Smite the Shepherd (Mark 14:26-52)

We return to our studies in Mark, stepping again into the infinite mystery that always gathers around the events in the closing days of our Lord's earthly life, the scenes that lead to the cross. I am sure that the twenty-third Psalm, the Shepherd's Psalm, is the best-loved psalm of all. I know thousands of people who have been helped and strengthened by those opening words, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." The thought of the Lord as shepherd of his people -- watching over his flock, guarding them, protecting them, leading them into green pastures, making them to lie down beside the still water -- has comforted many of us, I know. I am sure that fulfilling this psalm was much in our Lord's thoughts as he gathered with his disciples in the upper room.