Monthly Archives: September 2015

Asleep On The Battlefield

Bible Study, , , ,

ASLEEP ON THE BATTLEFIELD

Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ He said to Peter, ‘are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Once more He went away and prayed the same thing.

When He came back, He again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to Him. Returning the third time, He said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!’ (Mark 14: 37-42).

Agitated! You can feel it in His words and actions. Agonising prayer! Backwards and forwards to the sleeping disciples! Rebuke and warning! All the signs of someone who was restless and agitated, anticipating something and desperately wanting His disciples to be in it with Him.

And the disciples? They were oblivious to the impending tragedy that was about to overtake their Master and them with Him. Despite His rebukes and His warnings, they slept on. Not even the sound of His agonised cries in the silence of the garden could disturb their sleep. They were finished, exhausted beyond caring. O, they had felt His mood alright. They were aware that something was up, but somehow they just could not rouse themselves to be a part of it. They were beyond weary.  

Peter was the one who got the rebuke. He was always out front, leading both by example and by his big mouth. He should have taken the lead in setting up a watch so that Jesus could engage His Father in prayer knowing that His disciples were guardingHis back. He didn’t want Judas sneaking up on them and taking them all prisoner. It was His fight this time, and He had to do it alone.

There is a plaintive note in Jesus’ words to Peter. ‘Couldn’t you keep watch for me for just one hour?’ But Peter didn’t understand what he was to watch for. Had Jesus explained to them that Judas was about to break in on their company and arrest Him? Perhaps He wanted them to alert Him when they caught the first glimpse of the arresting mob in the garden – not that they came quietly, it seems.

Jesus had no intention of escaping into the darkness. He could have, but He didn’t. He could have slipped away long before the mob arrived. He knew what Judas was up to. He knew they would find Him there. Unlike any other villain who was always on the run, Jesus anticipated His arrest and steeled Himself for the moment. That’s what His prayer was all about.

Was He going to cringe and fight, or was He going to submit to the injustice and cruelty He knew was coming, in obedience to His Father? This was the moment for which all of the angelic hosts had waited; the moment towards which all of human history had pointed. He had to decide. Would He go through with it as a true son, or would He flinch and fail? His own destiny and the destiny of the human race hung on the next few hours. And the disciples slept!

All the lessons of His earthly life as a human being and the Son of God, a role He had never played until the moment when He burst in on human history, prepared Him for this moment. Unlike His disciples and as weary as He must have been as well, He could not sleep. He understood how vital it was to be fortified with the awareness of His Father’s presence and approval. Just as He was prepared for the conflict in the wilderness, so now He must be ready for the greatest conflict of all. Would He submit like a son or would He resist like a rebel?

And the disciples? They were asleep and so unprepared! Instead of catching the spirit of their Master and praying for strength to trust the Father in their time of testing, they were asleep on the battlefield. They were not even aware that there was an impending battle, for them as well as for their Master. They drowsed away the moments when they should have been praying.

How often we are also caught unawares because we are unprepared for our moment!  The tests are sprung on us unawares. God gives us opportunity, time after time, to trust Him in the ups and downs of life. Then there comes the storm, the one big, violent upheaval in our lives for which the many small tests should have prepared us. Have we learned our lessons well?

Jesus said, ‘Be alert! Keep watch!’ For what? For the unguarded moments when Satan slips in to trip us up. Don’t ever sleep on the battlefield. The enemy never sleeps!

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith . . . (1 Peter 5: 8-9a)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

The Agony Of The Hour

Bible Study, , , ,

THE AGONY OF THE HOUR

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took Peter, James and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ He said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’ Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. ‘Abba, Father,’ He said, ‘everything is possible to you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ (Mark 14: 32- 36).

It is painful to eavesdrop on a moment like this. How can we ever know what Jesus felt like as He agonised to the Father over the coming ordeal? Up to this point, His announcements to His disciples concerning His death were matter-of-fact and philosophical, but here, in the garden, the reality and inevitability of it all came rushing towards Him like a freight train. He had spent His last precious hours with His disciples. In a few minutes He would be ripped from them and dragged through the streets of Jerusalem to face the hostility and hatred that had festered for so long but was now coming to a head.  

He was human. He needed the reassurance and love of the men into whom He had poured His life for the past three years. He needed their nearness, even if they could do nothing for Him. He needed to know that they were there for Him when He looked around for them in the hostile territory of the enemy. He needed to know that they were still for Him even if the whole world was against Him.

As they walked together through the garden, the full moon lighting their way and casting eerie shadows across their path, Jesus became restless and agitated. They had never seen Him like this before. His usually calm and placid demeanour gave way to anguish and distress. Stopping a moment among the trees, He motioned for His men to stay there while He and His three closest companions went on ahead. Puzzled, they sat down to await His return.

Leaving the three behind on guard while He went a stones-throw from them and dropped to the ground in an agony of groaning, He entreated the Father to save Him from the coming horror. He could feel the hot breath of His betrayer on His cheek as he kissed Him, signalling to the mob that came to arrest Him who the “criminal” was. When they had Him in their clutches, there would be no escape. He would have to decide, then and there, whether He was willing to go through with it or not. There was still time for Him to slip away, as He had done in the past because His hour had not yet come. This was His hour. What would He do?

In characteristic fashion, Jesus turned to the Father. He had never acted outside His will, not for a second throughout His sojourn on earth, and He was not about to do so now. It must, as always, be the Father’s decision. He ached for release, but He would bow to the Father’s will, no matter what. Perspiration dripped from His brow, staining the soil around Him red with the bloody sweat.

Addressing His beloved Father in the most tender and intimate terms of endearment, ‘Abba,’ He pleaded for release. “Let this cup pass from me.”  What cup? There is a “cup” which everyone must drink. It is either a cup of suffering – a cup of God’s wrath, or a cup of salvation. For Jesus, it was the cup of God’s wrath, not just a cup, but the cup, the one that must be drained to the dregs for the sin of the whole world so that those who believe in Him would have no other cup to drink but the cup of salvation.

What was the cause of Jesus’ agony? Was it the thought of the physical pain that lay ahead of Him? Perhaps, but I believe that He faced something far worse than that. For the holy and perfect Son of God to be made sin for us must have filled His soul with revulsion. For Him to falter through the ordeal for even a second, to take His eyes off the Father and react like a mere man, would have doomed Him to eternal death like the rest of mankind.

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. (Heb. 5:7-9)

This was the moment! It was now that He had to decide, and with the decision, seal His own eternal destiny and the destiny of all mankind which hung on His choice. Listen to His heart. Yet not what I will, but what you will. The Father said nothing, and Jesus knew what His answer was. It had been planned from the beginning of creation.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com