Endgame - 3 (2021)

Endgame - 3

Introduction

Have you ever had a moment where you thought, “This is a really special moment, I am so glad I’m here”? Where you would borrow the biblical phrase, “I am standing on holy ground?” I remember going to see my grandma for the last time, knowing it would be the last time I saw her. Or in a hospital room when our kids were born. Or in a courtroom when the judge declared Cora to be legally our child. These were holy moments. Trembling, nervous, special moments. Standing on holy ground.

There are passages in the Bible that when I read them, it seems like the scream…”You stand on holy ground.” Our text for today is one of those holy ground texts. Of it:

Charles Spurgeon - Here we come to the Holy of Holies of our Lord’s life on Earth…No man can rightly expound such a passage as this; it is a subject for prayers, for heart-broken meditation.William Barclay - Surely this is a passage we must approach upon our knees.D.A. Carson - As his death was unique, so also was his anguish; and our best response to it is hushed worship.

Matthew 26:36-46 - 36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Jesus and his disciples have just finished the Last Supper and have walked to Gethsemane. Gethsemane means ‘oil press.’ It is on the western slopes of the Mt. Of Olives. This is an olive tree grove that the Gospel of John rightly calls the “Garden of Gethsemane.”

He tells the disciples to stay at a distance but takes his inner circle of guys with him, Peter, James, and John. These are the three disciples who were with Jesus in the home of Jairus when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Luke 8). These are the same three disciples who were with Jesus on the Mt. Of Transfiguration and saw Jesus in his full divine glory. On that mountain they saw Jesus (quite literally) on the mountaintop. In that house they saw Jesus on the mountaintop. But on this mountain, on the Mt. Of Olives, they will see Jesus in the valley. They saw him in his moments of greatest strength, they will now see him at his moment of greatest weakness.

Matthew 26:37-38 - 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

Jesus is sorrowful…grieved, distressed. He is troubled…anxious, hopeless. “My soul is very sorrowful.” My soul…my innermost being, who I am…is very distressed. So much so that it is killing him. Sorrowful, even to death. This is no play-acting on Jesus’ part. He is in real agony here. Luke’s account of this sheds even more light on the agony.

Luke 22:44 - 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

This is a medical condition called Hematohidrosis, when under severe mental anxiety, such stress causes the blood vessels in the face to bust, causing blood to literally flow with your sweat and tears.

One of the early heresies that the church faced in its infancy was called Docetism, from the Greek word dokeo, meaning to seem or appear. It taught that Jesus was not a real human. He only appeared or seemed to be a human. He was really a ghost or phantom. They got so goofy even to say that when Jesus walked he didn’t leave any footprints. This false teaching came out of Greek philosophy, believing that any god worth anything would never soil himself with human flesh.

We understand that. God is infinitely holy and sovereign. How could he stoop down so low as to become human? So we talk a lot about Jesus being divine, he is God in the flesh. And he is. But we don’t talk about the flesh part of that as much. There are many places in the Gospel accounts that we see glimpses of Jesus’ humanity. He gets hungry and eats. He gets thirsty and asks for a drink from the Samaritan woman at the well. He is so tired that he sleeps in the back of the boat during a storm on the Sea of Galilee. He weeps at the death of his friend, Lazarus. But never is Jesus’ humanity put on display more than right here in this text.

Jesus is beyond upset. What is it that is so bothersome to him? What is getting him all worked up? It could be a number of factors.

Maybe it is the fact that his disciples are lazy cowards. Right before this text, as they are walking from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells his disciples that they will all abandon him tonight. This is all in the middle of the night. Jesus will be arrested and crucified within a few hours. They will not be faithful to him in these critical moments. They can’t stand that and argue with Jesus.

Matthew 26:33 - 33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”

Gotta love Peter. Even if all the other disciples fall away, not me! Jesus then tells Peter that, in fact, Peter will deny him the most. Peter will fall away more than all the others.

Matthew 26:35 - 35 Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

all the disciples have boldly declared their undying allegiance to Jesus. But now they can’t even stay awake for an hour to pray with him. How disappointing! Maybe that is what is bothering Jesus. When he needs his friends the most, they aren’t there for him.

Maybe what is bothering Jesus is that Judas is actively betraying him at this very moment. After the anointing of Jesus by Mary with the expense ointment, Judas is so offended by that, he sells Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. At the end of our text in v. 46 Jesus says “my betrayer is at hand.” That’s Judas! He has come with the soldiers to arrest Jesus. You ever been betrayed? It’s awful. Definitely something that could distress Jesus.Maybe it is his impending death. Nobody wants to die at 33 years old. And certainly no one will face execution by crucifixion with a stoic response. He’s going to die today…that will rattle anyone.

But is it really those things? I don’t think so. If Jesus is this scared of his own death, then he isn’t the courageous person we think he is. Socrates, the pagan philosopher, drank hemlock to kill himself and did so stoically, saying “Don’t cry, I go to a better place.” If Jesus is that scared of death, then Socrates is more noble than he. Or think of the martyrs throughout Christian history, many who sang hymns to God as flames burned their flesh. Are they more noble than the one they died for?

It is the content of Jesus’ prayers that alert us to what it is that has distressed him so terribly. v. 39 - if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. v. 42 - if this cannot pass unless I drink it…What’s in the cup? What is it that Jesus so desperately wants to avoid drinking? Disappointing disciples? No. Betrayal? No. Merely his death? No. He wants the cup to pass from him…disappear. Why?

Throughout the Bible, the cup is used as an image for God’s wrath.

Psalm 75:7-8 - 7 but it is God who executes judgment,

    putting down one and lifting up another.

8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup

    with foaming wine, well mixed,

and he pours out from it,

    and all the wicked of the earth

    shall drain it down to the dregs.

Isaiah 51:17 - 17 Wake yourself, wake yourself,

    stand up, O Jerusalem,

you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord

    the cup of his wrath,

who have drunk to the dregs

    the bowl, the cup of staggering.

Jeremiah 25:15-16 - 15 Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”

Revelation 14:10 - 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Revelation 16:19 - 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.

Jesus is distressed because he is getting ready to stand under the full weight of God’s unmitigated wrath. The wrath he has poured out on pagan nations who attacked his people. The wrath he is saving up for the sinful world in rebellion against him. The wrath of his anger, poured out upon his Son. No wonder he prays for it to pass from him. No one would volunteer to stand under God’s wrath unless it was absolutely necessary.

But why would Jesus have to stand under God’s wrath? Jesus was perfect. He never sinned. He never brought dishonor on his Father’s name. He never disobeyed his Father’s commands. He doesn’t deserve wrath. He is the only person to ever live who has not deserved God’s wrath. He doesn’t deserve God’s wrath…but you do. He never sinned…but you do. Let’s talk about what actually happened on the cross:

2 Corinthians 5:21 - 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 2:24 - 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

On the cross, Jesus, who has never known sin, takes upon himself the sins of God’s people. He becomes the figurehead, the representative of the human race. He takes our sin upon himself so that we could be free from it.

Jesus who has known only perfect union with his Father for all of eternity, will now experience the rejection caused by sin. Sin is the great separator. It separates us from God. We are used to that distance. Jesus has never known a single second in all of eternity where he was not perfectly one with the Father. And from the cross in Matthew 27 Jesus will cry out, quoting Psalm 22, My God why have you forsaken me. God is holy and cannot look upon sin. Jesus will now experience the horror of sin and its consequence of separation from his Father.

So Jesus falls on his face in desperation before his Father and begs for this cup to pass him by. The Father who graciously reassured him at his baptism and on the Mt. Of Transfiguration by declaring to all, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The gracious, loving, eternal Father of the Son, hears his Son’s prayer…and says No! There is no other way. Son, you are the way. The only way for this cup to pass by is to drink it. The only way to save sinners is to drink the cup. The only way for sin to be paid for is to drink the cup. The only way for Hell to be avoided and Heaven to be enjoyed is to drink the cup.

Spurgeon - The whole of the punishment of his people was distilled into one cup; no mere mortal lip might give it so much as a solitary sip. When he put it to his own lips, it was so bitter, he well nigh spurned it: “Let this cup pass from me.” But his love for his people was so strong [and I’ll add: his commitment to his Father’s will was so steadfast], that he took the cup in both hands and “At one tremendous draught of love, He drank damnation dry.”

I submit to you that here, in the Garden, is where salvation started. Here in the Garden is where forgiveness first began. He prays for the cup to pass him by and God says no. In the echo of the Father’s resounding No, Jesus offers a resounding Yes! I will drink it. Your will be done. And with his blood already being shed, he rises to go the cross.

Matthew 26:45-46 - 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

It’s time. After saying so many times that his hour had not yet come, it is now here. It’s time. Let’s go. And I love…love that Jesus identifies himself here as the Son of Man. You see, you could look at this prayer in the Garden and see Jesus in his weakness. But not now. He’s the Son of Man, a title of deity. A title that comes from Daniel 7. The Ancient of Days holds court in judgment over the nations of the world. In comes the Son of Man and presents himself before the Ancient of Days and is granted authority and power over the nations forever. He is the eternal king who will eternally rule over the eternal kingdom of God.

Now Jesus stands ready to go to the cross as the Son of Man. The one who, at about 3pm the next day, at his death upon the cross, will present himself yet again before the Ancient of Days, having paid the debt that we owed him for our sin.

Because, friends, you owe God a debt. The primary way the Bible describes you is as a sinner. You have offended a holy God. And the Bible describes your sin in financial terms. You owe him an unfathomable debt that you could never repay. Someone has to pay the debt. Either you trust in Jesus to pay your debt by his death on the cross, or you pay the debt with your eternal death, separated from God forever.

Or we could put it this way…either Jesus drinks the cup or you drink the cup. Either Jesus stands under God’s wrath poured out against sin, or you do. The choice is simple.

BELIEVE/REPENT/CONFESS/BAPTIZE

Don’t waste another minute standing under God’s wrath. He offers freedom from that. When we say we are saved, we mean a few different things. We are saved from sin. From its power and its consequences. We are saved from death. But we are also saved…from God. We are saved from his righteous wrath against our sin.

Because Jesus drank the cup, we get to drink a different cup. And we drink it every single Sunday we gather for worship. We drink the cup of communion because Jesus drank the cup of wrath.

COMMUNION