Reading: Mark 14:32-15:47
Context: What does Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane reveal about His humanity and obedience to the Father?
The prayer reveals Jesus’ appreciation for the gravity of the situation and, even at this late stage, appeals to the Father, who can do anything. At the same time as He appeals, He knows the decision and is clearly prioritising the will of His Father over the agony of the situation. That He makes this prayer three times as well is interesting in how Jesus processes things – not once and done, but again and again, wrestling the same ground until He’s settled, which tells me the settling wasn’t instant even for Him. It is very reassuring to see this aspect of Jesus given full display, showing the permission we have to wrestle to do what God requires, the room we have to be honest about how we are, and the humility to still submit to the will of the Father, even when the cup doesn’t move an inch no matter how many times we ask.
Notice too who He takes with Him and who He leaves further off – Peter, James and John, the same three who saw Him transfigured in glory, are the ones He wants near Him now in agony, only to find them asleep when He needed them most awake. There’s something for us there: we can invite people into our Gethsemane moments and still find ourselves essentially alone with the Father in its deepest part. That’s not a failure of community; it’s just the shape of a cup that only He could drink from.
Content: How do the disciples’ failures during Jesus’ arrest and trial fulfil His earlier predictions?
Jesus warned earlier that when it came to the crunch, the disciples would disappear, leaving Him all alone. He went on to let Peter know in particular that he would deny Him three times. These things happened just as Jesus said, despite the protestations of the disciples at the time. Highlighting again how easy it is to talk a big talk when no danger is present and how things can be very different when the heat is on. Jesus warned them in advance and, in a way, warns us now not to be quick to say something when we don’t know how things will be in the heat of the battle. The faith walk is about trusting in the one who has gone through the heat to give us the strength to do what is needed when it comes to it, rather than bigging ourselves up ahead of challenging episodes. It’s worth sitting with how it actually plays out – sleeping when they should be praying, one of them swinging a sword he had no business swinging, an unnamed follower fleeing so fast he leaves his own linen cloth behind him, and Peter, three separate times, denying with escalating certainty that he even knows the Man, the final time backing it up with a curse. None of that is flattering, and Mark doesn’t cut it from the record; he wants the failure fully on the page so the restoration later hits harder. The good news buried in this failure is that He predicted their fall and still, days later, cooked them breakfast and sent them out anyway – which tells me He was never counting on their strength in the first place, only ever on His own.
Concept: What is ironic about the charges brought against Jesus and the mockery He receives?
Irony is rich in this passage. A court supposedly looking for truth and justice entertains liars to stitch up justice in front of the righteous judge who personifies truth. Those responsible for holiness accuse the Holy One of blasphemy. Those with the charge to maintain the temple accuse the chief cornerstone of God’s house of destroying the temple.
Then when the guards mock Him, they blindfold the one who could have given them sight. They challenge the living word of God to prophesy as to which one hit him. They spit on the one who is there to cleanse them of their sins.
Of course, we wouldn’t do anything like that today, would we? I mean, we wouldn’t make a mockery of the risen Lord by looking to bring Him down to our level. We wouldn’t make a mockery of Him by suggesting He would sign off on our social, political, emotional and spiritual agendas that contradict His very character. We wouldn’t put ourselves in a position to judge Him by our standards and demand that He live down to them. I mean, we just wouldn’t do that, would we? We know better now, don’t we? Don’t we?
We just do it with better manners now – nodding along in church and then editing Him out the moment He disagrees with our week. We don’t spit, we scroll past. We don’t blindfold, we just decide certain parts of the Gospel are “cultural” and move on. We don’t need a Sanhedrin anymore; we’ve each got our own bench, our own gavel, and we’re quite happy to be judge over the Judge, as long as nobody calls it that out loud.
Here’s the uncomfortable bit: the chief priests genuinely believed they were protecting truth while they crucified it. So the question isn’t whether we’d ever mock Christ outright – it’s whether we’re capable of doing exactly what they did, defending our version of holiness so fiercely that we miss Him standing right in front of us.
Conclusions: How do you respond when faithfulness to God results in suffering or misunderstanding from others?
I’m glad that your question asks about my response. First of all, I’d like to identify how I’d react. Suffering and misunderstanding from others hurts – especially when it’s by those I endeavour to reach and those I love. When faithfulness to God results in that, it hurts, and I want to shut down, run away, cry, get angry, get upset, get frustrated, utter some words that would not glorify God and sulk. That is what I do when I react. However, that is not all there is because somewhere in all of that, from time to time, the Spirit of God that wrote many times to count it all joy, and rejoice, and expect, and have a Holy Ghost party when misunderstanding and suffering happens, actually reminds me that misunderstanding and suffering was the portion of the Lord I claim to follow. He wasn’t praising and shouting when guards spat at Him and slapped Him up. He wasn’t rejoicing loudly as He was being stitched up by the court of fools. Yet, He endured for the prize ahead. And as He endured, His Spirit in me makes it possible for me to endure and do so for the glory of God and do so with what He puts on my lips to offer to God.
From time to time, I experience these things. And I’m grateful that I don’t live off my reactions but by the grace of God. What I’ve noticed, the more I walk with Him, is that the gap between the reaction and the surrender gets a little shorter each time – not because I’ve suddenly become spiritually mature, but because I’ve been here before and I know how the story ends if I let the Spirit finish His sentence instead of mine.
Next time:
Episode Twenty-Five: Resurrection and Commission
Reading – Mark 16:1-20
Jesus was betrayed and rejected by those close to Him as well as derided and misunderstood by those who opposed Him. He suffered, bled and died. This significant act of obedience and His love for even those who denied Him gives us hope. This is why it’s crucial that we take His Word In so we can live the Word Out.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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