Mark 14:32-42

“Agony is Not Defeat”

Today, we continue in our series where we are taking an in-depth look at the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life … “24 Hours That Changed the World”. We began last week with the Lord’s Supper, learning how Jesus used the setting of the Passover Seder to give us something new … the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper … a new covenant that is our defining story.

Today, we pick up with what happened just after the Supper. Scripture tells us that he left the Upper Room in Jerusalem and went to a place outside the city called, The Garden of Gethsemane. The exact site of the garden is unknown today, but we do know that it was on the Mount of Olives, which is across the Kidron Valley and overlooks the City of Jerusalem. Today, there is a Garden there with Olive Trees dating back to the time of Jesus, where Early Christians claim was the sight where Jesus prayed. It was here that Jesus came with his disciples to pray. It was here that Jesus would be betrayed by Judas and arrested. And it was here that Jesus would wrestle in agony.

Every one of us here has probably been confronted with something in our lives that has pushed us to make a decision or to act in a way that we wish we didn’t have to. Yet, something larger … something bigger than life mandates that it must be so. This is where Jesus found himself in this moment at the Garden. If you can recall such a moment in your life, you will perhaps recall the agony of wrestling with such a decision.

As I worked on this sermon for today, I found it to be a difficult task. Over the years, I have read this text and preached on it many times. I have often focused on the disciples: James, Peter and John, and their inability to stay awake and to support Jesus in his critical hour of need … and how often that is our story. My attention has often been focused on the way Jesus was arrested in the Garden, how Judas betrayed him, and the violence that took place there. But this time, it was different.

I found myself with a need to more fully understand the actions of Jesus here in the Garden. Because, it is clear, that in this moment Jesus was teaching us something about what it means to be his followers. I found myself wanting to know why Jesus was put in this position and what was it that God really wanted from him in this moment? Because, there are times when we are faced with such moments of agony, too.

As I retraced the steps of Jesus in the Holy Land recently, upon entering this site of the Garden of Gethsemane, my eyes filled with tears, as I was overcome with sense of Jesus’ passion for us. How he must have felt so alone and so afraid in that moment. Yet somehow, he came to that place where we find the courage to do things that we never thought we could do. And we do them, because something more powerful inside of us knows that real life … true life comes from that decision. And even if you have to die for that life to be realized, you say, “It’s worth it.”

I found myself needing to understand more fully how Jesus arrived at that place of courage and peace. I found myself needing to know how Jesus, faced with the worst that evil had to offer, was able to stay faithful to God’s will. I found myself needing to know this, because I have found myself in those moments of agony and I suspect that you have too.

And here in the Garden, Jesus demonstrates what it means to face such challenges. Here in the Garden, Jesus demonstrates what it means to face such evil … both the evil that we do and the evil that we encounter in this world. Here Jesus shows us, that when confronted by evil, in the midst of blatant and unparalleled betrayal, we are to choose the way of life. Here Jesus shows us that in the face of intense suffering and prolonged pain, there is a way out. He shows us that agony is not defeat.

In Jesus’ journey to the Cross, he is showing us, not how we are defeated by evil, but how we are to challenge evil. And it is here, that Jesus shows us how God answers that cry, “If is possible, let this cup pass from me, but not what I want … what do you want, Lord?” That’s the question for us: “What do you want, Lord? What is your will for my life?”

Jesus demonstrates for us that this becomes clearer to us when we pray. Jesus shows us that when we don’t know what to do, we must pray. And the kind of prayer that I’m talking about is deeper than many of the one-liners that we typically offer to God in the midst of our busy schedules. Like Jesus in the Garden, it’s the kind of prayer where we give all of our selves and all of our situations into the hands of God. It’s the kind of prayer that goes deeper than words … a total leaning upon and yielding to God’s will.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul had this to say about prayer:

“The moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside, helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. God does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

In the Garden, Jesus shows us that the way to face evil and to discern God’s will for our lives in challenging times, is to pray. Luke’s Gospel tells us that: “In his anguish Jesus prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” Have you ever prayed like Jesus prayed? Have you ever found yourself so scared, so desperate, so troubled, that you prayed with everything within you? This is what I think Jesus meant when he said, “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.” It is seeking God’s will with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul and strength.

Too often, I think we are guilty of making decisions for our lives and then we ask God to tag along. Instead of praying, “Not my will, but your will, O God,” our prayers are more like, “This is my will, O God, and I hope you bless it.” That’s why, during this Season of Lent, I am including in your bulletins each week a prayer guide. This is an opportunity for each of us to strengthen our prayer lives, to improve our conscious contact with God, and for God to become more than just “a tag-along God”. I hope that you will find this helpful and that it will help us all to begin a more disciplined and fruitful life of prayer.

But you know, even when we’ve prayed and we discern what we know God wants us to do, we don’t always do it. Something seems to distract us and gets in the way of that. We call this “our human condition”. And here in the Garden, Jesus showed us what to do with our human condition.

When Jesus found the disciples sleeping the second time he went away to pray, he admonished them, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is our human condition, isn’t it? One of the ways that we are often distracted from what our true actions should be is that we become “weary”. It’s not easy to try to live right and to do the right thing. To follow Jesus is to live against the grain of this world’s values. And we get bruised and bloody and weary from this fight. Often, “Our spirits are willing, but the flesh is weak.” And you know why that happens? It’s because we’re trying to do it on our own. As God told Zechariah, “It is not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”

Jesus realized that there was no way he could face that Cross on his own. That’s why he went to the Garden to pray. And this is where we should go, not just when we are facing a crisis, but everyday on a regular basis. We cannot live the life God is calling us to live, unless we are stay connected to God through prayer … daily drawing upon his strength. So, when you find yourself feeling weary, that’s an indication that you need to spend time in prayer, because life gets tough at times.

And in verse 34, Jesus lets us know that he understands our human condition, when he said, “I feel like I am in a sink-hole of dreadful agony.” Webster’s Dictionary defines “agony” as, “An extreme and generally prolonged pain. Intense suffering.” Jesus says, “I am deeply grieved, to the point of death.” You see, Jesus understands what it is like to be in agony and here, he teaches us that in such times we should turn to God in prayer, who is the source of our strength, comfort, and guidance.

Another part of our human condition that keeps us from doing what we should in life, is that we often try to control and manage our lives so that no suffering occurs and we don’t have to deal with the evils around us. Our human condition is often one of “denial”. But Jesus showed us that denying our human condition; denying our feelings; denying our stresses; and denying the evils of this world is not the way to life.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to be engaged with the sufferings and the injustices in this world. We are called to go into the places of darkness and bring forth the light of Christ. Our hearts are supposed to break for the things that are breaking the heart of God. And that is never an easy thing. Our hearts will be burdened when we do that.

As wonderful as our trip to the Holy Land was, there were moments of great sadness. What I can tell you is that what we see through our News media here in America is not the reality over there. We tend to see only the extreme factions that make the news exciting. The truth is that there are grave injustices occurring over there that are breeding the extremists’ agenda and behavior we tend to see on our televisions and much of it is being funded by our tax dollars. To be sure, there is suffering and injustices on all sides. But because of the fear of a few extremists, innocent Palestinians … many of whom are devoted Christians like you and me, are being treated in ways that can only be described as inhumane.

One day, we visited a Palestinian Christian hospital for children. It seeks to provide medical care and education for Palestinian children that are suffering there. It is the only facility there that offers care to Palestinian children with disabilities. Due to their cities being walled in and cut off from all medical care and education facilities, many are forced to live in refugee camps and this hospital stands as a ray of Christ’s light in a very dark place. It’s an institution supported by our United Methodist Church.

As we walked through the halls, visiting with the children there and listening to their stories, we all wept. Our hearts broke for something that is undoubtedly breaking the heart of God. There was no doubt in my mind, that if Jesus was in Jerusalem today, that is where he would be.

But then, I realized that Jesus is there. We saw him in the Director, who is a Palestinian Christian woman who is answering God’s call to minister in such a place. We saw him in the teachers that risk their lives every day to come to work and minister to the children. We saw him the smiles of children who are learning to walk and hear for the first time. Jesus was there because of people who are refusing to deny and ignore the needs around them.

Our hearts were broken by many of the things we saw. Yet, Jesus showed us that to be in agony is not defeat. God is at work in the midst of the evil there, through people who are refusing to deny and ignore the situation.

There are lots of ways that we can be in denial. Some people spend their whole lives seeking their own pleasures and ignoring the rest of the world. With the convenience of a remote control, we can quickly switch the channel when we see the faces of starving children in Africa or when we see the ravages of war in a distant land, we say, “That’s not my problem.” Yet, as Jesus shows us through his willingness to accept God’s will and to bear our sins on the Cross, it is in denying ourselves and giving of ourselves for others who are in need that true life is found.

And the thing we need to realize, is that through our denial we empower evil and participate with it. When we choose to ignore the injustices and the cries of others around us, we are empowering evil and giving evil the victory. When we close our ears and refuse get involved in the needs of others, choosing to live only for ourselves, we participate in the evil we say we deplore. You know, God could have chosen to ignore our cries, but thank God “He so loved this world that he sent his only Son, so that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I once listened to a woman talking about being abused by her husband who would punch her in the stomach, so no bruises would be seen by others. She told how he would take a pillow and put it over her face, until she passed out. And as she described her story, she did it smiling, denying her feelings, and doing her best to deny the terror and the evil of the situation. In her attempts to manage and to control a very out-of-control situation, she participated with evil. She betrayed herself. She practiced denial.

The point I’m trying to make, is that when we try to control our situations through denial, whether it’s ignoring the evil around us or denying our own struggles, we cooperate with evil. We empower it. And Jesus showed us how to deal with evil. The way to deal with evil is not to deny it, but to face it with God’s help.

But that’s not easy for us to do. Sometimes, we procrastinate. Procrastination is also part of our human condition … procrastination that is born out of fear. And this too, is a participation with evil. We put things off and put things off, which only causes the problems to get bigger and bigger. And often, we procrastinate because we are afraid of dealing with the evil that is both around us and within us.

Is “procrastination” or “fear” the distractions that are keeping you from doing God’s will for your life? Is this what keeps you in the Garden, hiding from a certain situation? Well, let me encourage you today to give whatever it is to Jesus. For as John reminds us, “There is no fear in love, but Christ’s perfect love casts out fear.”

Here’s what I have discovered in my relationship with Christ. When you step out in faith; facing the challenges around you; going where God wants you to go, it is in that step of faith that God’s power and presence is made known to us in profound ways. In every endeavor that I have ever sought to follow God’s will in, I have had to overcome the element of fear. Afraid of what my friends or others might think. Afraid of what I might encounter. Afraid of the cost or the sacrifice. Afraid of not being adequate or failing at the task. And that has often caused me to procrastinate, sometimes missing out on what God was calling me to do. Is that your story?

I think we all struggle with this. But do you see how this is a participation with evil? You see, if Satan can make us afraid and make us procrastinate, then evil is empowered and emboldened. So, what is causing you to procrastinate? What is causing you fear? Remember how Jesus said,“Fear not, for I will supply your every need.”

Another distraction for us, I think, comes in distinguishing between what we are called to do and what we want to do. Do you ever struggle with that? We all do. And here again, Jesus shows us how to deal with this. Part of the reason Jesus went to the Garden that night was to deal with this very question. Like us, he agonized over the battle that takes place within us all … “our will” verses “God’s will”.

Often times, these two things get blurred for us. This is why we need to seek to walk daily with the Lord. Like the Early Christians in the Book of Acts, we need to daily, “Devote ourselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” so that we can recognize our Master’s call when it comes.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie, “March of the Penguins”. It was a fascinating account of how Emperor Penguins survive in the harsh Antarctica environment. And one of the interesting facts shared was how they recognize each other in the sea of penguins that gather in this one place. Each mate recognizes the other by the sound of their mate’s voice. After laying her egg, the male is left behind to care for it and the newborn chick, until the female returns from a two month journey away to replenish herself with food.

When the female penguins return, the sound is deafening, as thousands of penguins cry out trying to locate their mate. But the amazing thing is, that in the midst of all those other sounds and distractions, they hear the voice of their mate and are reunited.

For me, that is a picture of our human condition. There are so many other voices and distractions out there, it is hard sometimes to distinguish between “our will” and “God’s will”. This is why we have to become so familiar with His voice, that we can hear it above all others.

In your Sermon Notes, you’ll see that I included a place for “Other” distractions of our Human Condition that keep us from doing what we should truly be doing. That’s an opportunity for you to add to the list. What would you add? What other things are distracting you? What’s the human condition that is keeping you from doing what God is calling you to do?

In the Garden, Jesus showed us the power of prayer and of recognizing our human condition. But he also showed us the power that comes from seeking intimate spiritual relationships with others. You know, Jesus didn’t go to the Garden alone. He took his disciples to the Garden with him and then, he invited his closest friends … Peter, James and John, to come alongside of him and to pray with him. And here, Jesus is teaching us something about facing the challenges of life and the importance of Christian community or friendships.

We were not created to face life’s challenges alone. From the very beginning of human history, God has said, “It is not good for us to be alone.” Contrary to the value of individualism proclaimed in our world, we need each other. Christ gave birth to his Church for this very purpose. We need each other to help us live the life God is calling us to live.

In Henri Nouwen’s final book, Can You Drink the Cup, he writes:

“Nothing is sweet or easy about community. Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows, but make them visible to each other in a gesture of hope. In community, we say life is full of games and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs, but we do not have to live alone.”

In those final moments before he was arrested, Jesus took with him, Peter, James and John as his community of support. They failed him miserably, but still he took them as “a gesture of hope”. He took them so that he wouldn’t be alone.

Do you have such friends? Do you have a small group or a community of believers that you can call on in your hour of need? If not, then I would encourage you to create one or become part of one. Because if Jesus needed such Christian companionships, how much more do we need this.

Well, Jesus’ trip to the Garden of Gethsemane has taught us a lot. He has shown us how to leave our control of evil and our own survival in God’s hands. He has shown us how to pray through our encounters with evil. He has shown us that putting our lives in God’s hands may not make everything rosy. Sometimes it puts us in greater danger and sometimes it saves us. There are no guarantees. What is guaranteed, is that when we trust God, God will be with us. God will never leave us alone. And ultimately, God’s purposes will be fulfilled.

He has shown us that God is with us through suffering and sorrow, and God is with us through the fellowship of others. And Jesus has shown us that “agony is not defeat”. In fact, he has shown us that the journey to the Cross … through prayer; denying oneself; choosing God’s will for our life; and trusting in God’s power and grace. This journey to the Cross is the only way that truly leads us home.