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.

Why Can't I....? - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

Click HERE to listen or download this talk....

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


Last we looked at the transfiguration of Jesus – the moment His glory broke through the veil of His human flesh – the holy glow.


Today we’re moving from the glorious mountain top experience back down to the valley of daily life.


So let’s read Mark 9:14-29….


I know we’ve all experienced that moment after we’ve been exposed to a glorious mountain top experience with Jesus where life’s reality reaches up and smacks us in the face. Often it’s just having to go back to work on Monday morning.


Jesus and the three disciples who were on the mountain with Him experience the same thing in this passage. This reminds me of the story in Exodus when Moses and Joshua are coming down mount Sinai after Moses received the Decalogue (10 Commandments) in a mountain top experience and as they were walking back to camp they hear a loud noise that Joshua thinks is caused by battle but Moses hears it and says “it’s not the sound of war but the sound of a wild party! What are these people up to?”


As they get close to camp they see the people not only partying, but worshiping a golden calf idol that they had made! Can you imagine what kind of a Monday morning experience that was?


Jesus faces that here. The first thing He encounters when He returns from the mountain is a huge group of people standing around watching a big argument between the other disciples and those nifty scribes. I think that’s the reason Jesus took Peter with Him, He probably expected something to happen while He was away and figured it was better if Peter was where He could keep and eye on him.


This argument started because the disciples couldn’t cast an evil spirit out of a young boy. They had tried but nothing happened and that gave the scribes an opportunity to try and undermine them and their teacher. Of course when you try to upstage someone they get all defensive and the next thing you know there’s a fight. That’s just great.


But let’s face it we’ve all felt that way at times haven’t we? You know what I’m talking about, those times when we pray from someone and nothing happens?


Sometimes we feel like God’s left us hanging out there on a big ol’ limb. Am I right, isn’t that how it feels?


Do I have your permission to be even more blunt? O.k.? For some, if not all of us, it has at some level caused a crisis of faith. Not to the point where we’re thinking about abandoning the faith, but it has caused us to question some of what we believe about divine healing and other miracles. It may have even caused to hesitate to pray for others, or even changed the way we pray.


Don’t we sometimes feel like we have to make excuses for God? Am I crazy here or am I on to something….


Then you read a passage like this and you may have an idea what the disciples were feeling. But the interesting thing to note is how Jesus responds. He doesn’t try to make them feel better about their doubts; in fact His response is almost like rubbing salt in the wound. How would you feel if you asked Jesus “Why?” and He answered back “How long do I have to put up with you?” That’s kind of rough isn’t it?


When we feel that way only have a couple of options: we can quit or we can get aside with Jesus and learn from Him. This happened in two ways.


Look at the father of the boy in his first request in vs. 22 where he basically showed a lack of faith and said to Jesus “if you can…” Then after Jesus challenges his faith in vs. 23 with an ‘if you can’ question of His own the father gets it and says in essence according to R. Alan Cole “ok then help me just as I am, a doubter.”


The father learned to approach Jesus with faith no matter how small it seemed to be. Don’t come to Him with doubt; come to Him humbly and honestly with whatever measure of faith you have. You might as well what have you got to lose!


Then we see the disciples learning from Jesus. Still hurting and humiliated by what they had just experienced they asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out the demon. I think their question says a lot about where they were coming from. Based on their question “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” who were they more concerned with? Themselves and their reputation. If they had asked “Why couldn’t we help that boy and his father?” it would have shown a mature level of compassion and humility.


So Jesus sees right through this and gives them a quick lesson in humility: This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting (some mss. leave out and fasting but there’s strong evidence that it should be included).


I’m not discounting the importance of prayer and fasting, it’s obvious that Jesus meant what He said, but why did He say it? In the past Jesus had sent out the disciples in twos and had given them authority to cast out demons. They had done it before so they were completely confused as to why the formulas of the past didn’t work this time.


I believe Jesus answer was intended to show them that they couldn’t rely on a method or formula that worked in the past.


The disciples had to learn to rely on an abiding, humble reliance on God’s power. Prayer and fasting isn’t about a formula for ministry success, it’s about setting everything aside and drawing near to Jesus and drawing in His strength and power. It’s admitting that we’re weak and He is strong and through His strength we can do all things. (Phil. 4:13)


If we pull back from doing powerful works of compassion because we’re afraid of how we’ll look if we fail then we need to go back to Jesus for an attitude adjustment and prayer and fasting is a great place to start.


So let’s ask ourselves this morning do we care enough about the hurting people around us to get on our faces before God and ask for His help to make a difference? Are we willing to put aside everything else so that we can encounter our loving and powerful savior in such a way that we can then serve others with His compassion poured into our hearts?