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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then Jesus went with His
disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, “Sit here while I
go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with
Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, “My soul
is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with
Me.”
Going a little farther,
He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible,
may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then He returned to His
disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one
hour?” He asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into
temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He went away a second
time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken
away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”
When He came back, He
again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and
went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Then He returned to the
disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour
has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let
us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Matthew
26:36-46
They went to a place
called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He
took Peter, James and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed
and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He
said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
Going a little farther,
He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him.
“Abba, Father,” He said, “Everything is possible for You. Take
this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”
Then He returned to His
disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” He said to Peter, “are you asleep?
Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall
into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Once more He went away
and prayed the same thing. When He came back, He again found them sleeping,
because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to Him.
Returning the third
time, He said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour
has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise!
Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Mark
14:32-42
Jesus went out as usual
to the Mount of Olives, and His disciples followed Him. On reaching the place,
He said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew
about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are
willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” An angel
from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. And being in anguish, He
prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the
ground.
When He rose from prayer
and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.
“Why are you sleeping?” He asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not
fall into temptation.”
Luke
22:39-46
When He had finished
praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the
other side there was a garden, and He and His disciples went into it.
John 18:1
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As we come to the last
two weeks before Easter, I will be returning to the Gospels and writing a
series of devotions that carry us through Jesus’ resurrection and beyond. And
if you follow the writing I do in the name of the Lord, you know I firmly
believe in studying the Gospels synoptically which simply means looking at all
four Gospel accounts collectively when we find passages contained in each.
We begin today by
traveling with Jesus and three of His most trusted disciples to the Garden of
Gethsemane. Just before He faces Judas’ betrayal and the arrest that followed,
we find Jesus going to His Father in prayer, troubled with the suffering that
was soon to come.
Of interest, the garden
of Gethsemane was located in the Kidron Valley and within the Mount of Olives
which makes sense given the translation of the word Gethsemane is “oil press”.
Jesus and His disciples, which included Peter and the sons of Zebedee, James
and John, entered the garden for prayer.
The scriptures tell us
that Jesus intentionally positioned His three faithful followers with this
order:
“Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”
What was that
temptation?
Well, as we’ll see in a
moment, Jesus could have been warning about the temptation to fall asleep but
more on that in a moment. Before we get to that point, it’s important to look
at Jesus’ mindset as He was set to pray and as we look at the passages, we find
Him telling His disciples in an act of complete transparency. In Mark’s Gospel,
Jesus tells Peter, James, and John, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the
point of death” before commanding them to “Stay here and keep watch.”
Jesus fully knew what
was coming. He was about to bear the penalty for every sin ever committed and
such judgment would be beyond human comprehension or endurance. No one would
ever ask for this level of supreme punishment and in His humanity, we see that
Jesus, through His own words, was not looking forward to the suffering ahead.
And so He did the only
thing He could do in the moment, the only thing that anyone of us can do in a
moment of extreme trial and difficulty. He went to God in prayer.
Finding a spot about a “stone’s
throw” away from His three disciples, we read where Jesus fell with His face to
the ground and said the following prayer:
“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will,
but Yours be done.”
As Jesus prays here, He
is teaching us important truths about life as it relates to God, His Father and
ours.
First, there is nothing
God can’t do. Nothing.
If God wanted to remove
the cup of suffering Jesus was about to drink from, He could have. God can do
anything He wants to do.
And this leads to the
second important thing Jesus wants us to remember.
Things happen in life as
God wills. He knows the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11) and puts things in
motion so that those plans can be accomplished just the way He wants them to. Jesus
knew this and so although He hoped He could avoid the coming suffering, He also
acknowledged that He would go through it if His Father wanted.
After His prayer, it’s
interesting to note that an angel came to Jesus from heaven to bring Him
strength in the time of need. Only Luke’s Gospel tells us this, underscoring my
earlier discussion about why we need to study the Gospels synoptically. If you
were only using Matthew’s or Mark’s account, you wouldn’t know about the angel’s
coming.
Well, after being strengthened
by the angel, we find Jesus checking on Peter, James, and John, and He wasn’t
happy with what He saw. For when he got to the three, He found them sleeping
and asked them:
“Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one hour?”
He then specifically asked
Peter, the disciple He called the “rock” He would build His church on:
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus had told His three
trusted followers to pray and be on watch so they wouldn’t fall into
temptation. I’m sure the disciples wanted to remain obedient in their individual
spirits but they were also tired in their flesh which ended up winning the day.
In other words, the disciples’ spirit to pray and stay on watch as Jesus told
them was trumped by their weary flesh which led them into sleep.
In today’s day and time,
we all have many things to carry out based on what Jesus commanded. The
question is, is our spirit strong enough to withstand the weakness of our
flesh?
The only way it will be
is if we allow Jesus to be our strength because through Him, we’ll have the
strength to do all things (Philippians 4:13).
And with that, Jesus
returned to pray the same prayer to His Father:
“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless
I drink it, may Your will be done.”
Luke’s Gospel tells us
that Jesus was in such deep anguish over the suffering He would soon have to
endure that sweat dripped from His face that was “like drops of blood falling
to the ground.” We all have been through hardships in life but I’m pretty sure
nearly every person has not produced blood-laced sweat from their anguish.
And with that, Jesus
returned a third time and guess what was happening?
Not much because the
disciples had once again succumbed to sleep. Rather than wake them, Jesus
instead returned to His prayer spot for a third time and asked the same thing
from God before going back to the disciples and rousing them from sleep with
these words:
“Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the
Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes
my betrayer!”
Indeed, Jesus saw Judas
approaching with a group of soldiers who came with the intent of arresting Him.
The disciples couldn’t remain awake to watch Jesus’ back but soon they would
watch Him being hauled away to a hearing before the Sanhedrin. Jesus had warned
them to remain watchful so that temptation wouldn’t lead them into sin and
disobedient. But the three disciples had weak flesh and this led to them
falling into the temptation of sleep and disobedience to what Jesus had
commanded them to do.
Today, we face similar
situations where Jesus has called us to do one thing but if we’re not watchful,
temptation comes along and leads us away from what Jesus expects. Our flesh
overcomes our spirit of obedience and we end up failing and falling.
In today’s message,
Jesus is speaking to us as much as He was to Peter, James, and John. He wants
all of us to watch and pray so that we won’t fall into temptation.
In response to this, are
you alert and carrying out His call or are you sleeping?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please
share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
