Mark 14:26-42

George Muller was a missionary well-known for his commitment to prayer. Over the course of his ministry, he opened various orphanages, and I wanted to read a short story about his faith through prayer: 

“The children are dressed and ready for school. But there is no food for them to eat,” the housemother of the orphanage informed George Mueller. George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. “Mr. Mueller,” he said, “last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in.”  Soon, there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children."

This morning in our passage, we see an intense session of prayer between Jesus and the Father. It’s pretty heavy, but also we have some pretty clear steps forward as we consider our own personal prayer lives. 

Big Idea: Jesus shows His commitment to prayer, even in His darkest hour. 

Read Mark 14:26-31

The Passover meal has concluded, and they end by singing a hymn together. Because Jesus had led them through the traditional Seder, we can assume that the hymn they sang was one of the Psalms between 114-118. Because it was the end of the meal, most likely it would have been Psalm 118, which would have been incredibly profound for the disciples, because that Psalm speaks of the salvation of the Lord. They were singing with the One who that Psalm was about!

They head out together to the Mount of Olives, and a really heart-breaking exchange happens between Jesus and the 11. He quotes the prophet Zecheriah who said, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate,” Declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.” 500 years prior to this moment, it was prophesied that the Good Shepherd would die and that His sheep would scatter. 

Right after this, Jesus gives His own prophecy of hope. “Don’t lose heart! I will be raised up and will meet you in Galilee where we first met.” This small statement should have provided enough hope for them to hold on! If they were going to meet Jesus in Galilee, that would mean that they would all survive whatever was about to happen! We see fulfillment of this promise at the empty tomb, when the angel tells the women that Jesus had “gone ahead of them into Galilee.” Matthew 28 also tells us that the 11 went to meet Jesus on the mountain in Galilee. 

Back to Mark. So Jesus tells the disciples that they will all be scattered, like sheep without a shepherd they will run. They will run out of fear, out of uncertainty, out of confusion. But Peter, bold, overconfident Peter, he’s like, “listen, Jesus, they may all run away, but not me, I’m with you to the end.” Jesus reassures Peter that yes, even he, before the break of dawn when the rooster has crowed 3 times, will deny Him. “NO!,” Peter says emphatically, “you are wrong! Even if it means I will die with you, I will be with you to the end!” The audacity of Peter to so vehemently disagree with Jesus. And all the other disciples start chiming in with the same exclamation. I want you to remember Peter’s boldness as we continue through the passage.

Read Mark 14:32-42

Jesus takes His disciples to a private garden so that He could pray. He leaves 8 disciples at the front entrance, and takes Peter, James and John with Him into the garden. As they get a little ways in, the inner most depths of Jesus’ being becomes distressed, troubled and sorrowful. He tells the 3 to stay and keep watch, and He continues a little further until the weight is just too much, and He falls to His knees, eventually on His face, before His father. This is where we see our first point this morning. 

1.. Jesus prayed in the most difficult moments of his life (33-36a)

The words on these pages can never express the depth of emotional and mental pain that Jesus was feeling. The Greek word behind “distressed” means to be “greatly amazed, moved to a relatively intense emotional state because of something causing great surprise or perplexity.” The Greek word behind “troubled” describes the “heavy state of restlessness that results from a time of turmoil or great trauma.” We see that this caused the soul, the very core of Jesus, to be sorrowful “even to death.” As one commentator puts it, the “depth of grief was so profound that “it threatened to crush out His life.” Even in Hebrews 5:7 we learn that “Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death.” WHY?! Why was our Savior struggling at this depth. Because He knew what was coming. But this depth of soul level distress could not have been caused by a knowledge of what was going to happen to Him physically. No! It had to go beyond this. 

This is why He cried out to His Father, “Abba! Father! You are capable of anything. Remove this cup from me!” (Abba) What cup? All throughout the Old Testament, the cup is a metaphor for the wrath of God. Because of our sin, we deserve to face the wrath of God in final judgment, but 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that Jesus BECAME sin. Think about this. He didn’t just take my sin with Him to the cross and nail it there. He BECAME sin. It’s so difficult for us to understand, because it’s a spiritual depth that is incomprehensible, but Jesus for a moment BECAME sin. So when the Father looked at the cross He saw the body of sin being put to death (Romans 6:6). And in that moment, Jesus asks the God, “why have you foresaken me?” The Greek word behind forsake means to abandon, to desert, to renounce, or to turn away from entirely. “Why have you abandoned me on this cross? Why have you turned away from me, Father?” Jesus knew that even worse than being beaten, tortured and crucified, He would become sin, not the individual sins that we commit, but the full body of sin from Genesis 3 to the final judgment, and His own Father in that moment seemingly turned His back on Him. It’s horrific, and we cannot fully grasp the pain and agony in Jesus’ soul but what we can be confident in is that Jesus WILLINGLY did this so that we would not have to face the wrath of God in final judgment and be forever separated from Him.

2.. Jesus focused His prayers on the Father’s will (36b)

We cannot look at Jesus’ request as a sign of weakness. When we begin to scratch the surface of the pain that Jesus is experiencing, it’s no wonder that, in His humanity, He would ask His Father for another way. When He felt the reality of becoming the sins of humanity and absorbing the punishment and death that it deserved, it was too much to bear! In fact, in our passage, 3 times over Jesus pleads with God in this way. But, even in this struggle, Jesus’ number 1 priority is the will of the Father. Even when Jesus wants nothing more than a way out, He submits to the will of the Father. Even though His soul is crushed by the thought of what’s about to happen, the will of the Father is too important! 

And this desire to execute the Father’s will is a common pursuit of Jesus. 

John 4:34 - “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

John 5:30 -   “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Jesus’ number 1 priority is to fulfill the mission to which He had been sent. The redemption of humanity to the Father. And even though the thought of what was coming was too much to bear, He was willing to do whatever was necessary to complete the work. That was the will of the Father, and that was supreme above all else. 

And what a lesson for us this morning. When life feels crushing, when we are crying out to the Lord for rescue, for any other way than what’s right in front of us, we must trust that perhaps we are exactly where the Lord wants us to be. When we are in our Gethsemane, face down before the Lord, yes, sometimes God will deliver us out of it, but more often He will lead us right THROUGH it. 

After Jesus prays, He goes back to the 3 disciples to find them sleeping. Remember, Peter had been defiant when Jesus told him he would betray Him. That boldness, when channeled in the right way, was a good thing. Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter, which means rock. Peter would prove to be foundational to the early church’s development and growth. But, notice what Jesus calls him when He finds him sleeping. “Simon! Are you sleeping? You couldn’t even last one hour for me?!” Jesus calls him by his pre-conversion name. In that moment, he wasn’t acting like the rock that Jesus knew him to be. Peter, who claims he will follow Jesus to death, can’t even stay awake and pray for Jesus for an hour. “Wake up Simon! You need to pray so that you don’t enter into temptation.” And this is where we find our 3rd point of prayer this morning.

3.. Prayer is our strongest defense against temptation (38)

Stay alert! Keep watch! Pray that you would stay strong. Pray before temptation comes. What a powerful statement for us this morning. I mean how often do we drop to our knees when temptation is heavily upon us. “Deliver me from this temptation Lord!” We tend to wait until sin is knocking on the door before we come before the Lord for deliverance. Jesus gives us a different way to think about this. Be alert, spend time in prayer, and this will prevent temptation from even happening. Don’t wait until it’s too late! Pray now, avoid temptation later! 

Jesus goes deeper by expressing His understanding of their inner conflict. He just prayed it! Our humanity is weak, but our spirit is strong. Our conscience tells us to stay the course, but our human nature tells us it’s too hard. Jesus knew deep down what He needed to do, but His humanity was struggling with that reality. He’s telling these disciples to pray! The end is here! Don’t sleep! You can hear me crying out to the Father! You can hear my struggle. Pray, don’t sleep, pray for me! Pray for yourself! The struggle is real and the way through it is to keep watch and pray. 

Jesus leaves again to pray, and He prays the same thing as the first time. He comes back again to the disciples to find them sleeping, and this time Scripture tells us that they didn’t know how to answer Jesus. Even after this, Jesus goes back to pray a 3rd time, again praying the same thing. “Father, if possible take this cup from me. But not my will, but yours be done.” He came back to them a 3rd time and found them sleeping again! These guys must have been exhausted! I mean Jade will tell you that I am a pro at falling asleep on the couch during movies. Ya’ll know what I’m talking about. Eyes are getting heavy, and eventually you just submit. But man, if Jesus were asking me to stay awake, I feel like that would be different than some English period drama. 

At this point, though, Jesus is done praying, and the betrayal is upon Him. He gets the 3 disciples, takes them back to the other 8, the time has come.

Application

1.. When life gets really hard, prayer must be our priority.

2.. When we pray, we must focus on God’s will, even if it doesn’t align with our own.

3.. We must commit ourselves to prayer daily.