Watch, and Pray

 

Be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  --1 Peter 5:8

Imagine if you had been alive during Jesus' day.  Imagine that He had called you to be one of His select followers.  Think about what it would have been like to know that the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God, was walking in your midst, and that He had called you to learn from Him, to go where He goes and to do what He does.  Your mind can't fully grasp what He tells you, but you are amazed at His words and at His deeds.  For three years you follow Him, and you think you might be getting to know Him pretty well.

Then He starts talking about death, His death.  You don't want Him to die, so you say you'll defend him.  You'll die for Him, die with Him if necessary.  He calls you out by name, and says that you specifically will deny Him 3 times in the next 24 hours.  Those words are like a punch in the gut.  You can't believe He'd call you out like this.

Jesus says He wants to go and pray, and you know something is weighing heavy on His mind.  He tells the whole group to follow Him to a garden, then He tells you and two others to follow Him on into the garden a little further.  He tells you to keep watch.  He takes few steps and falls on His face, calling out to God.  You don't really understand what He's going through, but you feel bad for Him.  You start to think about what He told you at dinner, about the rooster crowing three times, and your mind wanders. 

Roosters...chickens...eggs...colorful feathers....colorful eggs. Suddenly He calls your name again, and you realize you have dozed off.  "Could't you watch with me one hour?" He asks.  You try to shake the cobwebs out of your head, but it's so late, and you're so tired.  "Watch, and pray, that you might not enter into temptation," Jesus tells you.  "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

As  you have probably guessed by now, this was Peter's perspective in the 14th chapter of Mark's gospel.  Let's take it up at verse 32.

And they went to a place called Gethsemane.  And He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray."  And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.  And He said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.  Remain here and watch."  And going a little farther, He fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.  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.  And He came and found them sleeping, and He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?  Could you not watch one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  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.  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."  --Mark 14:32-42

There are some truths here I would like us to explore further.

Being fully pressed, and poured out

The place they had come from was a Passover meal involving bread and wine.  Jesus had made a metaphor of this, saying that His body was the bread, and his blood was the wine.  In order to make bread, grain must be crushed and milled into fine flour.  In order to make wine, grapes must be crushed in a press.

The place they went to was called Gethsemane, which literally means "olive press."  This area just outside of Jerusalem was known for its olive groves, and the production of olive oil.  I think this is significant here, because before this the Gospels had said He and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives, but this is the first mention of Gethsemane.

Jesus was about to pour out His heart to the Father.  He was facing execution by the Romans, yes, but it was more than that.  He was facing the fact that the Father was going to place the weight of sin on Him--the sin of the whole world, and the just punishment for them.  Isaiah 53:6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

There is a phrase in verse 33 that says, "He began to be greatly distressed and troubled."  The King James Version says He "began to be sore amazed."  The Greek term literally means to throw into terror or amazement; to alarm thoroughly, to terrify.  Yes, Jesus had left heaven and come to earth in human form.  Yes, He had seen sinful men in their natural habitat.  What made this different, I think, was that for the first time He caught a glimpse of the full measure of sin--the unholiness, the ugliness, the stench of it all.  Isaiah 53:5 says, "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."

Pierced, crushed, wounded.  The process started here, in the garden because it was here in Gethsemane, the place of an olive press, where He foresaw the cross, where He would physically be pierced, spiritually crushed, and mortally wounded.

But if not, He is still good

My wife and I have a plaque hanging on the wall in our dining room that says, "But if not, He is still good."  It brings to mind the story of Job, whose riches were stolen, whose family was killed, and whose health was taken away.  Job cursed the day he was born, but He did not curse God.  It also brings to mind the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused to bow down to the image of Nebuchadnezzar.  They were threatened with death, and the means of death was a fiery furnace.  Daniel 3:17-18 records their answer: "If this be so, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Verse 36 shows the agonizing prayer of Jesus.  "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.  Remove this cup from me.  Yet not what I will, but what you will."  I don't think that the word "Abba" as a reference to God the Father had been used in Scripture before this.  Every Hebrew child called their father Abba and their mother Imma; those were some of the first words a baby would learn to speak.  It was a term of familiarity denoting an intimate relationship.  It shows the kind of relationship Jesus had with the Father.

Jesus confessed the power of God over all things.  He asked that God would spare Him from this experience.  It was unfathomable but unavoidable; intolerable yet imminent.  Jesus humbled Himself, subjecting Himself to the will of the Father.  Philippians 2:8 says, "And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."  

Jesus asked the Father to spare His life, but He knew that God's will was more important that His desire.

It is enough

When I was a kid our family would watch The Doris Day Show on television.  The theme song, sung by Doris Day herself, was titled Que Sera Sera, meaning "What will be will be."  A form of this phrase, "It is what it is", has come into common vernacular since then.

I'm not a Greek scholar by any means, but my Strong's Concordance says that verse 34 is the only time in the New Testament that the word apechei is used in this form.  Other forms of the same word are found in other verses; in some contexts it is use as a form of the verb to be; in other contexts it is used for having received in full.  When Jesus came to the disciples the third time, he said something that is translated "it is enough" or "enough of that."  In today's vernacular we might say "it is what it is."  The time had arrived that no amount of prayer would change the outcome.

Sometimes you can't change God's mind no matter how much you beg.  When the answer to your prayers is "no", you must accept the answer as God's will.  We would do well to remember that even Jesus, God's only Son, got a "no" to His prayer.

In conclusion, when we are asked to intercede for someone, we must take that request seriously.  Even Jesus asked His disciples to watch and pray while He pleaded for His life with His Father.  The reason He gave was so that temptation would not overcome them.  Perhaps Peter remembered that when he wrote, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "Be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."  When praying with someone, we should encourage them to submit to the will of the Father, because no matter the outcome it is God's will alone that is primary.  Every prayer we pray is for His glory.  We must also remember that when God's will is evident, and it is apparent that the answer to our prayer is no, then we should say it is enough and go with it. 

I am forever grateful that Jesus is our example and our teacher in the area of prayer.  I am also overwhelmed when I think of the sacrifice He made for me, in taking my sin upon Himself and becoming the sacrifice for me.