EmmDev 2025-12-05 [Moments with Mark] Falling Away

Falling Away

"You will all fall away," Jesus told them, "for it is written: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee." Peter declared, "Even if all fall away, I will not." "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "today -- yes, tonight-- before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown Me three times." But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You." And all the others said the same. (Mark14:27-31)

On the surface of it - it feels tough that Jesus draws attention to the disciples' impending failure after all the emotion and tension they had already been through. Peter is immediately affronted and after his dramatic claim of fealty, Jesus brings him back to reality.

Why does Jesus seem to be so harsh?
Is it just a truthful reality check?
Is He just preparing them for the worst?

Or is there something more?

I think there is, and it's in the phrase "But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee." I think Jesus is saying: "Don't worry - no matter what happens - I've got you!"

There are three key thoughts here:

1. "After I have risen": The resurrection changes everything. Our failures? Paid for! Our mistakes? Redeemed! Our denials? Dealt with! Our lack of courage? Forgiven! Sin and Death? Conquered! The resurrection means a new beginning for us. We are new creations and His mercy is new every morning. It also meant that no matter how big the disciples' failure was, it paled into insignificance in the glorious light of resurrection.
   
2. "I will go ahead of you": We don't have to find our way to Jesus after our failures. He's going ahead of us. His heart is still toward us. Our failures don't change His heart toward us. Just like the Father of the Prodigal Son ran towards His Son, so Jesus goes ahead to meet us even after we've failed.
   
3. "Galilee": This was where Jesus called the Disciples. This was a place of simplicity and quiet. Far from the noise, bustle, politics and complexity of Jerusalem. This is a reminder to go back to the basics: to first principles, to the "first love" that Jesus calls the Church of Ephesus to return to in the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3.

When I was active in the SCA at our high school I remember one student saying: "I don't like holidays. During the term, I have SCA and church and my routines that keep me close to God. When I go on holiday, it often feels like I take a holiday from God too."

The Christmas Season can get frenetic and busy. (As can the madness of the year-end.) Sometimes we lose touch with God in the year-end chaos and sometimes go on holiday and it becomes a holiday from God too...

So here's the comfort!
He's risen - and that is what REALLY matters.
He goes ahead of us - our failures aren't a surprise to Him and He's still coming toward us.
We need to look for Galilee - that place of simple faith and beginnings.

This is Amazing Grace - He knows our failures, loves us anyway and goes ahead to meet us in "Galilee" where we can come back to basics and first loves and be all He made us to be.

----------------------
And so, on that note, I want to close the EmmDevs for the year.
I pray this year of devotions have been a blessing to you and have helped you in your Spiritual Pilgrimage. May you know and experience the incredible love of God over Christmas and walk with Him into the new year.
Blessings and Love,
Theo

---

EmmDev 2025-12-04 [Moments with Mark] Surreal Supper

Surreal Supper

When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, He said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray Me -- one who is eating with Me." They were saddened, and one by one they said to Him, "Surely not I?" "It is one of the Twelve," He replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with Me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born." While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take it; this is My body." Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," He said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark14:18-26)

The events of this night are really hard to digest. It truly is a deeply disorienting moment. Part of me wishes that one of the disciples would have protested and said something like: "Stop! What are we doing here? He's been talking about dying and now He's talking about one of us betraying Him and yet we're simply going through the motions on this ancient ritual meal!"

But we need to recognise the gravity of what is happening here. There is great sadness and great evil at play and yet there is also great solemnity. The Passover meal, celebrated for over a thousand years, encapsulated great darkness and sadness, but also hope.

Jesus, still fragrant from the anointing He received the night before, acts as the host of the meal. He walks them through the ritual, recognising the reality of pain and evil in the world, and offering Himself as the Passover Lamb.

There are some powerful statements He makes:

• Woe to the one who betrays Me: In the midst of this sadness and pain, there is also the inevitability of justice. This is important, Jesus is not a helpless victim of injustice, He offers Himself and those who choose to be agents of evil will face justice. I also think Jesus is grieving over Judas while warning him. Judas, however, still makes this horrible choice.
• This is My body, My blood: Jesus offers Himself as the Passover Lamb. We are invited to receive the offering and sacrifice He makes. We can participate in it and make it our own.
• I will not drink again...until: A beautiful statement of hope. Here is an assurance of victory, celebration and hope.

I love the way Mark ends this section: "After they had sung a hymn..."
There is great power in ritual and ceremony. The disciples have just had their world turned upside down. They sense the inevitability of the moment and yet they sing an old passover hymn. They probably began with shaky voices, but as the words and melody gripped their souls, sang with conviction and faith, somehow, strangely, gaining hope and strength from this act of faith and community. This is why we sing at funerals and other sombre moments...

And so that is the surreal supper. A moment that should have fallen apart into bedlam and chaos but is held together by the framework of an ancient and hopeful ritual and the powerful presence of Jesus the Lamb of God who willingly gave Himself for broken people like the disciples, and you and me.

---

EmmDev 2025-12-03 [Moments with Mark] Treachery, Preparations and Passover

Treachery, Preparations and Passover

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand Him over. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked Him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. (Mark14:10-16)

Elsewhere we are told that Judas was the keeper of the disciples' communal purse and would dip into it from time to time. It seems that Jesus' praise of the woman's generous anointing triggers Judas, who had complained of her waste of money. He goes to the chief priests, and his betrayal allows them to move their timetable forward so that they can arrest Jesus on the sly and run an early morning "kangaroo court" to get Jesus crucified before Passover. It's tragic how moments of tremendous beauty can trigger moments of great ugliness.

There are two options with regard to the arrangements that Jesus makes.

1. He pre-arranged it and then the man with the water jar and the scripted dialogue read like a spy movie with a clandestine rendezvous and challenges and passwords. This means that Jesus was aware of the plots against Him and was working around them.
2. This all comes together supernaturally, and is evidence of Jesus' divine nature, the Spirit's prompting and the Father's providence.
   Either way, it is striking that these arrangements come together, whether by forethought or foresight.

The last thought for today is that they were preparing the Passover - a meal the Israelites first ate in the presence of great opposition and on the eve of great deliverance. The same will be true now.

Three thoughts for today:

1. Be aware that moments of great beauty can trigger backlash. This should not discourage us.
2. Whether by forethought or foresight, Jesus was determined to eat the Passover and then become the Passover Lamb
3. As we move towards Christmas, let us remember that the shadow of the cross falls over the Bethlehem manger.

---

EmmDev 2025-12-02 [Moments with Mark] Something special again...

Something special again...

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill Him. "But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot." While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages and the money given to the poor." And they rebuked her harshly. "Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (Mark14:1-9)

Just before Jesus talked about the "end-times" in Mark 13, we had the account of the woman who brought her two coins - all she had to live on - to the temple. She did this against the backdrop of all the opposition Jesus had been experiencing. Now, after chapter 13, we have the leaders planning to kill Jesus and a woman who does something beautiful for Him.

I think these two "bookends" of generosity and faithfulness are guides to living our lives in the chaos and confusion of the end times and we would do well to learn from both women.

Let's look at the second woman more closely. Mark does not name her, and I think this is actually very helpful, we need to see the act and not the personality, we need to recognise her character without being distracted by her story.

The gift was lavish: a sealed alabaster jar of perfume, which would have had to be broken open and the contents poured out lovingly over Jesus. The room would have been filled with the aroma of the perfume. Poured into His hair and beard as it was, I am sure the scent would have lingered even when they were whipping Him and when He was hanging on the cross in the harsh midday sun. The memory of this loving and worshipful act must have been of great comfort to Jesus in His darkest hour.

People don't always understand acts of beauty. These acts speak a language that defies logic and reason. The disciples didn't get it and this moment triggered Judas to betray Jesus, thus making it possible for the Pharisees to kill Jesus during the festival. Beauty confounds and disarms people, but sadly, some people will destroy what they cannot control or understand.

When our student congregation in Grahamstown jumped from 25 to over 300, many credited my leadership and organisation, but I think the real secret to the growth was the love exhibited by Jeanette, the wife of the senior minister, who would drop off coconut ice or pizza at the dorm rooms or communes of the students on their birthdays. She would remember which students were diabetic and what their favourite treat was. It made them feel loved and cared for.

Jeanette had a magnet on her fridge - "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty."

That sounds like a good challenge for today!

---