Mark 14:26-52
Look at yourself in the mirror. And say to yourself these words: “I am strong. I am confident. I am powerful. I will overcome.”
This is the kind of pastoral advice that people like Joel Osteen are giving. It sounds good. It sounds like advice I want to hear. But is this advice that Jesus would give?
Well, based on tonight’s passage, the answer is a resounding “no!”
In fact what Jesus says is “don’t fool yourself. You are weak.”
And then he says “but do not fear, for I am strong, and my will will be done”
“I am weak. I am a sinner. But Jesus is strong. Jesus is my saviour. Jesus has overcome!”
“In Christ, I am strong. In Christ, I am confident. Christ is powerful. Christ will overcome.” Amen!
1. We are weak (27-32)
2. Jesus is strong (33-42)
3. God’s will will be done (41-52)
1. We are weak (27-32)
27 On the way, Jesus told them, “All of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.” 29 Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.” 30 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.” 31 “No!” Peter declared emphatically. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the others vowed the same.
How often do we see ourselves as better than we are? Especially us guys – we always want to do it alone, in our own strength. That’s the disciples, confidently asserting that they would rather die than deny Jesus. But a few hours later 50 Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away.
It’s brutal isn’t it, to have your weakness so cruelly exposed. We (people) want to be strong, wish we were strong – but we are weak. Often we know the right thing to do, we want to do the right thing, but we don’t do it. It’s too hard, too costly, and so we chicken out, take the easy road.
We are weak.
And Jesus knows this. And he still loves us!
Our weakness, our failure is not something we have to try to hide from him. Christianity is not about pretending you’re better than you are!
Because Jesus is strong. Although he was “deeply troubled and distressed” he still went through with his suffering and death on the cross, bearing the sins of the world – in order that he, the strong, can lift us, the weak, up.
It’s fantastic news!
And that’s why we see the disciples “warts and all” – with all their failures. I can imagine Peter sitting with Mark as he writes this book says “no Mark, you must put my failure in. I don’t care about my reputation! People must understand the gospel. Jesus came for sinners.”
I thank God for the disciples. Because they are real people like you and me. They make mistakes, they get things so wrong, they don’t understand, they are foolish, they are cowards – these are no super-spiritual giants, ticking all the right religious boxes! I mean Peter even tells Jesus off at one point, telling him he’s wrong. Oops.
And Jesus still loves them, still accepts them, still allows them to follow him – and uses them, makes them part of his great glorious work of salvation! And builds the church upon their weak and frail backs!
I heard someone tell a story about Jesus returning to Heaven after his resurrection. The angels are standing there singing praise, congratulating Jesus about his great work of salvation, his great achievement. All glory to the King!
But then one angel comes up to him and says
“uh, Jesus, I’ve got a question....”
“Yes?”
“Um, how are you, you know, going to get the message out? About what you’ve done? How are people going to hear about it”
Jesus points to the little band of weak and small disciples.
“Ah, hahaha, hmmm, yes, yes, them, yes. Do you, um, have any other plan?”
“No, no other plan.”
Don’t you love our God, who chooses the weak to shame the strong, who reveals truth to children and conceals it from the “wise”, who loves the unlovable and forgives the unforgiveable – even at the cost of his own life. Who builds his unstoppable church through people like you and me!
The God who is strong in our weakness.
“No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. From life’s first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.”
Did you notice v27 27 On the way, Jesus told them, “All of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’
Jesus knew hundreds of years before that the disciples would fail him. It’s from Zechariah 13:7. The big themes in Zechariah are the LORD returning to his Temple, and blessing the whole world through “Jerusalem” – the new people of God. The last time we heard a quote from Zechariah was during the triumphal entry: Jesus, the King, riding in on a donkey. Rejoice O Zion! But now the King, the Shepherd, will be struck and the sheep scattered. This is all part of God’s to bring about his purposes: here is the King, ready to be struck, the sheep, bleating their cries of “we will not be scattered” – but He will be struck and they scattered.
He knows. He knows they will fail him. And he has already forgiven them! 28 But after I am raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.”
They will fall, but have no fear, for Jesus will bring them together again in Galilee, where he began his ministry, this time the risen, victorious Christ, giving them power to enable them to do the works he has given them to do: to spread the word about Jesus, his victory over sin and death, and forgiveness for all who come to him. No guilt, no shame, but forgiveness, acceptance, and a new way of living, a new purpose, a new goal: the glory of God Almighty.
What a God we serve. He knows their coming failure, yet has already forgiven them as he goes to the Cross to pay the price that forgiveness costs. Remarkable.
What is it that you feel guilty about? Have you let Jesus down? Have you some secret sin which you could never reveal to anyone, certainly not Him? Do you sit awake sometimes in the dark watches of the night, your room closing in about you, as your thoughts accuse you “guilty! Guilty! Weak! You are no Christian! How dare you call yourself a Christian! Failure!”. Are you ashamed of boldly claiming to stand for Jesus “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” – only to shrink away in denial when the time came?
Well, welcome to the human race! This is us. We are not righteous. We do not seek God.
But, thankfully he seeks us. He knows our weakness. He knows our shame. He knows our guilt. And he has covered it with his blood.
It is gone.
No guilt in life, no fear in death! This is the power of Christ in me.
I am weak – but he is strong. And in Christ, I am strong.
Confess your sins with joy, not fear, for he knows and has forgiven you!
We may not be the best Christian in the world – but we have the best Christ! Where we are weak, he is strong. So trust him. He will hang on to you. His grip will not fail. You are secure in him.
I am weak, but
2. Jesus is strong (33-42)
33 He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he became deeply troubled and distressed. 34 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 35 He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 36 “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
That night in the garden was the worst of Jesus’ life. Here before him lay the final choice: to go through with torture and death, and worse, face the anger, the wrath, of the Father as he carries our sins to the cross; or to turn aside, to call down myriads of angels to fight for him, to be carried up in glory to his rightful place in the throne room of heaven. What would you have chosen?
Like Jesus, deeply troubled and distressed – what would you have done?
Like Jesus, saying “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.” – so deeply full of sorrow you feel like you’re going to die, simply because of sorrow, of dread of what is to come – what would you have done?
Like Jesus, throwing yourself before God Almighty in prayer, begging him to get you out of this, open another way “Abba (Daddy), Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.” – what would you have done?
Well, we know what Jesus DID. He did not fall away. He did not yield to temptation. He did not fall asleep but prayed for strength. He did not turn back. Instead he prays the most remarkable prayer in the Bible, and the prayer that should be echoed in the heart of everyone who follows Jesus, everyone who calls themselves a Christian, in every area of our lives because we belong to him: 36 “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
Not my will, but yours be done. That is the cry of a heart yielded up to God.
Jesus here is the perfect human being, willing to do whatever the Father asks in order to glorify him.
We were created to bring God glory – that is our purpose and our destiny. We were made to reflect back to God his beauty, his splendour, his majesty, crying out with every action, every thought, every prayer, every word spoken, at work, at home, in the garden, up on the mountain: you are glorious, you are holy, you are amazing. Your will be done.
We pray that in the Lord’s Prayer, don’t we? “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” That doesn’t mean out there somewhere, distant from us – no we’re praying that his will is done in our lives, we’re praying that we would yield to his will, praying that we would not fall into temptation and follow Satan along the path of comfort and death, but Jesus along the hard path – but glorious and fulfilling and the path of life eternal.
And so often we fail. So often we do what WE will. We are weak. We are like the disciples – when they were supposed to be praying what were they doing? Sleeping!
37 Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? 38 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 39 Then Jesus left them again and prayed the same prayer as before. 40 When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open. And they didn’t know what to say.
While we are sleeping. While we are giving in to our desires, our “needs” – Jesus is praying. Jesus is doing exactly what he should be doing – even though he was totally alone. Even though he knew what was coming. His “sheep” were about to be scattered. His friends would abandon him. He was about to be arrested. “The time has come” he says.
And he was about to drink the Cup. In the Old Testament the Cup was often used as a symbol of God’s judgement on sin. For example Jer 25:15-16 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled to the brim with my anger, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. 16 When they drink from it, they will stagger, crazed by the warfare I will send against them.” Similarly Jer 49, Isaiah 51, and Psalm 75:8.
Set before Jesus was that cup. A foaming cup of poisonous punishment. Anger upon anger, wrath upon wrath, poured out for the sins of the world from all of time and space all gathered into one concentrated poisonous dose. Like a witches’ brew – but a thousand, a million, a trillion times worse. We will never know what Jesus knew he was facing.
But he faced it.
Three times he prayed for steely resolve to drink this cup to its last drop. And he did not falter, did not stop. “Up”, he says, “let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is here”
He did not run, did not call down legions of angels to defend him, did not use his awesome power to simply swat away the soldiers who had come to arrest him. He had prayed. He was at peace. Not my will, but yours, Father.
We may be weak, but Jesus is strong.
3. God’s will will be done (41-52)
48 Jesus asked them, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? 49 Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there among you teaching every day. But these things are happening to fulfill what the Scriptures say about me.” 50 Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away.
Jesus offers no resistance to his arrest - in fact he goes out to meet them. No playing hide and seek amongst the trees. No fighting. No running. One of the disciples gets it wrong – hacking off someone’s ear.
He should have prayed – he’s totally on the wrong page!
And then when Jesus simply gives himself up, terror grips them all and, just as Jesus prophesied in v27, quoting Zechariah’s prophecy from hundreds of years before, the sheep do indeed scatter: v50“they deserted him and ran away”. One disciple, a “young man” who is probably Mark, the writer of this gospel, was so frightened that when the soldiers grabbed him by his long shirt he 52 he slipped out of his shirt and ran away naked.
They all abandon Jesus. The spirit was willing “I will die for you Jesus!” – but the flesh was weak.
But Jesus, the perfect man, prayed, was strengthened, and did not fall away. Where we are weak, he is strong.
All this is happening according to God’s plan. 49 But these things are happening to fulfill what the Scriptures say about me
This was written down hundreds of years before so that we would KNOW that it is true. We would KNOW that Jesus is truly the Messiah, the Christ, the Rescuer – and our King. The Bible is not one book written by some old dude in a tower. It’s a library (so the name “Bible” from the Latin biblia meaning library): 66 books written by 40 authors, written over 1500 years. So hundreds of years before Jesus, men were writing, inspired by the Holy Spirit, about what he would be doing and what he would be saying. Isn’t that amazing?
Last week we saw how all the different promises of God come together in Christ. He is our King, our Priest, and our Prophet. He is the new and better Moses leading the new and better Exodus: the rescue of God’s people. Jesus is the Temple, the meeting palce between mand and God. And he is the Passover Lamb. The sacrifice that can protect us from the angel of death. His body is broken for us. His blood shed for us. He is the Suffering Servant the prophet Isaiah saw. He is the King the prophet Zecahriah saw. He is the LORD – Yahweh - coming to his Temple from Malachi.
Again and again we see that Jesus fulfils Scripture. Someone counted up all the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled – somewhere between 300 and 400, depending on how you count (some people count one verse saying two things as two prophecies, others one)! And Jesus fulfilled all of them. Every single one. Statistically impossible to do by random chance – the only way to fulfil these prophecies is if you are the one who was prophesied!
Have assurance. This is true. This is the gospel: Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Do you think he would bother with all this if that weren’t true. He could have blasted all these fools out of the garden with a word. But he didn’t, because this is why he came. He, the perfect man, came to take our place. He came to be found guilty, to die a sinners death, so that you and I can be found righteous, and live for him. And he rose to life again
He came because we are weak. So if you’re feeling like a failure. If you are agonising over sins that you just keep committing, over sins that you choose to do – remember the disciples, and remember that they ran away from Jesus! And he knew they would. And yet he carried on to the cross so that he could forgive them, and so that he could forgive you.
Yes, sin is serious. Yes it is painful and ugly and damaging. But it can be forgiven. Our confidence is not in ourselves. But our confidence is in Christ.
We may be weak, but Jesus is strong. He knows our weakness, knows our guilt – and has covered it.
Pray without fear. Pray without guilt. Come to him knowing your darkest secrets are covered. And walk in new life, to his praise and glory. Hooray for Jesus!
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