Scripture Passages

One of the best ways to analyze any passage of Scripture is to use other Scripture. In both Ezekiel (chapters 1 and 10) and Revelation (chapter 4) four angels appear to the respective prophets in a form that mirrors the four gospels. One has the face of a lion, as Matthew presented Jesus as King of the Jews, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Another has the face of either a cherub or an ox, a servant (of God or man), as Mark presented Jesus as servant of both God and man. The third angel has the face of man, as Luke presented Jesus as the Son of Man. The fourth angel has the face of an eagle, symbol of divinity, as John presents Jesus as God incarnate.

Thus, when Mark describes the last supper Jesus had with His disciples, his focus is on how Jesus is serving the men who will soon abandon Him to the Romans. When John wrote his description of the same scene, the scene and events were the same, but his focus was on how Jesus manifests the characteristics of God.

In both cases, Jesus needs to keep the Passover, as He has for over thirty years, as a faithful and obedient Jew. This time, however, there was a conspiracy between one of His disciples and His enemies, the Pharisees. With hindsight, Mark describes the scene in Bethany first, showing how Judas revealed his hand (Mark 14:3-9), though no one else but Jesus noticed at the time (Mark 14:18-21). As their servant, Jesus comforts the disciples by telling them what will happen, so when it does happen they will know that tho

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Jesus enabled sinful humans to enjoy life and fellowship with Him because He suffered in their place. Having established salvation, Jesus then needed to establish how those who were saved and "called out" of the world of sin would be organized and fellowship with each other (as well as with Himself). In Mark 14:22-25 Jesus institutes the primary context of Christians' fellowship: the communion supper. He identifies the symbol of the bread with His body that was "broken" for all people (1 Cor. 11:24) as He broke the bread for them to eat. He then gave them the cup of wine to drink from, both as a symbol of His own blood they would need to spiritually drink from (John 6:54-63) and as a symbol of the cup of judgment He Himself would drink (John 18:11). Then in John 13:1-10 Jesus established the nature of authority and how it was to be exercised in His church (ecclesia, "called out ones"). It's power, of course, would come from Him. Its exercise would be only as He had modeled for them. They were to only imitate what they saw Him do. His statement (John 13:13) "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for [so] I am." establishes His equality with the Hebrew God, who was called "Lord" instead of "Yahweh" out of fear of misapp

Category: Philosophy - S