11. Mark 14:26
When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
There are moments in all great stories – whether bound in a book, set on a stage, or portrayed on the silver screen – when the pace of the narrative slows down just enough for you to catch your breath and take a look around before the story lurches forward again at an even quicker clip. These are the significant transition points in a story, and we have arrived at one in Mark’s account of Jesus’ Passion.
It begins, as transitions usually do, with the conclusion of what had gone before. Jesus had been celebrating the Passover with his disciples, the sacred meal that recalled God’s deliverance of the people Israel from their bondage in Egypt. It was a solemn meal, recalling the urgency and fear of that night long ago and inviting those celebrating not just to remember the meal and event but to participate again in giving thanks for God’s deliverance.
The Israelites fled Egypt during an exodus that brought them, eventually, to Sinai, the holy mountain on which God renewed the covenant God had made with Abraham and gave the people the Ten Commandments. After singing the traditional hymn that brought the Passover meal to a close, Jesus and his disciples also get up and go, heading also toward a mountain, though one with a different history.
The Mount of Olives, named for the olive groves that adorned its sides, was the highest mountain in the region and gave a panoramic view of Jerusalem. It had a storied, and at points bitter, history. It was the mountain to which David fled after being betrayed by his son Absalom, weeping as he climbed (2 Sam. 15:30). It was the mountain on which Solomon built altars to foreign Gods (1 Kings 15:7) that stood as accusation against Israel’s lack of fidelity until Josiah pulled them down.
This is not Jesus’ first time here. Luke says that he passed this way as the traveled from Bethany to Jerusalem and that this was the spot from which he viewed, and wept over, the city (Luke 19:41-42). And throughout the week before his crucifixion he returned there time and again to teach his disciples and all that would listen, at one point foretelling the destruction of the Temple. (Ironically, this is also the place that the soldiers from the Tenth Legion of the Roman army camped when they laid siege to Jerusalem in 70 AD and destroyed that same Temple.)
It is a familiar place, an ominous place, a place with a history that reeks of violence, betrayal, and treachery. So when Jesus goes there one more time, this time at night, with his closest friends, we are invited not just to catch our breath, but also to hold it, as this story turns toward its dramatic end and we, too, are invited not just to remember but also to participate in and give thanks for the Lord’s deliverance.
Prayer: Dear God, as we remember and experience again one of the pivot points of this story, let us also be aware of the turning points in our own lives, sensing your presence with us, commitment to us, and great love for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Remarkable! I’m holding my breath.