Verse: Mark 14:1-72

Got Nard?

This was the theme of a camp I attended last summer. Translated into our lives, it means "What would you give to Jesus?", i.e. what skills do you have that you can put to good use in a ministry setting?
Nard is a very expensive perfume. It was all that the woman bathing Jesus had to give, and she gave it unselfishly to Him. While the disciples argued that it was a waste, and she should have just handed to them, so that they might sell it, Jesus tells them the meaning of what she did.
I pray every night that I may find my means of ministy, that I may find the way in which I best serve the Lord. It is important that you recognize what your specialities are, so that you do not waste your effort. I, for instance, am not good with children. That doesn't mean I avoid them, it means that I don't sign up to teach children's classes. I prefer to serve through labor: Washing Cars, building/reparing homes, etc. Everything that you do for the Lord will be remembered forever, by Jesus, and you never know when you may be planting your mustard seed.

The next passage describes the Lord's supper, in which Jesus states that he will be betrayed; "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me--one who is eating with me." The disciples cannot fathom that one of them will betray Jesus. They love Him! But Jesus knows that it must happen, and accepts His fate.

Jesus also tells the disciples that they will scatter, and abandon Him when His time comes. This is when Peter is told that he will deny Jesus three times before the cock crows.

Jesus then asks God to spare him the suffering of His fate. Here, Jesus shows the mortality of Man. He is scared of the pain that comes, but accepts what has been dealt Him. Then Jesus is arrested. He wonders aloud about their weapons, as He is not a physical danger, but a political one. This shows how misunderstood Jesus is by the people of His time.
Then He is abandoned by everyone, even the poor young man, who owns only the garment he leaves behind.

Jesus is then brought before the Leaders of the Church, who try to pin a charge on Him, taking his comments about tearing down the temple out of context. Indeed, it is they who tear down their temple, when they condemn Jesus for blasphemy.

Indeed, Peter does disown Jesus three times before the cock crows. It is at this point that Peter realizes how awesome Jesus' powers were (and still are). This may have been the mustard seed that was planted in Peter, out of which grew the largest religion ever.