The Savior's Anguish

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Mark 14. If you don’t have a Bible feel free to use one of the Bibles in the back of the pew in front of you and turn to Mark 14:32 (I need the page number for this). This evening, I want us to look in Mark at a situation with Jesus where he undergoes intense anxiety and gives an interesting prayer to the Father that I think can help us when we are anxious or distressed. My goal tonight is to see from Mark that Jesus helps us in our anguish and anxieties and he does it in two ways: by sympathizing with us and taking our punishment.

Mark 14:32–36 NKJV

Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.” He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

Let’s pray.

Context

I want to lay out the context since we are jumping so far into the book of Mark. Jesus had just finished instituting the Lord’s Supper where he predicted the betrayal that he would experience from Judas Iscariot. He and his disciples left the room that they were in and began walking to Gethsemane and while they were walking Jesus also foretold that he would be struck and his disciples would flee. Wrongly understanding what Jesus meant, the disciples, and especially Peter, maintained that they would not leave him, but in fact would die for him. After Jesus tells Peter that he [Peter] would deny Jesus three times after which the rooster would crow. Mark then brings us to this scene in Gethsemane where we see our Savior in anguish. Anguish and Distress sets the tone and mood for our passage this evening. Jesus predicts and anticipates the betrayal and the cross that awaits him.

Gethsemane

We come to the scene in Gethsemane in what seems like a pause before Jesus goes to trial. We see Jesus here in great anguish. Mark gives us repetition in the succession of events to bring out this anguish. First, he notes that Jesus is “troubled” and “greatly distressed”. Then, Jesus himself speaks and says that his soul is “exceedingly sorrowful,” and he adds “even to death.” Third, Mark records Jesus falling on the ground. This seems to be in both anguish and reverence for the Lord. Fourth and finally, Jesus prays that a this cup would pass from him. These items put together really expresses this anguish and anxiety of Jesus. The words “troubled” and “deeply distressed” express an intense anxiety. Mark is the only writer who uses these words together. It’s compounded with Jesus’s words that his soul was exceedingly sorrowful. Commentators say that it isn’t that he was dying, but that he was so anxious that it felt as he was dying.

Application

Perhaps you have felt deeply distressed, or exceedingly sorrowful in your soul. Perhaps your anxieties have led you to collapse on yourself like a dying star. Perhaps you’re anxious of death in your own life. Maybe you’re up there in age and the reality of death is nearer to you now than it was in your 20s. Or maybe you’re a parent and you live in anxiety for the lives of your children and you’re anxious of what might happen to them. Maybe you don’t have children or a spouse and you’re anxious of dying alone. You long for companionship and marriage and there is anxiety and anguish in your heart of dying alone and being forgotten. What about those who have anguish over their finances, or anguish over world catastrophe, anxiety over their health. If you live with constant anguish in your heart or if you have moments of intense anxiety in your life, your company is Jesus who, as we are seeing here, has experienced intense distress and anxiety.

Passages that you can go to as you pray in your anxieties are passages like

Psalm 42:5 NKJV

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

Psalm 42:11 NKJV

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Or Psalm 43:5

Psalm 43:5 NKJV

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

These can be great passages for you to cry out with to God in your anxieties.

Jesus’s Anguish

But what made Jesus anxious? Mark shows us in the prayer of Jesus that there is a cup that Jesus would have to drink. What are the contents of this drink? Is it the cross? Is it just the impending doom of physical death? So many of his followers went to their deaths for the cross with confidence and calmness. Why is Jesus full of anxiety here? Is our savior weak and frail and his followers strong and confident? Is it merely the cross that gave him this distress? One pastor sets it up this way:

“In the first centuries of the primitive church, thousands of Christians died on crosses. It is said that Nero crucified them upside down, covered them with tar, and set them aflame to provide streetlights for the city of Rome. Throughout the ages since then, a countless stream of Christians have experienced the most unspeakable tortures, and yet it is the testimony of friend and foe alike that many of them went to their deaths with great boldness. Are we to believe that the followers of the Messiah met such cruel physical death with joy unspeakable while the captain of their salvation cowered in a garden, fearing the same torture? Did the Christ of God dread whips and thorns, crosses and spears . . .?” [1]

[1] (Paul Washer, The Cross of Jesus Christ, 189).

Is this what our Savior feared? It would be easy for many of us in here to fear those things. But was Jesus fearing? What was so dreadful in the cup that the Son requests of the Father for the cup to pass from him without him drinking it? It’s the same substance that is in Psalm 11:6 “Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind Shall be the portion of their cup.” or Psalm 75:8 “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, And the wine is red; It is fully mixed, and He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth Drain and drink down.” or Isaiah 51:17 “Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, You who have drunk at the hand of the Lord The cup of His fury; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, And drained it out.” or Revelation 14:9–10 “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” Revelation 16:19 “Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.”

Simply put, the cup is God’s wrath. Fury of God’s wrath over sin was what was contained in the cup that Jesus asked would pass from him. In this request, do you see the disposition of the Son before the Father? Even in his anxiety, he was submitted to the Father’s will. Father, if there is any other way, let it pass. What was the Father’s answer? There is no other way. The cross, or specifically, Jesus going to the cross, was the only way. If we were to be saved, Jesus needed to drink the cup and here is where we rejoice: He drank the entire cup. He drank it all. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We may experience hunger, thirst, loneliness, health failure, financial collapse, but we will never experience the wrath of God if we are in Christ Jesus.

Significance

Why is this significant for us today? How does not experiencing the wrath of God help us today? Much of it is because to alternative would be devastating. If the wrath of God awaited us, then nothing would matter. For those who don’t know Christ and are striving for glory and health and prosperity in this world, it is all in vain because it will burn up and they will drink the cup of God’s wrath. They may overcome cancer, or get out of a financial hole, but it won’t matter because they will one day experience God’s wrath. Not so for us, church. If you know Christ as your Lord and Savior tonight, your sufferings and anxieties do matter. There is purpose in them. You don’t have the wrath of God awaiting you, but instead you have his favor, you have his glory, you have his face awaiting you. The value of this is what the psalmist says in Psalm 16:11 “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

God cares about your everyday lives. He cares for the little things. He tells us to be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and petition in Phil 4:6-7. He tells us to humble ourselves by casting our cares on him in 1 Pet 5:6-7. He tells us that all things work for our good in Rom 8:28. He cares about our anxieties and worries. But our ultimate hope and longing should be the presence of our God, being with Jesus. This should be the main comforting blanket that we wrap around our hearts. And this was made possible because the cup of God’s wrath no longer awaits us because Jesus drank it all in our place.

Application

What is our response here, then? The temptation for us in our anguish is to sin. We are tempted to panic and make rash decisions. We are tempted to turn from God and seek earthly securities and comforts to help us feel better. Our response should be to understand and rejoice. We need to understand that Jesus can sympathize with us. He understands your anxieties and distress. He knows what that weight feels like. The pastors may not understand the weight of what you’re feeling, but Jesus does. So we need to understand that Jesus can sympathize with you. And we need to rejoice because what awaits us if we are in Christ is joy and pleasure in the presence of God. We don’t have to hurry and scramble to make heaven here on Earth. Eternal pleasures is what awaits us because Jesus took all of God’s wrath for us.