Mark 14:10

Mark 14:10 says, And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.  While the woman was anointing Jesus with expensive oil, Judas, one of the twelve called to be Jesus's closest disciples, went to the priest to betray Jesus.  We might wonder how someone so close to Jesus could betray Him, and yet as Christians we often do the same thing.  Any time the things of this world seem more important to us than being totally committed to God is, we are betraying our relationship with Him.  Verse eleven adds, And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him. The chief priests were glad to hear that Judas was willing to betray Jesus and they were willing to pay him to do so.  They may have questioned the woman's anointing Jesus with expensive oil that could have gone to help the poor, but they had no problem with paying Judas to betray Jesus with money that could have gone to help the poor.  Though the people of the world may be happy if we as Christians betray Jesus, we need to pray that the leaders of the church never do, and we need to also pray that they never use the things given to God to work against Him.  Of course, unless we have entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, we cannot betray Him, nor can we be saved.  Verse twelve states, And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?  On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when the sacrifice was killed, the Passover lamb, the disciples really didn't know where they were going to be able to prepare to eat it.  Jesus had no permanent home, so this was something that the disciples were concerned about, since they were Jews.  I believe at this point the disciples were still looking more at keeping God's law than they were looking at Jesus to be the fulfillment of that law.  We should be concerned about keeping God's law as Christians today, but until we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, the keeping of God's law will never be acceptable for salvation, since we all fall short of keeping it completely. Verse thirteen adds, And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. Jesus gave them specific instructions on how to find the place to observe the Passover.  God will give us directions on how to be obedient as followers of Christ today if we are listening to Him.  Jesus said that they would meet a man bearing a picture of water, and they were to follow him and when they got to where he was going, they were to tell the owner of the house that the Master sent them.  Verse fourteen says, And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?  Verse fifteen adds, And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us. They were then to ask where the guest chamber was, so that they could use it as a place to eat the Passover meal with Him.  This required the obedience of both the disciples and the young man that they met, and the owner of the house.  We today as Christians need to be working together to accomplish God's will, and I believe that He will be working with us to bring this about.  Of course, we must act on His leadership in order for this to happen.  Verse sixteen continues, And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the Passover.  The disciples found things to be as Jesus said and made ready the Passover.  We today have to act in faith in order to see God's will done in the world, and we must do so without doubting that it will happen.  As Christians, we can celebrate the Passover every day, because when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He became the everlasting sacrifice that causes God to pass over the spiritual death of people who put their faith in Him.