MARK 14 (PART 2)
Read Mark 14:27-42
Mark now returns to one of his recurring topics; how difficult discipleship is. Jesus told his disciples that they would all fall away from him and in particular that Peter would deny him three times. Of course, they were all outraged and Peter swore that he would never deny Jesus. But we will see soon that is exactly what he did. No doubt they meant what they said, but as they have all throughout their time with Jesus, they did not really understand the full extent of what discipleship meant.
For us too, commitment to Jesus can be costly. While there is no real persecution in this country, anyone who professes Jesus as Lord can expect to receive ridicule and opposition from non-believers, who are very much in the majority in our society. And for some people living overseas, following Jesus can mean loss of friends and family and even the danger of death from an oppressive regime. Peter and the disciples were perhaps overconfident in their ability to stand firm against the opposition. And that can happen these days as well when people find themselves isolated by verbal taunts from others and decide that they would rather be ‘in with the in crowd’ than hold a different view to them.
The scene now moves to the Garden of Gethsemane on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives. Jesus, knowing what was in store for him was troubled and distressed and so he went to pray. As he went to pray he asked some of the disciples, Peter, James and John to keep watch. They failed to do even that straightforward task. It is noticeable that they failed in their task three times. Jesus had said that Peter would deny him three times and here we have a kind of anticipation of what was to come. Peter failed to watch over Jesus praying three times; later he would fail to support him three times in a much more important context.
Here we get a view of Jesus praying to his father. He addresses God the Father as abba, an intimate and personal form of address. Jesus’ prayer is intense. He is ‘deeply distressed and troubled’ and ‘overwhelmed with sorrow’ (vv33-34). His prayer reflects a state of great stress on the part of Jesus, yet at the same time showing great faith, trust and obedience to his father, ‘yet not what I will, but what you will’ (v36). There is a good example to us for our prayers here; to come before the Lord acknowledging him for he is (yes, he is “our father who art in heaven” but he is also the sovereign Lord for whom all things are possible), asking for something (and there is nothing wrong with that – Jesus is asking for something from God the Father in this passage) but accepting that God is sovereign and our place is to do what he wants. And we have a reminder of that every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, “your will be done, in earth as it is in heaven”.
In Mark’s gospel we have seen that, as the disciples slowly got to grips with who Jesus is, they felt privileged and honoured to be with him. Now they were beginning to see the other side of the coin; that there is responsibility and even danger in following Jesus. Discipleship has its rewards; the greatest reward of all, eternal life in the company of Jesus. But it comes at a cost.