Lessons from Gethsemane

Mark 14:32-42: ' 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 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.” '

I sometimes like to take bible passages apart to get an understanding of each part separately as I try to understand the whole. Today we look at Mark 14:32-42, a passage about Jesus at Gethsemane with several of His disciples. Let’s take them apart as we ask the Holy Spirit for illumination into what each part means and what it tells us for our day-to-day living.

‘Sit here while I pray’: Yes, corporate prayer is important, but sometimes, and especially in your times of sorrow, you need to go to God alone.

'And he took with him Peter and James and John': The inner circle. Finding the right people to pray with and who can pray with you in your times of distress and even in times of joy is important in our lives and our Christian Journey. Even Jesus Christ, the whole son of God had that inner circle while on earth.

'And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch."': That inner circle should be people we are not shy or afraid to express ourselves and share our sorrow and pain with. People we can trust. Remember, it’s not very easy to find such people. This should be done prayerfully, trusting the Holy Spirit to lead us to them.

'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.”': Even Jesus went through a time where the will of the Father felt difficult to do, like a cross too heavy for him to bear. He wished that this be taken away from Him. However, He said, not my will, but your will be done. He acknowledged the supremacy of God over everything and the fact that the will of God supersedes everything. Yet not what I will, but what you will. In our lives, it’s so important to acknowledge the supremacy of God in everything, even when we don’t understand what is going on in our lives, and we feel lost. The beautiful thing is that we can go to God in prayer and ask for answers which we can get now or later. However, as we wait for our answers, our first response should be, Lord, not my will but your will be done. Yet not what I will, but what you will.

'And he came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?"': Yes, you could have an inner circle who like or love and care about you but may not be able to stand in the gap as you do. As such, as we pray, our focus and faith should not be on the fact that we pray with other people or we have a support group for prayer. Our focus should be on God and our faith should be placed in God alone and not those we know are praying for us. It’s not about how many people pray for or with us. It’s all about God and the fact that He is willing and capable of answering our prayers. That’s where our focus must be.

'Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”': How do we not stray from under the feet of God? How do we make sure that we are conscious of temptations so that we do not succumb to them? The key thing is always to be alert, Always. As it stands, once you are a child of God, the enemy is always trying to bring you down. He brings a number of things here and there to try and take your attention away from God and cause you to focus on yourself, on your problems, and on him. But God has given us the ammunition to overcome all these through His word, His son Jesus Christ. We can only be alert when we know the schemes of the wicked one, and we can know and overcome these through the word. The enemy tempts us mostly through our minds. By bombarding us with one negative thought after the other. By over-hyping molehill problems and making them look like mountains, by making small skin rashes look like cancer in our minds, and by making our small physical pain feel like something that can cause whole-body paralysis, all in our minds. But God almighty has given us the power to overcome that. We can overcome them when we identify them and we can identify them when we watch. And we watch by being alert. When negative thoughts and overhyped weaknesses come into our thoughts, we need to immediately shut them down with the word of God and constantly renew our hearts and minds to conform with the truth of God’s love, His willingness, and capability to take care of everything that concerns us.

We also need to pray always. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, 'For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ’s. Our prayer in line with God’s will, in addition to the word of God which is the sword of the spirit, and our faith which is our shield, Ephesians 6:11-18 are ready weapons for battle that our father has given to us to deploy in full measure and succeed. While we stay alert in prayer wearing the full Armor of God, victory is assured. There is no maybe to this, victory is definitely assured. Thank You, Jesus!

'And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words': There is no hard and fast rule to prayer. Jesus really felt the weight of what was to come, for Him to pray the same words again. Especially in our times of distress, we need to keep going to God. Our prayers don’t have to be perfect or for us to say perfect words. The most important thing is for us to go to our Father again and again and again with our fears and worries and pain and bear it all under His feet. Yet not my will, but your will be done. We need to keep running to the arms of our Father and lay our burdens at His feet and allow Him to take care of us.

'And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?': This question is profound oo. Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Like at this critical moment in my life. LOL. Just shows me that there are times in our lives when we cannot be sleeping. We have to keep watch and alert and keep praying. Sleep should not be an option. But of course, we need to find rest in our Father. Sleep here also means relaxing so much about a situation and giving up even before you have started fighting. We have to watch and pray and not give up! That’s the time to exercise our God-given authority. The time to put on our full Armor ready for battle, the time to be under the shadow of the almighty God and not succumb to fear, the time to not be crippled by the weight of our burden. I can only imagine how Jesus felt. He thought he had friends who had his back, but they had succumbed to sleep because they did not know or could not see the gravity of the situation.

'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.” ': A clear depiction of the will of God against our will and of God always seeing the bigger picture than our manly limited thinking can ever see. Here, right after Jesus prayed the prayer for the Father to take off the burden from Him, the hour still came when He was betrayed. But the beautiful thing is, though Jesus knew the burden to come, He knew more and trusted more in the Father’s will and asked that the will of the Father be done, regardless of everything. Can we actually do the same? Wow! God help us! Thank You Jesus for this sacrifice.

In our times of sorrow and pain, it is imperative to trust God and his plans but at the same time, we cannot relax, we have to stay alert and pray. We can have our inner circle who pray with us but as people, it is imperative to also pray in our own closet and rest under the shadow of the wings of the almighty and loving father. Always remember, God loves us so much and His plans are always bigger and better than our own plans.