Sunday School Session 16

Hello everyone, welcome back to our study of the Gospel of Mark.

You should of course be in Lecture 8, that's where we began last week, which covers Mark

chapter 14, verse 1 through chapter 15, verse 15.

You remember the telos of this section is that the Gospel writer now begins to describe

and interpret the central event of our faith, the death of Jesus.

We started this the last time you were with us, and we talked about

the fact that the religious leaders of the day were no friends of Jesus.

Religion is not necessarily a friend of Jesus.

There's much religion out there that talks about Jesus, but may not be a friend of

Jesus at all, just as these religious leaders who said they loved and obeyed God

plotted to kill Jesus, though there was nothing that he did that was wrong other

than upset their traditions.

You remember we talked about the woman who used that

perfume to anoint Jesus' feet as he was sitting there at a feast, and we

looked at this as an extravagant expression of

devotion, which should tell us, has anyone ever criticized us for loving

Jesus so much, just like the disciples did for that woman?

And so we saw that the writer here is trying to impress upon us that we enter

into these events with a heart of devotion.

And then we came to the narrative of the Last Supper, where Jesus radically

reinterprets the Passover, takes that Passover and all the traditions that are

connected with it, and then he radically reinterprets that and shows that the

Passover is about him, that he is the Passover, that all

this time, this ancient rite of the Jewish people that celebrated their

delivery from the slavery of Egypt was really something that was pointing to Jesus.

And now in the light of Jesus, we see that he is the Passover, and that

our communion reflects that fact, that Jesus is the Passover.

And so now we come to chapter 14, verses 27 through 31.

This is where we begin today.

Now again, let me say to you, if you haven't read the text yet, read it

before you continue, because we don't have the time to read it all over again.

You read it, you can stop me when you want and read the text.

Isn't that great?

You can stop me when you want.

Wow.

Good thing that doesn't happen on Sunday morning, huh?

But you can stop me, read the text, and then come back and we can look at it together.

So before we start this morning, let me pray.

Father, thanks once more for the opportunity of looking at the Lord Jesus in the Gospel.

Of Mark.

Help us now, we pray.

Excite our faith.

Increase our devotion so that we can serve him and love him better.

Thank you for this word that we have before us.

Now Lord, speak to us, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You would note here, what do we find?

In verses, chapter 14, verses 27 through 31, Jesus gives hope even

in the face of failure.

Jesus gives hope even in the face of failure.

Here Jesus predicts that all his disciples are going to desert him and they

protest.

Of course they won't.

They would never desert Jesus.

And he flatly tells them that because the prophet Zachariah had predicted

that when he wrote that the shepherd would be struck and

all the sheep would be scattered.

That was a reference to him at this very moment.

And so he says, according to the scriptures, you will all desert me.

But even with this bad news, Jesus gives them reason to hope.

Notice in our text that he predicts that he will rise from the dead and that he

also predicts he will go ahead of them into Galilee.

Even as Jesus speaks of their failure, he does not leave them without hope.

The implication of the statement is that even though they fail him, he

would see them all together again.

Even though they would be scattered, he would see them again all together.

And that just speaks to us of the grace of Jesus to us, does it not?

This is Jesus and his grace expressed towards us.

But you notice what the disciples do, don't you?

Do you see what they do?

They protest.

They protest.

They say, oh, no, we will never desert you.

Oh, no, that will never happen.

Now, we're not different from the disciples, are we?

Like the disciples, we do not hear the word of grace.

Instead, we hear, we concentrate on the word speaking of our

failure.

And like the disciples, we will concentrate on that word of failure.

It's not grace that we want, lovely and needed as it is,

because grace means we're going to fail.

Grace means failure on our part.

We would rather look good than admit that we are failures or that we can fall.

No, no, no, not at all.

We cannot be failures.

Like the disciples, we will say the same thing.

No, we cannot be failures.

Instead of looking for grace, we defend ourselves or we make excuses

rather than admitting our need for the grace of Christ.

Just like the disciples, right?

Oh, no, we'll never desert you.

No, not us.

Now, Peter, in his self -righteous fury, declares not only that he

will not fall away, but that he will even die before that happens.

Peter protests, you see, and says, no, no, no, not me, Jesus.

I'll die before I ever abandon you.

No, no one knows just how good and faithful we are, do they?

And so we continue, like Peter, we continue in our delusion

of strength.

But all the time, we need to admit our need and receive

God's grace for our failure.

But Jesus goes on to destroy any illusion of

strength.

He does not leave Peter alone at this point.

He doesn't leave Peter alone.

He doesn't leave him alone to make his bows, to protest that he

will not fail.

No, no, Jesus does not leave Peter alone.

And he very specifically says that Peter will disown him three

times before the rooster crows.

Now, listen, this, too, is grace.

Someone so confident in himself must be shown his

failure.

When we are so confident in ourselves, we must be shown our failure.

Only then, recognizing our complete failure,

will we be in a position to receive grace.

And so Peter, in order for him to be in the position of

receiving the grace of God, is now told, Peter, you will deny me

three times, you won't die for me.

You're going to deny me three times.

So this is ringing in his ears later.

This is going to tell him, this is grace that tells him of his utter failure.

You know what?

It's interesting to me that only then, recognizing

his utter failure, will he be in a position to receive grace.

And so it's fascinating to see that Peter himself, in the epistle that he will write years

later after all of this happens, Peter himself will write and

quote the scripture in his epistle of 1 Peter, chapter 5,

verse 5.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

He knows that he's going to learn it himself.

Only then, when we recognize our failure, only then will we be ready to receive the

grace of Christ.

And so, Peter, only then, when he recognizes his utter failure,

only then will he be ready to find Jesus in Galilee and find that he

lovingly, graciously receives him.

Some years ago, as I was studying through the book of Mark, I wrote this

prayer.

It sums up what I've said here today.

O Lord Jesus, help me to see again that you are all grace

to me.

Even when you give me stinging rebukes from your word or from some other instrument,

let me see your grace in it.

Thank you for that initial grace that drew me to you.

Thank you for continuing grace that welcomes me after so many failures and

that binds me to you.

Amen.

That is my prayer.

And I think that is how we must see this.

We must see Jesus as always gracious to us, always.

Now, we come to verse 32 through verse 42.

And here we find Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

Now, why did Mark include this?

Or Peter, who's dictating this to Mark, why is this scene part of the story?

Why do we find Jesus agonizing in prayer before his betrayal in the

garden?

Why do we see this?

I believe it shows the great sorrow and horror that

Jesus experienced as he anticipated the cross.

I believe it also shows how Jesus prepared for this great work.

And so I've labeled this section of Jesus'

passion preparation through prayer.

Now, as you read this, it's clear Jesus felt overwhelming sorrow.

Overwhelming sorrow.

Torture awaits him and the wrath of the Father awaits him.

Now, I do not think that Jesus looked forward to the torturous death he was going to die on the

cross.

But if we believe that

that is the main reason why he cries out to God, I think we've missed the point.

Some years ago, Mel Gibson produced a movie called The

Passion of the Christ.

Remember that?

Remember that?

And it highlighted the terrors of physical torture.

But if we focus on that, I think we've missed the point.

Why?

Why did Jesus feel such overwhelming and

obvious sorrow?

Here's why.

He was to experience the wrath of his Father with whom

he had experienced nothing but perfect harmony and love.

In their relationship, in Jesus' relationship with the Father and the Father with

his Son, they both had experienced nothing but perfect harmony and

love.

There was nothing that ever came between them.

And now he was to drink the cup of God's wrath.

That perfect harmony, that perfect love ruptured

by inexpressible and unbelievable anger.

Anger.

The fury that God intended to unleash on sinners.

This was anger intended for those who despised and mocked and

ridiculed and defied God and his commandments.

Perfect love disrupted by experiencing the wrath

intended for those who hated God.

Now, can you imagine that?

Not only, this isn't just a ripple in their relationship.

The fact of the matter is that this perfect harmony, this

perfect love that they had, was going to be ruptured because

Jesus was going to be treated as one who despised and

mocked and ridiculed and defied God.

The anger meant for those kind of people.

This isn't even the kind of anger that's meant that we express to our children when they do

something wrong or when we have to chastise them or discipline them.

This is the love that's supposed to be poured out on sinners who hate God.

That is what disrupts the perfect harmony and love of these two members of the

Trinity.

And that is why Jesus is so overwhelmingly burdened

with sorrow.

And yet, Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath.

He went to the cross.

He willingly drank that cup.

Now, in his humanity, in his humanity, in those moments,

he did not feel like going to the cross.

His emotions were so overwhelming that he didn't feel like going to

the cross.

It wasn't something that he was hopping and skipping and jumping to, right?

This was something that was so horrific that he was recoiled at it.

And in his humanity, his emotions just find great expression.

And so he says, Father, if there's any other way, let this hour pass from me.

If there's another way of accomplishing your purpose, let's do it that way.

I don't want to experience this.

His emotions were saying, no, no.

But listen, his love for his father would not

allow him to evade the responsibility laid on him because of his

love for sinners.

How do you know that Jesus loved you?

Because he did not let his feelings get in the way at the moment.

His love was so great for his people, us as sinners.

His love was so great.

That he did not let his emotions dictate to him what he was going to do.

His love was that great.

He said no to the feelings of the moment in order to accomplish this

great act of love and sacrifice for us.

How do you measure your love for someone when you love and you sacrifice

even in those moments when emotion says no.

When you don't feel a particular way towards your spouse.

When you don't want, when you don't feel like doing good to that guy at work who's despising you.

No, instead of going with your emotions, what you do is that you

still love.

You still sacrifice no matter how you feel.

That's the measure of love.

Jesus willingly suffered and the thought of it caused for him

unbelievable agony.

And yet, and yet, he went to the cross for his

people.

Now the only thing that prepared him for such a task was prayer.

At the end of the scene with its agony and sorrow, you see Jesus get up, look up

and say enough.

A betrayer comes.

And Jesus calmly walks into the hands of the group that have come to

take him.

Because he has communed with his father in heaven.

He has spent time in prayer.

And so he confidently, fearlessly walks into the very midst of the

crowd that had come to arrest him.

He had encouraged his disciples to pray so that they could face the hour of temptation.

But they slept.

And so they fled.

Jesus faced the cup of God's wrath through prayer.

And that's how he walked to his death.

Willingly sacrificing himself to redeem us from our sin.

Well, I'm going to stop there for today.

All right.

I'm going to stop there for today.

And next week we'll pick it up in chapter 14, verse 43.

As we see how Jesus willingly went to the cross.

Who was sovereign even over his own death.

Not caught in a technicality.

Not caught in a trap.

But sovereignly, willingly giving his life for his sheep.

Well, let's pray, shall we?

Father, again we're thankful for how you have

ministered to us through your word.

Help us to see Jesus.

Help us to meditate on this.

Help us, I pray, to be like him.

Help us to love him.

Help us to serve him.

Because of what we have seen.

Thank you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.