I love Mark’s account of the ministry of Jesus. I love how it moves at break-neck speed from start to finish. With sentences that begin with words like “now”, “right after”, “then”, and “immediately”, Mark takes us on this rollercoaster ride of laying out exactly who Jesus is and what He is all about.
It is very clear as we read the Gospel of Mark that Jesus is presented as nothing less than divine. He is the Son of God; He is the Creator and Sustainer of everything. He is God with skin on. It is also very clear that He is on a mission, and that mission is the cross where He will lay down His life for all of mankind’s sin. Jesus is so focused on accomplishing the will of the Father that even though He is not exactly looking forward to the cross (14:36), He is still stepping into His role with praise on His lips and worship in His heart (14:26).
The idea that Jesus—as He is about to step into a situation where He will be mocked, beaten, spat upon, humiliated, cursed, betrayed, denied, and killed—sings aloud praises to God boggles my mind. If I am completely honest, when I wake up in the morning to the screams and cries of an alarm clock or the screams and cries of my children and I have to leave my comfy, warm bed to contend with either, I don’t feel like singing a hymn. I’m not harmonizing to “10,000 Reasons” when Lynn and I are in the middle of a big argument. I am assuredly not in the mood to belt out a lovely tune when I find my car smashed up from a hit and run in the church parking lot. And when I’m saying goodbye to my dying aunt for perhaps the last time, I’m not up to humming a few bars of “Death Was Arrested”.
Yet here we are in the gospel of Mark reading, “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” When my Lord and Saviour was facing the darkest, most trying time of His life (14:33), Jesus sings out to God. Maybe, just maybe, if I did the same thing—if I paused for a moment from whatever is going on in my life, whether I thought it was good or bad (my understanding of my situation may not be God’s)—and I actually sang to Jesus, perhaps my perspective might change. If I focused more on who God is and less on what my circumstances are, perhaps I too, like Jesus, would be focused more on the mission the Father has for me and less focused on myself.
Jesus, change my heart so that I would have Your praise on my lips in any situation I should find myself in. Thank You for Your example and Your empowerment for us to accomplish what You have set out for us. May Your will be done.
-Darren Bute
(Youth Pastor)