Christ, Faithful in the Crucible of Suffering
Truth Taught- Jesus suffers intense anguish as He prays for strength to accomplish all His Father has for Him.
Pastoral Prayer
The crucifixion is the most overwhelmingly agonizing event in human history. When we think of the agony of the cross, we rarely think of the precursor of that horrific event: The Garden of Gethsemane is the place where Jesus relinquishes all His will and desire to completely follow His Father even to the point of death on a cross.
Jesus, of course, always followed the Father and always accomplished His will. However, now comes the time when the will of the Father is the death of His Son.
The cross becomes a matter of the will before it can materialize. Remember, at any point Jesus could have called down legions of angels to destroy all involved and He could have walked away. So, complete surrender to the Father even when it means death becomes the prelude to the cross.
This same self-denial is true for us as well. If we are to be obedient to the Father’s will, we too must deny ourselves and our desires.
Mark 8:34–35 (ESV)
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Do you see the order here? Self-denial comes before carrying your cross. The issue of will precedes obedience. This reality was true for Jesus and for us. You cannot obey God if your will is dominating your life. It takes surrender to His will first.
The preliminary action to submit to God’s will and to deny your own agenda comes before any successful obedience to God. If you’re struggling to be obedient, look at whether or not your desires are leading you rather than God’s desires for you.
Here is the account of Jesus surrendering His will to the Father even when He knows death will be the result.
Please Stand in honor of God’s Holy, Inspired, and Inerrant Word
Mark 14:32–42 (ESV)
32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” 35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 37 And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. 41 And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
1. The Great Suffering of Being the Savior (14:32-35)
32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” 35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
Here, we are told that Jesus and the 11 disciples that remain make their way to the Mount of Olives. At the foothill lies Gethsemane (olive press). This is a familiar place for Jesus and His disciples, and this is probably the reason Judas would lead the Roman authorities there to arrest Him. Judas knew where they would be because he went there many times with Jesus.
Luke 22:39 (ESV)
39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.
It’s here where Mark records Jesus’ words to His disciples.
he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
So, Jesus leaves the disciples behind and goes on ahead with Peter, James and John. With His inner circle, He then tells them to pray and watch.
They are to pray that they would not fall into temptation and then also watch because Jesus knows that Judas and Rome are on the way to take Him.
He tells the three that are with Him,
“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”
The language of Jesus could not be more intense. His burden is so great it is beyond His ability to bear it. So great is the burden Jesus bears, He literally collapses to the ground in prayer. Nothing in all the Bible compares to the sorrow and grief of this event. Those who understand what was taking place here even say the agony was in many ways even worse than the cross itself.
The suffering of Gethsemane left its mark on the ancient Church. Paul in Hebrews writes…
Hebrews 5:7 (ESV)
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
The OT speaks of the suffering of the Messiah.
Isaiah 53:4–5 (ESV)
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:12 (ESV)
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Our Lord knew all of this, and much more was the reality of His Messiahship. He would die a death of torture and great pain and even greater, the pain of being under the wrath of God and separated from His Father; complete alienation from the Father. In just a few hours in the outer realm of Jerusalem would echo the cries…
Mark 15:34 (ESV)
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Here’s the issue…Any one of us if we knew that in a few hours, we were going to be sent to hell. If we knew the eternal torture that was coming to us because of our unforgiven sin and rebellion against God. If we knew that our sin was against the eternal God and so our punishment would be rightly an eternal punishment, we too would be in great distress. If we knew that was coming in a few hours, we too would be in great agony. Here, Jesus is not going to the literal hell but the hell of the cross and suffering the wrath of God for the sin of one man like we would but the sin of all the elect throughout all of history. He suffers for all of God’s people. Jesus is about to suffer a million eternities of God’s wrath to pay the sin debt for all His people. The reality of this torment is beyond words or description.
Luke 22:43 says, “God sent an angel to strengthen Him.” A mighty angel came to save Him when He came to the point of death. How severe was it? Luke 22:44 says the struggle was so immense, the stress on His physical form was so great that He began to sweat drops of blood. There’s a clinical name for that: hematidrosis. What happens is under immense stress, the capillaries gorge, inflate, and explode, and the blood comes out the sweat glands. And this is the maximum point of human stress. And the anguish was so profound that an angel had to save His life. He might have bled to death from the sheer struggle and stress of it. –John MacArthur
He knows the cross is but a few hours away.
Beloved only Jesus being fully Man and fully God could pay the sin debt for all God’s people in the time before He died. Only God can accomplish that.
Mark reports that Jesus prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
The cosmic truth and reality of the vileness of sin was that it was not possible. Jesus would have to drink the cup of God’s wrath and endure the hour of wrath to pay the penalty for our sin. Beloved He did it for us!!
2. God’s Will be Done (14:36)
36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Jesus knew the purpose of His death by crucifixion. He knew that it would accomplish cosmic eternal and divine purposes. He knew this because He uses language of apocalypse. Daniel and the Book of Revelation speak of what is about to happen and so Jesus takes His words right out of that literature.
He uses the word hour to describe the time. He uses the word cup to describe the wrath of God He would endure.
Jesus knew that His death would accomplish the restoration of all of God’s people. He knew His death would pay the ransom for many. God the Father knew the cross was the only way. Beloved, our sin is too great, Jesus had to be crucified.
Jesus also knew the love of His Father. Only here in Mark at this point do we hear Jesus’ full address…He says Abba Father. This is the address of tenderness and love. Jesus knows that if there was another way His Daddy as Abba refers, would offer His beloved Son an alternate route. However, the vileness of sin requires only one option…the death of the sinless Son of God.
Because God the Father was Jesus’ Abba Father, God has become out Abba Father as well. We too can cry our Daddy to God. Jesus drank the cup for us. Jesus died for us. He hung on the cross for us and now because of the complete obedience of the Son of God we too can rightly call God Abba Father…
Romans 8:15–17 (ESV)
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Those in Judaism never addressed God like this. They never addressed Him as Father and could not ever imagine Abba Father. Yet here we are those who have trusted Christ have this intimate relationship with God…He is our Abba Father because of the cross.
So, Jesus’ will is completely in line with the Father’s will. Jesus will die according to the divine decree of God. He will fully surrender His will to the Father’s will.
Remove this cup from me.
This is the prayer for God not to strike the shepherd. Is it possible for Jesus to fulfill God’s will in every way except this one? The answer from the Father is no.
Our Lord has refused to veer off the road of following God completely. He will not fail His Father or fail us. That’s why Jesus’ Remove this cup from Me is very quickly followed by Yet not what I will, but what you will
What we must understand is that Jesus’ desire to obey the Father is greater than His desire to seek His own will.
This is God’s will for Jesus and Jesus volunteered for the mission. However, there is one who does not want Jesus to go to the cross…Satan has always been there seeking to divert Jesus away from the cross.
We can think back to the first temptation when Jesus battled Satan. What did the Prince of Evil do? He kept offering Jesus material things if He would fall down and worship the devil. His tactic was to give Jesus the kingdoms of the world now and our Lord would not need to go to the cross to suffer torment and death. Satan offered Jesus the way of ease and wealth to divert Him from going to the cross.
So many in our world have been taken in by this very tactic of Satan. Ease and wealth will not bring happiness and eternal joy.
For Jesus, He was not tempted with the kingdoms of the world because His will was to be obedient to the Father not to accumulate nations.
Now, Satan is again tempting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And here, in the garden, Satan shows up again. How do we know that? Because in Luke 22:53, Luke’s parallel account, is says, “This is the hour of the power of the darkness” – three definite articles. This is “the” hour of “the” power of “the darkness. This is the specific time for Satan to act. This is the very culminating effort of Satan to keep Jesus from the cross. The experience in the garden, Satan’s hope is, will drive Jesus to say to the Father, “No, I can’t do it.” And if Satan succeeds in that, then hell is the only place people will ever live forever. Heaven will be empty; God’s Word will be untrue, the promise of salvation a lie, and Satan is really the sovereign. This is the great, great battle. This is the great battle. And no wonder the struggle was so severe that Jesus said, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.” That’s the overview of what’s going on here. —John Macarthur
3. Jesus Found Them Sleeping (14:37-42)
37 And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. 41 And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Our Lord brought the three disciples with Him for the purpose of prayer. What were they to pray for? Jesus tells them…
38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
They were brought along to pray for themselves, that they would not fall into temptation to flee and to deny Jesus and yet they didn’t pray but slept.
Three times Jesus would return to them and three times He found them sleeping. Three times Peter would deny Jesus.
Jesus came praying that He would not fail or fall into temptation and He obeyed God completely. They did not pray and they fell into sin. They would learn that day by failure to pray and the impending failure of the lack of prayer. Beloved, it’s so important to pray.
Now after three times returning to them and finding them asleep, He exclaims, Enough!!
Jesus will meet His destiny. The other Gospel writers show that Jesus was now so in tune with the Father’s will that He would march toward those who came to arrest Him.
One writer tells us,
What profound irony Gethsemane conceals, for when Jesus feels most excluded from God’s presence, he is in fact closest to God’s will! Gethsemane is the prelude to Calvary, for in the valley beneath the city Jesus allows his soul to be crucified; on the hill above the city he relinquishes his body.
Conclusion
There are many things we can take home from this amazing passage…
Stand in awe of what Jesus has accomplished for all who believe. He will suffer God’s wrath against our sin for us. He is our Substitute. He takes our punishment and gives us His righteousness and now God is benevolent toward all who believe.
Discover the importance of prayer. After Jesus prayed, He was on a mission and ran toward His calling.
Because God is Jesus’ Abba Father, He is also our Abba Father. God the Father is the perfect loving Father for all who are His.
Resources Used:
Mark by William Lane
Mark by James Edwards
Words of grace
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