Pray Not to Enter Temptation

Anyone who has made a consistent attempt to live in a godly manner has had to deal with how to resist temptation. You know what you ought to do, and when the temptation is not around, you feel like you want to do what is right, but the moment the trigger comes, you fail again. Jesus has endured temptation and won. He knows how strong temptation is; in fact, he knows it better than you do. He faced the strongest possible temptation without caving in, and still resisted.

And while he was dealing with the temptation to withdraw from the cross, he was also trying to strengthen the disciples around him. He tried to guide them to the right kind of thinking, and if they had listened, they could have resisted even the extreme temptation from Jesus’ betrayal and trials. They did not listen, but the path that Jesus laid out is the same one we must follow to resist the less extreme circumstances we are generally faced with.

Thus, Jesus’ caution to his disciples - Pray not to enter temptation - is the theme of the paragraphs we are going to cover today.

Before the Temptation, Pray Right.

Now Luke tells us that it was his custom to go out to the mount of Olives to pray. Apparently that’s what he liked to do when he came to Jerusalem. But there’s another reason, too. It’s not clear from Luke when Judas leaves, but John tells us that Judas did leave and Jesus knew exactly where Judas was going. He knew that this was it. Imagine what would have happened if Jesus had just stayed where he was. Judas knew that Jesus was in the upper room, so that’s where he would have taken the officers. Since Jesus wasn’t there anymore, Judas would know where else to take them since the Garden of Gethsemane was one of Jesus’ common spots, but it would take him a bit longer. In other words, Jesus isn’t just randomly getting up and going out. He wants just a little more time before he is arrested to pray; but he does not want to escape, so he has to go somewhere Judas would know, hence the Garden. But the point is that Jesus thought it was really important for him to have the time to pray, and that the disciples should pray, too.

That’s why Jesus tells his disciples to pray not to enter temptation. This isn’t a regular prayer that they are supposed to make on a schedule. Jesus is going to be up all night. That’s obviously not something you can do too often. It’s not a normal night, so this is spiritual preparation for an out-of-the ordinary event. He has tried repeatedly to warn them of what is going to happen. If they had listened, they would know that temptation is coming. It’s late, so they are tired because it is past their normal bedtime. But if they understood that they would be severely tempted that night, they would have the motivation to stay awake to prepare spiritually. Because they haven’t accepted that Jesus is going to die, they don’t realize that temptation is coming. Because they don’t prepare, they are not ready to resist it when it does.

If it is practical, it is always a good practice to avoid the situation that causes temptation when you can. You don’t want to need the willpower to do right, if you don’t have to. But of course, sometimes you cannot avoid temptation, like the disciples here. If the situation really couldn’t be predicted, then you can’t prepare for it, but very often you can anticipate that something might happen to make doing the right thing challenging. When you know temptation is coming, when you can’t avoid it, take special time to pray. God is eager to help you with the strength to resist temptation; so if you pray, he will give you the wisdom to know how to change so you will be strong enough.

But there’s more to it than just making a quick prayer. Obviously if a quick prayer is all you have time for, then that’s what God will use; but you might need more. Jesus himself prays earnestly because he needs the strength to resist temptation. If Jesus needed to pray, where does that leave us?!

Notice the content of the prayer. Jesus prayed with the right attitude; that’s essential. Praying with the wrong attitude isn’t going to get you anywhere. Jesus is fully committed to doing God’s will. Notice that there is never a question about whether he is going to do what God wants; even though it will cost him more pain than any human has ever or could ever bear. Jesus is not the only godly man in history to die; he isn’t even the only godly man to be crucified. But Christians have gone to the cross cheerfully. Jesus is in anguish. Why? Because he is doing something else that no one else can do. He will bear the sin of the world. The guilt of every evil deed will rest on the only man who ever lived who fully knows how awful sin is. The full weight of the wrath of God will rest on the only man who can take it. This is why Jesus struggles.

The Content of the prayer is to ask whether it is truly necessary to endure all this pain. It is really difficult. I’m told that to hemorrhage blood as Jesus does is only possible under extreme stress, and it is often fatal. Now this emotion isn’t something Jesus works up; it exists because he is desperate to find the strength to do God’s will.

Hebrews 5:7–8 NKJV

who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

The author of Hebrews is talking about the Garden of Gethsemane. And it says that he was heard. How is that? Jesus asks to let this cup pass; meaning to not go to the cross. But he does go to the cross. How is it possible for Jesus to pray for something and not receive it? Because Jesus wasn’t only praying to escape. He was praying about the coming temptation. He first wanted to escape it if possible, but what he really wanted was to endure the test; and God heard him.

Now I know, because Jesus is God, he could not sin. But because he was fully man, he will survive the temptation in ways that make psychological sense for a human being to go through. Humans need to pray to resist temptation. Jesus needs to do the same because he is a man. So it is through his prayer that he finds the strength he needs. The disciples could have found the strength too, but didn’t because they did not anticipate the temptation because they didn’t accept the reality of Jesus impending death.

Luke doesn’t report the several times Jesus came back and found them sleeping. He only reports the last time when Jesus came back desperately trying to get them to realize the importance of praying, until there wasn’t any time left. In other words, even if they only had a couple of minutes to pray, it still would have been better than nothing; until all time was gone, it wasn’t too late to pray.

During the Temptation, Think Right.

With Judas approaching with the crowd, Jesus meets them with calm composure. He carries himself as one would who knows exactly what is coming and has made peace with it. The disciples are momentarily shocked; they do and say nothing because they are completely caught off guard.

Jesus knew who Judas was all along. I don’t think the disciples could have guessed exactly how Jesus was going to be betrayed, but if they had been following what Jesus had been saying all along, they too could have met this event with the same cool detachment; they did not because they had not believed what Jesus was telling them. To be sure, what Jesus said distressed them so much that they had been sleeping with sorrow; but they weren’t really ready to absorb that information because they had yet to truly hear what Jesus had told them.

Judas himself had already prepared for this event a different way; he had already been disillusioned with the actions that Jesus was taking; that’s why he was betraying him. He used to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but he didn’t see the point of Jesus actions that week. So he had abandoned his trust in Jesus in anger and rage. That’s why Judas was not “giving into the temptation,” he had already chosen to join the enemy.

Now Luke avoids telling us the name of the one who cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. I don’t know if that’s intentional or if he didn’t know. John is the one who tells us who it was. But Luke’s point isn’t that Peter failed; it’s that the disciples all failed. At first, they remained loyal but because they weren’t actually spiritual prepared by believing what Jesus told them, their attempt at “helping” actually did more harm than good. When they only have two swords among them, and there is a crowd armed to the teeth in front of them, trying to fight is positively suicidal. Peter was likely one of them simply because he was one of the two who happened to be carrying a sword; but fighting back against a massive army would only result in death. Peter isn’t thinking rationally; he is trying to protect his master and friend; he is trying to make good on his promise to go with Jesus to prison or death.

And he wasn’t aiming at the servant’s ear; Peter was a fisherman, not a soldier. He was aiming at the guy’s head, and missed. But not only would this be a completely pointless loss of the life of both Peter and the servant, but it would damage Jesus’ claim that he wasn’t a revolutionary. The last thing Jesus wants is for his headstrong disciple to make it look like he is trying to raise an army. So Peter’s action is not just foolish and wrongheaded, it does damage to what Jesus is trying to do.

So Jesus rectifies it by telling Peter to stand down and healing the guy’s ear. That demonstrates so conclusively that he isn’t trying to start a war that Peter’s wrongheaded actions don’t do any lasting harm.

Jesus also points out that he was publically in the temple all that week and they did nothing. They are treating him as if he is the dangerous revolutionary they want him to be, but if that were true, they could have arrested him at any time. Of course, the reason they didn’t arrest him is that he was so popular due to his teaching. But that shows that he wasn’t what they were going to accuse him of.

Jesus finishes by showing that he is fully aware that it really doesn’t do much good to say anything, since by this point they are so committed they will arrest him and kill him no matter what he says. Now we easily recognize that they were on the side of the powers of darkness, but think of it from their perspective. They thought of themselves as the emissaries of the Temple, and thus they thought of themselves on God’s side. Caiphas thought it was expedient to kill Jesus to avoid losing his power and to avoid another Messianic claimant that would only result in another destruction by Rome. The Devil did not show up with red horns and a spikey tail. He came by the messengers of the most prominent priests of the one true God.

Run from Temptation when you can

Now Matthew and Mark help us understand that there were three Jewish trials of Jesus - first an informal questioning by Annas the real one in charge; this was illegal since it was at night. Second, a formal questioning by Caiaphas the appointed high priest. It was also at night and illegal. The third trial was at dawn and was a formality to codify what they had already agreed. Luke only tells us the third one. Instead of joining Jesus inside, we stand with Peter outside; Now it is relatively cool since it is springtime so the fire is just a way for the soldiers to keep warm; since Peter is cold too, he huddles around the fire like everyone else.

Here’s the problem. Peter was already told he will deny the Lord three times; he already knows he going to be tempted and he hasn’t denied the Lord yet. What the logical person would do is go home to avoid falling into temptation; but Peter isn’t thinking logically. He is worried about his friend and he is determined not to fully abandon Jesus. He is afraid to get too close, but he wants to know what will happen, so he stands with the enemy around the fire. He is now bewildered and frightened. He doesn’t understand why Jesus won’t fight back; he doesn’t understand what is happening because he didn’t accept Jesus’ words when the situation was calm and he could think about it. So now that his emotions are high, there is no chance he will put all that together. If you wait until the hour of temptation to figure out what to do, you will almost certainly not do the right thing. But that’s exact what Peter ended up doing.

But if Peter had determined to run from temptation when he got the chance, he could still have avoided failure. He didn’t fail only because he didn’t believe the Lord; he didn’t fail only because he didn’t prepare; he didn’t fail because he didn’t run; he failed because of all three. Peter’s mistake was already made; what happens next was now a certainty.

He was frightened about getting caught up in Jesus’ arrest, and rightly so. The disciples of a revolutionary were often arrested and killed along with the ringleader. So when only a humble servant girl is trying to figure out what he is doing there, she perhaps had observed him with Jesus and said so; Peter denies it. Someone else also thinks that Peter is one of the disciples, and he denies it again. The final person observes his accent - Jesus and the disciples were all Galileans, so they spoke with a Galilean accent. So the man figures that Peter must be one of Jesus’ disciples too.

This was not a small failure on Peter’s part; to deny the Lord is to fail at following Jesus at its most basic level. So when the rooster crowed, Peter remembers what Jesus said and it hits him how seriously he had sinned; that’s why he weeps. He was so determined to stick with Jesus, without listening to Jesus’ warnings, that he ended up playing right into the hands of the enemy.