HG152 Matthew 26:30, 36-46, Mark 14:26, 32-42, Luke 22:39-46, John 18:1

32 Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. 34 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.” 35 He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. 36 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.” 37 Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words. 40 And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him. 41 Then He 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. 42 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

Now we come to the final hours…the cross is looming large in Jesus’ eyes and things are about to move very fast. So Jesus takes his disciples into the enclosed olive garden of Gethsemane. He takes 3 of his closest disciples, His inner circle: Peter, James and John. And Jesus goes a bit further into the garden telling his disciples to wait, to keep watch, to stay awake. Even though Jesus is further on His prayer is heard.

Jesus is aware of the imminent arrest, torture and death which seem to overwhelm Him. He is being stretched to the limit. He is in emotional turmoil. And then Jesus prays.

Abba, Father. His relationship with God is revealed as intimate and close…we have an insight into their love for one another…we rarely get a look into the way Jesus prays…we know nothing of the prayers and communion he had when he prayed alone to his father in the desert places or on the mountain and this is the first time Mark zooms in on his prayer…and so we should take special note of it just as we did in John’s Gospel when he recorded Jesus’ prayer just before the Garden of Gethsemane. But the stress of the whole situation is so severe that he is now sweating blood according to Luke. For someone to be in such a state it cannot be simply about physical torture - it has to be something much worse. We cannot possibly comprehend how much worse. He was to suffer more than any person has ever lived.

Everything is possible for you. EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU. Nothing is impossible. Jesus declares rightly that God is able to do everything. God is bigger than any issue or problem in our lives. Getting a right view of God is vital. We have to get to know Him. He spoke and everything that we see came into being. Getting an understanding of just how big God is and what He is like enables us to trust Him because whilst he is super amazing in strength, in power, in knowledge, in wisdom, in holiness, it is also He who cares for us as a Father. Not only a Father that we respect but like a Dad to whom we can go when we have fears and concerns.

It seems that all too often we have a negative sense of God that he will come down on us like a ton of bricks, however, we shouldn’t put our own attitude upon God for He does not behave in that way. In fact, what we find is loving-kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, patience and long-suffering…all the fruit of the Spirit that is lacking in us is complete in Him. If He does have to discipline us it is always with the purpose of drawing us back to Him where there is no fear in love. Don’t avoid God – it will only make things worse – our relationships will suffer with both God and others.

Then there is a direct request from Jesus:

Take this cup from me. He knows the consequence of going through with the salvation plan. And right now it is too much for Him to contemplate. He is bleeding through his pores. To take sin upon Himself and its consequences was not something that Jesus could take lightly. He knew that this was going to be very costly and at times it was not a cost He could contemplate paying IF it was avoidable.

That raises the question why did Jesus die?

He did not go through what he went through as some think just to demonstrate His love…there could be better ways to do that without losing one’s life…He did not go through what He went through to demonstrate what it was to be sacrificial…He did not go through what He went through to simply be an example that we should follow…yes, as a result of what He went through all those are true but it was not the reason…indeed, we only need to look at Mother Theresa or the Dalai Lama or Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi or any number of people who will can look to for examples of love and peace. Look even at Nobel who has the Nobel Peace Prize named after him after his conscience struck him being the inventor of dynamite. Jesus did not die to be an example of love and peace though He is the ultimate of all in each of these areas.

Jesus had to die for it was something that had to be done otherwise the human race had no hope whatsoever. “Surely there must be another way, Father”, is what Jesus prayed. Does it really have to be this way? I definitely do not want to drink this cup of bitterness, of suffering.

Jesus did not go through His suffering for sentimental reasons. It’s because our sin is so heinous to God; such an offence; such a grief; so black that He cannot and will not look upon us without being angry (for His wrath abides upon the unrighteous). If we who are His can barely escape the condemnation of hell and the lake of fire even after the cross this should reveal the severity of God’s view of sin. And God has arranged it so that this same condemnation that we deserve was paid in full by His Son doing the only thing, the ONLY thing, that could save the human race…His Son became sin personified. He became sin in that transfer from us to Him. And in it He transferred His righteousness to us so that we are now righteousness personified. The wrath of God the Father came down like a ton of bricks upon Jesus, not upon us, but upon Him…and Jesus knowing that this was going to happen could only pray: Take this cup from me.

In Jesus praying for the cup to be taken from him and knowing it would be answered if did not continue in his prayer with absolute submission to His father’s will with the words we take far too lightly:

Yet not my will but yours be done. Jesus knew exactly what this cup was going to be like for him and still said he would still be willing to drink from it. Indeed, in John’s Gospel (Jn 18:11), immediately after today’s passage in sequence, we read that Jesus said: Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?

So Jesus gave a very clear indicator of what He had come to do—take upon Himself the anger of God. Indeed, this is the very heart of the Christian gospel: that it is only through the work of Jesus on the cross, as he took upon himself the anger of God for the sins of others, that rebels and failures can be forgiven and saved.

Here he echoes the prayer he taught the disciples: Let your will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. Despite His knowing the cost of such a decision he did not stop with ‘take this cup from me’ which would have ended the whole venture of Jesus on earth, which would have ended with us having no Saviour, which would only give this life worth living for, God might as well obliterate us all to stop anyone else being born into a world where they are already condemned to hell. God might as well say: Let’s not make the situation worse; if there is no hope for mankind because there is no Saviour then let’s end this creation and if necessary start a brand new one where we would get absolute obedience from our servants.

So, why is God bothering with this creation if He could start again? It is because He loves us, we are made in His image, we are the crowning glory of this creation and He wants to redeem us and have a people who will, out of free will, serve Him. So, Jesus knew what He was praying when he said not my will but yours, despite how hard it must have been to pray this prayer. He knew the Father’s heart was for us, He knew how great is His love and how, if there was another way it would have been done that way. Jesus dying was the only way. Jesus’ full submission to His Father, knowing that He only had our best interest at heart and knowing His Father’s will, Jesus laid down his own desires.

The Father’s heart is for us and because of this Jesus was getting ready to die…

A Belgian named Wilfred, before he became Ravi Zacharias’ interpreter, was attending a conference in Switzerland. They were focusing on the reality of heaven and the greatness of our hope when he got the call from home. Through her sobs his wife told him that his nine month old baby had just died, without warning, in its crib. He said that the news brought him to the lowest point in his life – the devastation defied words. The anguish and the anger built up in his heart to volcanic proportions, threatening to spew out uncontainable grief. He packed his bags, bought a train ticket, and sat alone looking out the window where nothing seemed to ease the ache.

Across the aisle from him a young man sat reading his Bible, opposite two others who were not hiding their disdain for that Bible. The young man finally responded to their taunts, and their debate grew until one of his tormentors, anger unmasked, leaned over and said, “If your God is as loving and kind as you say he is, tell me why he lets the innocent suffer? Why does he permit so much warfare? Why does he allow little children to die? What kind of love is that?”

The questions stabbed Wilfred in a way he had never felt before, and he caught himself on the verge of blurting out, “Yes, you religious zealot! Answer them, and me, and tell us why God lets children die. What sort of love is that? But he said a strange mental transformation took place in his mind. He found himself saying, “Do you mind if I say something? I’ll tell you how much God loves you: he gave his only Son to die for you.”

The young men interrupted him and argued how easy it was for Wilfred to make such platonic pronouncements disconnected from the concrete world of death and desolation. Wilfred waited a moment, because he needed to summon up every bit of courage and conviction to speak. He said, “No, no, my friends. I am not distanced from the real world of pain and death. In fact, the reason I am on this train is because I am heading home for the funeral of my nine-month-old son. He died just a few hours ago, and it has given the cross a whole new meaning for me. Now I know what kind of God it is who loves me, a God who wilfully gave his Son for me.” [Can man live without God. Zacharias]

Our understanding of God can sometimes be too ethereal than concrete. But God and especially through Jesus incarnate was intimately involved in the pain of this world:

Philippians 2:6–8 NIV

6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

When we pray ‘not our will but yours’ we can be sure that we are in a completely different league to Jesus in His submission. It’s not something we add to our prayers as kind of an afterthought because we don’t have faith for what we are praying about; “Lord heal this person, but not my will but yours be done” No! Prayers have to be prayed in faith knowing God both hears and answers; faith is hope being assured that it will happen. Jesus knew exactly His Father’s will at all times but when Jesus prayed: “Take this cup but not my will but yours” it was about the difficulty of going through with it not because he did not trust His Father.

No wonder, after praying and coming back to his closest friends, it was hard to stomach that they were not actually watching out for Him, watching His back and staying awake and alert. Now their rest is about to be stolen from them for good that night. Now they will be alert for their own lives for not one would have slept after Jesus’ arrest being fearful that the mob was coming for them too, for Judas knew where their usual haunts were.

We have heard of Jesus’ willingness to do His Father’s will and His Father’s will to sacrifice His Son despite the cost then how do we respond?

Oh, what a Saviour who endured such torments,

oh, what a friend we have when we are in despair,

oh, what a comforter knowing our weaknesses,

and oh, what a trail he blazed.

Getting a new revelation of how great his love is for us is vital to our spiritual well-being…it softens us when we see his love, mercy and grace…it causes us to be more thankful…it causes us to love Him…and in loving Him loving others too. How mind-blowing is His love for each one of us that He was willing to become the Saviour of the human race.

Thank you, Lord, for revealing these things to poor, weak-willed, flesh-ridden, sinful people so that we could be rich, self-controlled and full of the Spirit’s power…let us be filled all the more with the knowledge and revelation of Jesus along with the Spirit’s power to live the life you’d have us live. Amen.

Benediction

2 Peter 3:18 (May you) grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Bibliography

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/experience-god-s-pure-love-stephen-pattison-sermon-on-easter-resurrection-77232 Ravi Zacharias story

Extras:

Preaching the Word: John—That You May Believe His Lordship in His Confrontation with His Antagonists (vv. 4–9)

The “cup” was the cross, the cup of judgment that we should have drunk. Jesus took upon himself our punishment in those hours of darkness on the cross. We could not have paid for our own sins even if we were punished for them for all eternity.

Death and the curse were in that cup,

Oh Christ, ‘twas full for Thee;

But Thou hast drained the last dark dregs,

‘Tis empty now for me.

Earlier Jesus had wrestled with the terror of the cup, saying: “Not my will, but yours be done.” Now he sovereignly says, “Shall I not drink it?”

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