COV LIFE BLOG

Mark 14:32-52 – Jesus Alone Capable To Drink the Cup

So many Christians have a superficial understanding of Christ. And they never go to the depths of Scripture’s revelation and see the majesty and the glory that comes when you dig deeply. Yes, His glory transcends our understanding, but there is much that we can grasp that makes Him all the more glorious, all the more worthy of our worship and obedience.
 
Apart from the cross, no greater agony has ever been experienced by any being who’s lived in this world in human form. No man has ever suffered this way. This is the second greatest agony that our Lord would experience, the first being that which was to come on the cross itself. This is the second great agony. This is the apex of His life of sorrow and grief. This is the high point of torturous suffering. This is the night when He anticipates the drinking of the cup of divine wrath which will be His in full at the cross.
 
And again, His sorrow was so severe and the struggle is so massive that it came close to killing Him. This is a conflict that is staggering to Him. This is a conflict that He has never had before. It is far greater than the previous encounters with Satan that He has had.
 
On the way, verse 33 says, “He began to be very distressed and troubled.” And “distressed” is a very interesting word. It is a compound form of the verb to be amazed – to be amazed. And you would ask yourself, “What could amaze Jesus? He is omniscient. He knows everything. What is going to amaze Him? What is going to stun Him? What is going to shock Him?
 
He is amazed at what He is experiencing because it is totally alien to everything He has ever experienced and ever known. It is the anticipation of experiencing the Father’s will and embracing the role of becoming a sacrifice for sin. To become the sin-bearer. He is facing something completely alien to Himself. He has never known sin. He has never known the wrath of God. He has never known alienation.
 
But then comes His triumphant resolution, “Yet not what I will, but what You will.” Not what I will, but what You will. In the end, that’s what He always said. He said over and over, “I only do what the Father tells Me, shows Me, desires of Me, and what I see the Father do. I follow only His direction.”
 
So, we see the affliction, the petition, the exhortation. There’s a final consideration coming in the last couple of verses. Let’s just call it triumphant submission. He yields to the will of the Father in each of those three cycles of prayer. But He finally comes out triumphant. The last temptation is over. He is resolved triumphantly, majestically, unhesitatingly to do what His Father has asked Him to do; He’s going to go to the cross.

John MacArthur

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Mark 14:32-52 and consider the agony that Jesus faced in the garden. How often do you meditate upon the genuine torment that Jesus had to undergo on the way to the cross. Knowing that he had every ability to walk away from this path, and yet he continued for your sake, how does this affect your life and worship of one so worthy?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
O Praise the Name by Shane and Shane