#58 The Bitter Cup Of Gethsemane Series

#58 The Bitter Cup of Gethsemane

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

January 23, 2022

TEXT: Mark 14:43-52 - "And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44 And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely. 45 And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him.

46 And they laid their hands on him, and took him. 47 And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. 48 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? 49 I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled. 50 And they all forsook him, and fled. 51 And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: 52 And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked."

INTRODUCTION

The last time we were in Mark, we were with Jesus and the apostles at the Last Supper. Today, we move from the Last Supper in the upper room in Jerusalem, outside the Wall of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley and up to the Garden of Gethsemane.

The events that occurred in that garden have reverberated down through the centuries. The agony Jesus experienced on that awful night, and the dreadful events of the day following, when He was crucified—referred to as “The Passion of Christ,”—have been told again and again in music, books and the arts for centuries. Chuck Swindoll points out that even our language has been affected by these events, giving us such phrases as “he who lives by the sword dies by the sword”; “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” and “sweating drops of blood.” (Charles Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All.)

Of course, the most important impact of this night was the RESULT of Jesus’s experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, for it was in that Garden that Jesus fully and finally sealed the eternal plan of the Godhead to pay the penalty for the sins of humanity. The story is one of the most moving scenes in all of literature, and in the Word of God.

As I repeatedly read all three Gospel accounts of it, I, who am not very emotional, could not help but weep and kneel before God in thanks for His sacrifices made for me. Walk with me today in Jesus’ footsteps from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane.

I. NOTE WITH ME FIRST THE PLACE WHERE THESE EVENTS UNFOLDED – Verse 32 – “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit…here, while I will pray.’”

We know exactly where Gethsemane is; it hasn’t changed in 2,000 years. Located outside of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, Jesus would have passed over the Kidron Brook to get to the Garden of Gethsemane. (See the bottom red line in the slide, only going from left to right instead of the direction of the arrow.)

People would not drink from the Kidron Brook because for one thing, it carried sewage from Jerusalem, but also because excess blood from the animal sacrifices in the temple flowed into the Brook. The historian Josephus tells us that the Kidron Brook often ran red with the blood of the thousands of sacrifices performed at the temple, and this would have been especially true during Passover, which is when these events occurred. I wonder if this fact crossed Jesus’ mind as He crossed the Kidron Brook. How ironic that in less than 12 hours, HIS blood would be shed so that there would never again be a need for animal sacrifices.

The name of the Garden, Gethsemane, is a corruption into English of two Hebrew words, GAT and SHMANÍM (shmah-NEEM). It meant, “oil press” or “the place where olive oil is pressed.” To get oil from olives, they were gathered in rough sacks stacked atop one another. A heavy beam was lowered onto the stack and increasing weight was added to one end of the beam to press the oil from the olives. The more weight applied, the more pressure and the more oil extracted. Again, how ironic….As we’ll see, the three to four hours Jesus spent in the Garden were some of the most stress-filled moments in the earthly life of Jesus. It was like the pressure applied under the heavy weight of an olive press.