Sermon: Spirit, Flesh, & Divinity (Mark 14:26-42)

The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Spirit, Flesh, and Divinity
Sunday, July 21st, 2024
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Mark 14:26-42

26 And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. 28 But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. 29 But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. 30 And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. 31 But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.

32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. 33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; 34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. 35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. 37 And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? 38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. 39 And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words. 40 And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him. 41 And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the glory of the Incarnation, and that Your Son, the Eternal Word, took himself a true humanity, a rational soul and a passible body, in order to die and rise again impassible, incorruptible, never to die again. We thank you for this eternal life that is offered to us in Christ. Join us to Him more deeply by Your Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

There is a famous saying amongst the theologians that just as in God three persons are one essence, so also in the Incarnate Son, three essences are one person.

• I’ll say that again in more explicit terms: Just as in God three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are the one Divine Essence, so also in the Incarnate Son, three essences (the human soul, the human body, and the divine nature) are one person, namely the God-man Jesus Christ.
• There is a kind of numerical symmetry between who God is as Trinity, and who Jesus is as the God-man (three persons in one essence, three essences in one person). And what we have here in our sermon text this morning is one of the clearest windows into that ineffable mystery of who Christ is.
  • We know that Jesus is fully God, he is the eternal Word and Image of the Father.
  • We know that Jesus is fully man, he has a rational nature, a body, and soul, and yet he is perfect and without sin.
  • We know that Jesus is one divine person and not two different persons. In the incarnation, the eternal Son joined to Himself a real humanity. He is one person with two distinct natures, fully man, and fully God.
  • But how do these three distinct essences of a human spirit and human flesh (with together constitute human nature), and the divine nature of the Son all interact with one another?
• Well here in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before Jesus is arrested and crucified, we have one of the greatest revelations of that mystery. And so while you may not think of yourself as a theologian (and indeed very few are called to be theologians in the professional sense), all of us who profess to know Christ ought to desire to know Him as He actually is, and not merely as we might want him or imagine him to be.
• So there is really a twofold purpose for God giving us the gospels and more specifically for giving us this scene in Gethsemane that opens to us the interior life of the God-man Christ Jesus.
  • 1. The first reason is stated in John 17:3, where Jesus himself says, “this is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
    • There is only one God and one Christ, and eternal life consists in knowing him. And that means that any other Jesus than the one revealed in Holy Scripture is a fake and alternative Jesus that cannot save.
    • Many heretics have tried to refashion a Christ according to their own vain imaginations.
      • Arius rejected the full divinity of the Son and fashioned for himself a Jesus who was something less than God. And for this obstinate error he was rejected by the orthodox, and the Nicene Creed was drawn up to guard against such errors.
      • The Manichees and Docetists rejected the full humanity of Christ and fashioned for themselves a more spiritual Jesus who only appeared to do the things he is said to do in the gospels. That God would become man was too absurd for them to handle because matter itself was tainted in their view.
      • These are just two of innumerable examples of people making Jesus to be something other than God has revealed. They either diminish his full divinity, or diminish his full humanity, or more popular in our day, they make Jesus to be the poster-boy for whatever new social issue they are pushing. And so now we’ve got socialist Jesus, black Jesus, woke Jesus, gay-affirming Jesus, and all manner of absurd and blasphemous idolatry. None of these are the actual Jesus of Scripture, and therefore to put your faith in them is to trust an idol that cannot save.
    • So to summarize, the first and primary purpose for God giving us this revelation of Christ’s interior life is so that we might know the true Jesus and find salvation in Him.
  • 2. Now secondarily and more practically, God has given us this revelation of Christ’s sorrow and anguish and real humanity, in order to teach us how to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
    • Or to put it another way, Jesus shows us what is inside of him, his emotions and passions and thoughts, and the conformity of his will to the Father’s, in order to teach us how to do the same.
    • How do you cope with the threat of pain, and the knowledge of your inevitable death?How do you endure sorrow, and the fear of losing what you love? Or perhaps you aren’t sure how are you supposed to feel when you suffer. Is it okay to be sorrowful unto death, or is that a lack of faith?
    • Well here in this most beautiful and intimate passage, Christ gives us answers to those kinds of questions. And so as we walk through this text together, let us take heed to how we might imitate our blessed Lord.

The Context

Remember the context of our passage. It is the night of Passover, and Jesus and the disciples are in Jerusalem. They have just eaten and partook of the Last Supper, the bread and the wine, and Judas has now exited with plans to betray him. Jesus has also taken a kind of Nazarite vow saying in verse 25, “I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” And immediately following this, we read in verse 26…

Verse 26

26 And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

• How does Jesus prepare himself to go to the cross? He sings together with his disciples.
• Tradition holds that after the Passover meal, it was customary to sing Psalms 115-118. And while Mark does not tell us exactly what they sang (the text simply says “having hymned”), it is a most probable conclusion that the words of the Psalms were upon the lips of Christ as he readied himself for his ultimate suffering.
  • If you remember Psalm 118, that is the Psalm that says, “The stone which the builders refused Is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; It is marvellous in our eyes… Bind the sacrifice with cords, Even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever.”
• Here we are instructed by Christ’s example. How should you prepare yourself for walking through the valley of the shadow of death? You should sing and pray the Psalms together with the church. You should thank and praise God for His everlasting mercy.
  • And this is of course what God would have us do in all circumstances, good and bad.
    • For as it says in Psalm 34, “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
    • And in Psalm 119:164-164, “Seven times a day do I praise thee Because of thy righteous judgments. Great peace have they which love thy law: And nothing shall offend them.”
    • And in James 5:13, “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.”
  • So singing the Psalms and praying the Psalms is Christ’s weapon of choice in his moment of greatest distress. And as we will see later when Jesus is hanging upon the cross, it is the words of Psalm 22 and Psalm 31 that he utters.
    • “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1).
    • And “Into thy hands I commit my spirit” (Ps. 31:5).
• So if singing and praying the Psalms was necessary for the God-man, how much more necessary for us who are not God?!
• After this corporate hymning, they leave the upper room, it’s the middle of the night, and they go out to the Mount of Olives. And it is here that Jesus foretells the scattering of the disciples, his resurrection from the dead, and Peter’s denial of knowing Jesus.

Verses 27-31

27 And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. 28 But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. 29 But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. 30 And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. 31 But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.

• Jesus begins with a quotation from Zechariah 13, and he identifies the disciples as the sheep who are scattered, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, Saith the Lord of hosts: Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: And I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.”
• Now if the disciples knew the Scriptures more thoroughly, they would have known that this scattering in Zechariah is followed by a remnant being preserved and refined through fire, and eventually being regathered as a people for God.
  • Zechariah 13:9 says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, And will refine them as silver is refined, And will try them as gold is tried: They shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: And they shall say, The Lord is my God.”
• So Jesus is foretelling how this scattering and regathering, this exile and return, of the new Israel shall take place. It is through his death and resurrection. He is the shepherd who shall be smitten, but that is not the end. He says, “But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.”
  • And yet in spite of this clear testimony to his resurrection, the disciples protest that they shall not be offended or scattered. Peter, speaking most boldly says, “If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all said likewise.
• Well Jesus knows all things, and he knows that these bold words shall quickly be proved hallow. And so Jesus keeps in step with the words of Psalm 118, which perhaps they had just sung, which says, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” And “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?”
  • Likewise in Jeremiah 17:5 it says, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm…”
• So Jesus entrusts himself to no man, for he knows all men and he knows men are a vain hope (John 2:24-25). Instead, he entrusts Himself wholly to the Father.

Verses 32-36

32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. 33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; 34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch. 35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

• Here is that window into Christ’s soul that I spoke of earlier. So let me draw your attention to three aspects of Christ’s person that show forth his true, real, and perfect humanity.
• 1. He “began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.” The sense of this amazement and heaviness is that Jesus is anxious, he is disturbed, he is troubled in his soul. Properly speaking Jesus is experiencing something of the passion of fear.
  • Now how is it that Jesus could be afraid of anything, when He is God, and He knows that He is going to rise again from the dead?
  • The answer is that Jesus had a real humanity which includes what we call more technically, the sensitive soul, or the sensitive appetite. This is that part of our being that naturally desires and tends towards what feels good and avoids what doesn’t feel good.
    • For example, we naturally desire what is physically comfortable: a good meal, clean water, clothes that fit us, temperature that suits us, a bed we can sleep in, and so forth. These are bodily goods that our sensitive appetite desires, and Jesus Christ had those natural bodily desires and yet they were always perfectly regulated by his higher reason, or what we call the spirit, or intellect and will.
    • So whereas you and I, because of sin, struggle to rule our bodily appetites, we struggle to get up in the morning, or we overeat, or we let our bodily discomfort rule our reason and we say hurtful things in a moment of anger, Jesus Christ had constant and perfect rule over his sensitive soul.
      • Remember that right after his baptism, he fasted for 40 days and was tempted in the wilderness. That was not merely an act of his divinity, it was an act of his human nature wherein his bodily desires were made subject to reason.
      • The devil tempted him, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
      • So Jesus began his public ministry be ruling over his bodily appetites, and he concludes his ministry by doing the same, and that includes ruling over the natural fear of death and pain that is common to our humanity.
  • Now let us consider for a moment the nature of fear. Where does fear arise from? What makes us afraid? Fear arises in us when there is some future evil or pain that we would like to avoid. And because fear is increased by our own imagination, the more detail and the more knowledge we have of the pain that we may have to undergo, the worse that fear becomes. So much so that sometimes people have panic attacks, or nervous sweats, or PTSD, or we say, “they psyched themselves out.”
    • And so this is one of those places where Jesus knowing all things, actually increases his suffering.
    • If you were going to be crucified, would you like to know in advance and in great detail just how painful it will be to have nails banged through your wrists and ankles?
    • Would you like to experience ahead of time in your own imagination the shame of being stripped naked in front of the world, beaten and mocked, treated as a fraud, and hung up to die between two criminals?
    • Fear is increased by the amount of knowledge we have of future pain, and Jesus knew from the beginning of his life the excruciating suffering that he would one day have to undergo, and not only the physical pain of being crucified, but also the spiritual pain of having to sever his own body from his soul.
    • So Jesus Christ was and is true man, and he proves this by showing forth this part of him that is common to all humanity. We dislike pain and we don’t want to suffer. The same was true for Jesus in the sensitive part of his soul.
  • Now if fear regards a future evil. Sorrow arises when evil becomes present to us. And insofar as our mind and imagination and our senses are united to that evil (afflicted), so also sorrow is increased. And so the second thing we see in Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane is stated in verse 34…
• 2. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death…”
  • It is as if Jesus is dying before he actually dies. If you know sorrow or disappointment or the death of what you love, you know it is like having your heart turned into wax or being punched in the gut.
    • Set aside for a moment the threat of any physical pain, and just consider how the knowledge of losing what you love, a spouse, a child, a parent, your home, the knowledge of that loss can so debilitate your body with sorrow, that is as if you are dead while still breathing.
    • We call this consequence of sorrow despondency. We lose our appetite. The world turns from color to black and white. We say, “a part of us has died,” or “we are dead inside,” when that sorrow of loss pierces us cold.
    • Well Jesus feels in his soul a sorrow unto death, but unlike you and I who might be frozen or debilitated or made despondent by grief, Jesus endures it with a heart that burns with love. He does not let sorrow prevent him from praying or going to the cross, instead he allows it to increase the devotion of his prayers.
  • It says of Jesus in Isaiah 53:3-5, “He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows: Yet we did esteem him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; And with his stripes we are healed.
    • What made Jesus sorrowful unto death? He was carrying the sorrows of the world in his heart. He was bearing in his body the uncountable griefs of humanity.
    • The person who loves little or loves no-one, feels only sorrow for himself. But when you start to truly love other people, their pain becomes your pain. Their troubles become your troubles. Love is a unitive force that enlarges our heart so that you begin to feel in yourself other people’s pains and joys. This is how you rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, love makes that possible.
    • How many people did Jesus’ love? And how much love did he have for them?
    • The reason that Jesus was sorrowful unto death was because he loved so many so greatly. He loved the world, he loved Israel, he loved the disciples, he loved Judas, he loves you. And so although God does not love everyone in the exact same way, the love of God is such that the death of Christ has the power to atone for all.
      • It says in 1 Timothy 2:4, “God desires all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
      • And in 1 John 2:2, “he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
  • And so according to Christ’s true humanity, he was sorrowful unto death, and this was because of the great love with which he loved us. Jesus was not stoic or unaffected by the work His Father called him to do.
    • It says in Hebrews 5:7-9, which is an inspired commentary on this scene. That Christ, “who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”
• 3. This brings us to the third aspect of Christ’s person that is revealed in his prayer, and that is the presence of two distinct wills in Christ, a human will that chooses to submit to the divine will.

Verses 35-36

35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

• Notice first that in calling upon God as “Abba, Father,” Christ reveals himself as a true and obedient Son.
  • As God, Jesus is eternally begotten of the Father, co-equal and co-eternal with him.
  • But as regards the human nature joined to His person, it says in Philippians 2:5-8, “he made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
• So here in Gethsemane we have the revelation of two distinct wills in Christ. And this is essential to maintaining his true humanity.
  • If Jesus had only a divine will, then he would not be fully man, because it is essential to human nature to have a free will from which we choose to do either right or wrong.
  • And if Jesus lacked that ability, then he could not be said to have truly obeyed and fulfilled the law of God on our behalf.
  • And further, if he had no human will, then none of his actions would be a real example for us to imitate.
  • But because Jesus has a true human will, we can learn from him how to rule our passions, we can learn from him how to keep our own fear and sorrow within the bounds of reason, and most importantly, we can learn how to pray and conform our will to the will of God.

Conclusion

So let us close by observing how Jesus conquers his own fear and sorrow unto death.

• 1. Notice first that Jesus acknowledges the power that His Father has to remove the cause of his suffering:“Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee…”
  • So when you pray, pray in faith. Pray with the knowledge of the truth that God is omnipotent and sovereign and does all things well. Our God is Creator, and Governor, and the Worker of wonders. And it is within this context of God’s infinite power and love that we offer all our prayers to Him.
  • Moreover, he is not a distant God, aloof or absent, but rather an ever-present help in time of need (Ps. 46:1).
  • And so Jesus taught us to address God in prayer the same way that he did, as “Father.”
    • Paul says in Romans 8, that because we have received the spirit of Christ, the spirit of and sonship and adoption, that we also cry, “Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:16-18).
  • So when you are fearful or sad or hurting, do not forget the power of God, and the nearness of your Father, and the Spirit of adoption that was given unto you.
• 2. Because “all things are possible unto thee,” Jesus asks His Father to “take away this cup from me.”
  • In other words, if there is some other way to save the world that does not include Jesus dying on the cross, Jesus, according to his humanity, would prefer that way instead.
    • And yet, because he desires something greater than the mere avoidance of pain and death, namely, to satisfy divine justice, to glorify His Father and save the world, Jesus subordinates his natural human will to the divine will that He shares with the Father. And indeed, that is the whole purpose of prayer. Prayer is the ascent of the mind into God so that our will can be conformed to His.
  • We see this same pattern in the life of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12. Paul knows that God has the power to remove the thorn in his flesh, and he says, “I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me. [He asks God to remove the cup]. And how does God respond? “And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’”
  • So this is how we pray:
    • 1. We acknowledge our Father’s power to do all things.
    • 2. Then we appeal to that power and ask Him to act on our behalf.
    • 3. And then we wait, and listen, and observe, and sometimes we pray again and again and again, we wrestle like Jacob with the angel, and insodoing we are saying to God, here’s what I want, but make me to want what You want. Not my will, but yours be done.
  • And you’ll know that your will is aligned with God, when you can say what the Apostle Paul said when God told him no, the thorn is good for you.
    • 2 Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
• This is the way of Christ, the way of the cross, the way that we conquer fear and death. May God teach us to pray, even as our Lord did.
• In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.