Mark 14:32-42, "The Last Temptation"

Ken MacLeod

Prayer • Sermon • Submitted 7 months ago • Presented 7 months ago

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What is the hardest temptation to resist? Are you trying to know God but He seems too unfathomable? Have you tried to pray and you don’t hear anything back? Have you tried to pray but fallen asleep? Then this message is for you.

Let’s start with a basic principle of the Christian life, in fact, the basic principle. Knowing, believing, and following Jesus is the process of learning daily to die to our own will and live in God’s will. Jesus said,

Matthew 16:24 (ESV)

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

The Christian life is the crucified life. And prayer is the place we begin and end. Jesus taught us to pray,

Matthew 6:13 ESV

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

On the night when evil had full sway, when the perfect Son of God was given over to sinners, Jesus took His disciples into a garden to teach them a lesson about that part of the prayer He taught them.

Jesus starts with a commandment to eight of them. “Sit here while I pray.” Then He invites three of them to go a little farther and gives them the command, “Remain here and watch.” What were they supposed to watch? Watch Him pray. Being a disciple of Jesus begins with watching Jesus work. His invitation to the first two disciples was, “Come and see.” Before we can join Jesus as learners or disciples, we first follow Him as observers. We watch what He does. Because later He’s going to ask us to do what He does. So we’d better pay attention.

In this passage we are to watch Him pray. We don’t know how to pray. We don’t know what to pray. We need to learn from Him. In Jesus’ most crucial hour of testing and suffering, what He wanted most was for His disciples to learn how to pray.

What do we learn? His prayer in the garden is like the one He had taught His disciples, but much more intense. This was not the morning or evening routine prayer. This was the ultimate moment of suffering. And it’s one thing to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done,” when we are beginning a new day filled with fruitful activity. It’s another to pray “Your will be done” on the darkest night when we are suffering at the hands of sinners.

So Jesus wants His disciples to watch Him pray. What would they have seen? According to Luke, as He prays, He sweats drops of blood. He has begun offering Himself as a sacrifice. Jesus has begun His sufferings. It’s important to realize on the night the powerful elite among the Jews and the Romans are going to arrest Him, miscarry justice, beat Him and crucify Him, Jesus was not a victim. He is offering Himself willfully to the will of the Father. What was His will? Jesus knew what it was.

Isaiah 53:10–12 (ESV)

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The hour for Him to drink the cup of suffering the wrath of God for the sins of the whole world had come. In order to make intercession for transgressors like you and me, he bore our sins and poured out His soul to death. No wonder Jesus says,

Mark 14:34 (ESV)

And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”

Mark 14:35 (ESV)

And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

Mark 14:36 (ESV)

And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

If we are the disciples watching Jesus pray, what are we observing?

He is totally human. He is feeling all His weakness. He is “distressed and troubled, sorrowful, even unto death.” He is facing temptation to escape the way of the cross. He asks honestly for the Father to find another way. “Daddy, Father, all things are possible for you.” Did the Father answer this prayer? We have to discern that from things that come later, such as the prayer Jesus prays on the cross.

Psalm 22:1–2 (ESV)

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

and by night, but I find no rest.

Jesus prayed His guts out, and the Father was silent. What is that like? Even on a human level, have you ever spilled your guts to a friend - poured out your worries and deepest feelings about something important - and they had no reply? What is that like? Maddening, disappointing, heartbreaking, confusing, soul-crushing.

What were the disciples supposed to be watching? Words that get repeated in this passage: pray (32, 35, 38, 39), watch (34, 37, 38), sleeping (37, 40, 41) will (36, 38).

Watch is the command. To obey His command the disciples need to surrender their will to Jesus’ will. For the disciples, sleeping when they should be watching is surrendering the will to the weakness of the flesh. The will is the battleground.

Jesus prays to the Father,

Mark 14:36 (ESV)

“Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus’ prayer was the overcoming of the temptation to choose self-will over the will of the Father. If the disciples had been awake and watching, they might have learned how to pray when temptation is strongest. Surrender self-will to the will of God. Instead of learning, Jesus finds the disciples sleeping, and the lesson now is,

Mark 14:38 (ESV)

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“The spirit indeed is willing,” this is good, but also a weakness. Our spirits are filled with our own will. “The flesh is weak.” The flesh will tell me, God’s will is too hard. We aren’t strong enough yet. The flesh tells me, God’s will can wait till after lunch. Or until I’ve finished this game of sodoku. Or until I have enough money and got my house cleaned up. Or until my wife is ready. Or until my kids finish school. I’m tempted in a million ways to give into the weakness of the flesh rather than obeying the will of the Father. The flesh weighs heavy on me. My cares make my eyes heavy.

Mark 14:39–40 (ESV)

And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him.

The flesh has to be crucified.

What’s the will of the Father? That we follow Jesus in the way of the cross as disciples. Jesus says the way of eternal life is dying to self. Our most fruitful life, our greatest use to the kingdom of God, starts with crucifixion with Christ. That we crucify the flesh and its desires. That we die to self and learn to love God with a whole heart, love our neighbor as ourselves, and make disciples for Jesus of all nations.

If we watch Jesus in the garden, we will learn how to overcome the temptation to give into the flesh rather than God’s will. Jesus, praying to the Father, “Not my will, but Your will be done,” sweating great drops of blood. Jesus’ bloodshed did not start on the cross, being nailed there by the Roman soldiers. It did not even start in the courtyard of Pontius Pilate when He was whipped and beaten. It started in the garden, when the burden of the wrath of the Father for the sin of the world began to crush Him.

Jesus’ crucifixion was not done by the will of men. It was the will of the Father. And His own will was crucified before His flesh was crucified. It is no different for us. You will not be able to crucify the flesh and its desires that keep you from obeying God’s will until you first crucify your self-will.

But from Mark we learn another lesson. The disciples failed. They did not watch, they did not pray, they fell asleep, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer Jesus. They gave into temptation. They did not crucify their will or their flesh. Jesus is the only one who succeeded in the garden. But He still commanded them to follow Him in the way of the cross.

Mark 14:41–42 (ESV)

And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

We will never be ready. We will never be spiritual enough to overcome all the weakness of the flesh. We will never, in this life, overcome every temptation. But this is the good news. Jesus did. Jesus in the garden is our example. But Jesus on the cross is our victorious Divine Savior. He alone can save us.

But look at the grace of Jesus. Even after His disciples have failed in the garden, Jesus brings them along in the way of the cross. They weren’t ready, but they didn’t need to be. They were with Him. And that was the point all along. If we overcome temptation at all, it is because Jesus is strengthening us in that moment to walk the way of the cross with Him.

And give the process time. We will fail over and over, but so did the disciples, and especially Peter. When Jesus wanted his attention most, Peter did not watch. When Jesus wanted his company most, Peter was overwhelmed with his own cares. When Jesus could have used a friend at His trial, Peter denied even knowing Him. And isn’t that like you and me? But Jesus finished His work, for Peter and for us. And listen to Peter, restored and wiser because of his failure,

1 Peter 5:6–11 (ESV)

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

This is the gospel. Our sin, our failure to overcome temptation and our giving in to our flesh and self-will are the reason Jesus died on the cross. No one was going to get it right. He offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice. He was not a victim. He willingly humbled Himself under the mighty hand of God when any of us would have found the quickest exit. And God has exalted Him because He was obedient to death on the cross. So now He lives to help you in your temptation and in your suffering. He will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Jesus does what you cannot do.

Do you struggle to do God’s will in your life? Do you know He has plans for you but you keep tripping over your own temptation to put those off until you’ve gotten a little more stored up for yourself? In what way does Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane teach you to love God more than yourself, to love your neighbor as yourself, and to walk with Him in the way of the cross as a disciple making disciples?

Questions for Discussion

What gives you energy? What tires you? What have you learned about yourself through those things?

Do you ever find prayer tiring? When is prayer most tiring for you?

What are some things you sense Jesus is inviting you to pay attention to, to be watchful about, right now?

What do we learn about Jesus in this Mark 14:32-42? What do we learn from the way He prays?

What do we learn about the disciples in this passage? How is that helpful for us?

What are some cares that burden us when we want to be watchful in prayer? What does 1 Peter 5:6-11 teach us to deal with those in ways that we can be more attentive to Jesus in prayer?