LIVE AND LET DIE
Opening Prayer
“My heart says of You, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, LORD, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8).
Read Mark 14:32–42
Gethsemane
32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He 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.”
35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 “Abba,[a] Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
37 Then 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? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
39 Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. 40 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
41 Returning 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. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Footnotes:
a Mark 14:36 Aramaic for father
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What is your deepest desire?As Jesus says, everything is possible for God, so why was it that Jesus had to die? Was there not another way that salvation could come to all? Did the disciples ask themselves that same question on Good Friday afternoon?
Jesus teaches us a very important thing about God – it is all about Him. Whether it is the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, or all three together, it is all about God. He knows all, He directs all, and, most importantly, He sees the bigger picture.
Asking for relief from the task shows a very human side of Jesus that most of us would share (35), and yet His divine nature takes the lead: “Yet not what I will, but what You will” (36). Why didn’t the Father listen to the Son? The Father knew that the only way to take away sin in order to save someone was to remove the penalty of sin – “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). Jesus knew it too.
Do we understand it, though? If our impression of God is of the cuddly creator and comforter, we can be asleep to the fact that sometimes He takes hard decisions to get the best for those He loves most. That was why Jesus had to die.
Apply
Do you really want to follow God’s will, or your version of it? Is there a decision you are struggling to make? Is the Lord asking for surrender in a certain area of your life? Make Jesus’ prayer your own.
Closing prayer
Help me, Lord, to say “Your will be done.”
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