Introduction
Main Passage: Mark
14:12-36
Mark 14:12-16. Sometimes
we know what Jesus wants to do, and he waits to do it until we present
ourselves for his service.
Mark 14:17-21. In
this section, Jesus knows which of his followers will betray him. He knew from
the beginning that Judas would take advantage of his trust by bringing his
enemies to his secret meeting place. But that doesn’t mean he treated Judas any
differently the whole time he was following him. The natural thing for Jesus to
do would have been to close off his heart to his betrayer, and steel himself so
that the betrayal wouldn’t hurt so much when it happened. But no, Judas was
brought into Jesus' inner circle anyway. Jesus would have loved him no less
than any of the others. His love is not dependent on someone’s actions.
Love always trusts, no matter how certain the future betrayal
is.
This is the first
demonstration we see today of how much love Jesus truly showed. He chose to
open his heart to Judas for three years of ministry and friendship, knowing the
whole time what it would ultimately lead to. If Jesus had not loved Judas so
much, his betrayal would not have been so significant.
Mark 14:33-36. Here
we reach my main focus for the day: this wasn’t easy. In Matthew,
Jesus is quoted as saying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be
taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) This prayer
is a powerful combination of supplication and surrender.
Supplication: Jesus
knew to that to the end God would still be approachable. From
“Father, may this hour pass from me” to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?” Jesus' desperation for his Father's comfort and strength never wavered. If
he had ever tried to perform this act of ultimate obedience alone, he would
have surely been crushed under its weight before all was accomplished.
Jesus' prayer here, and
the way he described what he was going through to his disciples (“overwhelmed
with sorrow to the point of death”), gives us a glimpse of what it felt like to
face such a responsibility: to willingly submit himself to be handed over by
his Father to be sacrificed for the sins of all of mankind. If you have ever
been faced with obeying something God has told you to do, and the task will
make you uncomfortable or nervous, you know that when you reach the brink of
surrender your earthly flesh rears up in protest. When Jesus was faced with
that same temptation here, he immediately turned to God.
Surrender: No
matter how much temptation Jesus faced to indulge in self-pity--or even
self-preservation—he was still fully submitted to God the whole time. His
surrender to his Father’s will while he was in such distress is
honestly one of the most incredible things Jesus did in his life on earth.
There's obviously
nothing in our lives that can be adequately compared to what Jesus had to do,
but it can be helpful to picture one of our personal experiences so that we can
more easily grasp what he did for us. So as you consider this scene in Jesus
life, recall a time in your life when you threw a good tantrum. You may be able
to remember your early childhood tantrums, or if you’re like me you may have
thrown a few as an adult when you’re in prayer sometimes.
Now before we go on, I
want to clarify that Jesus was not throwing a tantrum here.
There was absolutely no rebellion in his appeal, just overwhelming emotion. But
when we, as sinful humans, get overwhelmed by emotions, our
tendency is more toward getting caught up in them to the point where we throw
up our hands and express our frustration with a good complaining wail of a
whine.
I want you to
deliberately recall the moment before you vent your frustration: perhaps you’re
frustrated at something that has happened to you that is unfair, unpleasant,
uncalled-for, and that you don’t understand and don’t have any control over.
You’re being bombarded by emotions such as anger, frustration, and hurt that
all feed off of each other until they come to the brink of boiling over.
That's the moment where
we find Jesus here. He knew he didn’t deserve anything that was going to be
done to him that very night. He knew it would be unfair, unpleasant, and
uncalled-for. His emotions boiled over within him until they affected his
physical body (sweating drops of blood). How amazing to think that in the midst
of all of that, he still
1) Had the presence of
mind to turn to God and pour out his request to him
2) Had the
self-discipline to submit his will to God's
I wanted to touch on
that prayer as a way to introduce my focus for Good Friday:
Holy Week Day Six:
Getting Us to Heaven Is Not Easy
It occurs to me a lot
that the majority of people (in the USA at least) who believe in heaven also
believe that that’s where they'll end up. It seems that the classic mindset is
that our default destination is heaven, and that most people go there unless
they do something to deserve going to hell (if they believe in hell at all).
This theory sure takes
the pressure off, doesn’t it? It’s almost too bad that it isn’t true.
The truth is that we aren’t the ones who decide our
final destination. If we did, then every person would go to heaven, regardless
of what they’ve done. After all, “All a person's ways seem right to him”
(Proverbs 16:2).
Everyone who does
something wrong thinks it is excusable for one reason or another. People are
very clever in how they form their thoughts about themselves. We are experts at
making excuses to avoid feeling guilty.
But what if guilt is
good? In general, I mean. After all, the base function of pain is
helpful. It tells you that harm is coming to your body so you can make it stop.
What if guilt is the same way? What if the purpose of guilt is to let you know
that harms is being done to your character or spirit? (In this paragraph, I'm
lumping conviction and discipline and guilt together in one term). Feeling pain
is a healthy thing to do. If you don’t feel pain when you are supposed to, your
body is not considered healthy. If you do something that’s wrong and don’t feel
guilty, should that not be a sign of an unhealthy conscience?
But who, then,
determines what is right and what is wrong, if even murderers and slavers think
they deserve to go to heaven? In answer, here is the second half of Proverbs
16:2 “All a person's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs
motives.” God is the perfect judge for mankind. Not just because he himself
is perfect, but also because he can be consistent with his rulings without
showing favoritism.
The default destination
for us is not heaven. We don’t automatically go there, and
then go to hell if we do something to deserve it. No, in reality our default
destination is hell until we meet God's standards of
perfection. Only then do we deserve to go to heaven.
So how do we know how to
get God to let us in heaven? That is the perfect question!
God has graciously given
us everything we need: First, he gave us a copy of his standards--that
he will be judging us against--in the Bible. All of his judgments will be
measured against it. Second, he gave us examples of people who were good in
their own way, but who still did not meet those standards (Such as David,
Abraham, Noah, Moses, etc). Finally, he gave us a substitute who was able
to meet his standards perfectly. That was Jesus.
Everything Jesus did
that we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter was solely to make a way for us to
get into heaven. Imagine if God didn’t love people, at least not as much as he
does. If that were the case, then he wouldn’t have to care
about humanity’s eternity and our eternal destination. He wouldn’t have to give
us the Bible to tell us how to get to him. And he certainly wouldn’t have had
to send his only Son to earth to be scorned, tortured, and killed by tiny
humans, as a way to punish him for humanity’s wrongdoings, all for the sole
purpose of making a way to heaven where there was none before.
However, fortunately for
us, God does love us enough to do all of those things.
But that still doesn't
mean it was easy.
"If it is
possible, may this cup be taken from me". This prayer prompts a
radical thought: since Jesus was God's beloved Son, with whom he was well
pleased, it must be significant that this request from him was not granted.
There was no other way. It was not possible
for God to accomplish his will in any other fashion or through anybody else.
When this first occurred
to me, I wanted to make sure I was right. So I looked up that verse in the
Matthew Henry Commentary to see what he had to say. He agreed. This is how he
sums up Jesus' request:
"If God may be
glorified, man saved, and the ends of his undertaking answered, without his
drinking of this bitter cup, he desires to be excused, otherwise not."
-Matthew Henry's
Commentary
Therefore let it sink in
that there was no other way for God's will to be accomplished, and for humanity
to be brought into heaven. Though making this way cost Jesus so much, God now
offers it to us for free. That is why this holiday is called Good Friday. It is
the celebration of the Good News that we can accept Jesus' monumental
sacrifice, and be accepted into heaven.
Jesus met God's
standards, and he died for our wrongdoings. Therefore when we accept his
sacrifice for us, putting our faith in him, our lives are exchanged for his. He
can be our substitute, so that when God is judging our lives to determine our
final destination, Jesus' death for us can clear our record, and his blameless
life is seen as ours.
Right Response
We're almost done, I
promise!
Here's the challenge for
today:
- Let
Jesus' love for you permeate your heart. He loved you enough to do
everything necessary to spend eternity with you, whatever the personal
cost. This is the only challenge for today, because I want you focusing on
it and only it. Whatever is happening in your life, it does not change
what he has done for you. He deserves full glory for that!
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