I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 14-16.

    I see a connection between the actions of the woman who anointed Jesus’ head with perfume and with the establishment of the breaking of bread and sharing of wine. Both contain an aspect of ceremony and of ritual. We, as human beings, need ceremony and ritual in our lives. I have long tried to determine what we were supposed to learn from the woman who anointed Jesus. Today I came to the conclusion that the lesson is that it is OK to conduct ceremonies which show our love for Jesus and for God. However, they should be ceremonies which have personal meaning to us, not ceremonies we take part in to impress others. There are some ceremonies which are established for every generation (i.e., the breaking of bread and sharing of wine) and there are ceremonies which each individual must develop for themselves. But even in the established ceremonies, each generation needs to look closely at how the ceremony is conducted to determine if it still conveys the meaning it was designed to convey. I, also, want to point out that our ceremonies may offend some. I have always suspected that Mark is trying to tell us that Judas betrayed Jesus because of His acceptance of the anointing.

    When Peter bragged that he would never desert Jesus, it was not just bragging. Peter was trying to build himself up to make it true. When Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times, He was not putting Peter down. He was telling him that it takes more than human bravado to stand for God in the face of persecution. We can only do so with the help of the Holy Spirit. The experience in the Garden of Gethsemane was a reinforcement of this same lesson. It is only by keeping watch and praying that we can receive the power from the Holy Spirit that we need to overcome temptation. If we cannot stay awake to pray with Jesus before the trial comes, how will we stand firm by His side in the face of persecution? But Jesus knows that our failing is because our body is weak, not because our spirit is unwilling. Let each and every one of us pray for God’s Spirit to strengthen us so that we can face the troubles which will come.