Series: Mark, #31
March 2, 2008
NEVERTHELESS
Mark 14:32-42
Mark 14:32-42 NIV
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." [33] He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. [34] "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."
[35] Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. [36] "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
[37] Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? [38] Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
[39] Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. [40] When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
[41] 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 betrayed into the hands of sinners. [42] Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"
I. The Oil Press Mark 14:32-34
What was the worst time of your life? When were you under the greatest pressure, or stress? Maybe it was at the time of your divorce; or when a loved one died. Maybe the pressures came from your work, and you were either being worked to death, or being pressured to do things you knew weren’t right. For some, it could have been the catastrophic illness or accident that completely changed their life overnight. For others, the stresses come from within, as they battle emotional and mental enemies.
Whenever it was, or whatever was the source of that pressure, those are the times when who we are becomes most evident. We can all pretend to be something or someone else when things are going well, but the pressure crushes our mask, blows away our disguise, and reveals us for who we really are.
The name, Gethsemane, literally means “oil press”. It was an appropriate name for the olive grove on the hill just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem. The owners no doubt had a press there to extract the oil from their olive crop, so it wasn’t a very creative name for the place. But it was prophetic. Because on that hill, in that grove, Jesus faced the greatest pressure of His life. And it revealed just who He was.
Mark 14:32, They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." [33] He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. [34] "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them.
Here’s how Mel Gibson portrayed this scene: CLIP FROM THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (5:40 – 10:00) (4:20 long)
Jesus was under terrible pressure. He had endured forty days of fasting and temptation from the devil at the beginning of His public ministry; He had withstood hostility and opposition from the religious authorities for three years; He had escaped several attempts on His life. But now, this was the greatest test of all. Like the olives in an oil press, Jesus was under two terrible pressures: the wrath of God, and the temptation of Satan.
A. The Cup Mark 14:35-36
First and foremost was the wrath of God. Here’s a picture of an olive
press from the time of Christ that was found in Capernaum. They would
put the olives in the trough, and then roll this really heavy stone
around on them to crush them and squeeze the oil out. Think of the
wrath of God like that stone crushing Jesus and squeezing the life out
of Him.
Mark 14:35, Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. [36] "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me."
In commenting on this event in Jesus’ life, Martin Luther said, “No one ever feared death so much as this Man.”[1] And that’s an odd thing, isn’t it? We know that Christian martyrs often faced death with great peace, and even eagerness. Even a secular man like the philosopher Socrates drank the hemlock without any visible distress. And yet, Jesus seems absolutely terrified of it. He was “deeply distressed and troubled”; He said His soul was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Why was this man, who could walk on water and calm a storm and raise people from the dead, so afraid of death Himself?
Because it wasn’t just death that He was facing. He was facing the wrath of God. The cup He had to drink contained the wrath of God against sin. We don’t talk much about the wrath of God any more, but it is a terrible reality, just the same. Paul wrote,
Ephes. 2:3, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”
And John wrote, John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
God is angry at people for their rebellion against Him, their insistence on going their own way, living their lives independently of Him. But here’s the astonishing thing: God put our sin on Jesus, and then poured out His wrath on Him instead of us. 2 Cor. 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” But if Jesus took our sin on Himself, if He became sinful with our sin, then the Father had to punish Him for it. The ultimate punishment for sin is spiritual death—separation from the Father. And that’s what Jesus was facing there in the Garden of the Oil Press—becoming sinful, and then being cut off from the Father for it. He and the Father were one—they had been one from all eternity, before time and space began. But there in that grove of olive trees, Jesus was contemplating the prospect of God’s righteous and holy wrath against the sin of all mankind being poured out on Himself.
Words are completely inadequate to describe this!
It would have been hard enough to remain strong in the face of the wrath
of God. But Jesus also had to contend with the attack of Satan. If we
think of the olive press again, we might imagine Satan sitting on the
stone as it pressured Jesus, adding the weight of his temptation to try
to force Jesus to give in, to back out, to walk away and not drink the
cup of wrath the Father was holding out to Him.
B. Satan’s attack (see Matthew 4:1-10)
At the outset of His ministry, Jesus had been attacked by Satan as He fasted in the wilderness. There the temptations had been to satisfy His hunger by turning stones into bread, and to force God into performing a parlor trick by jumping off the top of the temple so the angels would have to come and catch Jesus, and to be given all the kingdoms and wealth of the world in exchange for worshiping Satan. But here in Gethsemane, the temptation was entirely different: to escape the wrath of God.
We might be mildly tempted by the suggestion that we break our fast, or by the offer of worldly wealth and power. But if you knew you were going to be tortured, and there was a way out, wouldn’t you take it?
Mel Gibson’s film has it right—the tempter would have said things like this:
“Do you really believe one man can bear the full burden of sin?”
“No one man can carry this burden, I tell you.”
“It is far too heavy.”
“Saving their souls is too costly.”
D. EVOO Mark 14:36
So Jesus is caught in the olive press. He is under tremendous pressure to yield to the temptation of the devil, to try to avoid the wrath of God. What will He do?
When Barbie and I were in Israel on our sabbatical some years ago, we
visited the Garden of Gethsemane. There are really old olive trees
there, perhaps over a thousand years old. They are not the ones that
were there at the time of Christ, certainly, but they were old enough
that they helped you imagine that you were in that same olive grove.
There is one section of very old trees that is fenced off from the public, and as I gazed into those trees, I pictured Jesus agonizing there--deeply distressed and troubled, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. As I knelt and prayed there, I realized that if it had been me, instead of Jesus, if I had been under that kind of pressure, if I had had to make that decision, I would have let the whole human race go to hell.
I would have sought to save my own skin, my life, my self, rather than everyone else’s. I would have agreed with the tempter—yes! Yes! That is too heavy a burden. That is too high a price. I cannot and will not pay it.
But Jesus said, Mark 14:36, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.” And here we see the true character of Jesus. God is love, and love always seeks the good of the other, regardless of what it costs. Jesus was the servant of the Lord, and a servant always does the will of the master. Jesus was the Good Shepherd, who came to lay down His life for the sheep. Jesus was the only one who could bear the weight of that terrible burden, who could feel the pressure of the wrath of God and the temptation of the devil to avoid that wrath, and still say, “nevertheless.” “Regardless of what it costs me, I will do this for them.”
We often think of Jesus’ death on the cross as the turning point of history, but in one sense, it happened here, perhaps 15 hours before He died, when Jesus fought the battle of all battles, when He decided that He would obey the Father, no matter what it cost. It was there that the decisive victory was won. He stood firm against all the pressure of His human nature, wanting to avoid the pain; and the yearning of His divine nature, dreading the separation from the Father; and the seductive voice of the tempter, pointing out how undeserving we are of His sacrifice.
Extra-virgin olive oil (often abbreviated EVOO in recipes) comes from cold pressing the olives, has very low acidity and a superior taste. It’s the best olive oil there is. Jesus was pressed in the oil press of Gethsemane, and He proved Himself to be the very best Man on earth. Thank God! that you or I were not asked to make that terrible decision! Thank God it was Jesus!
D. Our temptations 1 Cor 10:13
And thank God we will never be tempted as Jesus was. But we are faced with temptations all the time:
we are tempted to give free rein to our anger;
to nurture a negative and critical spirit;
to slander others through gossip;
to indulge our lust with pornography;
to indulge our appetites for food, for comfort, for pleasure, for expensive toys;
to cheat in school;
to withhold love from our spouse or other family member;
to give less than our best at work because nobody cares anyway;
to give less than our best at school because what’s the point anyway?;
to withhold an apology from someone because we don’t want to admit our own guilt;
to hold a grudge and refuse to forgive someone who has hurt us;
to give up on God when He is silent in the face of our suffering.
How do we handle these temptations? How do we respond to them? Do we just yield at the first hint of pressure? Or do we fight them for a little while and then give in? 1 Cor. 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Here’s one way God always provides for us to cope with temptation: to remember Jesus there in the Oil Press, being crushed for us, and standing strong. Take courage and strength from His example, and ask Him for His help to resist whatever it is the devil is pressuring you with.
In his book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has the senior demon, Screwtape, warn the younger demon, who is assigned to lead a human astray,
Be not deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe in which every trace of [God] seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
Brothers and sisters, let us be those men and women.
II. Watch and Pray
A. The Spirit and the Flesh Mark 14:37-38
Mark 14:37, “Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? [38] Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.’”
In one sense, it was just physical exhaustion that the disciples were fighting. It had been a stressful week, going back and forth between Bethany, where they were staying with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and Jerusalem. The tension was rising each time they went into the city, partly due to Jesus throwing the vendors out of the temple court. By the time Jesus and the disciples got to the Mount of Olives that night, it would have been late in the evening, perhaps midnight or later, so there was certainly an element of physical tiredness involved in their sleeping.
But that’s not all there was. The word translated “body” is a Greek word (sarx) that can mean not only the physical body, but human nature, with all of its weaknesses and sinful tendencies. In this case, Jesus means both, because the disciples were facing a situation like all of us have: our spirit is willing to do what is right, but we don’t do it. I’m grateful that Jesus understands our human weaknesses, but the point of this comment is to encourage us to overcome them. He’s saying, Yes, I know that your physical body is weak, and your human nature is weak, but you must make your spirit the dominant force in your life. Watch and pray! Pray so that you don’t fall into temptation.
Most of us have enough experience in the Christian life to know what kinds of things are likely to tempt us. We can pray in advance about those things so that even if we have to be in those situations, God can strengthen us to resist. Pray so that you don’t fall into temptation. Watch out! Pay attention! Be alert to the times and situations in your life where the devil is most likely to get at you, and pray in advance about them.
B. One Hour Mark 14:37
Mark 14:37, “Could you not keep watch for one hour?” The word “hour” (ora) can mean anything from a literal hour to a day to a season—really any period of time. But still, if we take it literally, it’s an interesting question, isn’t it? We don’t really know how long Jesus prayed before He came back to find the disciples sleeping, but He makes it sound like one hour is a short time, a period when anybody should be able to stay physically awake and alertly pray about something. Couldn’t you even pray for one hour?
But how many of us pray for an hour? I know that the quality of our prayers is not determined by the number of minutes we spend at them; and I know that there are plenty of “arrow prayers” shot up by famous people in the Bible, and God heard and answered them. But still, this question by Jesus pokes us a little, doesn’t it? Can you be alert and pray for an hour? Do you? About how many minutes do you actually pray a day? a week?
Sometimes, the reason we don’t pray longer is because we are just plain tired. We fall asleep, or are so drowsy that our prayers really don’t mean much. But sometimes, it’s not physical at all—it’s related to that other meaning of sarx, our weak and sinful human nature. Many times we don’t pray for very long, or we don’t pray alertly, because we are just not tuned in to the spiritual dimensions of what’s going on. We don’t notice that there are temptations surrounding us, or that there are opportunities in front of us.
I want to challenge you to increase the amount of time you spend in prayer. If you spend five minutes, now, make it ten. If you spend fifteen minutes now, make it 20 or 25. If you spend half an hour, try to stretch it to 45 minutes. There is no magic number that is the right amount of time to pray, but there is tremendous benefit in lingering in God’s presence,
C taking more time to praise and thank Him for who He is and what He’s done for us;
C taking more time to anticipate dangers in our lives and the lives of our loved ones, and asking for God’s help in those situations;
C taking more time to examine our lives and confess our sins;
C taking more time to lay the concerns of our lives before Him, just talking things over and asking for His direction and feedback.
Ps 73:28 says, “The nearness of God is my good,” and I encourage you to discover that for yourself by spending more time in His presence each day.