The cup and the cross: Passover, Gethsemane and the trial of Jesus

Mark 14 opens the passion narrative, the account of Jesus' last days, which many scholars think was the earliest continuous story told about him. The Gospel of Mark is anonymous. Papias, reported by Eusebius, said that Mark was Peter's interpreter and wrote what Peter taught, and he is usually identified with John Mark (Acts 12:12; 1 Peter 5:13). Critical scholars question how much of Peter lies behind it. The date is most often put at about AD 65-70, with a minority arguing for the 50s or for just after the fall of the temple. The Gospel is thought to have been written for Gentile readers, traditionally in Rome, where Christians faced suspicion and violence in the 60s. Mark states his purpose in 1:1: Jesus is Christ and Son of God, and the cross is where that is shown.

The Passover commemorated the exodus. The lamb was sacrificed in the temple on the afternoon of 14 Nisan and eaten that night in Jerusalem with unleavened bread and wine. Mark and the other Synoptic Gospels present the Last Supper as a Passover meal. John appears to place the meal before the Passover and the crucifixion at the time the lambs were killed (John 13:1; 18:28; 19:14). Scholars explain this in different ways: that Jesus used a different calendar, that he ate the meal a day early knowing he would die, or that John's wording refers to the wider festival. Joachim Jeremias argued strongly for the Passover character of the meal.

The Synoptics share the outline of the night but differ in detail. Matthew 26-27 names Caiaphas and the thirty pieces of silver. Luke 22 has two cups and a dispute about greatness at the table. John 13-17 has no words over bread and cup but the footwashing and the long discourse. Mark alone has the young man who flees naked (14:51-52), and a Peter who is told the cock will crow twice.

Mark 14 is passion narrative: history told with the Old Testament in the background. Mark builds the chapter from scenes set side by side so that each throws light on the others. The plot of the leaders frames the anointing, and Judas's betrayal follows it. Peter's denial is placed around the trial, so that Jesus' faithful confession before the Sanhedrin and Peter's faithless denial in the courtyard happen at the same hour. The pairing is the argument.

The meal scene calls for care. The words over the bread have been read in several ways, as noted below, and the first step is to read them as the disciples would have heard them, at a Passover table where explaining the bread and cup was part of the ritual. They carry the language of covenant sacrifice from Exodus 24:8 and Jeremiah 31:31-34. The trial also needs care. Jesus' answer in 14:62 uses Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13, and by that answer he is condemned. Historians have also noted that the Mishnah's rules for capital trials seem to differ from what Mark describes. The Mishnah was written down about AD 200, and it is not clear how far its rules applied in the first century, so the difference is not decisive.

Verses 1–2

Two days before the Passover and Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and scribes look for a way to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They say not during the feast, for fear of an uproar. Events overtake their plan, because one of the Twelve is willing to help.

Verses 3–9

At Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman breaks an alabaster jar of pure nard and pours it over Jesus' head. Some object that it could have been sold for over three hundred denarii, nearly a year's wages for a labourer, and given to the poor. Jesus says she has done a good work, that the poor will always be with them (Deuteronomy 15:11) but he will not, and that she has anointed his body beforehand for burial. What she did will be told wherever the gospel is proclaimed. Mark does not name her; John 12:3 names Mary of Bethany. The scene is a royal anointing in the form of a burial one.

Verses 10–11

Judas Iscariot goes to the chief priests, who promise him money, and he looks for an opportunity.

Verses 12–21

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the lamb was sacrificed, Jesus sends two disciples to find a man carrying a water jar and prepare the meal in a large upper room. At the table he says one of them, one eating with him, will betray him, as in Psalm 41:9. Each asks whether it is he. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but it will be terrible for the one who betrays him.

Verses 22–26

Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them, saying it is his body. He takes a cup, gives thanks and gives it to them, and they all drink. He calls it his 'blood of the covenant', poured out for many. He will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day he drinks it new in the kingdom of God. They sing a hymn, probably the Hallel (Psalms 113-118), and go out to the Mount of Olives. 'Blood of the covenant' echoes Exodus 24:8, where Moses sprinkled the blood at Sinai. 'For many' echoes Isaiah 53:12. The new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34 stands behind it, though Mark does not use the word 'new' (Luke 22:20 and Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:25 do).

Verses 27–31

Jesus says they will all fall away, citing Zechariah 13:7: the shepherd will be struck and the sheep scattered. But after he is raised he will go ahead of them into Galilee. Peter insists that he will not fall away. Jesus says that before the cock crows twice, Peter will deny him three times. Peter and the others protest that they would die with him.

Verses 32–42

Gethsemane means 'olive press'. Jesus takes Peter, James and John, and says his soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death. He falls to the ground and prays that, if possible, the hour might pass. He addresses God as 'Abba', says that all things are possible for him, asks that the cup be taken away, and then submits: not what I will, but what you will. Three times he returns to find the three asleep. He tells Peter to watch and pray, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. At the third return he says the hour has come and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Verses 43–52

Judas arrives with a crowd armed with swords and clubs, greets Jesus as Rabbi and kisses him. Someone cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. Jesus asks why they come out as against a robber when he taught daily in the temple, and says the Scriptures must be fulfilled. All the disciples flee. A young man in a linen cloth runs off naked. Some have thought this was Mark himself, but the text does not say.

Verses 53–65

At the high priest's house the Sanhedrin gather. Many give false testimony that does not agree. Some say they heard him say he would destroy the temple made with hands and in three days build another not made with hands. Jesus is silent. The high priest asks whether he is the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One. Jesus says, 'I am', and adds that they will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven. The high priest tears his clothes and the council condemns him as deserving death. Some spit on him, blindfold him and strike him.

Verses 66–72

Peter, in the courtyard below, is recognised by a servant girl, then again, then by bystanders. He denies it, then curses and swears he does not know the man. The cock crows a second time, Peter remembers Jesus' words, and weeps.

Mark 14 is the place where the Bible's teaching on sacrifice and covenant is fulfilled in a single night. The Passover lamb of Exodus 12 saved Israel from death, and the covenant sacrifice of Exodus 24 bound Israel to the Lord. At the table, Jesus links his coming death to both. Paul says that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7), and the writer to the Hebrews says he is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 9:15). The words 'for many' tie the death to the Servant of Isaiah 53 who bears the sin of many, and they lie behind the New Testament's teaching of atonement.

The chapter also speaks of the human nature of Christ. The grief in Gethsemane, the prayer that the hour might pass, and the submission 'yet not what I will, but what you will' are among the clearest signs in the Gospels of the full humanity of the Son and of his obedience. Hebrews 5:7-8 looks back on this. The disciples, by contrast, sleep, scatter and deny.

The betrayal is as it is written, and yet the betrayer is responsible (14:21). The Bible holds God's purpose and human guilt together, as in Acts 2:23.

The chapter presents Jesus as the fulfilment of the Passover. The lamb of Exodus 12 is a type, a pattern in the law that pointed to the lamb who would deliver from death, which Paul names outright in 1 Corinthians 5:7. Jesus himself claims fulfilment in the meal: his blood is the 'blood of the covenant', echoing Moses at Sinai (Exodus 24:8), and 'poured out for many' draws on the Servant of Isaiah 53:12. He also quotes Zechariah 13:7 of his own striking (14:27), and sees the betrayal in Psalm 41:9. In each case the Old Testament passage is applied by Jesus or the New Testament, and the connection is fulfilment.

At the trial, Jesus' answer joins Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13.

• The first speaks of the one invited to sit at the Lord's right hand.
• The second speaks of one like a son of man who comes with the clouds and receives dominion from the Ancient of Days. By answering 'I am' and joining the two, Jesus claims to be the Christ, the Son of the Blessed, and the enthroned Son of Man. It is also the first time in Mark that he states plainly that he is the Christ, after the long silence he imposed. The high priest hears this as blasphemy, and Mark's reader hears it as the truth, spoken at the moment he is condemned.

In Gethsemane the Son who prays 'Abba' accepts a cup that the Old Testament associates with God's wrath, which the New Testament understands as taken on behalf of others (Isaiah 53:4-6; 2 Corinthians 5:21).