Passage

Mark 14: 32-36

"They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here until I have prayed." And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch." And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will."

Introduction

Today is Palm Sunday. It is one week before the Easter, and the one week period from today to Sunday is Passion Week. How did Jesus spend this week? I will tell you what Jesus did during that week.

On this Sunday about 2,000 years ago, Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem. There were many people who were waving palm branches to welcome Him.

On Monday, the next day, He purified the Temple in Jerusalem. Namely, He drove out those who were selling and buying things and money-exchangers.

On Tuesday, He met the high priests in the Temple. They asked Jesus many questions trying to find fault with him and bring accusations against him.

But Jesus answered with wisdom and with authority.

On Wednesday, Mary, who was sister of Lazarus, poured balm on Jesus.

On Thursday evening Jesus had the Passover in Jerusalem, and went to Gethsemane on Mount of Olives. This is the moment described in today's reading passage.

Jesus prayed with all His strength but the disciples could not overcome their tiredness and fell asleep. Getting close to the midnight of Thursday, Judas Iscariot appeared with the officers of the high priests.

While Jesus was being arrested and taken by the officers of the high priests, the midnight passed and it became Friday.
It was on this Friday, Jesus was sentenced to death by Pilate and was crucified.

Jesus was killed on Friday, and on the third day, in the early morning of Sunday, He broke the authority of death and resurrected.

I have briefly given you what Jesus did during the Passion Week. But what kind of mind did He have at that time?

Today's passage tells us the heart of Jesus at that time.

It expresses Jesus' mind and also gives us the contents of His prayer.

Through this message, I hope you will be able to compare His heart with the mind you had when you were going through trials.

By doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will have more of spiritual thoughts and good hearts when you face the Easter after this Passion Week.

Body

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus also felt the pain when He was whipped.

Some people think He didn't feel any pain even when He was going through the sufferings.

Also, there are some people who say, "Jesus is the Son of God, so He must have felt much less pain than ordinary human beings. It must have been much easier for Him to bear it."

But it's not true. Jesus also had same body like ours. He was hungry, and His feet would swell if He walked too much.

He had to eat physical food and also had to sleep.

So, when the officers hit His face with a fist and slapped Him, He felt the pain just as it was.

Also, when the Roman soldiers put the thorns on His brow, He felt the pain of the thorns piercing into His head.

It was the same when He was being scourged. On the whips of the Roman soldiers were sharp metal pieces, and on the edge of the whip was a sharp hook.

When the whip was laid on the body, it would wrap around the body completely, and when the whip is taken back, flesh would fall off from the body. Being scourged this way just a couple of times, the whole body would be covered with blood.

Jesus was scourged so many times and how painful it must have been! His whole body was covered with red blood, and He lost all His strength to feel difficult to balance Himself.

But this was only the beginning of the sufferings. Now He had to carry the heavy cross and move up to the Golgotha.

Being nailed through His hands and feet, He had to take all the pains until His physical life was over.

In addition to this physical pain, He also had pain in His heart.

God opened the way of salvation giving up His son's life.

And Jesus had tremendous pain in heart because of the people who did not realize this love of God and were going the way of death.

If we know the sufferings that Jesus received for us, we cannot say anything is difficult even when we are going through trials.

Since the opening of this church, I have gone through many kinds of difficulties, too. There were many tests conspiring to destroy me with many false rumors and false slandering.

Every time, when I thought of the sufferings that Jesus took, the suffering that I was permitted to receive was nothing.

I was rather joyful and thankful thinking how great my reward would be for I was being mocked and going through difficulties for the sake of the Lord.

God always deemed it as faith and gave me victory.

You believers also have to go through many kinds of big and small trials while you are being cultivated as God's children on earth. But no matter what kind of trials you go through, they are really little things compared to the sufferings that Jesus took.

It means Jesus went through such a great pain that it can never be compared with any pain that you can go through in trials.

Therefore, if you truly have faith, you will say, "The Lord took this way, and the shepherd also took this way, so I will also win the victory."

It shouldn't be done with reluctance feeling it is so difficult. You have to overcome them with joy and thanks. This is a believer who really has faith.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, now based on the scripture reading, let me talk about in more depth about the heart of Jesus when He was going through these sufferings.

In the scripture reading for today, we can see the heart of Jesus at that time and the prayer that Jesus offered to the Father. The night before He was arrested, Jesus went to Gethsemane with His disciples. He told them to pray, and he separated a short distance from them and prayed alone.

Before He prayed, in the verse 34 of today's scripture, Jesus said, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death."

Literally, it seems that Jesus was saying He had so much pain in heart that He was dying.

What do you think? Did you think how Jesus could make such a negative confession?

Jesus did not talk about the sorrowful and painful feelings like men of flesh.

Then, why did He say this? First, 'to the point of death' means the crucifixion that would take place the next day.

It's different from when the fleshly people habitually say, "I am dying" when they have difficulties. Jesus referred to the fact that He was going to die.

But then, why did He talk about His feelings by saying "My soul is deeply grieved"?

This was to tell us that the crucifixion was never an easy thing to take, and it was only possible because of the love of the Father God.

At that time, Jesus had many kinds of feelings in His heart.

Just before the crucifixion, He thought about the deep providence and great love of the Father for mankind.

Also, thinking about the times He spent with the disciples, He had feelings of pity for those who would be left on earth.

Even at that moment they were asleep. They were not being able to overcome their weakness of flesh, and did not even know what kind of sufferings would come to Jesus.

And as He was going to finish His life on earth, He remembered many kinds of things.

He also had great pain in heart thinking of the creatures who were not able to realize the great love of the Father.

Jesus experienced and felt the pains and sorrow of mankind while He was on earth Himself.

It was quite different from what He had expected it to be while He was in heaven. Although He had both divinity together with humanity as the Son of God, the suffering of cross was not easy.

If a person has only humanity it should be understood that to go through such a suffering, it is surely unbearable.

For this reason Jesus said His soul was grieved deeply. The more spiritual heart you accomplish, the more of this heart of the Lord you will be able to understand.

By spiritual inspiration you will feel it in your heart why Jesus said what he did at that time.

When thinking about why Jesus made a negative confession like that, some people may have fleshly thoughts.

It means they don't understand the heart of Jesus. It tells us that they have not cultivated spirit in them.

It's the same when you read the Bible and listen to the sermon in a service. If you use your fleshly thoughts while listening to the message and furthermore if you judge the sermon, it is very far from theheart of spirit.

Men of spirit will not just judge others merely by the words and expressions. They will feel the heart of the other person contained in the words, and realize the meaning by inspiration.

I pray in the name of the Lord that you will accomplish the heart of spirit more, clearly realize the heart and will of God in all things, and obey God's will completely.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the verse 36 of today's passage, we see one line of Jesus' prayer.

He said, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will."

Saying "Remove this cup (namely the cup of sufferings of cross) from Me" was not a plea to avoid the sufferings.

Jesus knew better than anybody the love of God and the providence of salvation.

But Jesus also had humanity. In view of this humanity, the way of cross was never an easy thing. Jesus said this to express that the way was very difficult to take as a man, but He still took it with only His love for the Father.

And He continued to pray, "...yet not what I will, but what You will."

This means no matter what kind of sufferings He would face, He would just follow the will of the Father.

Jesus obeyed the will of God completely, and He fulfilled it joyfully.

This tells us that in His heart Jesus had complete trust and faith in the providence of God.

Hebrews 12:2 says, "...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Today, many people say they pray to God with faith, but they do not really commit everything into God's hands.

It means they don't have enough faith and trust in God who gives us the best thing at the most appropriate time.

Some people decide for themselves the time and method of receiving the answer within their own frameworks and pray for it.

Even the best wisdom of men is not wiser than the most foolish part of God. Therefore, the wisest man is the one who commits everything to God.

In this sense, how do you pray when you are under trials?

Do you complain while you pray something like this, "Father God, this is so hard for me. Why do you give me such a trial? Please let this finish quickly."? If you do, then, it's like the prayer of an immature child.

If you have faith, your prayer will not be with complaints and resentments because you will be trying to find the reason why you are faced with trials.

Namely, when we commit sins or fall into spiritual slumber, God allows trials.
If we were faced with trials because of our own fault, how would we pray?

"Father God, if I have to go through this, I will. But protect me from bigger trials. Let this trial pass quickly, too."

Some may pray like this, but this is still quite different from the prayer of Jesus.

With words they say they will take up the trial, but they really would rather avoid it in some way. It's not really good prayer.

The kind of prayer that really touches the heart of God is the confession of goodness and confession of faith. We have to give thanks from the depth of our heart for allowing us such a trial, and we have to confess with faith that we will surely change.

Even though we do not know when the trial is going to be over, we have to commit ourselves to God and pray that He will change us more completely.

I hope you will be able to offer up to God this kind of prayer of goodness and faith during this Passion Week.

If you are in the depth of trial, please hold on to this prayer of Jesus. Why don't you pray from the bottom of your heart, "Yet not what I will, but what You will."?

And if you just obey the voice coming to your heart, God the Father will guide you to the best way to follow.

No matter what kind of physical difficulty I had, I relied only on God 100%. I had absolutely no will of my own.

Also, by offering to God prayers of goodness that are able to touch the Father's heart, the answer can come down quickly from the Father. This way I could overcome many kinds of difficult situations.

Brothers and sisters, from now, let me introduce to you some parts of the prayer that Jesus offered at Gethsemane.

I hope you will understand the heart of Jesus more through this prayer.

"Abba, Father, You sent Your son to this place by Your will, and now the time has come in Your providence...

I think of the days during which I stayed with my disciples to fulfill Your providence.

But because of the things that will take place after I am gone, I have worries. All these things are worry and aguish for me. I want You to accept this heart of Mine praying this way.

I know it is such a great honor for this Son to take the cross.

I know very well what great love this will give to many people.

But the life that I had in this physical space, the life that I had with men here, it becomes My tears now.

Father, I believe that You will strengthen the weak and guide them...

I know the grace that will be given to them after I am gone...

It is obvious that I will be crucified for the glory of the Father...

But what is the reason that all the days that I had during my public ministry is coming to me as anguish, and why does it fill my heart so fully?

I realize that this heart of mine that I have now on this earth is different from the heart that I had when I was in heaven.

I have many things that worry me. Father, please hold these people. Let all Your providence be done completely within You, Father.

Receive all the glory greatly through the things that will be accomplished through this Son."

Conclusion

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the Palm Sunday, the first day of Passion Week, and we looked into the confession of Jesus that He made in His prayer on Gethsemane.

Did you understand the heart of Jesus? I also introduced to you the prayer that Jesus offered. Jesus had stayed in glorious heaven as the Son of the Creator God.

And He came down to this earth and stayed with His creatures, especially with His disciples and fulfilled the will of the Father.

Jesus understood their fleshly mind and yet He loved them.

Therefore, when it was about the time to leave this earth, He was reminded of many things of the past. He was also worried because He knew the weaknesses of the disciples.

And He mentioned it by saying, "My soul is grieved deeply."

You can understand more of this heart of Jesus as you go into spirit more.

Also, you will understand His heart more as you are in charge of heavier and more important duties of God. And is there anybody who is saying it is so difficult while you are going through a small trial for your sanctification?

I hope you will be able to make only confessions of faith by remembering the sufferings that Jesus went through.

Jesus quietly took the painful way of the cross in His love for the Father.

I hope you will also understand this love of God and the grace of the Lord so that you will thankfully and joyfully walk this way of faith even under serious trials.

I pray in the name of the Lord that, just like the Lord who has received the glory of resurrection, you will also receive many answers and blessings through trials of faith.

Amen

2008-03-18 Posted
2008-04-23 Updated