Mark 14:27-72 NIV
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
“ ‘I will strike the shepherd,
29Peter
declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”
30“Truly I tell you,” Jesus
answered, “today—yes,
tonight—before the rooster crows twicee you yourself will disown Me three
times.”
31But
Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown
you.” And all the others said the same.
Gethsemane
32They
went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, “Sit here
while I pray.” 33He took
Peter, James and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and
troubled. 34“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said to them. “Stay here
and keep watch.”
35Going a
little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour
might pass from Him.
36 “Abba, Father,” He
said, “everything is possible for You. Take this cup
from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You Will.”
37Then 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? 38Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
39Once
more He went away and prayed the same thing. 40When He
came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They
did not know what to say to Him.
41Returning
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. 42Rise! Let us go! Here comes My betrayer!”
Jesus Arrested
43Just as
He was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed
with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law,
and the elders.
44Now the
betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest
Him and lead Him away under guard.” 45Going
at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed Him. 46The men
seized Jesus and arrested Him. 47Then
one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high
priest, cutting off his ear.
48“Am I leading a rebellion,” said Jesus, “that you
have come out with swords and clubs to capture Me?49Every day I was with you, teaching in the Temple courts, and you did
not arrest Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” 50Then
everyone deserted Him and fled.
51 A young
man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized
him, 52he fled
naked, leaving his garment behind.
Jesus Before the Sanhedrin
53They
took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders and the
teachers of the law came together. 54Peter followed
Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat
with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.
55The
chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus
so that they could put Him to death, but they did not find any. 56Many
testified falsely against Him, but their statements did not agree.
57Then
some stood up and gave this false testimony against Him: 58“We
heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this
Temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made
with hands.’ ” 59Yet
even then their testimony did not agree.
60Then
the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to
answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 61But
Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.
Again the high priest asked
Him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of
the Blessed One?”
62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the
Right Hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
63The high
priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. 64“You
have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”
They all condemned Him as
worthy of death. 65Then
some began to spit at Him; they blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists,
and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took Him and beat Him.
Peter Disowns Jesus
66While
Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest
came by. 67When
she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him.
“You also were with that
Nazarene, Jesus,” she said.
68But he
denied it. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said, and
69When
the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, “This
fellow is one of them.” 70Again
he denied it.
After a little while, those
standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a
Galilean.”
71He
began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.”
72Immediately
the rooster crowed the second time.h Then Peter remembered the Word Jesus had
spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twicei you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane
“Abba, Father, everything is possible for
You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You Will.”
Gethsemane: This is a place just east of the temple mount
area in Jerusalem, across the ravine of the Brook Kidron, and on the lower
slopes of the Mount of Olives. Surrounded by ancient olive trees, Gethsemane means “olive press” - it was a place where olives from the
neighborhood were crushed for their oil. So too, the Son of God would be
crushed here.
He began to be troubled
and deeply distressed. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death: If Jesus knew what the Father’s Will was, why
such agony? It was because Jesus was to be a sacrifice for sins, and He wasn’t
an unknowing sacrificial animal and He was no victim of circumstances. He willingly
resolved to lay down His Life.
What was it that
affected Jesus so? It was not so much the horror of physical torture, but the
spiritual horror of the Cross - of being
made sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is what made Jesus troubled and deeply distressed.
Hebrews 5:7-8 describes
Jesus’ agony in the Gethsemane:
Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and
supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him
from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
“His holy soul shrank
from the awfulness of being made sin upon the tree. It was not death, but the
divine anger against sin, the imputation to Him of all our iniquities that
filled His soul with horror. There was no conflict of wills.” (Ironside)
Abba, Father: In this moment of deep distress, Jesus didn’t
feel far from God the Father. He felt so close to the Father
that He used the name Abba, a child’s familiar name for “daddy.”
Take this cup away from
Me: In response to Jesus’
deeply moved prayers, the Father did not take the cup from Jesus; but He
strengthened Jesus to be able to take - and drink - the cup.
What cup? Repeatedly in the Old Testament, the cup is a powerful picture of the wrath and judgment of God:
· For in the Hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine
is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the
wicked of the earth drain and drink down. (Psalm 75:8)
· Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who
have drunk at the Hand of the LORD the
cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained
it out. (Isaiah 51:17)
· For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: “Take this wine cup of fury
from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.”(Jeremiah 25:15)
Jesus became, as it
were, an enemy of God, who was judged and forced to drink the cup of the
Father’s fury, so we would not have to drink from that cup – this was
the source of Jesus’ agony.
Matthew 20:22-23 speaks of a cup that the followers of Jesus must
also drink. “In any case, our cup can never be as deep or as bitter as was His,
and there were in His cup some ingredients that never will be found in ours.
The bitterness of sin was there, but He has taken that away for all who believe
in Him. His Father’s wrath was there, but He drank that all up, and left not a
single dreg for any one of His people.” (Spurgeon)
Nevertheless, not what I
will, but what You will:
Jesus came to a point of decision in Gethsemane. It wasn’t that He had not
decided nor consented before, but now He had come upon a unique point of
decision. He drank the cup at Calvary, but He decided once for
all to drink it at Gethsemane. The struggle of the Cross was won at the Garden
of Gethsemane.
This struggle at
Gethsemane - the place of crushing - has an important place in fulfilling God’s
plan of redemption. If Jesus failed here, He would have failed at the Cross. His
success here made the victory at the Cross possible.
If it were possible: Jesus wasn’t asking for permission to let
humanity perish in hell; He was asking the Father, “If there is any other
possible way to save humanity other than the agony which awaits Me at the Cross
- let it be.” Yet there was no other way, so Jesus will go to the Cross.
This prayer of Jesus
eliminates any other way of salvation. If there is another way, His death was
not necessary and His prayer was not answered.
Not what I will, but
what You will: Some criticize such a
prayer in the mouth of a Christian, saying it is a prayer that lacks faith. But
to pray not what I will, but
what You will is a
prayer of great faith and trust in God. If such a prayer insults God, then
Jesus insulted His Father at this crucial moment in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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