Our Suffering Savior

Well, we are continuing in our studies and preparation for the Passover season. With that, we have the title of our message today, the title, Our Suffering Savior. Our Suffering Savior. If you have your Bibles, I'd like to invite you to turn to Mark chapter 14, verses 32 through 36. Mark 14, verses 32 through 36. Here in Mark 14, we come to a garden, and it is the Garden Gethsemane.

This is the moment in which we would come where we find Jesus Christ considering the cup that lay before Him. We have Him coming to consider the full weight of all that lay before Him in His crucifixion. I will say a study like this is not one that we necessarily welcome.

It is a very difficult study. But I'll tell you, my hope and my expectation is that at the end of a study like this, we will find just incredible encouragement, incredible inspiration, and hopefully a new zeal in our purpose, in our journey. Jesus Christ, while the Son of God, will now be in a moment in this garden in which He will show us His full humanity. Do you sometimes cry out with emotional or physical pain?

Well, we're going to see that Jesus Christ was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief. Do you sometimes feel cast aside? Well, Jesus Christ was despised, rejected by men. Do you sometimes feel misunderstood, betrayed, perhaps even broken sometimes? Well, Jesus Christ experienced all these things, and He went through these things for us, for mankind. Not only His death, but His suffering and His pain to pay the full price of our sins. And in this is on display the incredible love of the Father and the Son, with Jesus Christ giving His life to open up life, eternal life, to all of us today.

So, again, we're going to focus on Jesus Christ, our suffering Savior. We owe everything to Him. Mark 14 verse 32. Then, Mark records, then they, Jesus, that means Jesus and the disciples, they came to the place which was named Gethsemane. And Jesus said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray. And He took Peter, James, and John with Him. And He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch. Verse 35. He went then, went a little further, fell to the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, that that 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. You know, very familiar territory here, very familiar passages. And of course, we often come to these and other similar passages when we are turning our focus onto the Passover here. And when you look at a moment like this, I think it's very revealing. You know, we know that we are not given a description of Christ's physicality in the Gospel accounts. For example, while He walked here on earth, we're not told, for example, His height.

We're not told His weight. We're not even told the color of His hair or the shades of His eyes, you know. None of that. There's really a veil of silence over the physicality of Jesus. So given that, it's quite revealing, we could say, that we are then given insight into the psychological aspects of Jesus, aren't we? I find that interesting. We're given insight into the psychological makeup of Him. So while we don't have an ability to say He looked like this, we actually do have an ability to say He felt like this.

And we have an understanding of what was going on inside of Him as He experienced a moment here, for example, in the garden. And knowing Him on the inside, again, it can be quite an encouragement for us in the end. So we want to try to navigate through this moment and help us kind of organize our thoughts. I want us to employ three simple verbs.

Those verbs, which will help organize our thoughts, are the verbs, look, listen, and learn. Okay? Look, listen, and learn. Of course, my sister is a teacher. And I can remember back, this is when they had chalkboards. I don't think they have chalkboards. Kids, I'll have to tell you what a chalkboard is sometime. And not only do they have dry erase boards now, they're actually interactive boards. It's the craziest thing if you've seen this. But back in my day, above the chalkboard, they would have such verbs like this, you know, where the teacher's looking to encourage the kids to, you know, look properly, listen carefully, learn eagerly.

You know, verbs are words kind of along those lines. So I thought we could organize our thoughts around that as we look, listen, and learn from this moment in the garden, in which now Jesus Christ prepares himself for the ultimate act of his sacrifice.

So let's look. Let's look. And we need to look. You know, we're given the gospel accounts in such a way as to give us, or conjure up in our mind's eye, a sense of what it did look like here. So again, don't allow the familiarity to take us away from really resting in a moment like this. This is a striking moment, a striking moment.

And we could also say it's really, there's some, it's kind of an incongruent picture that we're looking upon here. There's an incongruency with this. The early gospel writers, they would have been very familiar with certain pictures that were painted for them. They would have looked upon Jesus, and a picture that would have been very familiar for them would have been the picture of him being a teacher, for example.

They would have understood that role and what that looked like. They would also have been aware when they thought of Jesus in their mind's eye of him being a miracle worker. That would have been a very familiar role, which would have been painted for them. They would also have thought of him and pictured a friend. Often he was, they had described him as the picture of him being a friend to those who you wouldn't necessarily make friends with. A friend of sinners, those outcasts in society. Very familiar pictures. Those pictures would have been familiar to them, but now the early readers come and they take this material and they would have not been ready for this picture. This picture of a distressed Christ. A distressed Christ. This is what we're looking upon here. Again, verse 33, he was beginning. It was welling up in him. We could say he began to be troubled, verse 33, and deeply distressed. I looked up these Greek words. Some of the deeper meaning is struck with terror, deep anguish, great depression. So this is what we're looking upon. This is not a little bit of internal conflict that he's feeling. It's quite deep. What is hitting Jesus at this point is the most intense emotions a human being could ever face.

You know, he is about to take on the sins of the world, the sins of mankind, upon his shoulders.

The most intense emotions a human could face. I was doing some fellowship this morning, and one of our brethren came up and said, well, you know, I think we're even giving grace to the extent of emotional depression and stress. I think we're probably giving some grace where that's even limited in our experience today. But what this was, was the unmitigated amount of stress, emotions, depression, anguish that could ever come to a human being. To kind of punctuate that, Luke gives us a part of the recordings to say that Jesus Christ was also sweating profusely.

And a little bit later on in the Gospel accounts, we're given indications that this was a cool night, a cold night even. Peter is there. He's warming himself by a fire. It's not a good moment for Peter. You know, the little girl comes up and questions him, are you a follower of his and of Jesus's? And he denies it three times. But there he's warming himself by a fire. So the nights were cool enough to have a fire. And look what Luke records.

If you want to keep your marker here, keep your marker here in Mark. And let's turn to Luke 22 verses 39 through 44. Luke adds a detail that Mark doesn't. Often, you know, we're going through the Gospel of Luke in our regular studies. I like Luke's recordings because he often does. As a doctor, he pays special attention to detail. Luke 22 verses 39 through 44 is no exception here. In fact, Luke adds two additional details in addition to Mark's recording. Luke 22 beginning in verse 39, coming out, Luke records, he went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed. Luke 22 verses 41, he was withdrawn from them, a stone's throw, he knelt down and prayed.

Mark gave us these words as well. Luke 22 verses 42, Father, if it's your will, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. Then we have this detail, verse 43, Then an angel came and appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. But being in agony, he prayed even more earnestly. Then hear this, Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. So if we stop there, so it would have been one thing if the climate was such that it was humid, and we could say, well, that's just the product of the climate, but we know it was a cool night, you know, and here he is sweating like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

There actually is a condition that speaks to this. It's called hematohydrosis. Hematohydrosis. Our sweat glands have blood vessels, kind of a network around them, and it's an actual physical phenomenon. Under extreme duress, under extreme stress, those blood vessels will contract, even causing blood to come out of the pores in that way, like sweat. Perhaps that is happening here. And, you know, this is what we're looking upon. So we're looking at this scene, and if Peter, James, and John would have been awake, or told they went to sleep, if they would have been awake, they would have been astonished about what they looked upon here.

So the early readers, even the disciples themselves, wouldn't have been able to immediately reconcile this picture of Jesus Christ here. They would have asked, you know, no doubt, what is happening here? The disciples would have been immediately able to acknowledge their own distress, their own stress, their own anguish. Often you find them, for example, cowering in the back of a boat, you know, and with storms raging. But then you find Jesus Christ standing at the bow and commanding the the the seas to shh, you know.

And there they are, calming down in an instant, strong. They would have looked upon him in circumstances like that, taking command, bold. They would have looked upon him and remembered there he was, perhaps with biceps bulging of a carpenter in a perhaps a vein protruding from his forehead as he tipped the tables there in the market, those that were disgracing the Sabbath there in the temple, taking command, bold, incredible acts of strength.

And given that, though, now they look upon a distressed Christ. As we read there in Mark where he said to them, his friends, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch. There's kind of a context of comfort, wanting comfort from his friends there. So let's look at this, you know. Jesus is overwhelmed in the moment. As he moves toward the crucifixion, he's overwhelmed in his emotions. And it's so incongruent. I mean, it's an interesting picture here. Previously, with absolute confidence, he said the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.

They will kill him after he is killed. He will rise up on the third day for your notes. That's Mark 931. Mark 931. Steadfast! They must have marveled. He steadfast and soberly moved forward toward his crucifixion. But again, now in the garden, we look upon a different picture. Could we say, is this an honest assessment of what we're looking at? Is he recoiling from the cup? He knows it's God's will. He's repeated assertively to that fact. He knows of the divine necessity. That's not in question. But now, confronted in the immediacy of the ordeal, we look.

He's troubled, deeply distressed, overwhelmed to the point of death, and in his humanity, he's recoiling. It almost seems wrong. You know, I hear myself saying those words. It almost seems wrong. Wouldn't we expect him to just kind of breeze through death? You know.

He's the Messiah. Well, yes, but he was man as well. God and man. No one would ever die a death like this man. Again, all of the sin of humanity was about to be placed on his shoulders. He is now at the outer limits of human endurance to the absolute limit. Why? Well, here we have someone innocent about to bear the wrath of God in himself for sin. Let's look at this. Again, this is a difficult study, but we need to look. There's going to be incredible encouragement and hope in just a minute, so stay with me. But we want to... it's profitable for sometimes to just rest in a moment, even if it's a difficult moment. He's about to bear the sin at the hand of his father. Isaiah 53. Let's turn there, if you will. Isaiah 53. Look at what the prophet said of Jesus Christ. The prophet's words that it pleased the father to bruise the son. Look at this. Isaiah 53, verse 9 and 10. Isaiah 53, verse 9 and the beginning of verse 10.

The prophet prophesies of his coming, and he says, And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth innocent, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. We can stop there. For your notes, we won't turn there, but for your notes, Romans 832. Romans 832. Paul picks up this picture and says, He, the father, who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. So the father did that. And I think that's where the pleasing comes from. You know, here's a father in love looking down upon the son who's fulfilling this incredible act. And just the pleasure of being so proud of a son. You know, if any of you have a son or daughter, you understand. When they're stepping up to a challenge. Well, this is the greatest challenge ever. As the father did not spare his son, but delivered him up for us all.

So we're looking at the perfect one being nailed on a stake outside of Jerusalem between two thieves after being abused. And why? Here's another scripture for your study.

2 Corinthians 5, 21 for your notes. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. God made him who knew no sin to be sinned for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. By the way, just a side note, that's why the Days of Unleavened Bread follow the Passover.

In many ways, we look upon this scene, and it's a difficult scene of the Passover, but it is to invoke in us such a deep response to love that the Days of Unleavened Bread then picture that response. I am... how can I respond to such a sacrifice other than dedicate my life to honoring the one who gave his life for me? And so I'm going to put out leaven, symbolic of sin, I'm going to put it out and so that I can become the righteousness of God. That's our response. So the fact that we're here on a Sabbath, the fact that we keep the holy days, the fact we're just responding to love. We look in Scripture and we say, Father, how can I love you? And he gives us the steps. If you love me, keep my commandments. We look at his statutes. We look at those things which honor him and try to worship him in spirit and truth to honor that relationship because of all that's been given to us. This is what we're looking at here.

Now, I want to make something very clear here as we're looking upon this scene. As we look upon this suffering Savior, we are... let me tell you what we're not looking at. We are not looking at a reluctant Jesus Christ. We're not looking at a reluctant Son. Just the opposite. Let me show you this. Turn with me to John 10 verse 18. John 10 18. John 10 18, when we think about this scene in the garden, is perhaps one of the most powerful Scriptures in all of the Bible. This Scripture that we're about to read, it just moves me internally. He's not a reluctant suffering Savior. Oh no, here it is. John 10 verse 18. John 10 verse 18. He said, this is the one who gave his life for you. No one, no one takes my life from me. But I lay it down for myself. I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it again, this command I have received from my Father. There you have it. He is not reluctantly going to go into his crucifixion. He's obedient, purposeful, submissive. No one takes his life. He lays it down for us.

However, in his humanity, he recalls in this moment, in this garden, he's in his humanity. He was man, you know. Yes, he was God, but he was man. Real man. His mother had to teach him the alphabet, you know, growing up.

His grandmother had to teach him the different sounds. This is what a cow sounds like, you know. I paint that picture because I want you to know, his psychological development was completely in the framework of all that is normal. His psychological development was in the framework of all that was normal. Before the events, they were about to transpire in his humanity. He's suffering. He's in distress. He's almost overwhelmed.

So, what we're looking upon is not theory. It is the flesh and blood reality. And there was nothing in his humanity to blunt what was before him. We won't take the time to turn there, but it's the reason why he rejected the branch they offered to him that had a sponge on the end with wine mixed with gall. He rejected that. Gall is kind of a narcotic sort of a dulling of the senses. He refused it. Why? Again, he wanted to receive all of the unmitigated dimensions of all that he was going through. Not to deaden the pain. No one could ever say, he deadened the pain. Not at all. And because he was present at the very end, after all he went through, there he is up there. And he's still able to look down at his mother and say to his disciple that he loved, would you take care of her?

He's still able to hear the words of the thief who begins to go through a repentance process. And he says, you know, we're here because we deserve it. He's not here because he deserved any of this.

And even in that moment, he's able to look at that thief and say, give him some comfort. As surely I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

Comfort to a thief. There at the very end, caring. He cares. He loves. It's amazing.

So look upon this scene. Next, let's listen. And we're going to spend a lot less time on the next two verbs. Next verb is listen. What would we hear here in this garden? Well, we hear him speaking to his disciples. We hear him speaking to his father. If you want to turn back to Mark 14, verses 34 through 36. His beloved companions, he said these words to them. Mark 14, verse 34. Let's listen. Let's listen to these words. You know, this was probably in the quiet of the garden. His voice would ring out. This is before we would hear the boots of the troop coming to arrest him. Into the silence, he says to his disciples, verse 34, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Would you stay here and watch? And he goes a little further, verse 35, fell to the ground, and then he prayed. These would be the next words, this prayer. And he prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. Verse 36. Listen to these words. Abba, father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. Stop there. Listen to the words of our Creator here.

Abba, it's a very intimate word. It's akin to perhaps dad or daddy. So there's an intimacy here that we would have heard.

Everything's possible for you.

That's just respect, honor, sovereignty for his father. Perhaps we listen and we hear honesty. Honesty. Take this cup from me. That's an intense honesty. And then humility.

Humility, not my will, but your will be done. You know, father, and I know you've had this prayer from time to time in your life. Perhaps you're having this prayer today. I don't know if I can get through this. This is too much for me. You know, and we pray, and it's right. It's right to pray, take this from me, whatever you're facing in your life, take this from me. But it is also right to pray, don't take this from me if it's for the purpose of me becoming like your son. Don't take this from me if it will create in me his character. Be merciful, but have it. I want to fulfill your will in me, father. And the son was submissive to his father in this moment. And what an act of submission for us.

Now, it's at this point that we saw there back in Luke that Luke gives the details that an angel is dispatched to him. Angels are fascinating. We don't have the time to go through it today. Let me use a little conjecture. You know, because we are to look and we're to listen and really to be thinking about what it would have been like if we were able to get to listen in in the angelic realms. There is maybe the chief angel and the other angels are lined up and they're ready to work, ready to fulfill God's purpose in helping mankind. And perhaps the chief angel looks at the one who was there dispatched to do Jesus in Nazareth at his birth. And he says, I want you to go. So go to him now in Gethsemane. Comfort him.

I wonder what the angel said to Jesus when he was dispatched. We're not given privy to hearing the angel's words. Perhaps it was the intense volume of merely a silent embrace. Just an angel embracing Christ. You know, just, let me just be with you. And often that's the case. You know, God doesn't take these things from us often, but he says, I'll be with you in it. I'll be with you in it. I'm always there.

So we listen.

Luke records that Christ does speak again to his disciples and says, why are you sleeping? So here in the moment of just intense emotion, he says to them where we read, rise and pray lest you enter into temptation. So he's even thinking about his disciples in the most intense emotional moment of his life and worried about them. And he knows that as he departs, they're going to have to face incredible difficulty. He wants them to pray and he wants them to to be strong, to not enter into temptation, but to stay on the path. So he acknowledges his friends in this moment. And he, as we listen, he rises. We would hear again, we'd hear the boots of the dispatched troop coming. He rose from the prayer, straightens his shoulders, widens his stance. You know, I think about what he says to Judas there in the Passover meal. And he says, do what you got to do, you know, to Judas. You know, and I know at this point, he's like, do what you got to do. Let's, you know, he knew at that time the Father was not going to take the cup from him. It's what he came to the earth to do. So he's ready and he's determined. And he was ready to fulfill all that lay before him, all the while bowing to the Father's will. What a moment we're listening in on here. So the final verb we're going to spend just a moment on. To learn. What are we to learn from this? As we look upon this scene, listen upon it. What are we to learn? You know, I want you to dwell on this moment, perhaps, between now and the Passover as you're preparing for it. You know, I think this moment, ultimately, what we learn in it is that Jesus understands. He understands us. It's a simple takeaway, but he truly does. There's nothing you can pray from the heart that he won't have an immediate connection to.

He was in the midst of it all. I hope you know that. I hope you believe that. He lived amongst sin. He was sinless, though. He lived amongst swearing, blasphemy. He confronted disease. He confronted sadness. He confronted mortality.

And we learn that he does not call us, and God doesn't call us, to some unhonest, superficial triumph. We are sick. We are emotionally overwhelmed, sometimes. So bring it to God. Bring it to each other. I think it's a wonderful practice to go to someone to whom a brother or sister to whom you love, share some of the struggle you're going through. I'm dealing with this. It's a wonderful practice. You know, we're not called to superficial triumph. I hope I've been honest with you enough to let you in on some of the struggles I faced in the past, what I continue to face, and we face all these things together. But he knows, he understands, and he's here with us. God's dispatching angels to embrace us, you know, when you feel a comfort and you don't even know where it came from in the midst of distress. Well, there he is. There's God the Father through Jesus Christ, through the help of the angels. I have no doubt that that comfort, where that comfort comes from. So in my distress, in my fearfulness, in my quiet desperation, he understands my struggles. And yes, while he did die, he absolutely rose again. And he's at the right hand of the Father, and he's there to help us with any of the changes we've had. And he's at the right hand of the Father, and he's there to help us with any of the challenges that we go through. So you can just never give up. Call upon the one who opened up this door to a relationship with our Father. He's there to help. So as we move forward from what we discover here in this moment in the Garden, I encourage you to love, connect, and trust him in a greater way as we prepare for the Passover. Think deeply upon this scene. Look, listen, and learn from this moment. And may we all, individually and as a group, grow closer in a greater way to our wonderful and marvelous suffering Savior.