home, a return to normalcy and routine; a consistent roof over your head, food in your belly, and denarii in the bank. It was an enticing option. That the chief priests were desperate for a reason to silence Jesus was common knowledge. Judas may have done the deed, but each one was complicate, each felt the gnawing pang of guilt. That is why they all ran in the garden; they all left Him and fled.
The terrified and guilty conscience always flees. St Mark even includes himself - a role reminiscent of our first parents in the Garden: he ran away naked.
As it was for Adam and Eve, so it was for the disciples, for John Mark. And so it is for you. The Law always accuses. Only it does not work outwardly, but inwardly. It strikes the mind and the heart. The conscience is afflicted, terrified by the perfect demands of the Law.
Christ was hauled before the council. And many bore false witness against Him. It is the same for you, dear Christian. Your conscience bears witness to the accusations of the Law. It rises against you as an uncorrupted judge. Although no one charges you, you are outwardly good and righteous, your conscience still accuses you. You cannot flee from this private tribunal. And set before your minds eye, you see all your sins. The plaintiff, attorney, witness, judge, executioner, flogger, prosecutor, and hangman are all the same. You feel guilty because you are guilty.
Repent. Do not defend yourself. Do not make some feeble attempt at self-justification. Repent. And throw yourself on the mercy of God. It is written, Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart (1 Jn 3:20). If the memory of your past sins accuses you, nevertheless, Christ the Redeemer, who has made satisfaction for sins, is more powerful. He does not deal with you according to your sins, nor repay you according to your iniquities. He absolves. He liberates. He saves you.
For when He was taken before the council and the false testimony of the witnesses did not agree, He did not defend Himself or attempt explanation. For His conscience was clean. He was obedient to the will of the Father and served Him with a pure heart and clean hands. He is the Temple made without hands who will be raised up after three days. He can save others, and does so by choosing not to save Himself. For the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:14).
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. And baptism now saves you, not as removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 3:18, 21).
Christ blotted out the handwriting written against you, which is contrary to you; He set it aside and nailed it to His Cross (Col 2:14). And as He sits at Table with His closest followers, their consciences terrifying them, Christ, in mercy, took bread, and after blessing is broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is My Body.” And so also with the cup. This is the great dignity of the Sacrament of the Altar. “It brings great consolation to anxious consciences, so that you may learn to believe God and to expect and ask from Him all that is good. This worship pleases God” (AC XXIV 7).
Judas and Pilate did not want this comfort. Water, without the Word, cannot wash Pilates’ hands clean. Regret without faith, will not save Judas from hell.
But for you, dear Christians, for God-fearing and anxious consciences, you find by experience that taking the sure ground of faith that for Christ’s sake you have a gracious God, you receive the greatest consolation. As St Paul teaches, Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God (Rm 5:1). Thus are you given, as St Paul says and you sang in the Introit, To boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him is salvation, life, and resurrection from the dead.
May God grant us grace so to pass through this holy time of our Lord’s Passion that we may obtain the pardon of our sins, peace of conscience, a restful heart, and a blessed tranquility of soul.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
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.” They began to be sorrowful and say to Him one after another, “Is it I?” Why would they each ask such a question? Ought not a man know for himself whether he was plotting to betray Jesus?
Each man asked because his conscience troubled him. They feel guilty because they are guilty. This is the weight of the Law. It always accuses. It always condemns. In their hearts they had each considered the possibility.
There can be little doubt concerning the day to day living conditions of the Twelve. Moving from town to town. Wandering the wilderness. Run out of villages. Like a deployed soldier holed up in some mountain village, longing for normalcy and peace, each of them at some point ached for the comfort of home.
What St Paul writes concerning his own troubles and persecutions: in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, riots, labors, sleepless night, hunger, treated as imposters, and yet are true - all of these are an accurate description of the disciples’ own lives in following after our Lord. After one sermon to the rich young man, when He said, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (Mk 10:25), Peter worriedly asked, See, we have left everything and followed You. What then will we have? (Mt 19:27).
Betrayal would have meant a return home, a return to normalcy and routine; a consistent roof over your head, food in your belly, and denarii in the bank. It was an enticing option. That the chief priests were desperate for a reason to silence Jesus was common knowledge. Judas may have done the deed, but each one was complicate, each felt the gnawing pang of guilt. That is why they all ran in the garden; they all left Him and fled.
The terrified and guilty conscience always flees. St Mark even includes himself - a role reminiscent of our first parents in the Garden: he ran away naked.
As it was for Adam and Eve, so it was for the disciples, for John Mark. And so it is for you. The Law always accuses. Only it does not work outwardly, but inwardly. It strikes the mind and the heart. The conscience is afflicted, terrified by the perfect demands of the Law.
Christ was hauled before the council. And many bore false witness against Him. It is the same for you, dear Christian. Your conscience bears witness to the accusations of the Law. It rises against you as an uncorrupted judge. Although no one charges you, you are outwardly good and righteous, your conscience still accuses you. You cannot flee from this private tribunal. And set before your minds eye, you see all your sins. The plaintiff, attorney, witness, judge, executioner, flogger, prosecutor, and hangman are all the same. You feel guilty because you are guilty.
Repent. Do not defend yourself. Do not make some feeble attempt at self-justification. Repent. And throw yourself on the mercy of God. It is written, Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart (1 Jn 3:20). If the memory of your past sins accuses you, nevertheless, Christ the Redeemer, who has made satisfaction for sins, is more powerful. He does not deal with you according to your sins, nor repay you according to your iniquities. He absolves. He liberates. He saves you.
For when He was taken before the council and the false testimony of the witnesses did not agree, He did not defend Himself or attempt explanation. For His conscience was clean. He was obedient to the will of the Father and served Him with a pure heart and clean hands. He is the Temple made without hands who will be raised up after three days. He can save others, and does so by choosing not to save Himself. For the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:14).
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. And baptism now saves you, not as removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 3:18, 21).
Christ blotted out the handwriting written against you, which is contrary to you; He set it aside and nailed it to His Cross (Col 2:14). And as He sits at Table with His closest followers, their consciences terrifying them, Christ, in mercy, took bread, and after blessing is broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is My Body.” And so also with the cup. This is the great dignity of the Sacrament of the Altar. “It brings great consolation to anxious consciences, so that you may learn to believe God and to expect and ask from Him all that is good. This worship pleases God” (AC XXIV 7).
Judas and Pilate did not want this comfort. Water, without the Word, cannot wash Pilates’ hands clean. Regret without faith, will not save Judas from hell.
But for you, dear Christians, for God-fearing and anxious consciences, you find by experience that taking the sure ground of faith that for Christ’s sake you have a gracious God, you receive the greatest consolation. As St Paul teaches, Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God (Rm 5:1). Thus are you given, as St Paul says and you sang in the Introit, To boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him is salvation, life, and resurrection from the dead.
May God grant us grace so to pass through this holy time of our Lord’s Passion that we may obtain the pardon of our sins, peace of conscience, a restful heart, and a blessed tranquility of soul.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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