Lesson 76

The Gospel According to Mark

World English Bible translation

Today's Lesson

Jesus had come to Jerusalem and told His disciples before He even arrived that when He was there He would be handed over to the chief priest and killed. On the third day, He would rise again. The disciples had not understood when Jesus said these things. They were hurt and embarrassed that Jesus spoke like this. But Jesus knew that it was for this reason that the Father had sent Him into the world. Without His death, there would be no forgiveness of sin and no reconciliation for the fallen world.

It was also in the plan and the will of God that the person who would betray Jesus to the authorities on the night that He was arrested would be one of His own disciples. One of the Twelve, Judas Iscariot, began to conspire with the chief priests in order to lead them to a convenient place where Jesus could be arrested with a minimum of disturbance. The priests were concerned that there might be a public demonstration at His arrest. So, it must be done quietly, preferable in the middle of the night.

Evil is often done at night. In the darkness, people can hide what they do. From other people, and from themselves. We do not know why Judas chose to do what he did. Perhaps he was jealous of Jesus or perhaps he was resentful. Perhaps he was disillusioned that Jesus was not the type of Messiah that he had dreamed He would be. In this very important detail, why Judas chose to betray Jesus, we are given no definitive answer in Scripture.

What we do know is that the result of Judas' actions was evil. We also know that God took that evil act, and the evil acts of the priests and the Romans, and created something wonderful out of it. God turned all of this around and out of the evil that was done He redeemed a people of His very own. From the death of Jesus Christ, His Son, God reconciled Himself to all of creation and forgave all sin. He overcame death and claimed the ultimate victory over every form of darkness and evil.

This is one of the fundamental aspects of God's character. God takes that which is evil and makes it good. He takes evil people and makes them good. He takes evil situations and makes them good. He has taken all the sin of the world and cleaned it in a holy act of sacrifice.

Are you willing to turn all the evil things that people do to you over to God so that He can make all these situations turn out for your good? Are you willing to turn ALL the evil that is in your own heart over to Him as well?