Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane by Giambattista Tiepolo (1750)

In Mark 14:32-42 we see Jesus entering the Garden of Gethsemane to pray….this is his darkest moment on earth thus far. His “soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Mark 14:34) – the reality of what is about to occur is setting in & there is anguish. He is about to head to the cross where He will be beaten, tortured and killed. But I think as awful & gut wrenching as that was I believe Jesus experienced greater sorrow over that fact that He would be facing the unbridled, unwavering wrath of God Almighty – for the sin of mankind…all sin from Adam & Eve in the garden to my unrestrained anger blow-up yesterday. Perfect fellowship with the Father from eternity past is about to be broken – for the first time. The weight of that reality must have been incalculable.

As he enters deep into the garden he takes His three closest friends – Peter, James & John. These men represented Jesus’ inner circle…these were His men and he brings them in to keep watch. Going a little farther he falls to his knees…and then to his face & through tears & turmoil we can never fully grasp he surrenders His will to the Father.

Coming back to his closest friends he finds them asleep. To Peter, the unofficial second in command Jesus asks, “Are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). And Jesus heads back to pray and to wrestle with the impending reality. And again….he comes back and finds them sleeping. They look at Jesus but did not know what to say – they have failed again. And again Jesus goes back to fall before the Father in prayer & returning a third time he finds his friends asleep. They heaviness of their eyes outweighed their desire to support Jesus. They could not sustain the energy needed to keep watch for their friend, their leader, their Savior.

I find myself locked in on Jesus’ statement, “the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak.” How true it was for these men – who promised Jesus just moments before falling asleep that they would never leave him…they would never forsake him…indeed, they would die for him. Their spirit was willing….their flesh was weak. All their zeal & gusto fled when it got to be past their bedtime.

I’d be kidding myself if I thought that Peter, James & John were the only ones to whom the whole “willing spirit, weak flesh” thing applied to, right? How many times have I made bold claims for Jesus? How many “I’ll never leave you, forsake you, abandon you” proclamations have I made only to find myself fast asleep within 10 minutes? A willing spirit….a weak flesh. All talk; no game.

There’s only one Hero in this passage. Only one person with a willing spirit & and a trained flesh. The One who, in spite of the unimaginable suffering that was before him was able to say, “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 14:41-42). All others flee – their resolve faltering before the soldier’s spears. Only One remains. And He would head to a cross to save people with weak flesh – people like Peter, James & John…..and people like David.

The Widow's Mite by A.D. Rahn

I spent some time this morning working through this very challenging passage of Scripture in Mark. I don’t believe I walked away from this section with any brand new, earth-shattering theological observations; however, I have been thoroughly challenged by the thought that much of my giving (all?) has come from my abundance.

Here are some observations:

1. From Jesus’ perspective a generous gift is not measured in absolute dollars.
2. Jesus measures the contribution value of the gift based on how much it costs the giver.
3. There were many rich people but only one poor widow
4. The widow’s faith & dependence on God is demonstrated as she goes “all in” with her giving.
5. Jesus does not denounce the offerings of the rich. He simply states that the poor widow gave more than the rich because her giving cost her more.

 As I read this passage I was reminded of what C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Mere Christianity (Book 3, Chapter 13)….

“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.”

In Mark 10:46-52 we find one such man.  Mark goes out of his way to make sure we know this man’s name.  He is “Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus…”  The Greek prefix “Bar” means “son of” (cf. Matthew 16:17 & Acts 13:6).  Mark’s readers would have known that “Bartimaeus” meant that this man was the son of Timaeus.  And yet – Mark repeats it so we would know that this is “Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus.”  Mark wants us to know his name.  Timaeus means “highly prized” or “honor.”  This blind man’s name means “son of honor”…the “highly prized one”- though as he sits on the side of the road begging you might think otherwise.  And yet – one day as he sits begging he hears the low murmur of a crowd headed his direction.  He hears that Jesus was going to pass his way.  He has heard of Jesus – the man of God who works miracles.  Perhaps he has heard about the other blind man who Jesus healed (Mark 8:22-26).  Or how he raised the little girl from the dead, or opened the ears and mouth of a deaf/mute man.  We don’t know how much detail he had on Jesus but we do know that he believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah.  And so he shouts – loud, repeatedly, embarrassingly – “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  When those in the crowd told him to shut up he merely increased his shouts – louder and more annoying.  Though he could not see – his voice was plenty healthy. 

And here we have three words that forever changed Bartimaeus’ life:  “And Jesus stopped…”  Jesus was busy.  He was surrounded by people who were vying for his attention.  He was on his way to Jerusalem to sacrifice his life.  And yet – when He heard the cries of this man asking for mercy from the Messiah He stopped.  In spite of the crowd.  In spite of the journey to Jerusalem. In spite of a lot of things…Jesus stopped & he healed this man.  This “son of honor.”

And thankfully Jesus still stops.  When we find ourselves, for whatever reason, sitting on the side of the road crying out for mercy, it’s good to know that the One who brought sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, peace to those drowning in chaos & life to the dead is still in the business of stopping.  

There’s a lot more we could stew on with respect to this passage – its strategic placement after the James & John ask for the places of “honor”, the Son of David title used by the beggar, etc…  But for now I’m going to just focus on the fact that Jesus still stops for me….for you….and for anyone who cries out for mercy.

And stuck right in the middle of all this talk of rejection and suffering and death is this statement by Jesus: “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (9:35).  In context Jesus is addressing the disciple’s argument over which one of them was the greatest.  And in the same way He needed to clarify the Biblical Messiah, He clarified the Biblical model of greatness.   Just as the Son of Man is a suffering Servant, those that come after Him should be servants.  The measure of greatness in Jesus’ mind was not reflected by how high one can climb but by how low one can go. If you want to be first then stop jockeying for prime position & instead start leading others to the front.  And lest the disciples get confused on exactly what He’s talking about Jesus brings a child into their midst to further illustrate His point – “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (9:37).

His point is clear:  If you claim to follow Jesus your life should be marked by an ever increasing servant’s heart for all people – especially those who can do nothing to further your personal gain.  To state it in the negative:  If you are a person who is not marked by an ever increasing servitude for all people, including (& perhaps especially) the weak & defenseless then you are following the wrong Jesus.

Want a real life illustration?  So just now….literally as I’m typing this two of my kids woke up, came downstairs & asked me to help them get breakfast.  And here’s what’s so pathetic – my gut response was frustration that they were interrupting me.  Don’t they know that I’m in the middle of explaining how true followers of Jesus serve others – including children?

I know what you’re thinking…..go ahead & nominate me for dad of the year and for the guy that “get’s it.”  Clearly, Jesus still has lots of work to do in my heart.  And obviously knowing is not the same as doing.

This is a strong warning that had clear application to the disciples & likewise should affect us today.  And since we get the benefit of hindsight and we know the rest of the story this warning makes sense to us. 

The disciples, however, struggle to keep up with what Jesus is communicating.  They assume that he’s referring back to the miracle He just performed in feeding a crowd of four thousand people.  Their thought process might have gone something like this: 

• Jesus multiplied some bread – on two occasions (Mark 6:30-44 & Mark 8:1-10)
• Bread has leaven in it
• Jesus just talked about the leaven of the Pharisees
• Therefore, He must be referring back to the miracle & the fact that we only brought one loaf with us in the boat.

Ummm….not so much.  The disciples see the physical need of food.  Jesus sees the spiritual need of discernment.  The disciples are worried because they only have a little bit of bread for the whole lot of them.  Jesus wants them to realize that a little bit of spiritual leaven is plenty to infect the whole lot of them.  The disciples think that one loaf won’t feed them all.  Jesus is not worried about their bread supply because (as the two feeding miracles in Mark demonstrate) He feeds thousands of people off of one loaf.

Jesus fires off nine questions to help the disciples to recognize that they are focused on the wrong thing.  The last question sums up the first eight “Do you not yet understand?”  The narrative ends without a response from the disciples.  The lack of a recorded response from them implies that the answer is, “No….we don’t understand.”  Even though the disciples were with Jesus for three years, at this point they did not know how the story was going to unfold.  They did not have a clue about what Jesus would end up doing – voluntarily laying down His life on a cross & rising from the dead three days later.  We should be able to extend some grace to these men who were just trying to keep up with Jesus. 

But that last question (v. 21) is one He could ask me daily – “Do you not yet understand?”  In other words, having seen all that I have done & said are you still really concerned about the physical nature.  Don’t you see that every need you’ve had has been taken care of?  Haven’t you clued in to the fact that the key issue in your life is not your stomach but your soul?  Isn’t it clear by the way I’ve interacted with the lost, the hurting & the prideful that I’m up to more than just feeding & healing people’s physical infirmities?

And here’s the reality….I’ve read the story from cover to cover.  I know how it ends.  And yet, even with the full story laid about before me I still find myself focusing on and asking about loaves of bread.  My heart can still be hardened.  My eyes can still fail to see & my ears fail to hear.  And in the same way that Jesus is patient with the disciples – never giving up on them, never leaving them for another group of smarter people, seeing them through to the very end….He is patient with me.  He’ll finish the work He’s started – in spite of my short memory & shortcomings.  

O Jesus, thou hast promised To all who follow thee

That where thou art in glory There shall my servant be;

And, Jesus, I have promised To serve thee to the end;

O give me grace to follow, My Master and my Friend.

1. God’s desire that His people be distinct from the world – unstained is the picture in these two passages.  Personal purity & holiness should mark God’s people – this was true for those who lived before the Jesus came & is equally true for those of us who live on this side of the cross.  I spent some time last year mulling over this point as it relates to James 1:27.
2. God’s desire is that His people care for the weak & vulnerable – the orphan & the widow in these two passages.

Under normal circumstances these two would never encounter each other – one at the top of the social & religious ladder & the other at the very bottom.  And yet, since both live in a fallen world both are experiencing the pain of sickness. Jairus’ twelve year old daughter is dying & a woman with a hemorrhage has been dying for twelve years.  In a desperate quest for healing they are brought together around Jesus.

Though they are as far from each other as the east is from the west – when they meet together around Jesus their lives move from extraordinarily perpendicular to unbelievably parallel:

• Both are out of options & both come by faith to Jesus.
• Both are desperate for healing & believe that a touch of Jesus is enough to bring restoration & newness of life.
• Both have to fight through the crowd to get to Jesus.
• Both fall at Jesus’ feet in utter submission & desperation.
• Both find grace, mercy & peace when they get there.
• Both experience total & complete healing – Jairus’ daughter is raised from the dead & the woman experiences immediate healing (& by the way – Jesus calls her “daughter” (v. 34) - the ONLY time in the Gospels He uses that term)

Click HERE to read the passage for yourself – I think you’ll be encouraged.

Click HERE for a little visual I put together to help illustrate the parallel nature of these miracles.

Jesus’ reputation & influence grows as he teaches with authority, engages the lost & outcast & heals the sick & broken.  The Pharisees feel their grip over the people being loosened and rather than submit to this man they are going to go down swinging.  They see Jesus as a law-breaker & a usurper of their power over the people.

Jesus, knowing the intentions of their hearts (Luke 6:8) asks a rhetorical question that cuts through the impurity & wickedness of the Pharisees hearts.  “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or kill?”    These religious leaders, who seem to have an answer for everything, stood silent…unable or unwilling to respond.  The hardness of their hearts preventing their mouths from speaking.  Jesus “looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of heart.”  And with that simple statement we find the only explicit reference to Jesus’ anger recorded in the gospels.

Unwillingness from those entrusted to lead the Jewish people to God to help a fellow man – based on a misguided understanding of the Law & a wicked heart angered the Son of God.   But his response was not anger alone…his anger was mixed with grief over the state of their hearts.  His desire was that they would really come to know & understand the God they claimed to worship.  They were lost & on a path leading to eternal self destruction and that grieved the heart of God who desires that all men be saved (Luke 19:10, 1 Timothy 2:1-4).  Being angry I get.  Being angry makes sense here.  Being grieved over the state of their heart reveals to me that I still have a long way to go in my becoming like Jesus.  

And so, in his anger & in his grief Jesus utters four words to the man with the deformity – “stretch out your hand.”   And so without lifting a finger, without breaking a sweat, without doing anything that could be construed as work – Jesus heals this man.  His actions condemn the Pharisees as the heart of God is make clear – “Not to do good, when it is in the power of our hand to do it, is to do evil; not to save life, when we can, is to kill” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary).  The man, who everyone could see was broken, walks away healed. The Pharisees, who everyone thought were righteous walk away condemned.

But Scripture doesn’t paint me with the same colors I’ve painted Abigail. I was not an orphan that was cute, innocent, adorable or willing. According to God’s word I was:

• Romans 3:
  • V. 9 – I was under sin
  • V. 11 – I had no righteousness, & was without understanding & certainly not seeking God.
  • V. 12 – I had turned aside & had become worthless.
• Romans 5:
  • V. 6 – I was weak
  • V. 8 – I was a sinner
  • V. 10 – I was an enemy
• Ephesians 2:
  • V. 1 – I was dead in my transgressions & sins
  • V. 2 – I was following the prince of the power of the air
  • V. 2 – I was a son of disobedience
  • V. 3 – I lived in the passions of my flesh, carrying out the desires of my body & mind
  • V. 3 – I was by nature a child of wrath
  • V. 5 – I was dead in my trespasses
• Ephesians 4:
  • V. 18 – I was darkened in my understanding
  • V. 18 – I was alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that was in me due to their hardness of my heart
  • V. 19 – I had become callous & have given myself up to sensuality & was greedy to practice every kind of impurity
  • V. 22 – I was corrupt through deceitful desires
• Colossians 1:
  • V. 21: I was alienated & hostile in mind, doing evil deeds
• Colossians 2:
  • V. 13 – I was dead in my trespasses

The reality is that I was the child with reactive attachment disorder. I was the child with fetal alcohol syndrome. I was overwhelmed with sensory integration issues. I was the child who living on the streets engaged in hurtful habits & reckless behavior. In fact, sometimes – more than I care to admit – I’m still that same child.  And yet…and yet – He still chose me, adopted me & made me His own. Right in the middle of my mess Scripture tells me that Christ died for me though I was helpless & ungodly (Romans 5:6). It assures me that God demonstrated His love for me that while I was STILL A SINNER Christ died for me (Romans 5:8). It comforts me with the knowledge that I was chosen before the foundation of the world to be adopted as a son through Jesus Christ – to experience redemption & forgiveness, to obtain an inheritance that will never fade & to be sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of my future inheritance (Ephesians 1:2-14).

This is the truth about my adoption & I will boast in God’s goodness & grace all day long.