Weekly Devotional: March 25, 2026

GOD’S WORD
MARK 14:32-42

The Lenten Series for this year will be excerpts from the late Commissioner Phil Needham’s book:
“Lenten Awakening”
Daily Meditations From Ash Wednesday To Easter

Introduction to this week’s Devotional
“Walking The Last Week With Jesus”

We have arrived at the most significant week of Jesus’ life: his last on earth. I invite you to be present with Jesus on that final stage of his journey, to observe closely what he says and does. He still has so much to teach us about himself and our calling to live as his disciples. And there is so much to grasp—and to gain—as we move toward the week’s climax and try to take in the enormity of Jesus’ suffering and the universal benefit of his crucifixion.

I have mentioned before that as I write these pages, the world is suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. People around the world are getting sick and hundreds of thousands are dying. People are scared. We are fighting an enemy hidden from the naked eye. The best preventive for us all is isolation, but most of us are not used to such extended confinements. We become distracted and bored, fearful, even paranoid.

Considering the last week of his life, what does Jesus offer us in the times of our uncertainty and even despair? He is facing his own enemies, and he knows this week will end with his own horrible death. Watching him this last week of his earthly life, we will see courage, humility, compassion, authenticity, and hope. He offers us, his disciples, these same gifts:

• Courage to act when fairness and judgment demand it
• Humility before God and each other
• Compassion for all who suffer and lose loved ones
• Authenticity as his followers, even if it calls us to suffer, and
• Sure hope in our future with Christ, come what may.

PERSONAL PRAYER
Dear Jesus of the human road, as we walk with you this final week of your earthly life, open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our minds to grasp, and our hearts to be grasped by your every act of compassion and by the saving scope of your suffering and death. We ask this in Your name, our worthy Savior and Lord. Amen.

DEVOTIONAL
BREAKING HIS HEART

Jesus and his disciples have shared their final supper together, a Passover meal laden with the flavor of God’s deliverance for His people. Last week, we shared John's remembrance of foot washing just before the meal. The other three Gospel writers focus on the meal itself. Midway through that meal, Jesus makes a disturbing revelation. With profound sadness, He says, "I assure you that one of you will betray Me." And then, as if to make it very concrete: "someone eating with Me" right now.

How are His disciples supposed to react to that bombshell?

Deeply saddened, they ask Him one by one, 'It's not I, is it?" Hmm, why did everyone of them have to ask? My guess is that, deep down, they all knew they were capable of it. After all, later that evening, they would all abandon Him to His enemies.

Who is it, Jesus? And all Jesus says is: "It's one of the twelve who is dipping bread with me into His bowl." But Jesus, that's all of us! Why can't you say who?

Oh, how we love to be able to identify the worst among us, so that we can heap our contempt on him, belittle him, feel so much above him, appear better than him. Build ourselves up because we know without admitting it, that we have our own flaws.

Jesus, point him out, so we can feel better about ourselves:

And Jesus won't. He refuses to betray the very one He knows is already betraying Him, the very one who is breaking His heart. And surprisingly, He grieves the terrible price that betrayer will pay at the end.

What follows is the covenant act: Jesus, breaking and sharing the bread, taking the cup, and offering it to His disciples. “Take; this is my body; and this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," And when they have paraken, the sing their last song together - probably a Passover hymn, a hymn they will later come to realize is now about a different Lamb, one who was to be slain for the world's deliverance. Their Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God.

And then they go through the city gates and cross the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives, while Judas sneaks off to help Jesus' enemies find Him. Here, in the shadow of those olive trees that seem to endure forever as testimony, Jesus tells His remaining eleven that they will all falter in their faithfulness to Him.

Ah, they are not so perfect after all! We’re not surprised that Peter won't admit it: "Even if I must die alongside you, Jesus, I will not deny You." Not to be outdone, the others join in: "Uh yea, we're all with you, Jesus." And it breaks Jesus' heart.

The company then moves to the other side of the Mount of Olives, to the place called Gethsemane, a garden forever memorialized as the place where Jesus' heartbreak reached its peak. From there on, the questioning and the pleas end: After Gethsemane, Jesus is set for humiliation, untold public and physical abuse, and crucifixion.

Let's not, however, take Gethsemane for granted, as if it were simply "the next phase" on the way to the cross. If anyone is prone to question Jesus' humanity, as if his human flesh was simply a garb for divinity, he or she needs to hear the heart cries of Jesus in this garden. Taking Peter, James, and John with Him, He asks them to stay at a distance and keep watch while he prays. He has begun to feel a deep despair, a profound anxiety.

“I’m very sad,” He says to them. “It’s as if I’m dying.” He goes a little further and falls to the ground.

He lifts his helpless hands to heaven, like a small child to his father, and pleads, "Abba—Daddy—Father, for you all things are possible. Take this cup of suffering away from me." Please, is it really too late? Isn't there some other way? Some other direction? Some other solution? That's what I would like, I have to admit it. But in the end, Abba, it's not what I want, but what you want.

I doubt that God "wanted" it, as if He took any pleasure whatsoever in Jesus’ suffering and brutal death. No, I believe Abba God experienced the pain as poignantly and profoundly as did His Son—and if you don't believe that, I think you've got the Trinity all wrong.

Jesus returns to His three friends to find them fast asleep and not keeping watch, much less praying. Three times in all, He returns to find them sleeping. He reminds them to "stay alert and pray so that you won't give in to temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak." The final time He says to them: "Will you sleep and rest all night? That's enough! The time has come for the Human One (the Son of Man) to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up! Let's go! Look, here comes my betrayer."

Surprisingly, this evening Jesus is not hard on his disciples. He does warn them of the danger of their inattentiveness. But we know His heart is broken. They have failed Him many times, and He knows they will fail Him again.

Meanwhile, Judas has calculated correctly. He knows Jesus and the others will be there in the garden. Even before Jesus has finished speaking, a gathering storm can be heard, and soon it bursts upon them, surrounding them, taunting them. Who are they?

Judas and a band of temple guards and ruffians carrying swords and clubs, sent by, yes, the religious authorities. Judas lifts his hand to silence the mob. He gives the guards these simple instructions:

"Arrest the man I kiss and take Him away under guard."

Judas doesn't sound like someone in charge. His voice cracks, because his heart is broken, too. Broken by his own inability to grasp a messiah that loves beyond the borders. A messiah that has compassion for each individual rather than one with a political agenda to make things right. A messiah who changes hearts and lives, rather than redistributes power. Judas just can't bring himself to believe in that kind of a messiah. He's given Jesus plenty of time to prove He can get the messianic job done the right way. But after three years of kingdom talk and attention focused on the little people, where is this new movement today?

"Nowhere. Jesus, I've grown to love you, but I can't trust you to do what messiahs are supposed to do. So I have to bring it all to an end. And it breaks my heart because I know you love me so much, and you will still love me— in spite of what I have done."

Can you betray someone you love? You can. And Judas does it with a kiss. Jesus' heart has been breaking; now it is broken.

Broken for us all. You and me. Even those of us who strive so hard to be like Him, so that our living and our loving will suggest Him to others. And sometimes we don't do it well at all. Sometimes we really muck it up. Sometimes, yes sometimes, we break His heart. And always, yes always, He forgives.

He forgives! That is the power that is released that day, from the crucified One whose heart we have broken. That is the good news to betrayers, cowards, unfaithfuls, deserters, and backsliders: Jesus' heart was broken, and His life was given for the likes of us.

PERSONAL PRAYER
Abba, Father, thank you for giving us Jesus. Dear Jesus, thank you for taking us in as we are, with all the disappointments we bring, knowing up front we would sometimes fail you, maybe even betray you. Thank you for a deep forgiveness that leaves us stronger rather than weaker. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that sanctifies our hearts and guides our living. And finally, Lord, may our own hearts become broken for this world you love. We pray in your Name. Amen.