Gethsemane Cirsle -Roads Less Traveled #4

In my own life as a pastor and a student, I have always valued preparation. Academically, knowing full well what I was called to in the ministry, I saw university and seminary as a necessity as it prepared me to stand before you as your pastor, preacher, and leader. At least for me, without having taken time to prepare myself, I know I would have struggled to do what God has asked of me week after week in this unique role. Preparation has not only given me confidence, but it has helped me deal with unforeseen difficulties, changes, and distress. How I handle the difficult moments in my ministry is a direct reflection of how well I have been prepared to face certain challenges. Thankfully, I was blessed with excellent mentors and teachers who had been in the trenches of ministry before and demonstrated how to prepare adequately for the pastorate.

However, today I do not want to talk careers, but our unique role as disciples of Jesus Christ. The best way to learn how to prepare ourselves for this unique role is to learn from the best, Jesus Christ Himself, observing what He did and how He handled difficulty and distress so that we might know how to prepare ourselves for the same in our own lives. Thankfully, Mark 14:32-42 gives us such a lesson as Jesus heads into what would be the most challenging episode of His ministry. In the next road that Jesus takes, He finds Himself in Gethsemane. While there, He gives five statements that work together to teach the invaluable role of prayer in the life of every disciple as he or she prepares to do what God has called upon him or her to accomplish for Him.

I. STATEMENT #1: “SIT HERE WHILE I GO TO PRAY”-14:32

Though many envision this scene as having taken place in a garden full of olive trees, many scholars believe that Gethsemane was a oil press located on the Mount of Olives in a spacious cave. In fact, the word Gethsemane means “oil press” in Aramaic. Such a location close to the city would have been a perfect spot to spend a chilly night (later in Mark 14:54, others are shown to be kindling themselves by fires). It provided privacy, protection from the elements, and plenty of space for Jesus and His disciples to spread out and do what He would ask them to do in this first statement.

Having been on the move for some time now (from Zacchaeus’ Street in Luke 19:1-10 out of Jericho on Miracle Way in Mark 10:46-52, and down Main Street Jerusalem in Luke 10:37-44), Jesus, after celebrating the Passover in the Upper room, moves into Gethsemane Circle and finally has His disciples “sit.” This change from movement to being stationary signals a shift in the greater story. This was the beginning of the events that would unfold leading to Jesus’ death. However, before things get underway, His requests that His disciples “sit…until I have prayed” (14:32b).

Don’t believe prayer is worth much? Feel like there are better things to do with your time? Consider that Jesus Himself stopped to pray before big events in His own life. In His final ministry moments, Jesus begins an important lesson on prayer that begins with committing oneself to stop and take time out to give oneself over to this important practice. Prayer is priority number one.

II. STATEMENT #2: “STAND BY, I AM DEEPLY TROUBLED”-14:33-34

Moving out of the cave and into the garden itself, Jesus decides to bring along with Him some of His closer associates, “and He took with Him Peter and James and John” (14:33a). These were the same disciples who had been allowed to watch Jesus heal Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5 and witness Christ’s transfiguration in Mark 9. These were Jesus’ confidants, compatriots, and those closest to Him whom He hand-picked to rely on in times like this.

On this night Jesus “began to be very distressed and troubled” (14:33b). In this particular moment, Jesus was “very distressed and troubled” (14:33b). His death was around the corner, alluding to the fact that sin needed to be eradicated in the first place. That death was even present in the world at all, and that God’s judgment rested on mankind also contributed to Jesus emotion as the climax of His ministry was now in view.

Jesus communicates as much to His close associates saying, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death” (14:34). In so many words, Jesus tells the three that His soul was overwhelmed with such sorrow that it threatened to kill Him! “The full impact of His death and its spiritual consequence struck Jesus and He staggered under its weight. The prospect of alienation from His Father [also no doubt] horrified Him” (BKC).

In light of this growing pressure and pending series of difficult events, Jesus simply asks that His disciples would remain nearby and “keep watch” (14:34). This word means to be in a continuous state of readiness so as to learn. Jesus, knowing what lies just around the corner, hoped that His disciples would learn something as things progressed on Gethsemane Circle that night.

But what could His disciples possibly learn at this point? By singling out these three and bringing them with Him to this solitary place on this night, Jesus alludes to the importance of fellowship in times of great grief. Jesus Himself looked to others for support in the dark points of His ministry, teaching all who read this that no matter how bad things get, none should proceed through the fires of life alone.

III. STATEMENT #3: “SOVERIGN LORD, YOUR WILL BE DONE”-14:35-36

With the larger group presumably praying in the warmth  of the cave, and His close associates supposedly giving their own support nearby, Jesus then proceeds “a little beyond them,” falls to the ground, and begins “to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by” (14:35). The typical Jewish prayer posture was to lift one’s hands toward heaven and to pray aloud while standing. When one was in particular distress, he or she would prostrate his or herself on the ground. Here, Jesus assumes this position, which, in many ways, resembled the posture many took before Him to make their requests. Jesus approached God on that night in the same manner as those who came before Him for healing—desperate, broken, and humble.

If Jesus approached the Lord God in this way, why don’t we? Entitlement, pride, and self-sufficiency have no place in prayer.    

After assuming this posture of humility, brokenness and desperation before God, Jesus voices His prayer before the Lord and begins with adoration, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You” (14:36a). Knowing what lied ahead and the suffering, pain, and betrayal that waited for Him outside of the garden, Jesus takes time to praise the Lord! This commitment to praise satisfies Psalm 34:1 (“I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth”) and Paul’s later encouragement in Thess.  5:18 to “Rejoice always;  pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Here, Jesus praises God because He has a close relationship with Him (“Abba”) is in total control and possesses all authority (“Father”) and is all powerful (“all things are possible for You”). 

Jesus commends God in these specific areas perhaps because these attributes were sympathetic to the nature of His supplication, “remove this cup from Me” (14:36b). Jesus asks for this in light of His intimate relationship with Him, because only the Father’s authority would authorize such a request, and because only God in His power could turn the events in a different direction than where they were headed. This cup that Jesus’ asks to be removed is the cup of God’s incredible wrath against sin—the very cup that Jesus anticipates being spilled on Him while hanging on the cross. Jesus, who had enjoyed a perfect and intimate relationship with God from eternity past did not now want that to be broken with wrath and judgment. He had never experienced God’s wrath before and more than anyone else wanted to avoid it if possible.   

However, in spite of His own desires, Jesus concludes that ultimately it is not up to Him and submits Himself to the God’s will saying, “yet not what I will but what You will” (14:36c). This is true submission. Christ-like submission recognizes that while God can do anything, preference is given to His will over our desires. The same Jesus who said "All things are possible with You" and "Let this cup pass" also said "yet not what I will but what You will."

Here, Jesus demonstrates in the most grievous and desperate situation He has faced up to this point, that there is always room for prayer. Even further, He has shown that there is always time to praise God in distress, ask for whatever it is that you want, and ultimately submit yourself to God’s will over your own desires. To pray in this way is to pray like Christ.

IV. STATEMENT #4: “STAY AWAKE, THINGS ARE GOING TO GET HARD”-14:37-39

Though we can benefit from what Jesus did by reading it here, the disciples who were supposed to be alert and learning these things for themselves firsthand were missing their opportunity, “and He came and found them sleeping” (14:37a). When all the world is about to change and the greatest challenges are about to be confronted, the disciples are sleeping on the job.

Jesus confronts this slumber head on and while incredibly frustrated, Jesus graciously asks Peter, the spokesperson and pseudo leader of the twelve, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?”(14:37b). In other words, Jesus says, “could you not even stay alert for a little while?!”

Jesus then requests, once again their alertness and involvement in prayer, saying, “keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation” (14:38a). In this request, Jesus spells out for his disciples exactly what it is that they should be doing at this time of great significance, praying. Specifically, they are supposed to be praying that they may not come into temptation. However, what “temptation” is Jesus referencing? The answer might most nearly be the very temptation that He now faced, the temptation to side with His own desires and back out of God’s will. Truly, this is at the heart of any and all sin. Sin, by definition is the rejection of God’s will for one’s own pursuits. Whether these pursuits include self-preservation, satisfying lusts, earthly success, etc., if they are contrary to the will of God, they are sin. Therefore, Jesus asks His disciples to, like Himself, pray that God would give them the strength to choose God’s will over their own, knowing full well that although the “spirit is willing” often times the “flesh is weak”(14:38b).

Immediately after waking His disciples to remind them of what they should have been doing, Jesus returns to prayer, demonstrating what He hoped to see in the lives of the twelve.

What Jesus encourages here is the very same thing He encourages of us as His disciples today—vigilant, persistent, alert prayer that God’s will, not our personal preferences, would be realized on the earth.  Anything less opens us up, as it would His disciples, to falling prey to giving in to the flesh over the spirit. We too must recognize how weak our flesh is and remain alert in prayer so that when pressures rise we may not be found asleep. Jesus looks at His church today and says “Wake up! Give yourselves to prayer! The times are desperate and things are about to get really hard.”

Romans 12:12- "Rejoice in hope, persevere in tribulation, be devoted to prayer."

Ephesians 6:18- "Pray at all times in the Spirit . . . with all perseverance."

V. STATEMENT #5: “START OUT, IT HAS BEGUN”-14:40-42

May we not be guilty of what the disciples were guilty of in verses 40-41, “and again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.” It is obvious that the disciples did not understand how serious things were, what was about to happen, and the urgency that was required.

Jesus “came the third time, and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough; the hour has come; behold the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners” (14:41). Though Jesus had encouraged His disciples to be alert in prayer, knowing full well what they were about to face, they neglected this sacred and most precious privilege in order to catch some Z’s. There was no time to fix this and soon all of them no doubt would wish they had spent their time in Gethsemane Circle more wisely.

“Get up” Jesus says “Let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”(14:42). “Start Out, it has begun” and by “it” Jesus was referring to the events that would inevitably lead down the road we will soon come upon in our series, the road to Golgotha. Having prostrated Himself before the Lord in fervent prayer, Jesus would be able to stand before His accusers, remain faithful, and proceed in the Spirit, never giving in to the desires of His flesh. However, because the disciples had neglected to do the same, one would betray Him, one would deny Him three times, and all would cower under the pressures they would soon face.

So What?

These five statements that were given on Gethsemane Circle work together to teach the priority and primacy of prayer in the life of Christ. Prayer proceeded His most difficult episode, was encouraged in a group of like-minded individuals, was offered from a heart that was humble, broken, and desperate, included adoration, supplication, and submission to the Father’s will, and was persistent in its desire to see God’s will executed over fleshly desires. Jesus succeeded in praying this way; however, His disciples, when given the opportunity failed miserably and were therefore unprepared for what was in store. Truly, all of them would soon choose self-preservation and other selfish pursuits over God’s will and demonstrate their inclination toward the flesh instead of the Spirit.

May this not be said of US! May we not be caught asleep or dreary-eyed when we should always be watchful, alert, and prayerful! May we, like Christ, adore God for who He is no matter how bad things may be, ask for Him to do incredible things on our behalf, and ultimately submit ourselves to His plan over our desires. May we always approach God out of desperation, humility and brokenness as we, like Christ, head into difficult situations in order to bring life to this dead and dying world. May we always spend time kneeling before the Lord so that we may have the strength to stand before any and all oppression, difficulty, and tribulation for the glory of God. Wake up Christian! Wake up Church! It is time to be like Christ in the way that we pray!