Our Suffering Savior

Well, if you like titles to messages, our title of the main message today is our suffering Savior. Our suffering Savior. And if you'd like to turn, we are going to turn first to Mark chapter 14 verses 32 through 36. Mark 14 verses 32 through 36, here in Mark's gospel. We come to a garden, and it is the Garden Gethsemane, and we come to a place where now Jesus would fill the full weight of all that was now going to be placed on his shoulders and all the full weight of all that lay before him. This is the moment in which Jesus now would consider the cup to which he would drink.

I will tell you we don't necessarily welcome a study of this kind. It can be very difficult to read of a moment like this, but I will tell you it's greatly effective. What a study like this, and coming to a moment like this where we come to Christ's Prayer before he now would face his crucifixion. It is greatly affecting us in bringing us to the one who would be our suffering Christ, but ultimately our suffering Savior.

Savior, do you, from time to time, cry out emotionally and with physical pain? We're going to see today that Christ was and is a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Do you feel yourself cast aside from time to time? Well, Christ was despised and rejected by men? Have you been misunderstood, betrayed, even broken?

Christ experienced all these things, and he did so for mankind's sin. He went through not just death, but suffering and pain, again for the purpose to fully pay the price for our sins. In this is the awesome love of the Father and the Son, that the Son was willing to go through this, and ultimately His death opens up life, eternal life, for all of us. So we're going to turn our focus today on to our suffering Savior. Mark 14. Let's begin in verse 32.

Then Mark records, they, that's Jesus and the disciples, they came to the place which was called Gethsemane. And he, Jesus, said to the disciples, Sit here while I pray. Verse 33, He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he, Jesus, began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch. He, Jesus, went a little bit further, fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. Let's stop there. Well, we could say, while very impactful, this is very familiar territory.

You know, we do come to these moments at times like this, when we're preparing for the upcoming Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. And you look at a passage like this, and I think it's very revealing. You know, if you look at the Gospel accounts, it's interesting to consider that we're not told of the physicality of Jesus. You know, nowhere are we told how tall he was. Nowhere are we told his weight, or the color of his hair when he walked on the earth, or even the shade of his eyes. There's kind of a veil of silence over those things.

And so, given that, it is quite revealing that we are, though, given insight to the psychological aspects of Jesus. It's quite interesting. We're given somewhat of the psychological makeup of Jesus. So, we don't have the ability to say he looked like this, but we actually do have the ability to say he felt like this, or he experienced this. We're told what was going on inside of him, we see here, knowing what was going on the side. And that being a fact, it is all the more, I'll tell you, spiritually encouraging for us in the end. I think we'll see that today. So, what we want to do is navigate through this moment in Scripture, and we're going to help us organize our thoughts.

I've broken it down into three areas of focus, and so we're going to look at this moment by employing three different verbs. The verbs we're going to engage in with today are look, listen, and learn. If you're in the education system, if you ever had an elementary teacher, you may have seen a version of these three verbs above the chalkboard. I don't think they have chalkboards anymore, but above the interactive, they now have interactive teaching boards now, my sister tells me.

But very often back in my day, kids, you would have some of these verbs to look properly, listen carefully, learn eagerly, and you would have these verbs to look, to listen, to learn. So, I thought we would engage those verbs while we look at this moment in the garden here with Jesus as he's now preparing himself for his impending and approaching crucifixion. So first, look, and we're going to spend a lot more time on this first verb here. So let's look. We need to look. We have these kinds of passages to conjure up in our mind's eye what is taking place here.

And if you're like me, what immediately conjures up in my mind is this is quite striking. We could all agree with that. But I think it also encondures up in our minds a picture that is really incongruent. There's an incongruency here in what we're looking at.

The early Gospel readers would have been introduced to the picture of Jesus being, for example, a teacher. That was a picture painted for them. Very clearly, they would have been able to engage with Jesus and understand that picture of him being a teacher. They would have known and thought about the picture of Jesus being, for example, a worker of miracles. They would have been taught that. Those there would have seen that. They would have seen the picture of him being a friend, a friend of particularly those who you wouldn't have made friends with, friends of what society would deem as sinners. That would have been a very familiar picture. But I can tell you they would have not been ready for this picture here, this picture of a distressed Christ. This would have been an unfamiliar picture to them, a distressed Christ.

We notice there in verse 33, this distress is growing in him. He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. If you look up the Greek words here, some of the descriptions of these original words means utterly astonished, struck with terror, deep anguish, even great depression.

So this is no little conflict here, no little bit of stress. These are the most intense emotions a human being can feel. Again, understandably, no one has ever gone through this. He is about to have the weight of mankind's sins placed on his shoulders and take the full weight and penalty of that.

So when we look, we see a Jesus Christ in deep distress. How much in deep distress? Well, the other gospel writers give us a little bit more detail. We know that this was a cooler night. This was a cold night. If we fast forward from this garden moment, we're told that Peter, the Apostle Peter, warmed himself just before a fire, a kindled fire, just before a girl comes and questions him and he denies Jesus three times. We'll get to those details as we work through the Gospel of Luke later. But while we're told it's a cool night, the Gospel writer Luke tells us that Jesus was sweating profusely in this moment. In fact, let's turn there. If you want to keep your marker here, we'll come back to Mark. But let's turn to Luke 22 and verse 39 through 44. Luke 22 verses 39 through 44. Luke records of this moment in the garden, and he states that Jesus was sweating profusely, and even as the detail like drops of blood, sweating like drops of blood. Look at this. Luke 22, let's begin in verse 39 here. Luke records of this moment. Coming out, Luke 22 verse 39, he, Jesus, went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed, his disciples also followed him when he came to the place. He said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. Verse 41, he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, knelt down and prayed, saying, we heard these words recorded by Mark, Father, if it's your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Luke adds this detail, then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. Verse 44, in being in agony, Jesus prayed more earnestly, then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Let's stop there. So if it had been a humid night, of course, we would have said, well, he's just reacting to the climate of the day, but we know it was a cool night. This is quite a distressing moment here, sweating great drops like blood falling down to the ground. There actually is a condition that causes this. It's a medical condition. Hematohydrosis, our sweat glands have blood vessels, kind of a network of blood vessels around them. And so actually, in great, in great distress, those blood vessels can expand and actually cause the phenomenon of sweating like blood under great stress. Perhaps that's what was happening here with Christ. Now, so this is what we'd be looking upon. And if Peter, James, and John had not fallen asleep, they would have been awake to look upon this scene. They would have been bewildered to see Jesus in this condition. Again, they had never seen him like this. They would have asked, what is happening to you, Jesus, if they would have been awake, you know? They would have never looked upon Jesus with the capacity, thinking that he has the capacity to feel this troubled and to feel this despaired. And in fact, just the opposite. I mean, leading up to this point, they would have been aware of their own distress and anxiety and despair. Perhaps when they were huddled in a boat, the seas churning all around, the sea was in great distress. They had seen Jesus stand out on the bow of the ship and command the seas to hush, you know, strength, command, and command. They had seen that. They had looked upon that. They proclaimed, who is this? You know, that even the sea obeys him.

Acts of strength they had seen. They had seen Jesus, perhaps, bulging carpenter biceps, maybe with a vein in his forehead, turning over tables there, the merchant's tables, disgracing the temple with their selling of things, you know. They had seen that. Great acts of strength.

And given that, what is happening now when you look upon this scene? His soul, Mark says, is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death here.

So Jesus proclaims to his friends, those nearest and dearest to him, he's so distressed, so troubled, he's feeling almost overwhelmed by it all. Emotions. Think of these emotions coming forth as he now knows the time is coming, the crucifixion.

And it's so striking here. You know, previously he had told his disciples, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed by the hands of men. They are going to kill him after he is killed. He will rise on the third day, but Scripture says they didn't understand and they were afraid to ask him. For your notes, that's Mark 931. Mark 931. Jesus declared, this is what's going to happen. He was walking so straightforwardly to these sober events, but now a different picture we look upon. As he, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, recalls from the cup. Is that a fair statement?

As he knows it's the will of his Father, he's repeated the fact of the divine necessity to suffer and die. That's not in question. But now in the immediacy of the ordeal, we look, he's troubled, he's deeply distressed, so sorrowful, even to death, overwhelmed, and he's recoiling from the cup that he's been moving toward to partake.

It almost seems wrong. It almost seems wrong. Wouldn't we expect Jesus to just breeze through death? He's the Messiah. I found this quote. Tell me if you agree or think upon it. No one ever feared death like this man feared death, because no one would ever die a death like this man. All of the sin, all of the sin of humanity was about to be placed on his shoulders. He is now at the outer limits of his human endurance, close to the absolute limit.

Why? Well, it's because the innocent is about to bear the wrath of God in himself for sin. Jesus, the one who was entirely without sin, beloved by his father, is about to be destroyed at his father's hands. Look at Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 verse 9 and 10. Again, let's feel the weight of what we're looking upon here. Again, we don't welcome a study like this. I will tell you there is absolute victory in the end, so if we can just get through this. But for right now, we want to feel the weight of this. Isaiah 53 verses 9 and the first part of verse 10 here. Let's look upon, let's see what we're looking upon. Isaiah 53 verse 9, and they made his grave with the wicked, this spotless individual. But with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Verse 10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Stop there. For your notes, we won't take the time to turn there, but Romans 8.32, Paul paints the picture and says, He, the Father, who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Romans 8.32, the Father delivered his son up for us all. This is what we're looking upon. The innocent about to separate the hands of the Father, the sinless to bear the wrath of sin here, the prospect of the perfect one being nailed to a cross on a garbage heap just outside of Jerusalem, between two thieves after being abused. Why? God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. For your notes, for your notes, that's 2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians 5.21, He who had no sin to be sinned for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Just as a side note, this what we're explaining, it actually reveals the days of unleavened bread. If he made him to be sinned for us so that we could become the righteousness for God, then our response to this that we're talking about, the Passover, our response to the Passover is the days of unleavened bread. That leaven physical symbolizing us putting sin out of our lives for those seven days. You read it in Leviticus 23, the Passover and the days of unleavened bread follow. The days of unleavened bread are our response to this. What other response could we have other than to say, thank you, Father, I love you. Now let my life honor what you've given me. We'll get more to the days of unleavened bread later.

So we're here, where we're looking upon this scene. I do want to be clear. I don't want there to be any misunderstanding about this, what we're not looking at. We are not looking at a reluctant Jesus. He may be recoiling in his humanity, but we're not looking at a reluctant Jesus. I want you to turn here so that you can place your eyes upon this. John 10 verse 18.

John 10.18 is perhaps one of the most powerful scriptures in all the Bible. I want you to read this with regards to the Passover. The one who gave his life for us.

This, we want to get this clear about Jesus in this scene in the garden. He's not a reluctant Savior. Look at this. John 10.18. John 10.18. John 10.18. John 10.18. Here it is. No one, he says, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it again. This command I've received from my Father. Okay. No one does this. Jesus is moving obediently, submissively, purposefully, but in his humanity, he has this moment in the garden. He was a real man. He was born. His mom had to teach him the alphabet.

His grandmother had to teach him the different sounds between a donkey and a cow, perhaps. They mimicked, moo, moo, you know.

His psychological development was in the framework of all that was normal. Okay. And so, before the events that are about to transpire, he recoils.

So, this is not theory. This is flesh and blood reality. There was nothing in Christ's humanity to blunt any of this that was going on. We won't take the time to turn there, but it's a great study. They offer Christ, on a branch, a sponge of wine mixed with gall. If you know anything about gall, it was a kind of a narcotic, a deadening, a kind of potion. And he says, no. He refused the wine, mingled with gall. Why? He experienced all the suffering in all of its unmitigated dimensions. No one would be able to say, you know, yeah, but he dolled his senses. He was fully there, fully present. And right at the end of it all, being fully present through all the suffering, being fully present, he's able to look down at his disciple that he loved and he says, would you take care of my mother? You know, he knows he's about to die. Would you take care of him? Would you take care of her for me? After all the suffering being fully present, he's able to look to his side to one of the thieves there and care about them.

He says to the thief who is giving words of repentance, you know, we deserve to be up here. He didn't do anything. He gives the loving words to say, well, surely I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise, he says. After all that, he still is showing this incredible love. And that's us. That's us there, you know, that he's speaking to in a great sense, you know, I'm doing this for you.

He was God. He was man. He is at the right hand of God today, yes, but he was also complete and perfect in his manhood. And this is what we look upon here at this scene.

Well, let's listen. And again, we're going to spend a lot shorter time on the next two verbs. What would we, what do we hear here in this garden? Well, he's speaking to his disciples and he's speaking to his father. Back to Mark 14, verse 34 and 36. Mark 14 verse 34 and 36 again. Into the silence here. Before we heard the, we hear the boots of the troop coming to arrest him, we hear these words. Mark 14 verse 34. He says to his disciples, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch, he says to them. He goes a little bit further, falls to the ground, and hears the words of his prayer.

If it were possible, he prays, the hour might pass from him. And he says, verse 36, Abba, father, verse 36, all things are possible for you. Take this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will, he says.

So we listen and we hear the words of our creator, the Son, speaking to his disciples, his soul is growing so more and more sorrowful. Abba, that's a real expression of intimacy. It can be akin to our dad or daddy. So he says, dad, daddy, Abba. So there's intimacy there. We would have heard this intimacy. Everything's possible for you, dad. That's respect, sovereignty, honor.

We would have heard that. Father, if it's possible, take this cup from me. Perhaps we could say that's honesty. Honesty. Then we have intensity. Take this cup from me. If I'm being honest, father, if I'm being honest, I don't know if I can do this. Is it possible? Is there any other way?

And then humility.

But, dad, not my will. Yours be done. I'm giving myself into your hands. I know we make this prayer. There's so many going through suffering. We pray this. Man, can you take this from me? I don't want that to be the primacy, the priority of my prayer, father, because I know you're bringing this to me for purpose. I want to become like Jesus Christ. So, yes, take this from me, but don't take it any minute sooner than it being profitable to me. Because my primary purpose here is to glorify you, is to become like you. And so, in a sense, I rejoice in trials because I know they're purposeful and I know they're working me toward your purposes, but please be merciful, you know? Now, at this point, Luke records, as we read, back in Luke 22.43, an angel is dispatched. Luke 22.43, we read this earlier. We don't have time to talk about it, but angels are pretty fascinating, you know? This is speculative, but where the angels lined up, you know, and the the chief angel is there, looking down upon this scene, there's Christ in the garden. The chief angel's seeing this and there's the angels lined up, ready to do their work. Perhaps he looks at the one and says, you know, you were with him in Bethlehem, why don't you go down? Why don't you go down now to Gethsemane and comfort him? You know, they were all praying for him. If we could have been in those angelic realms as they look upon this scene and listen to these words, it would be incredibly moving. It doesn't say what the angel said to Jesus. You know, we can wander about this. We want to put ourselves there. I wonder what the angel said.

Perhaps it's just it would be just the intense volume of an embrace, you know, perhaps no words were given and it's just the embrace of the angel, you know, there. And the angel wasn't there to take away the trial. He was there to comfort and that's God's promise. You're in the world and I pray that you're not taken out of it. You're my disciples. You're my representatives. I'm going to allow you to go through things, but my promise to you is I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll be there with you. So Jesus prayed in more anguish, it says. If you're here in Luke 22 verse 45, we would have heard him addressed now, perhaps waking them up as disciples. Why do you sleep? He says, Luke 22, 45, rise and pray lest you enter into temptation. So he's even thinking of his friends at this time and he knew what all that they were about to face with him departing and he worries about them, you know. But we see in verse 45 at some point here at this moment, he rose from the prayer. There's Judas in the dispatch detachment of the troops, those who came to take him in short order. He would have had to straighten his shoulders, you know, and widen his stance. Let's bother. I now know the answer to your prayer. There they are, and I'm ready. I'm ready. Just like he told Judas in the Passover meal, do what you got to do. Do what you got to do, you know. So this is the scene we're looking upon. We're listening to this.

Third verb to learn. What do we learn from this? I think I want you to ponder upon this scene and look upon it, listen, and come to what you learn from this. I think one, and we'll just go through one overarching application to learn from here as we look upon this, what we learn is that Christ understands what we're going through. Again, you may come up with many other lessons and learn what to learn from this.

He walked the earth. He went through all of this. He was amongst the sin. He heard the swearing. He heard the blasphemy. He saw the immoral conduct. He saw disease. He saw mortality. He saw sadness of death. He was in it all. We're not called to be dishonest about the walk that we're walking. We're not called to some superficial triumph. That's why I encourage everyone daily and weekly, and I try to be encouraged to be intentionally vulnerable, to share some of the things. Make sure you're with a trusted individual. Of course, you need to be wise, but share some of the struggles that you're going through. Share it from the past. This is what I went through. This is what I continue to struggle with today. This is what I'm talking to God about. This is what I'm... This is what I'm... Boy, I have the same sins I had last year, which I was determined to overcome and have victory over last Passover, and here they are again today.

Ultimately, it's about the struggle, the effort, the love, getting down on your knees, asking for forgiveness, standing up, Father, with your help, I can overcome, making progress, honoring Him more and more each day. But we know that. We know that we are sick. We are overwhelmed at times, but Christ stands beside us each and every day, and I think that's the wonder of this little section here in Gethsemane. We're introduced to the one that was overwhelmed and sorrowful to the point of death. So, in my distress, in my fearfulness, in my quiet desperation, Jesus Christ knows of my struggles, and while He did die, He rose again, and He will help us rise each and every day to face all that we face as we follow Him. That's what it's about. That's what it's about.

So, in conclusion, as we move on and forward from all that we discover here in this garden, I encourage you this spring festival season to love, connect, and trust Him more and more. To be thankful to our Father that He sent His Son opening up that relationship with Him. As we prepare for a deeper commitment to Him this year, let's thank deeply upon this scene. Let's look, let's listen, and let's learn from this little moment in the garden. And may we individually and collectively, in a greater way, love and connect and enter into this relationship in a deeper way because of our suffering Savior Jesus Christ.