How Should You Pray in Your Hour of Need? (Mark 14:32-42)

Today we’re looking at the famous story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He’s moments away from his betrayal and death, and he knows it. His actions – and by contrast his disciples’ actions – give us some insight into our question for the day:

1. How should you pray in your hour of need?

• Maybe this is exactly what some of you need to hear today. You’re in an hour of need…
  • With your emotions: fighting anxiety, depression
  • In your marriage
  • Looking for a spouse
  • With your finances

Mark 14:32-34 (NLT) They went to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, “Sit here while I go and pray.” He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

“Stay here and keep watch with me”

• Jesus brought the three disciples with him for a reason: “Stay here and keep watch with me” in view of his distress and grief. He didn’t want them to pray WITH him (to have a prayer meeting): “Sit here while I go pray.” He wanted them to pray FOR him and be available to him (“keep watch with me”) while he was going through his anguished conversation with the Father.
• Jesus just wanted a wing man. Can you relate? 

But here’s the most interesting part:

“he became deeply troubled and distressed” and “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death”

• “The two verbs translated ‘deeply distressed and troubled’ together ‘describe an extremely acute emotion, a compound of bewilderment, fear, uncertainty and anxiety, nowhere else portrayed in such vivid terms as here.’ (EBC)
• Why so much angst? It goes against what we’ve come to expect from Jesus: measured, confident, at peace. 

Here’s what was happening: the picture of Jesus at Gethsemane shows us the human side of Christ. 

• “Gethsemane reveals the humanity of Jesus with astonishing fidelity. He is shown to be ‘anything but above temptation. So far from sailing serenely through his trials like some superior being unconcerned with this world, he is almost dead with distress.’” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)
• Remember hypostatic union?
  • The Council of Chalcedon, held in 451 AD, affirmed the doctrine of the hypostatic union, declaring that Jesus Christ is “perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body.” This formulation reconciled the seemingly paradoxical aspects of Jesus being both fully divine and fully human.
  • The council also condemned several heresies, including Nestorianism, which emphasized the distinction between the divine and human natures of Christ to the point of suggesting they were two separate persons. The Chalcedonian Definition, the statement of faith produced by the council, rejected this view and affirmed the unity of Christ’s person.
• Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT) 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

And here’s why it was crushing:not because Jesus was afraid to die, but because he would have to absorb the wrath of God for our sake. 

• God wouldn’t cancel his wrath against humanity, he would spend it on Jesus.
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Not his own mortality, but the specter of identifying with sinners so fully as to become the object of God’s wrath against sin – it is this that overwhelms Jesus’ soul “‘to the point of death'” (v. 34).

Let’s read on to hear his actual prayer:

Mark 14:35-36 (NLT) He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

“If it were possible” – maybe there’s another way, an “out”, a pathway that avoids suffering

• Have you ever prayed this way? Are you praying this way now?
  • With your anxiety, depression
  • In your marriage
  • Looking for a spouse
  • With your finances
• Abraham and Isaac – he had the knife raised… and then God provided an “out”
  • Genesis 22:9-14 (NLT) When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!” “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.” Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the LORD will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
  • (Pillar New Testament Commentary) That is a prayer for God not to strike the shepherd (14:27). Is it possible for Jesus to fulfill God’s will in all ways but this one, or in some other way? Perhaps like Isaac the sacrifice can be averted even though the arm of Abraham is raised for the dagger’s plunge. The plea of Jesus suggests that he is genuinely tempted to forsake the role of the suffering servant.
  • So is that a promise? Will God provide for me? Will he answer my prayer?
  • Or consider a second example: 
• The famine in Egypt – God used Joseph to deliver the Israelites to Goshen
  • Genesis 47:2-6 (NLT) Joseph took five of his brothers with him and presented them to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?” They replied, “We, your servants, are shepherds, just like our ancestors. We have come to live here in Egypt for a while, for there is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan. The famine is very severe there. So please, we request permission to live in the region of Goshen.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have joined you here, choose any place in the entire land of Egypt for them to live. Give them the best land of Egypt. Let them live in the region of Goshen. And if any of them have special skills, put them in charge of my livestock, too.”
  • Pharaoh granted their request, and they avoided suffering. 
• Was there another way God could forgive the sins of human beings? Apparently not. A price had to be paid. God could not simply wipe the slate clean by an act of his choice, because that would violate his justice and holiness. 

“Everything is possible for you…Please take this cup of suffering away from me.” 

• • With one exception: it is not possible for God to act in a way contrary to his nature. It is not possible for God to NOT be holy or just. Thus, in a real sense, it was not possible for God to take the cup of suffering from Jesus, if he was to accomplish redemption.

• Sometimes our wants don’t line up with God’s will, and it’s not always a sin thing. 

• • Not always sin to want something else, but always a sin to consciously reject God’s will.

• Jesus never sinned, yet he’s expressing a real desire here that doesn’t line up with the Father’s will. 

“Abba, Father” – look at the personal language. “Daddy”

• Do you pray this way? Informal, pleading
• Romans 8:15 (NLT) So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”
• But watch how Paul finishes the thought:
• Romans 8:17 (NLT) And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
• “Everything is possible” for God, but that doesn’t mean he’ll always lead us down a pathway that avoids suffering.

“Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

• This is the essence of godly prayer. Express your heart to a personal God. Then submit to his will no matter what. 
• That’s a dirty word these days: “submission”. 
• “The cup is the same one Jesus referred to in 10:38-39 – the cup of the wrath of God. In the OT it is regularly used as a metaphor of punishment and judgment. Here it obviously refers to Jesus’ death. Jesus’ desire was for the removal of the cup. But he willingly placed his will in submission to his Father’s will.” (EBC)
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Gethsemane… presents us with a uniquely human interplay between the heart of the Son and the will of the Father. Jesus’ prayer is not the result of calm absorption into an all-encompassing divine presence, but an intense struggle with the frightful reality of God’s will and what it means fully to submit to it.

But look at how hard that is for us: 

Mark 14:37-38 (NLT) Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Observations: This all occurs at a very late hour. Sleep is understandable given the hour, the stress of the day, etc. Yet they had an assignment, which they could have fulfilled.

• “The verbs ‘watch’ and ‘pray’ are both imperatives…. The conquest of temptation can only come through these two actions. The spirit (a reference to the human spirit) might be willing to do what is right, but the human body is weak.” (EBC)

Mark 14:39-40 (NLT) Then Jesus left them again and prayed the same prayer as before. When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open. And they didn’t know what to say.

Interesting: the same prayer as before. Let’s spell it out: ““Everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Mark 14:41-42 (NLT) When he returned to them the third time, he said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But no—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Up, let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is here!”

NIV: “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come.”

• The words “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest.” are either ironic (Sleep then, if that’s what is so important to you) or a question (Are you still sleeping and resting?). The latter seems better in view of the situation. (EBC)
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) The third time Jesus finds the disciples sleeping he retorts, “‘Enough!'” (v. 41). This translation is simply a guess at the meaning of the original apechei, which seems to be an utterance of exasperation, perhaps “‘What’s the use?'”

Look at the incredible contrast: Jesus is in anguish; his disciples are snoring! And then the climax: “The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

“Up, let’s be going”

• This is the resolve that flows out of godly prayer – let’s do this. God, I’m submitted to you no matter what happens. Your will, not mine. 
• “‘Let’s be going’ cannot be intended to suggest flight, for the Lord had always reserved himself for this ‘hour’ and had now finally embraced the Divine Will concerning it. Jesus did not go to flee from Judas but to meet him.” (EBC)

Close:

1. How should you pray in your hour of need?

• Be honest, vulnerable – share you heart w a personal God
• Be willing to submit to his will, even if it means suffering
• Then move forward, trusting his will to be done.