Mark 14:21

ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE WOMEN ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, THAT CHRIST IS RISEN--HIS APPEARANCES AFTER HIS RESURRECTION--HIS ASCENSION--TRIUMPHANT PROCLAMATION OF HIS GOSPEL. ( = Mat 28:1-10, Mat 28:16-20; Luke 24:1-51; Joh 20:1-2, John 20:11-29). (Mark 16:1-20) when the sabbath was past--that is, at sunset of our Saturday. Mary Magdalene--(See on Luk 8:2). Mary the mother of James--James the Less (see Mar 15:40). and Salome--the mother of Zebedee's sons (compare Mar 15:40 with Mat 27:56). had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him--The word is simply "bought." But our translators are perhaps right in rendering it here "had bought," since it would appear, from Luk 23:56, that they had purchased them immediately after the Crucifixion, on the Friday evening, during the short interval that remained to them before sunset, when the sabbath rest began; and that they had only deferred using them to anoint the body till the sabbath rest should be over. On this "anointing," see on Joh 19:40.

In this chapter begins the account which this evangelist gives of the death and sufferings of our Lord Jesus, which we are all concerned to be acquainted, not only with the history of, but with the mystery of. Here is, I. The plot of the chief priests and scribes against Christ (Mar 14:1, Mar 14:2). II. The anointing of Christ's head at a supper in Bethany, two days before his death (Mar 14:3-9). III. The contract Judas made with the chief priests, to betray him (Mar 14:10, Mar 14:11). IV. Christ's eating the passover with his disciples, his instituting the Lord's supper, and his discourse with his disciples, at and after supper (v. 12-31). V. Christ's agony in the garden (Mar 14:32-42). VI. The betraying of him by Judas, and the apprehending of him by the chief priests' agents (Mar 14:43-52). VII. His arraignment before the high priest, his conviction, and the indignities done him at that bar (Mar 14:53-65). VIII. Peter's denying him (Mar 14:66-72). Most of which passages we had before, Mt. 26.

14:21 must die, as the Scriptures declared: See, e.g., Isa 52:13–53:12. Jesus foreknew this betrayal as part of the divine plan (cp. 8:31-33), but his betrayer was condemned. Jesus and the Gospel writers do not explain how God’s sovereignty and Judas’s human responsibility can coexist, but both are stated without compromise (see John 19:11).