Mark 14:32-42
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In a movie when the hero dies there is always this epic moment or final words
They are either awe inspiring stoic or awe inspiring to the next to take up the cause
If you have seen Braveheart it has it all
THe Jews had a history of Braveheart hero’s
when Jews wrote accounts of the deaths of major figures and heroes they did not make them cool and removed they are shown as hot-blooded and fearless, and they praise God as they are being sliced to pieces by their persecutors
The next genertion of heroes who would kick rome out and make israel great again would rise up and be martyrs on roman crosses
The Real Jesus we see in Mark didn’t have a Braveheart moment
He wasn’t the rebel Maccabean Hero the jews wanted
he wasn’t the king they wanted so they rejected him
We do the same
When the real Jesus isn’t the immediate hero we think he should be we reject him just like Israel
What is amazing is that he knew all of this and could have left us at any moment to never have saving
He knew what we would expect him to be and how we will fail
But he knew more what we really needed
We don’t need an exodus from immediate circumstances we need a miraculous exodus from a world of sin and cancer and funerals
He is the hero we need even when he isn’t what we want him to be
He tells us the way to life even when we think we know better or he is just outdated and the fun police
To be the savior King we need we get to see 2 things today
The Cost of Redemption & The Hero Our Weakness Needs
The Cost Of Redemption 14:32-36
The Cost Of Redemption 14:32-36
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he told his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.” He went a little farther, fell to 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.”
Verse 33 is the central tuning point of the Passion week of Jesus
All of Mark has built to what launches here
The final war is here - Verse 33-34 and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
It is all he will know the rest of his human life
The language of deeply distressed is means horrific astonishment or the shock that sends you realing and troubled means overcome with horror
He is praying like the Psalmist in Psalm 6:3
my whole being is shaken with terror.
And you, Lord—how long?
He has no control over the cost of our redemption
The price is set and its too much for him to bear
He has been teaching that he would have to die
That was knowledge but what he knew is becoming real
Bill Lane says: “ the dreadful sorrow and horror then out of which the prayer for the passing of the cup springs is not an expression of fear before a dark destiny or a shrinking back from physical pain and death. It is rather the horror of the one who lives fully for the father at the prospect of alienation from the father and came to him this night but found hell rather then heaven before him”
What has changed?
Think about every single time Jesus has prayed?
Heaven opens up
The curtain is pulled back heaven meets earth
He prays and miracles happen
Now for the first time he prays but is met with hell not heaven
He went a little farther, fell to 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.”
He is in the face of hell and is begging his best friends to help him please pray for me you don’t know what is in front of me
Christ no longer knew…he finally tasted the cup of the cost of our redemption and it horrified him
The price of our redemption is set
He is begging the cost can not be this
Verse 36: Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will
What is the cost of our redemption _ it is the cost necesary to satisfy and absorb the wrath of God
That is what the cup is in verse 36
it is the cup of God’s wrath upon man’s sin.
The cup is used as a symbol of God’s wrath n the Old Testament
You will be filled with drunkenness and grief,
with a cup of devastation and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink from it.
Isaiah, Lamentations, Habakkuk all say the same
We hate the idea of the wrath of god
We love the god of love and tolerance and reject this part of who God is …
he has a right anger and thank god he does
The fact this happens in a garden of all places tells us why we need the wrath of God
It tells us why we needed someone to pay the cost of our redemption
It was in a garden in Genesis where sin shattered the perfect
Sin shattered how things were supposed to be
All that was good was stolen
Cancer, and lonliness, broken relationships and addiction pride and anxiety entered the world that day
Sin was a thief that day of how things were supposed to be
And here in a garden the second Adam has the same choice to make
Reject obedience to the father and have it his way
Or say I trust you even if it means being torn to pieces
IN a garden the cosmos shattered
In a garden the war was fought to buy back what sin has stolen
If you love you have anger
I love Morgan, and I have an anger toward what hurts her
I love my sons and have an anger that would walk in front of a chain saw to protect them
You do not have love without anger toward what can destroy what you love
Look at what he does for his people because he loves them in Isaiah 51:22-23
This is what your Lord says—
the Lord, even your God,
who defends his people—
“Look, I have removed from your hand
the cup that causes staggering;
that goblet, the cup of my fury.
You will never drink it again.
I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
who said to you,
‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’
You made your back like the ground,
and like a street for those who walk on it.
He loves you and has an anger toward what torments you
He loves you and has a right and good anger toward what makes us cry and afraid
That is the language of Isaiah
I thank God he hates what sin has done
I thank God he has done something about what feels like it just tramples me every time
He loves you that much and that way
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
the wrath of God should make you in awe of HIs love for you
He has a right anger toward what sin has stolen…
arent we glad he hates what cancer does what lonliness does what broken relationships do what addiction and sin creates
Aren’t you glad the real Jesus isnt Mr. Rodgers of tolerance toward what sin and death steals
But that wrath has to be paid for
That cup is what he saw that day for the first time
horrific astonishment or the shock that sends you realing and troubled means overcome with horror
That is the cost to save us
And what did he say - not my will Father but yours be done
Keller says: It would still be possible, at this eleventh hour, for Jesus to abort his mission and leave us to perish. But he doesn’t consider that as an option. He’s begging the Father to carry out the mission some other way, but he doesn’t ask him to abandon it altogether. Why? Because as horrible as the cup is, he knows that his immediate desire (to be spared) must bow before his ultimate one (to spare us).
If this is the price tag to save Jason i will be torn to pieces to save Him from His sin
How does that hit you?
How does the horror of the cup he would drink for you hit you ?
We can’t save ourselves there is a price we could never pay
And he tasted it and said if this is what it costs to save you I will drink it until there is nothing left
He is the hero our weakness needs
The Hero Our Weakness Needs 14:37-42
The Hero Our Weakness Needs 14:37-42
Then he came and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake one hour? Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Once again he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. And again he came and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him. Then he came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come. See, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”
Do you realize how much he loves messes like you and me ?
It is why songs like How Deep the Fathers Love For Us were written
Because we have cared about ourselves over the care of God for us
Even in our faith in the real Jesus we say I will never do that again and we do
Even in our real love for the real christ we believe a lie and act on it
Nothing confronts me with my own sin then parenting
Boone did something and as I was talking to him about it i was crushed as the reality that this is still me hit home
He believed the lie that if he told mom and dad he would get in trouble so he acted on a lie
That is me
That is all of us
We believe the same lie adam and eve did to one extent or another and make behavior choices based on that lie that just breaks us more
That is the disciples
People in the end just like us who believe in self preservation and self protection and acting ignorant of what is true and real in front of them
We are messes who need a hero just like them that night
We are unaware of the war for truth and a lie in front of us and all we will choose to do will either be based on truth or we will sin when we act on the lie
Tim Gombis says: The “flesh,” however, is weak. That is, humanity is prone to wither, wilt, and shrink back, driven by self-preservation and motivated by self-protection. Self protection inevitably overwhelms us and will soon drive the disciples to abandon Jesus. Jesus in effect says, “You may have great resolve, Peter, but if you are not being watchful and looking to God in prayer, you will fall easily in the crucial moment
We don’t drift into obedience
There is a war for the awe of your heart every moment of everyday
You will never drift into life creating choices
We are weak and believe the lie too easily
We needed a hero who would be faithful where we believe the lie so we could be covered by what he has done and save us
One of the greatest weapons the enemy has is creating an indifference in your life to the war for your heart
He will let you get so comfortable that you never have a need to plead with God with all you have for a hero to win what you fight
But when we see what he had to fight the war against we are shocked to realize that is the war we are in
This was what he is saying to Peter
Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
What does temptation have to do with this moment ?
It is the temptation to rely on yourself and not cling to christ because you are weak
It is the temptation to say I don’t need this real Jesus I am fine on my own
It is the temptation we all face everyday
It is the temptation to enjoy the benefits of a get out of hell card useful Jesus and never live a life of surrender to the real King in every area of your life
It is the temptation to abandon Jesus when his call on your life is too hard or in america when we decide his words are just outdated and not practical
For these three men it means a war is coming when Christ is killed to believe or run
What blows me away here is that in the face of unreal agony christ isn’t coming to ask for some buddies to support him
He is still thinking about them to pray for what they are going to go through
Bill Lane again points out: Jesus didn’t ask the three to watch and pray for him but for themselves. The remarkable element of the scene is that in the midst of unparalleled agony Jesus twice more came back to look after his three vulnerable disciples and warn them of the dangers of failure in the struggle which was about to overwhelm them”
What is your view of Jesus
If it is just a docile nice hair Mr Rodgers you have a weak savior
This man is an absolute warrior and king and should make us a little afraid like if you got in the ring with a UFC fighter
Took the agony of hell alone and still got up said I will do it and still cared about the people he loved
He is a beast not a coward
And he has taken all of that power to kill what breaks us
That should leave us in awe and make us ask if we beleive it for ourselves
I asked last week to think about the person who comes to mind when you think of the word sinner
And we saw last week that the first name that should come to mind is our own
Now ask yourself who comes to mind when you think of someone who really needs a savior
That should be us too
This is what battles for our awe
When we didn’t deserve it he took that cup for you
Like the words of Reckless Love say: I couldn’t earn it and I don’t deserve it but you give yourself away. Oh the overwhelming never ending reckless love of God”
we contribute nothing to our salvation but the problem
But God ….
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
Look at Jesus in this moment
Tasting the horror of the wrath of God to the point he wants to die on the spot
Needing friends and left all alone as they sleep while he is being told the only way to save these men is to go to hell for them
And what he do for us
He picks up the tab
Then he came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come. See, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”
The language of this is amazing
The otherworldly grace of this is unreal
In the face of us doing everthing we could to not deserve it
He takes up the cost anyway
Verse 41 Enough- I have picked up the bill and not rejected it…its done
One author says:
The Message of Mark 4. Gethsemane (14:32–42)
the word ‘enough’ can have the meaning ‘the bill is paid’, as though there in the garden of Gethsemane everything was finally established
Enough
I am going to do this for you because I love you that much and I love the father that much
But the language tells us something else
The cup is coming
He is about to be handed over to what will lead to hell
The moment is imminent when the power of sin and death will overwhelm Jesus and destroy him.
Lane says: This is Satans hour because the sinners are his agents
Jesus has been handed over to the power of satan and from here on out the father has walked away
If you think he is weak picture this language and don’t miss it
Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”
he doesn't lay there waiting
He says lets go to it
With all we have seen is coming he says lets go to it
He has taken the war to hell
All for you
I cried when i wrote this
I saw what my sin cost and what he did for me
I taste the freedom his hell bought for me
And i know that joy will be all i know one day soon
Because he looked at the cost and paid it all
Has he paid it for you?
As we saw last week you have to receive it
You have to take what he has done
You can have the most perfect meal ever prepared piled high right in front of you and starve to death if you don’t take it
You can take Christ today
Lets Pray