Your Place of Stress or Rest
Mark 14:32-52
• Do you know what stress is? Everybody in this room understands this term because it is seems to be so evident today. Little kids have stomach problems, teenagers have relational problems (peers), and everybody seems to have emotional problems if not a disorder of some kind. This week I ‘attempted’ to read up on disorders only to discover that I didn’t have time because there were so many and the list is growing every day! Think OCD, ADD, ADHD, anxiety, depression, dependency, schizophrenic, and do I need to go on? You ask, “Preacher, you making fun?” The answer is no as I have emotional issues in my own family and of my own. Here’s the point: While it may not be the entire cause, stress is one of the culprits to our emotional dilemma for the day. Everybody knows what stress is because most of us are closely acquainted with it.
• Do you know what rest is? It’s more than your favorite recliner or bed. In fact, many go to bed each night and get little rest. Rest is being able to be at peace in the midst of a world gone crazy.
• Today, we continue our journey with Jesus toward the cross. Jesus knows what is ahead, He knows what is behind, and He turns a place of stress (in the face of Calvary) into a place of rest. Let’s read & learn how He did it. He didn’t abandon God’s plan of the cross, but found peace. (Read)
• It would be easy to simply tell the story of Gethsemane and how it impacted Jesus, but what I desire to do is to walk through this story and see how much we can learn from His experience.
• Verse 32 begins like this, “they went to a place.” You recognize that word “place”, it generally means a location like a garden, a house, or town. Certainly for Jesus and his disciples this was a location. However, many of us have come to the place in our lives where we were stressed out.
• It wasn’t a location, it was a state of being or state of mind. Jesus and his disciples came to that place called “Gethsemane.” What is interesting is that Gethsemane literally meant a press of oils, in other words it was a place where they pressed the oil out of the olive. You will remember that Gethsemane olive trees in it. So the press and the stress can be seen clearly.
• Several years ago we saw the stress which Jesus encountered in the garden in the opening scene of the “Passion of the Christ.” Watch how, I believe the place of stress became the place of rest.
1. A place of brokenness- Brokenness is not a popular subject today. In fact, when things are broken we tend to want to throw them away. Almost 15 years ago, at one of the lowest points of my life, one of my cousins sent me a book entitled “Broken Things.” I’d like to say that that book changed my life, but the truth is it changed my perspective of life. God uses broken things & broken people to accomplish His work and will. It is only when we are broken that we can be used of the Father. In the garden, human-divine Jesus felt brokenness as He was about to be used for a great work.
a. He felt a broken heart - Have you ever considered just how difficult this night was for our Lord Jesus? Too often we only see Jesus in his divinity, but Jesus was fully human. He hurt like humans, he felt like humans, and he even bled like a human. In his humanity in Gethsemane He, without a doubt, was brokenhearted. To think of the many ways that his heart was broken is to understand how human he was. He was abandon by one who could walk with him for 3 years, He was misunderstood by those who remained with him, and now He felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. Years ago, a Christian artist named Dallas Holm wrote these words, “He died of a broken heart, broke for you and me, He loves us more than words can say and more than we can see. His death was not from the pain that He felt while hanging on the tree. He died of a broken heart for you and me.” We can see His heartbreak in the garden. So for each of us, when we have a heartbreak Jesus is a friend & the answer you need because “He’s been there too” – He understands & will help you.
b. He felt the broken promises – Just a few hours earlier the disciples had declared their allegiance, love, and support for Jesus. Now in the garden Jesus asked the disciples to “Sit, wait, and pray” – only to find them asleep a short will later. They had said they were committed, but when asked to do something like pray, they failed. Have you ever been on the wrong end of a broken promise? Someone promised to stand with you, help you, or uphold you – and when the pressure came, they walked away? Well, ask yourself another question: Have you ever been the promise breaker – when it came to our Lord? You told Him “If only you will” and then He did, but you didn’t. That night in the garden was a place of stress because of broken promises He knew (past, present, & future). The stress He felt in His humanity was beyond comprehension. When the broken promises came, Jesus never considered abandoning God’s plan. Perhaps one of the reasons we see Him in such distress is because He was giving a picture to help us in our lives. So -
c. He demonstrated the broken will - To see the humanity of our Lord Jesus a person only has to read this passage of Scripture and hear his words. Can you hear the emotion in Jesus’s voice when he says, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.” When he says “Abba” it is like the word of a child who calls for “Pappa” or “daddy.” This expresses the keep emotion and trust Jesus had in his heavenly father. The word “Father” is more of an adult word offered from an adult son. When Jesus used both of these words together, he was expressing the fullness of their relationship. It was this relationship that allowed Jesus to put on his humanity and ask God the Father to remove the cup (the pain, suffering, death) if at all possible. The caveat which Jesus concluded with was, not my will but yours because you know best. This is the ultimate demonstration of a broken human will, broken before the Father. To have such a broken will is to submit to Him. Consider yourself and ask, “Is my will & pride broken to the point of being submitted to my Heavenly Father?” This should not be a question we take lightly? Why? Jesus didn’t. “Not my will.”
2. A place of blindness- Have you ever noticed how much blindness exists in stressful situations? First, notice they came to the garden late at night. Darkness always promotes blindness. Isaiah wrote, “The people who walked in darkness.” Darkness pictures of lostness, this is no exception.
• The Disciples were blinded by their comfort around Jesus. As long as they had Jesus standing around them, they were oblivious to the world. While you might think this ‘good’, it would seem that they miss what He attempted to teach them; His betrayal, death, burial, & resurrection.
• Judas was blinded by his selfish desires and his entitlement. What is obvious about Judas is that He expected to get something out of this relationship. It was about HIS self-gain.
• The Religious leaders were blinded by self-protection. Protecting their tradition, they missed Him.
• Jesus was in the garden, seeking the Father, and the blindness was pervasive.
3. A place of betrayal- Gethsemane was that place where Jesus frequented on His visits to Jerusalem. Personally, I believe it was more than that to Jesus and His disciples. I think Jesus often went there to be alone and at other times He went with His disciples for prayer, rest, and even fellowship. This was their special place, and Judas knew it. After walking with Jesus for 3+ years, at the meal Judas probably sensed where it was that Jesus would lead the group in the wake of Passover. Judas was nothing if not a traitor to Jesus. The heart of a traitor (betrayer) is to take whatever is most precious & pervert it for his own good. Knowing how Jesus felt about Gethsemane, Judas brought the band of men into this sacred place, planted the kiss of a ‘friend’ on Jesus, and handed Him over to those who wanted to destroy Him. “HAVE you ever been betrayed?” Can you remember where you were when it happened? Even today you probably like to avoid that place.
• For many of us as human being, betrayal is the worst wound to be inflicted & not one from which we easily recover & has a lasting impact. This teaches us that a)it happens & b)don’t be surprised.
4. A place of burden- This truth is written all through this text. Verse 33 says, “He was greatly distressed & troubled.” The older translations use the terms “Sore Amazed” (greatly distressed) & “Very Heavy” for troubled. The word for ‘sore amazed’ only occurs 3 times in scripture & all in Mark. Dr. John Phillips says that in Mark 9, in the aftermath of the Transfiguration of Jesus, people were sore amazed at His glory because it came from another world. He had taken off His earthly garb making contact with the heavenly glories. In the garden He was now making contact with another world, it was OUR WORLD OF SIN. He had indeed rubbed shoulders with mankind in this world of sin, but in the garden He witnessed the raw, unadulterated, naked sin of undiluted wickedness. The Greek word for ‘sore amazed’ means ‘to be stunned with astonishment.’ The wickedness of this world deeply distressed Him to the point of ‘troubling Him’. The idea of this word is ‘heaviness’, He felt the load of your sin and mine. Verse 34 confirms this truth (READ). He was carrying a burden beyond what we can imagine, He was carrying the weight of the sin of the entire world! (This means YOUR SIN) He prayed, “Father, remove this cup from me.” Did you catch the fact that He didn’t just pray this once and He didn’t just say words? (VS 35-39) The garden was and is a place of stress because Jesus was in agony in the garden. He knew the price for your salvation, for your soul, & for your eternity. It cost Him much.
• However, it seems to me that the place of stress became a place of rest for Jesus. Not because the burden was gone, not because God had relented & taken away the cross, & not because He got His way. It seems to me that after praying it through, Jesus came back and said, “Enough. This is the way my Father wants it and I’m ready.” After this He faces the soldier, Religious Leader, Pilot, Herod, and the Cross – with a calm assurance which only come from surrender to the Father.
