Offerings of Righteousness

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.”

[Prepositional Statement] Christ knows the limitations and sin of His disciples. This evening we will see three things in this chapter:

Righteousness is defined in sacrifice [Mark 14:1-11]

Christ desires for us to submit to the Father’s will. [Mark 14:12-31]

Christ desires His disciples to remain in prayer. [Mark 14:32-52]

Prayer

Pray that we would trust God and His purposes even when they go against our own desires or ideas.

Pray for our hearts to submit to Christ. That we would believe and trust all that He Commands.

Pray that God would find us faithful and alert to His commands.

Righteousness as Sacrifice Next

Righteousness is defined in sacrifice. [v. 1-11]

Our righteousness is found in what is broken or sacrificed. Relationships are defined this way.

A stealth plot [v. 1-2]

The situation is tense now. The religious leaders are losing power and influence because of Jesus.

The feast will likely double the population of Jerusalem. People pour in to celebrate this meal together. The leaders don’t want a bigger riot because of this and want to deal with Jesus quietly.

Righteousness defined: Righteousness is the means we take to get to the ends we want. They believe they are acting righteously. They find their righteousness in their appearance of others, and act in a way to bolster their image.

Broken Flask [v.3-9]

From [Matthew 26], we know this woman to be Mary. She is Martha and Lazarus’s sister. She believes that she is doing something righteous.

Righteousness defined: Righteousness is the means we take to get to the ends we want. She wants to glorify Christ and honors Him by her act of sacrificing her expensive perfume.

Money is what the disciples are fixated on. They are told that they will always have the poor, and still don’t understand their current situation. Jesus is going to be killed and soon.

This is not a “fixable” situation either. The disciples are angry because something truly is wasted. This flask is broken. Nothing can go back in it. There is no going back in her sacrifice.

Jesus affirms the woman and decries the disciples. She has done something beautiful in anointing His body for burial.

The disciples still disbelieve that He will die.

Broken Trust [v.10-11]

Judas, likely enraged as the treasurer among the disciples [John 12:6] has had enough. He had been pilfering the money and saw a lost opportunity.

Aware that there is a plot to kill Jesus (why wouldn’t there be? The Religious leaders have always been after Him), he decides to break something too: trust and his relationship with Jesus.

Judas believes he is acting righteously too.

Righteousness defined: Righteousness is the means we take to get to the ends we want. Judas wants to please himself. He believes that Jesus is wrong and that he is right. His act of sacrificing Jesus will honor himself among the religious leaders. Sacrificing Jesus means more coins in his pockets.

Video Games Illustration Next

[Illustration] We all do this! Whenever we want something, it’s a heart issue. To want something is to put a value on it that says something about how we view our righteousness (Repeat this). I grew up playing a crazy number of videogames. We had 4 Xboxes, 2 PlayStation 2s, 3 Nintendo consoles (N64, Wii, GameCube) and an unhealthy amount of PC games (not that the consoles were healthy). Most of that stuff lived in my room so I was up all night playing. My dad oversaw some of the development of the Xbox and I had very little guidance over me as a kid. I was pretty good at playing games. I felt good. I would daresay that I found my righteousness, my purpose and fulfillment in them.

When I turned 20 though, things changed. I met my wife when I was 19 and we were married the following year. The things that I had found my righteousness in were taking over this new marriage. I had to pick one. One day, without Catie pushing me to, I took all my games and consoles and whatever and threw it in the dumpster. I didn’t even sell it. I knew it had to mean something for me to just get rid of it all. It defined my relationship with Catie. It said, “I value you more than this.” That helped set a tone for the almost 15 years that we have been married. My games may be broken in a landfill, but my relationship with my wife is strong.

[Application] Something broken will always define a relationship. Whether it is broken out of sacrifice for someone or broken trust between friends, the relationship will change. Mark sandwiches these stories together to show how disciples of Jesus are to sacrifice to strengthen their relationship with Christ and one another. To seek our own way to gain influence, power, or the stuff of this world is to break our relationship with Christ to find our righteousness elsewhere.

Seek to be like Mary. Break your flask of whatever you believe to be most important at the feet of Jesus and give Him the honor of your worship.

[Transition] This is no easy thing to do. To change what we value means we must submit to a new master. Instead of serving our own endeavors, Christ wants us to serve the Father.

Christ Desires His disciples to submit to the Father’s will. [v. 12-31]

The disciples are called to find their righteousness in Christ since they will not always have Him [v.7].

Jesus knows what is going to happen. [v. 12-16]

Just as with His triumphal entry to the temple in [Mark 11], he tells the disciples what to do to prepare for the Passover in Jerusalem

They obediently submit.

Everything that Jesus says will happen does.

Everything comes to the light. [v. 17-21]

Jesus knows He will be betrayed and who will betray him.

Mark doesn’t describe Jesus telling all who the betrayer is. Each disciple asks, “is it I?” Each disciple is faced to confront the fact that they could be the betrayer and they give a pat answer, “surely not me Lord!”

The Lord’s Supper [v. 22-25]

This is the context of the relationship of Jesus and His disciples.

Even where the disciples fail, betray, and are blind to their sin against the Lord he institutes a divine covenant meal with them and with all believers.

Test of Faith Next

A Test of Faith [v. 26-31]

Jesus, knowing what will happen tells the disciples that they will fall away. He shows the fulfillment of [Zechariah 13:7] in this.

Peter doesn’t believe. He still trusts in his ability to stay faithful.

[Illustration] Everything here is scripted. Everything from the arrival into Jerusalem, to the announcement of betrayal, to the institution of the meal, to the denial of betrayal from Peter.

When I was in play productions, we were encouraged to treat each rehearsal as if we were doing it for the first time. For each action we took we were told to do it a different way. So, if we drank from a glass in a scene, we were to drink from it using a different hand for the next rehearsal, or to make a different noise while drinking, or whatever. This made us more comfortable with the character and the script.

However, we were told to do these things with one glaring condition: NEVER GO OFF SCRIPT. If the script dictates it, we must do it. This is mostly due to copyright issues which can result in lawsuits. If the content of a play is too far altered, it becomes a defamation of an original work. To stray from the script is to defame the playwright and can bring consequences.

Christ can do what we simply cannot. He knows the script inside and outside. He knows even the right way to hold a glass, so to speak. Where He is fully obedient to God in all things and in perfect righteousness, as broken sinful people, we still rely on our own ability or capacity to our idea of what God wants from us. We can manipulate the script for our own means and righteousness.

[Application] This is why Christ is so good. He knows the script. He wrote the script! And he wants us to play our part by depending on Him, even when it reveals our sin and our lack of belief. We can trust that His plans are good because He has written them from eternity past for our benefit.

[Transition] But it’s not us and the Lord as separate people. Jesus is wanting to be with His disciples, even in His trials.

Convictional Response – Christ desires His disciples to remain alert in prayer. [v. 32-52]

Prayer is not sleep. [v. 32-42]

Jesus is distressed and troubled. What He is called to do is difficult and He is waiting for the betrayal. He wants to spend his last minutes with His disciples in a place He has gone to before. A place to pray and spend time with His Father.

Three times in this passage Jesus needs to wake His disciples up. While previously the disciples were commanded to stay awake [Mark 13:35-37] the disciples prove that they cannot obey His commands.

[v.38] “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Betrayal and Broken promises [v. 43-50]

Judas has betrayed his master. Yet, he has submitted to another in the process. That is what betrayal is.

The disciples have betrayed their master too. They have all left and fled.

“Leave everything to follow me.” [v. 51-52]

This young man was likely a young Mark, but the text doesn’t say. Why is this weird set of verses included?

It’s to indicate that the disciples, who initially left everything to follow Jesus have now left everything to flee from Jesus!

The nakedness of this man is the lengths these disciples took to flee from Jesus’ persecution.

[Illustration] Three names come to mind as I was reflecting on this earlier: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These names are usually included in the phrase, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” [Exodus 3:6]. These were not great righteous men. They were liars (Abraham and Sarah or Isaac and Rebekah), and thieves (think of Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright). Their works betrayed them. Yet, God is still their God. It’s as if in the passages where this is throughout all of scripture, God is trying to say that He is God of the faithless, and the sinners. He is faithful to His people even when they are not.

Yet, we are still called, just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to repent and to trust in Him for salvation.

[Application] Let us repent from our unbelief. Let us admit that our flesh fails us as believers and to trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

[Transition] How can one do this?

Conclusion

Righteousness is the means we take to get to the ends we want. When we seek to break something in our lives for the righteousness of Christ, we do a good work. We are unable to escape our flesh. Christ knows this and dies so that we can be free from the sin of our flesh. When we fall short, when we sin, when we turn and flee from the Lord because of persecution we were warned about beforehand [Mark 13:10-13] we should seek where our hearts led us astray and turn back to God for our righteousness.

Prayer

Find our righteousness in Christ.

We would stay alert in the quietness.

That we would recognize that we cannot follow Christ on our own. Our Spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak. That the Holy Spirit would empower us despite our flesh.

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