Mark 14:32-42 - Gethsemane

We’re diving into Mark 14:32-42, where we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, wrestling with the crushing weight of what’s to come on the cross. In this moment of deep distress, we see the seriousness of sin, the power of prayer, and the weakness of our flesh. Jesus’ agony reveals the cost of our redemption and calls us to faithful prayer and submission to God’s will, no matter the cost. Join me as we unpack this sacred moment and reflect on how Christ’s suffering leads us to hope. Let’s dig in and look to Jesus, our true hope!

Transcript

101 - Mark 14:32-42 - Gethsemane

Intro

• If you have your Bibles please turn with me to Mark 14 and find verse 32.
• Today we step into the beginning of the great distress of our Lord.  
  • John MacArthur when preaching over this text stated of this moment…
    • “This is the second greatest agony that our Lord would experience, the first being that which was to come on the cross itself.”
  • As we prepare to step into these verses I do not want to understate the gravity of what we find.
  • Our Lord is preparing to bear the full wrath of the Father and He is in agony and anguish because He knows what is to come.
• Yet even in this distress we find our Lord still walking in perfection and as such we learn much of how to respond in times of distress, terror, and even in times of fear.
  • Our time will be divided across three points today…
    • The Weightiness of Sin…
    • The Importance of Prayer…
    • The Weakness of the Flesh…
  • We will be challenged today to be as our Lord was at this time…
    • Faithful in prayer and submissive to the Father for whatever He has called us to…
• Let us then read these verses and open in prayer…

Mark 14:32-42

• As we step into these verses and this place we are familiar with I want to point out something interesting about Gethsemane…
  • Gethsemane is only named twice in the scriptures, we find it mentioned here in Mark 14 and then we see it mentioned in the parallel account of Matthew 26.
    • The name literally means “oil-press” and it probably points to what happened in this particular area.
    • Now, when it comes to the practice of making olive oil, there are basically three steps…
      • First the olives would be gathered together and placed upon a large stone.
      • Then, the olives would be crushed, usually by a large millstone which created a paste.
      • Finally, the paste was placed into woven baskets that were stacked together and then a beam was used to compress them together.
    • This first press produced the purest oil that is called today “extra virgin" olive oil.  
      • This would have been what was used in the Temple for religious commands.
      • Further pressing would produce oil that was used for more common purposes.
    • So we find Jesus in one of His most distressed times crying out to God at a place that is known for crushing and pressing…
  • As you consider that process let me remind you what Isaiah 53:5 has to say…
    • Isaiah 53:5 - “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
    • As we think about this moment in the life of our Lord let us remember that if He had not been crushed, if He had not been pierced we would be a people without hope.
  • What Gethsemane reveals to us is the commitment and willingness of our Lord to lay down His life as the Father willed.  
• As we begin today I want you to keep in mind that Jesus knew what was to come on the cross…
  • Every aspect of it, the physical pain, the spiritual burden, the mocking and ridiculing, the shame…
    • Of all of that the worst, by far, was not the physical pain of the cross but the wrath of the Father perfectly pouring out upon the Son…
  • That is His dread, that is agony we find on display in this text.  
• These verses pull back the curtain and reveal to us, the suffering of Christ as we consider our first point…

The Weightiness of Sin

• Again, let us keep in mind that Jesus knew what was to come…
  • He was not ambushed…
  • He was not surprised…
  • He was acutely aware that in just a few hours He would be suffering under the wrath of God.
• Think about what this meant for Him, Paul pointed out in 2 Corinthians 5:21…
  • 2 Corinthians 5:21 - “For our sake he made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
    • Jesus was taking upon Himself the sin of man, and God was about to begin pouring out His judgment upon Him.
  • I am sure we have all experienced dread at one time or another…
    • Knowing that something is coming whether it be a surgery, an appointment, a meeting, something where we were anxious of the outcome.
    • Please know that there is nothing we have experienced, nothing that we have been in dread of that can be compared to this moment for Christ.
    • I do not say that to minimize our suffering or pain or anxiety, instead I say it to elevate what is transpiring in what we just read.
      • None have suffered more than Christ.  
  • He was perfect and without sin, the Bible calls Him the “perfect Lamb of God”, and He was about to experience something that He had never experienced.
    • He knew what was coming and He feared it…
      • He was completely just, and was about to suffer that which He did not deserve in the place of those who do deserve it.  
• There are three words across our verses that show us just how intense this moment was…
  • We are told in verses 33 and 34 that He…
    • “...began to be greatly distressed and troubled…” and that His…
    • “...soul is very sorrowful, even to death…”
  • He was distressed, troubled, and sorrowful…
    • The King James Version translates it a bit differently but the thought is still the same…
      • That version tells us that He was “sore amazed” and “very heavy” and “sorrowful”.
        • Pointing out the dread and weight He was carrying at this time.
      • Not only did He experience this emotional toil but we find that it also had physical effects upon Him.  
    • Mark does not record but we learn from Luke that He was in such distress and agony that He began to sweat drops of blood.
      • Luke 22:44 - “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
    • Again, I cannot overemphasize that this was not due to the physical suffering of the Cross.
      • It was because of the cup that was coming His way that He would have to drink down.
        • This cup was the wrath of the Father poured out justly upon sinners.
      • He was right to dread it, for the wrath of God is a terrible thing, it is a terrifying reality.
    • Yet for man it is something that we deserve because of our rebellion against God.
      • We have sinned against Him and He has every reason to pour out His wrath upon us.
        • We live in a time in which we often make light of sin, we joke about it, we laugh about it, we justify it and it is because we have forgotten that God will one day judge it.
      • Let us be reminded today of the seriousness of man’s rebellion and let us not make light of it.
    • Take note that Jesus who perfectly understood what it meant to bear the guilt of man did not take a nice stroll to the judgment of God.
    • He was in dread of it, He feared it, He understood what was to come and begged that it pass from Him.
  • Oh how wretched sin truly is, how sinful sin really is that it weighed upon Christ in such a powerful way.  
• Oh that we would get a glimpse of how serious our sin is and how weighty it truly is…
  • Church I remind you that Christ bore our sins and our sorrows, He took the wrath of that Father for the sins that we are guilty of…
  • What a consideration as we think on that and observe the suffering of Christ in these verses.
    • He is suffering because of the weight of my sin, He is suffering because of the weight of your sin.  
    • Oh how terrible sin is that it cost Jesus so much in order to pay for our redemption.
  • We would do well to think on these things, we would do well to consider what our salvation cost the Savior.
• Now, let us consider how our Lord responds as He is in deep sorrow and severe anguish…
  • Let us observe…

The Importance of Prayer

• Prayer is a constant practice in the life of our Lord…
  • We find Him praying before He calls the 12 apostles…
  • We find Him seeking private prayer often throughout His ministry…
  • We find Him praying publicly before great miracles…
  • And we find Him seeking the Father in prayer at this moment…
• What we have in our text is this final time where He is able to retreat to a private place to commune with the Father.
  • Prayer is extremely important to our Lord, He cries out to the Father time and again.
    • As we begin to consider this point I want to ask a couple of questions on prayer that comes up anytime I consider how Jesus prayed.
      • If Jesus, being perfect, prayed so much throughout His life how much more should we be given to the practice of prayer?
        • And…
      • Though all of us would certainly consider prayer of utmost importance, do our actions match our confession in regard to prayer? 
    • I do not ask these questions to breed guilt or shame in us but for us to consider the priority of prayer in the life of Christ.
  • I do not think there is another time in His life where He is as distressed as He is in our verses today.
    • Yes, He wept for Jerusalem, He wept at the grave of Lazarus, He cried out from the cross…
      • Yet here we find Him in torment of what was to come.  
    • And in His distress He is found running to the Father, crying out to Him repeatedly.
  • Three times we are told He prayed in this way, look again with me at verse 36.
    • Vs. 36
• There are three things I want us to observe about His prayer in this passage…
  • First, let us observe His honesty before the Father…
    • Consider how the start of this prayer expresses what He knows about God.
      • He prays, “Abba” a term that conveys intimacy, many have likened it to the english word dad or daddy that we use today.
      • It shows that Christ has an intimate relationship with God…
    • We find Him confessing that “all things are possible for” God, He understands that the Father is all powerful and able to do all things.
    • Then, we see His raw honesty as He is considering what is to come in the cross…
      • He requests, “remove this cup from me…”
        • As we have discussed He is looking at the judgment of God that is about to fall upon Him.
      • He knows the perfect wrath that is to come and in this honest moment He prays for this unmatched terror to fall away from Him.
      • Though Christ is certainly resolved to go to the cross and bear the guilt of man…
        • We also learn that He rightly fears what is to come and prays if possible it would pass from Him.
    • May we learn from our Lord in this moment to pray honestly to our God who already knows our hearts.
  • Second, let us observe His resolve to submit to the will of God.
    • We cannot miss how Jesus ended His prayer…
      • He prayed, “...Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 
    • When we pray that “His will would be done” we do so in ignorance of what His will is…
      • Jesus prayed this in perfect knowledge of what is to come.
      • The submission of our Lord at this time is nothing short of amazing…
    • To be so willing to do whatever the Father had laid before Him, which in this moment meant that He would be crushed by the wrath of God.
      • Again, Jesus knew what was to come, scripture even testified to it…
        • Isaiah 53:10a - “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;...”
      • This, not because of His own sin, He is without fault, He is about to suffer for the faults of others.
      • Here I have a question…
    • If it were the will of the Lord for us to suffer, not because we have done wrong, but because we have done right, would we possess the same resolve?
      • Would we honestly pray, “your will be done”, if we knew it meant suffering?
      • Before we say that “God would not will us to suffer…”
        • Let me point out the words of Christ…
          • John 15:18 - ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”
        • Let me point out the suffering of the saints that have gone before us…
          • Tradition tells us that…
            • Paul was beheaded in Rome.
            • Peter was crucified upside down for his faith in Christ.
          • The Bible tells us…
            • James, the brother of John, was beheaded by Herod.
            • Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death for his bold preaching.  
          • Let us not think that we would for some reason be free from suffering for the sake of Christ.
        • It very well may be in the will of the Father that we suffer, if it were what would be your response?
          • JC Ryle said of this…
          • “To take patiently whatever God sends,—to like nothing but what God likes,—to wish nothing but what God approves,—to prefer pain, if it please God to send it, to ease, if God does not think fit to bestow it,—to lie passive under God’s hand, and know no will but His,—this is the highest standard at which we can aim, and of this our Lord’s conduct in Gethsemane is a perfect pattern.”
      • Considering that I ask again…
        •  Could you honestly and sincerely pray, “Father, your will be done…”  if it meant unjust suffering?
      • Jesus did as He suffered in our place, let us strive after His example today.  
    • The final observation regarding the prayer of Christ in our text…
  • Is His persistence in prayer…
    • We find Him in our verses praying, praying, and praying again…
      • We are even told in verse 39…
        • Vs. 39
      • The same words He speaks before the Father, and in this we learn there is importance in our persistence.
    • So much so that Jesus even told a parable for the purpose of continuing in prayer and not losing heart.
      • In Luke 18 we find the parable of the persistent widow who we find continually crying out to an unjust judge for justice.
      • In other words she is crying out for what is right continually without giving up until her request is granted.
    • When we persist in prayer and that prayer is not answered and we have nothing but silence from God let us consider a few things…
      • First, let us consider if there be any sin in us or sin in our request that we are making before Him.
        • What I mean is we are to examine our lives and see if we are in rebellion in some way before Him.
        • Then we are to consider if our request be unfit for some reason.
          • Are we praying for something that is clearly against the Word of God?
          • Then how can we expect Him to honor such a request, He will not.
        • However, if we have examined our hearts and examined our requests and found no sin of any kind in ourselves and in what we are asking…
      • Then I urge you to persist in your prayer. 
    • How often can we be found praying once for something and then praying for it no more.
      • Instead, let us follow the example set forth by our Lord in His prayer in this moment.  
  • Let us pray with persistence, pray in submission, and pray in honesty…
• So we have considered…
  • The Weightiness of Sin…
  • The Importance of Prayer…
• Now let us turn our attention to…

The Weakness of the Flesh

• If there are any verses that display the weakness of flesh more clearly I cannot think of any at this time…
  • Let us frame this story up once more considering not only these verses but also what has happened before.
    • Jesus, for some time now, has been telling His apostles that He was going to suffer and die.
    • We could go all the way back to Mark 8:31 we find Jesus telling of suffering that is to come…
      • Mark 8:31 - “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
      • Three times throughout Mark we find Jesus plainly telling of the cross.
    • Not only that but consider what the apostles have learned this very night…
      • Jesus has told them that they will all fall away and that Peter will even deny Him.
        • In fact, look up at verse 27 of this same chapter.
      • Vs. 27
        • Then, jump down to verse 29…
      • Vs. 29-31
    • All of them emphatically said that they would not abandon Him, that they would die with Him if necessary.
      • You would think that if one knew that the temptation to fall away was coming that it would be enough to prevent that falling away.
      • Yet what we see is that it mattered very little because these men could not even stay awake as Christ had asked them.
  • He pulled aside His inner three, Peter, James, and John, and asked that they…
    • Vs. 35b - “...Remain… and watch.”
  • Let us read again what our Lord finds as He returns…
    • Vs. 37-38
      • They were asleep, they were unable to stay awake for one hour and watch with the Lord.
    • This time He urges them to “Watch and pray…” and tells them that though their spirit is willing their flesh is weak.
  • Indeed, weak it was, for what we find before the passage is over is them once more asleep.
    • Vs. 40
      • Though they did not know what to answer Him this time you would think that His presence would be enough to prevent them from going back to sleep.
      • Yet, we find in the next verse the unfortunate reality…
    • Vs. 41
  • Behold, the weakness of the flesh on full display before us…
    • Christ requested they watch and pray, that they stay awake and alert, they knew the danger of them fleeing and knew the distress of Christ.
    • Yet instead of being alert and ready they slept showcasing for us how weak the flesh really is…
• Though we are on this side of the cross and the resurrection, I have to say that we must also heed the words of Christ spoken in this moment.
  • “...The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
    • Would any of us disagree today?
      • I do not think the Apostle Paul would disagree…
        • Romans 7:24 - “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
      • I do not think that the Apostle Peter would disagree…
        • Do you recall how Peter changed how he was acting based on who was around him?
      • I do not think the Apostle John would disagree…
        • He is found in the book of Revelation at near the end of his life falling down before an angel in worship.
    • In all these scenarios the words of Christ echo true for us even today…
      • “...The spirit…is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 
  • We must consider these verses as a warning to us today that we must stay alert and awake, stay prayerful and ready for whatever may come.

Closing

• As we close out this morning there is much we can consider…
  • We have talked about the weight of sin, the importance of prayer, and the weakness of the flesh…
    • I urge you to dwell on these things this week and consider your walk with the Lord.
      • Is there unrepentant sin in your life?
      • Is prayer a priority for you day by day?
      • Have you given in to the weakness of the flesh?
    • Then lastly I want you to know that Christ is a good Savior…
      • Though your sin is wretched, He is greater still, though your prayers are weak, He is strong.
      • I urge you to yield to Him today.
    • Let’s pray.