Mark 14:17-21

The Warning of Betrayal (14:17-21).

This warning must have come as an unpleasant shock to all present, although they probably did not think in terms of a deliberate betrayal. To Judas, who probably thought that he was undetected, it must have been like a body blow. Two things are, however, emphasised, firstly that what will happen will be in accordance with the Scriptures, and secondly the awful consequences for the betrayer. God's sovereign will will be done, but that does not mean that the perpetrator can evade his responsibility. What he does, he does by choice.

Analysis.

a And when it was evening He comes with the twelve, and as they reclined and were eating Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, one of you will betray Me (Mark 14:17 a).

b “Even one who eats with Me” (Mark 14:18 b).

c They began to be sorrowful and to say to Him one by one, “Is it I?” (Mark 14:19).

b And He said to them, “It is one of the twelve. He who dips with me in the dish” (Mark 14:20 b).

a “For the Son of Man goes even as it is written of Him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be good for him if that man had not been born”

Note that in ‘a' the warning is given that one of them will betray Him, and in the parallel a woe is declared against that one. In ‘b' it is ‘one who eats with Me' who will betray Him, and in the parallel it is, ‘one of the twelve, he who dips with Me in the dish'. Central in ‘c' is the fear of each one that it might be him.