Mark 14.32-42 32
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They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ 33 He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. 34 And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ 35 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 He said, ‘Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’ 37 He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? 38 Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 39 And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him. 41 He came a third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’
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13 March 2014 Ridley Hall Lent Term Bible Reading Mark 14.32-42
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There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ So writes C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce.
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In the end, two kinds of people. Only two. There is no third way, no Anglican via media, no hedging of the bets. Two kinds of people. The two kinds are not divided by age, nationality, gender, class, sexual orientation, or education. They are not divided by pastoral skills, charm, wit, gifts, potential, connections, money, status, looks. These things do not divide the two kinds. When we look at the Bible, and that is undoubtedly where C. S. Lewis was looking when he penned his thoughts, we see that the only thing separating the two kinds of people is their prayer. How do they pray? How do we pray? That is going to make all the difference. In our reading from Mark’s gospel we hear of the very first member of the first kind of people. The first human being who fully prayed - ‘thy will be done’. We
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see the pioneer and perfecter of our faith in the act of pioneering and perfecting faith itself, as he prays, ‘thy will be done’. No-one, before or since, has prayed this prayer so completely and so perfectly. Karl Barth speaks of something new coming into the realm of fallen creation in Jesus Christ. Right in the midst of a humanity that lives in constant rebellion against its Creator, a new possibility appears in the life of the Messiah. When we hear Mark’s account of Gethsemane we encounter this new possibility in its purest form - undiluted obedience to God the Father. This is the new thing that entered into our world - a person who prays ‘thy will be done.’ A person who prays - ‘Thy will be done’. Let’s work through that slowly. A person. The gospels and the creeds go to great lengths to spell out that Jesus was indeed a person, a human being, one like us. Leaving aside for the moment questions surrounding his origins, we are told that Jesus was born of a woman, grew up in a family, learned to walk, talk, read. He wept, laughed, made friends, and enemies. In short, he lived. And then he suffered and died. The gospels and creeds tell us that too. Now, taking up the questions surrounding his origins, the gospels also speak of the initiative of God that propelled him into the world. Whether that be the Holy Spirit’s overshadowing of Mary, as Luke tells us, or the Father’s love that gives the Son, as John puts it, Jesus comes from God. Jesus is sent from God.
And yet, in spite of, or perhaps more correctly, because of this origin in God, Jesus comes right down to identify with humanity in its constant rebellion against its Creator. In his baptism, Jesus chooses to side with sinful men and women against God. He enters into their fallen situation, he takes on their enmity against God, and makes it his own. He assumes it. Their lot becomes his lot - and so also their fate becomes his fate.
to discuss and define the matter, how could we ever know what a real human being looks like?
Now we have a slightly clearer picture of the person kneeling in the olive grove of Gethsemane in the half light of dusk. The one, we are told, who is distressed and agitated, deeply grieved, even to death. The child of Mary, now grown up. The only beloved Son of the Father, given for precisely this moment. The full consequences of incarnation and baptism meet at this time, in this place, in him.
A person who prays.
And here we have to make a bit of a leap. I’ve been talking about Jesus as a person, as if we all know what a person is. As if we have a definition to hand, a standard that we can agree on - something we can apply to this man that allows us to conclude, yes, he is a person. But the longer we look at Jesus in the garden the more we realise that he doesn’t fit our definition, he isn’t measured by our standard. Who do we know who looks like this? Who have we ever met, who prays like this? It turns out that we don’t know what a person is after all. Left to ourselves, in our little rebellious club,
This is something we cannot decide for ourselves, we have to be shown. And we are shown. In Jesus Christ. In this one we are presented with the one and only true person who has ever lived. God’s new thing - a person who prays, ‘Thy will be done.’
From what we know of Jesus from the gospels we can say that he has been praying all his life. He’s been quietly and deliberately seeking the face of the God he calls Abba, Father. Running off to sit in his Father’s house as a boy, escaping the crowds as a young man to enjoy the absence of company and the presence of God, teaching his many followers how to join him in his prayer ‘Our Father…’ Through prayer, Jesus whole life is open to the Father. Here too we are shown what it means to be a person, for to be fully human, to be as God intended us to be, means relating to God in prayer. To be a person means talking to God. It means lots of other things as well, but it includes prayer, talking to God. As we look to Jesus, God’s new thing in the world, a person who prays, we are reminded that our life before God is about more than just our wills. Life is not an endless chain of decisions that we must negotiate correctly, choosing the right option at one point only to
be confronted with another decision, and then another, and another.
in him. They could not watch with him even one hour. He alone watched and prayed in their place.’
Being a person means praying - it means bringing everything before God, asking for help, talking through problems, waiting on God’s responses. It means, not just occasionally, but constantly opening ourselves to God, always ready to hear, to speak to our Father in heaven.
God’s new thing - a person who prays, ‘Thy will be done.’
But Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane shows us more than this. It shows us that prayer is not a solitary activity but one that demands company. For the person who prays in the garden is one who gathers his friends around him, one who draws his best friends even nearer and asks them to pray too. Let’s look at that carefully. The pioneer and perfecter of our faith, the one born of Mary, given by the Father, in the act of pioneering and perfecting faith brings his friends along and asks them to pray too. Of course, they do not pray. They cannot pray. They are invited, but they don’t have it in them. They are stuck in the world’s rebellion against God. They are not God’s new thing. They are not people who pray. Karl Barth again: ‘If there is anything which brings out clearly the ‘for us’ as the content of the gospel, then it is this aspect of the event in Gethsemane, in which the act of God in Jesus Christ has absolutely nothing to correspond to it in the existence of those who believe
A person who prays, and who asks others to pray. Finally, ’Thy Will be Done.’ Remember what we were just thinking about prayer that it shows our life before God to be more than just a series of decisions. Prayer puts individual moments in the context of a relationship with God. Prayer deliberately involves God where we are. So Jesus’ prayer, ‘thy will be done’ is not the right choice made in testing circumstances. In choosing to pray, Jesus is choosing to live this moment consciously in relationship to God. He is deliberately involving God where he is. Coming at the end of a whole life of prayer, this prayer is the final alignment of Jesus’ whole being with the purposes of God, purposes that propelled him into the world in the first place, ‘for God so loved the world that he gave, he gave his only Son…’ And this is where things get turned upside down. Because here Jesus is seeking to be obedient to the Father, he is wanting his life to resonate with the life of God. And that is good isn’t it? I mean, isn’t that God’s desire from the beginning, that there would be true fellowship between God and
humanity, friendship not enmity, obedience not rebellion?
might be done once and for all, for all people, for the liberation of all.’
Now look at God’s new thing - the person praying ‘thy will be done’ and see what happens when real obedience appears in the middle of the fallen world. Look, first at the effort required to be obedient - the repeated prayers, the grieving even to death, the constant turing to others for support - this is what it looks like when humanity, habitually curved in on itself, is in this moment straightened out and opened up to live in obedience to God.
God’s new thing - a person who prays ‘thy will be done’.
But look again at the person praying ‘thy will be done’ and see the consequences of obedience. See what happens to God’s new thing, the prayerful, obedient son.
We are born, each of us, of a woman and a man, we grow up, learn to walk, talk, read. We weep, laugh, make friends, and enemies. In short, we live. And we will suffer and die.
Barth helps us again, for as he watches Jesus praying, ‘thy will be done’, he spells out the consequences: ‘The sin of the world was now laid upon him. It was now true that in the series of many sinners He was the only One singled out by God to be its bearer and representative, the only One that this sin could really touch and oppress and terrify. That the deceiver of people is their destroyer, that the deceiver’s power is that of death, this is something that had to be proved true in the One who was not deceived, in order that it might not be true for all those who were deceived, that their rebellion against God might be taken away from them, that their curse might not rest upon them. The power of evil had to break on Jesus, its work of death had to be done on him, so that being done on him it
But in him we too discover the initiative of God propelling us into the world. In him we are overshadowed by the Spirit, in him we are given by the Father.
So what? Well, the so what’s quite big. In Jesus Christ we are called to be God’s new thing. In him, utterly dependent on him and yet distinct from him, we are called to be persons who pray - ‘thy will be done’.
In him we are called to pray. In him we bring everything before God, we ask for help, we talk through problems, we wait on God’s responses. In him, not just occasionally, but constantly, we open ourselves to God, always ready to hear, to speak to our Father in heaven. In him we learn to gather our friends around us, we are freed to draw our best friends even nearer and ask them to pray too.
As an aside - If there is anything in the Bible that shatters the idea of the self-sufficient leader, the great ordained and anointed one, set apart, wrestling alone with spiritual realities too deep for lesser Christians to comprehend, this is it. Please don’t pray alone. Please, please gather others around you. Please don’t become isolated from those friends God has given you. Finally, in him we are called to pray ‘thy will be done’. In him we can pray so that our whole being becomes aligned with the purposes of God, those same purposes that propelled Christ, and now us, into the world. In him we find one who has broken the power of our rebellion. In him we find the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. One who teaches us all to pray… Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…
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