The Garden of Agony - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

The last week we looked at the Lord’s Supper and how it represented the shift from the Law of Moses to the gospel of grace and truth.

Today we come to one of the darkest points in the entire story of the life of Jesus; His agony and betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane. While we’ll never quite endure what Jesus did there is a lot we can learn from the example of Jesus in the garden of agony that night.

Let’s read Mark 14:32-52

Vs. 33-34 tells us that Jesus knew that the time was coming when He would be betrayed, abandoned, and denied by His friends. All of this was weighing heavily on His mind and heart.

We’ve all faced situations that we knew were coming but we dreaded them just the same. I mean does it make the surgery less painful when we know its coming? Does the loss of a loved one hurt less when we know its coming? In fact in some ways knowing what’s coming can make it worse and the dread and anticipation may be even harder to take than the actual event.

There’s an old joke I like to tell it goes like this: “I would rather die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather rather than screaming in terror like the people who were riding in the car with him.” I know booo…., but it does ring true doesn’t it? Knowing what’s coming doesn’t necessarily make it easier. So lets get that cleared up right now.

Just because Jesus knew what was ahead it didn’t minimize the suffering He endured and it didn’t minimize His human need for friendship and His spiritual need for prayer.

Speaking of prayer, Vs. 36 reveals His inner turmoil and struggle to come to terms with His Father’s will. Because He was a man and had walked among the sick and poor He had seen and experienced first hand what He knew; sin had taken a terrible toll on the people and the world He had created and He knew that very soon He would be taking on the full weight of that sin and the full separation that it would bring between Himself and the Father.

Three times while He’s praying He stops and goes to find His disciples, its almost as if His lonely sorrow becomes almost unbearable and He needs the companionship of His friends. How discouraging do you think it was when He found them sleeping? In someway this was just a foreshadowing of what was to come.
Vs. 42-43 is the transition as what was anticipated begins to happen. Looking at the events of this passage it seems to me that Jesus had a general knowledge of what was going to happen but not such clear precision to know exactly where and when. He said “Rise let us be going” as if to flee. Maybe He was trying to protect His disciples, we don’t know but we do know that the very things Jesus dreaded were now upon Him as Judas betrays Him with the words Rabbi, Rabbi. and a kiss. The words Rabbi, Rabbi showed that Judas was betraying Him intellectually and the kiss represents His emotional and spiritual betrayal. In other words Judas’ betrayal was complete and total.

Judas had worked out this sign because he probably wanted to avoid a messy confrontation. At night there would be fewer witnesses, it would be harder to see and it would be easy for the mob to get confused and grab the wrong man. By kissing Jesus and calling Him Rabbi there wouldn’t be any mistakes. The fact that Judas wanted them to take Him away safely showed that He didn’t want anything to do with a violent arrest in the garden.

But Judas wasn’t the only guilty one in the garden that night. Vs. 50-52 tell us that everyone abandoned Him in the hours of His greatest need they all ran away. They ran away in such a hurry that at least one young man left his clothes behind. But leaving clothes behind was the least important thing they left that night.

Looking at this messy, chaotic scene reminds me that if life can be messy and painful for Jesus then we’re not going to be immune to these things. The facts are these: If we haven’t experienced the tragic, chaotic, messiness of life we will and if we have experienced it we can be sure that we will again. So what can we learn from the “garden of agony?”

Jesus’ actions and words tell us that authentic prayer is essential. I think its important to see that Jesus didn’t candy coat or deny how He was feeling. His experience in the garden prayer was raw and gritty. No pious platitudes or denial of reality. If we were to pray this same prayer in our modern speech it would be “Dad and Father, I know you can do anything you want to do and I want you to make this all go away. I don’t want to go through this but I will if you want me too.”

There’s almost this war going on between His flesh and spirit that is mirrored in His words to Simon Peter “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

There's a genuineness to His prayer that we should remember when we're desperate.

Jesus showed us how to stand and face our circumstances. One of the temptations we face in hard times is to try and run away or make a deal to get out of it. But Jesus didn’t try to escape or cut a deal with them. He showed a strong resolve to follow God’s will.

We can't really run away from our problems, even if we try they catch up with us. And making a deal with the devil to try and ease our situation will only make matters worse. But strong resolve to face our trials in the strength that God supplies will see us through.

There’s one final thought I’d like to share with you. In vs. 32 it tells us that this event takes place in Gethsemane. Gethsemane was a garden that was on the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem. It was called the Mount of Olives because there was a grove of olive trees there. We know that olives can be eaten but olive oil was the real treasure so every olive grove had to have a ‘gethsemane,’ the Hebrew word for an olive press.

Olives had to be pressed and crushed to release the real treasure, the oil that was stored inside. At the right time olives were harvested and placed in an olive press and crushed with a heavy stone. This was done twice with the first pressing producing the purest oil and second pressing was the pulp and it produced oil mixed with water. The collected oil was then used in almost every part of the daily lives of the people. The oil was used as fuel for lamps to light their homes; it was used in their cooking, for ointment to heal their wounds, and in perfumes and beauty treatments. Olive oil was also important in the symbols of their faith.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that Jesus was in “Gethsemane” the olive press on this night. As the weight of that night and the events that were to come pressed down upon Him Luke’s gospel tells us Jesus sweat great drops of blood. But like the olives that were pressed in this place to provide the oil that touched every part of their life Jesus knew that the pain and suffering He would endure would touch lives for eternity.

Jesus showed us that suffering is redemptive. It’s clear from Jesus’ prior words that He knew the greater purpose of His suffering. God's plan for the redemption and reconciliation of His children to Himself ran through the suffering of Jesus. But I think we can forget that our suffering is redemptive too. God allows and uses our suffering for our good. Through suffering we can more closely identify with Jesus in His suffering and God has made a promise to us in Romans 8:28 that God works ALL things together for our good.

If we suffer because of personal sin in our life then God allows it to draw us back to Him. If we suffer for doing good then God allows it be an example of His glory in us that will draw others to Him.

Isaiah 61:1-3 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to [those who are] bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees (olive?) of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

Beauty for ashes (oil was used as a beauty treatment), The oil of joy for mourning (oil was used in all of their celebration feasts) But this also tells us that this happens so that the people He has redeemed and healed will be His olive trees of righteousness that He may be glorified.

So as we experience the crushing pressure of life’s tragedies and pain we can be sure that the oil produced by our suffering will not be wasted because we’re His trees of righteousness.

It’s been said that God never wastes anything. We may not see the big picture but we can be sure that…

God collects every tear and uses them to water the seeds of His grace planted in our hearts.

The Table of Grace - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

The last week we were challenged to look at whether we are more interested in our personal convenience or in the costly pursuit of following Jesus no matter what.

Today we’re going to look at Mark 14:12-31. This passage tells us about some lasts; the last night before Jesus would be crucified. It’s the last Passover he would celebrate and it’s the last night He would be with the 12 original disciples together in one place ever.

But it also marks a first; it’s the first time the Lord’s Supper is celebrated.

Let’s read Mark 14:12-31

You’ll notice that this passage is broken into 3 sub plots: the Passover, the Lord’s Supper, and Peter’s denial of his future denial.

I’m drawing your attention to this because it’s an important transition.

It’s no coincidence that God’s plan would include the sacrifice of His only Son to occur during Passover. Everything is in place and the time has come for Jesus to pour out His life and in these two meals we see the symbols of this in vs. 12-26

The shift from the Passover to the Lord’s Supper marks the transfer from the Law of Moses to the gospel of grace and truth; from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

The Passover was celebrated in remembrance of God delivering His people from Egyptian bondage and the Lord’s Supper is to be celebrated in remembrance of Jesus delivering all people from the bondage sin.

The Passover was remembered with a meal focused on a sacrificial lamb that was killed and eaten. The Lord’s Supper is a meal to remember the Lamb of God who was slain for our sins.

The Passover brings to remembrance the blood of a lamb that was placed on the lintel and door posts so that death would pass over the people. The Lord’s Supper brings to remembrance the blood of the Lamb, Jesus, which was shed on the posts of a cross to allow people to pass over from death to life.

There’s something else to consider. The Passover meal was to be shared with others and Jesus, on this night shared the meal with others and who He shared it with showed the move from the law to grace.

As Jesus sat with these guys He knew that He’d be dead the next day and even though He had told His disciples 2 or 3 times before hand what was going to happen they still didn’t connect the dots. But that’s not all Jesus knew. He knew that one of the men who sat at the table with Him that night was in the very process of betraying Him and He also knew that everyone else would abandon Him or deny they knew Him before dawn.

Jesus’ heart had to be aching knowing that He would be betrayed by a friend, denied by His followers, and forsaken by His Father. Luke’s gospel tells us that at this very table Jesus had to listen to His disciples argue about who would be the greatest among them.

Do you know what I think is the most amazing thing in this story? Even though His friends were acting like jerks and knowing what they were all going to do before the night was done He still invited them to sit as His table and eat with Him.

The disciples were invited to the table and not one of them was worthy to be there.

We all know that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus to the men who would have him put to death. Jesus knew He was doing it and He could have told Him not to show up at dinner. But the same could be said for all of the others. Jesus could have eaten this meal with others who would have stood by Him to the very end. The women who showed up at the cross: His mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome to name a few.

But Jesus chooses to eat with those who would betray Him, abandon Him, and deny that they even knew Him.

It says in John 15:16a "You did not choose Me, but I chose you……

Do you realize that Jesus has chosen to be in a relationship with us?

When I was a kid is school I remember there were popular kids and I wanted to be their friend. But my choice to be their friend didn’t matter because they ignored me. It seemed the harder I worked to gain their acceptance the more they rejected me. It just made matters worse because they didn’t choose me because I wasn’t up to their standards, what ever they were.

The amazing thing is that Jesus the perfect Son of God chooses people like us. Look at vs. 29 and vs. 31 and notice Peter’s and the other disciple’s promises (FYI Judas was already gone). Promises that Jesus knew would soon be broken. That reminds me of me. I know I’ve made lots of promises to Jesus and His Dad. Some of them I intended to keep and some of them I made just to get out of whatever hot water I was in at the time. I don’t think I’ve kept any of them completely and you know what? Jesus knew I couldn’t and wouldn’t keep them and that I was lying through my teeth on some of them and the incredible truth is that Jesus still chooses to call me His friend and disciple and He invites me to come to His table and share this meal with Him.

Romans 8:1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation (judgment against you) to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

There is no condemnation because Jesus chose to be our friend and savior. He chose to shed His blood on the cross for us to forgive our sins and all He really asks in return is for us to be His friends and to follow Him. Like the first disciples it means we’ll have to leave our old life behind, but who needs that old sinful thing anyway when Jesus offers us His kingdom, His life, and His love.

Imagine how things would have turned out for Judas if he had chosen to stay at the table as Jesus’ friend that night. If there was a place at the table for a traitor like Judas there’s a place at the table for us and Jesus invites us to come.

This first step is to say yes to His offer to follow Him and leaving our sinful life behind. But there’s so much more as He invites us to His table as His friends to stay close to Him and share in His life.

It really doesn’t matter what you’ve done or how many promises you broken. If you’ve betrayed Him, denied Him, broken promises to Him He still invites you to come to the table as His friend.

Costly or Conveniently? - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.

The last time we looked the ‘end times’ warning that Jesus gave His disciples in Mark 13. He warned them, and us, about 4 spiritual dangers that we will face as time draws to a close. They are Dependence on religious or political power for security. Deception by false messiahs, Distraction by world turmoil and being Discouraged by the severity of persecution. In addition to that He gave them the best promise of all He would return someday to establish His eternal kingdom on the earth and to right every wrong.

Today we’re going to look at Mark 14:1-11. Mark 14 is the turning point in the Passion Week story. We know that Jesus will be crucified by the end of this week and this chapter marks the final turn toward that moment in history.

Let’s read Mark 14:1-11

When I was reading over this passage there were two words that jumped out at me. The first word is costly. That’s the word in vs. 3 that is used to describe the oil that the woman, most likely Mary Magdalene, poured out on Jesus’ head.

The second word was conveniently found in vs. 11. That’s the word that is used to describe the actions Judas would take to betray Jesus.

This passage starts out in vs. 1-2 with a little back story about what was happening behind the scenes out of public view. The religious leaders had stopped trying to test and trap Jesus and now they were going full out to plot a way to kill Jesus without inciting a riot among the people. For them it wasn’t a matter of if, but when. Their minds were made up; Jesus was too much of a threat. They couldn’t ignore Him. They couldn’t defeat Him and they couldn’t discredit Him. It was clear to them that Jesus had to go when there was a convenient time.

In vs. 10 and 11 we see that they had an unexpected friend in Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples. It appears that Jesus’ response to what Judas considered a waste of money by the woman who poured the costly oil on Jesus was the straw that broke the camel’s back and sent Judas off the edge.

He went to the chief priests and made a deal to turn Jesus over to them for some money. It might be just me, but doesn’t it seem that those who love money also love convenience? It’s almost as if one feeds the other. A desire for things that will make life more convenient and comfortable leads to a desire to have more money to get those things and what ends up happening is we get on a treadmill that we can’t seem to stop.

Both the chief priests and Judas were looking for a convenient way to get rid of Jesus. They wanted some way that would keep their actions and motives from being discovered. They didn’t care about the legality of what they were doing. They weren’t even concerned about the spiritual implications of their actions. All they cared about was making sure that they got rid of Jesus and that they looked like they were doing something good and righteous. They didn’t want to have to deal with a big mess.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths we will go to try and cover up our sin. Why is that we work so hard to look good to people when what they think of us really doesn’t matter when it comes to things eternal.

We need to keep that in mind. What they didn’t realize and we need to remember is that…

Convenience in Spiritual things usually looks good on the surface but in the end it costs more than you bargained for.

Let’s be honest don’t we fall into this trap? When we know what the Bible says we should do but we do something else aren’t we taking what seems to be the convenient, easy way out? We all do it. We make excuses and rationalize our sin when we should repent of them. That’s the convenient thing to do, but we fail to consider the true cost. If I read my Bible correctly that convenience will only lead to pain and alienation from God and others. That’s not a good trade if you ask me.

Now let’s turn our attention to vs. 3-9. Jesus is sharing a meal with His disciples and the family of Simon the leper when a woman comes in with a very costly flask of oil. It was a fragrant perfume that probably cost her a year’s wages. How she got that much money isn’t known but there were very limited options for a woman in those days which has led some to suggest she was a woman who sold herself to others.

Jesus is sitting at the table of a man who is possibly an unclean leper, and having His hair soaked in perfume by a woman who was possibly a sinner. Now there’s a picture for you. The convenient thing for Jesus to do was to stay somewhere else and tell the woman to leave. The costly thing was to do what He was doing and risk the hits to His reputation. But this was only one aspect of this costly situation.

If we didn’t know what was coming later in this passage we might be inclined to agree with the disciples about this whole scene. On the surface it looks wasteful and strange and Jesus allowing it and even defending it would have seemed awkward. I mean how would you feel if some woman came in off the street while I was preaching and started washing my hair with perfume? I can assure you that I’d feel weird and not a little freaked out.

Jesus took it in stride because He knew that there was a deeper meaning to all of this and it was so important He made sure that what she did would be remembered forever.

What did it all mean? The woman’s actions were remembered for two reasons: In vs. 8. Jesus said that she had done what she could.

She gave a costly gift to Jesus simply because she could not because she had to. Her devotion to Jesus compelled her to offer what she could.

Remember the widow who put the two small coins in the treasury in ch.12? Jesus said she gave more than anyone else because she gave everything she had. Her ‘costly’ gift was only 2 small coins but she gave it because that’s what she could give. Giving one would have been more convenient and giving three was impossible. She gave what was costly. Jesus admires both of these women because they gave what they could.

Why did this woman’s gift impact Jesus like it did? The second part of vs. 8 says that she came to anoint His body for burial.

Her costly gift was a symbol of Jesus’ costly sacrifice. She broke the alabaster container symbolizing how the body of Jesus would be broken by the cruelty and beatings He would endure. She poured out the perfume symbolizing His blood that would be poured out for our sins as He would be nailed to a cross and pierced with a Roman spear.

It’s interesting to note that those who thought it was a waste were the same ones who thought His crucifixion was a waste. There was no way that any of them could have known the powerful witness her actions would provide or even how they would have a ripple effect on the heart of Judas to betray Jesus.

The woman (and the widow) offered what was costly to them because they could and they weren’t concerned about what they would have left over.

The priests and Judas wanted to get rid of Jesus conveniently because they were worried about what they would have left. The priests their reputation and position and Judas the money he would have when he was done with Jesus.

When we’re more concerned with what we’ll have left we miss out on what could have been. We trade our opportunities for convenience when we could offer what is costly to Jesus. While they may not have much value in the eyes of the world….

When we offer our costly things to Jesus (our time, our talents and our treasures) we bless His heart and they become tools in His hands to touch people beyond ourselves.