Mark 14:1-2 Every Step Is Joy: Christ Will Give Up His Life For Us

The Text

Mark 14:1–2 (CSB)
¹ It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a cunning way to arrest Jesus and kill him.

² “Not during the festival,” they said, “so that there won’t be a riot among the people.”

The Devotion

None of this is coincidence. Not your life. Not my life. Not on the life of our dear Savior.

Consider this:

Acts 17:24-28 (CSB) The God who made the world and everything in it — he is Lord of heaven and earth — does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

And

Proverbs 16:9 (CSB) A person’s heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps.

And

Psalm 139:16 (CSB)
16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

If God sets the boundaries and times of our dwelling, determines are steps, and records all of days and forms every single day before we were even born, then why would the Son of God who is God do any thing less for himself.

For

Philippians 2:5–11 (CSB)
⁵ Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

⁷ Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,

⁸ he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

⁹ For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth—

¹¹ and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Your life is not a mistake. My life is not circumstance. I know that this world can be cruel and unforgiven. But our lives and death are not in vain.

Christ was not the victim of circumstance or some evil plot against him. No!

Christ formed these men who seek to kill him in the wombs of their mothers. Christ determined that they should be born and live in the same place and time as himself. Their hearts were wicked and sick but Christ alone determined their steps.

Christ was not the tragic victim of chaos and destruction and Satan. Christ gave himself up freely. And he sovereignly, justly, rightly, graciously planned and executed so that he will die in order to save his people from their sins.

James 1:2-4 (CSB) Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Christ counted as joy to save his people. Whatever trials and tribulations you might experience in your life, count it all as joy.

And every step that Christ took towards the cross was in complete joy and satisfaction because every step he took was one step closer to completely, satisfactorily, perfectly, definitely, absolutely, forever "save his people from their sins."