Mark 14:32-36
“And He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup away from Me: nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt.” Mark 14:36
DEFINING MOMENTS
In every life there are, sooner or later, defining or shaping moments that you never forget.
My mother was lying in bed in a health-care facility in Greece, eyes closed, in a shallow state of breathing, and flanked by two attending nurses who attempted to allay my suspected fears. They tersely stated she was in a morbid state—in her last hour; only a time to pray and watch.
A woman strokes the soft gray hair of her beloved husband of fifty-two years who is in Intensive Care, all she can do is watch and pray.
A young couple decides to have a child. It takes a long time to find the courage, but, nevertheless, make the big decision. Only she doesn’t get pregnant. After a gauntlet of fertility treatments, they find that there is nothing else to try. Nothing else, that is, except more prayer and watching.
A fatigued woman is stuck in a job that she bitterly hates. She has lost count of how many times she has asked God to get her out of this tedious, thankless job. But still, she just prays.
We are used to often hearing stories that start out like these. The odds, however, were against you. You, nevertheless, prayed your knees off—prayed earnestly! And in the darkest point of the seemingly hopeless struggle, God miraculously pulled through at the last possible moment and said “yes” to your prayers. You received your heart’s desire. Those are wonderful stories to hear, and they happen all the time—or, ehh—do they?!
But in my experience as a lay-leader in the church of Greece for over ten years, those are not really the defining moments of a life! Rather our lives are defined or shaped more by the times when God says—emphatically, “no!”
A UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE
This sermon-paper is prompted by a universal experience. Many persons have offered up passionate and wrestling prayers and made continual requests which God has rigidly but graciously denied.
Still, there are many others; professed believers and even—the uncalled and the unborn—because they were still chosen of God from eternity, Christ has a right, by virtue of the Father’s donation and His own purchase, a legitimate right to many a soul which Christ does not yet have possession. Thus He had too, “many people” in Corinth, when as yet it lay in “wickedness” (Acts 18:10).
They, too, have delicately asked God to come through, to rescue, to turn things around, to make something happen, only to end up stuck with something that isn’t going to change. What do we do when we don’t get what we want? What do we do when God doesn’t come through as we’d hoped? What do we do when God says no, rather than yes? Read on!
DREAM WORLD
Think back for a moment on your greatest disappointment in life. Remember when it was clear that the disaster you wanted to avoid was unavoidable; when the relationship you wanted so much fell apart, when those negotiations or that promotion you expected failed; when your dreams did not come true? Remember again, when in spite of all your fervent prayers—God said, “no?” Remember? But, did it ever occur to you that God’s “no” may indeed serve a good purpose?
You were never the same again. You were crushed. You came to a heart-shaking crash—hollow and dull!
That is why it was a—defining moment! We only learn when we hurt!
Ah! But yet we are promised that the fervent prayers of the righteous availeth much (James 5:16). We are not told here that we receive what we want! But, sometimes “no” avails more than “yes!” You see, what “no” makes to us is the fuller experience of the grace of God, which shapes our lives more than do our dreams.
DROPS OF BLOOD
Not even Jesus received everything He asked for in prayer. Our text heading finds him in the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours away from the cross. He knows what is ahead. He has known it from the moment He identified with us sinners in His baptism. He has repeatedly warned the disciples that this day would come. But now that it is here, Mark tells us that Jesus is “distressed and agitated. . . deeply grieved”(Mark 14:33–34). Luke tells us, furthermore, that His sweat became like great drops of blood (Luke 22:44).
Here we have Jesus in His agony. He began to be sore amazed (GR: ekthambeisthai); a word that bespeaks something like that horror of great darkness which fell upon Abraham (Genesis 15:12); or, rather something much worse, and more frightful!
Jesus retired for prayer. He appoints His disciples to withdraw, while He goes to His Father upon an errand peculiar to Himself. Our praying with our families will not excuse our neglect of secret worship. When Jacob entered into his agony, he first sent over all that he had, and was left alone, and then there wrestled a man with him (Genesis 32:23–24).
GOING TO A CROSS
Sometimes the defining moments in life come, not because your life is interrupted by something unforeseen, but because you’re finally having to do what you have been dreading for a long time; you come face to face with the facts. Yes, you’ve prayed to get out of it, to escape this thing, to deny it, but to no avail. You’re going to have to confront an alcoholic or drug addict that is destroying the family. Or, an unbeliever that is causing dissension in your ranks. Or, a gnawing sickness that is prevailing in your life. Or, as a weary care-giver for your aging, enfeebled parents.
You’re going to have to let your son or daughter marry someone you know might be bad for either one. You attempted to talk either out of making what seemed—an unwise move. You even prayed to God to prevent it—rather than relying on His will. But, God didn’t. He graciously but utterly said, “no!”
Or, maybe you have to move to another city—or another country! Or, maybe return to your country of origin; another movement you have been trying to avoid. Or, maybe your immigration documents have been unduly delayed—or denied. You can’t believe you are going to lose your life again—to start all over again. When these unavoidable crisis moments come into your life, it feels like you are—“going to a cross!”
ALONE!
Jesus, while in the garden, took Peter, James, and John with Him to a place of prayer. When you’re almost—about to face a cross, you don’t want to be alone. No, you call on your friends, loved ones, or brethren to pray with you. Christ is here entering upon His sufferings, and begins with those which were the sorest of all His sufferings—those in His soul! Ah! But the text makes it clear that Jesus eventually went ahead without them in prayer. It doesn’t matter how many friends or brethren you have; when you are up all night wrestling, you know this is now between you and God—and God only. Many, however, have a victim mentality. They become morose, and don’t believe there is an escape; or that there is a choice. Any wisp of hope fades. They may feel abandoned—alone—a cruel dilemma!
Alone in the garden, Jesus fell on His face and began to pray. “Abba, Father, for You all things are possible; remove this cup from Me” (Mark 14:36). Can you imagine how this prayer must have broken the heart of God? It was but a little before this, that in prayer He reverently lifted up His eyes (John 17:1). But here His only Son is lying face down on the ground, begging, in agony, in humiliation and teaching us thus to abase ourselves before God, “Abba, Papa, please don’t send me to the cross.” But the Father said, “no.” It also breaks God’s heart on those dark nights when you are praying face down, in total humility and submission. You’re out of strategies and plans and are now reduced simply to pleading; “Please, don’t let this relationship end in separation.” “Please, deliver me from this cancer that is sucking my life away.” “Please, help me cope with a wildly demented loved one.”
WHY?
Why now, would Abba Father ever say “no” to these prayers? Why do we sometimes have to go to the cross? Ah! Because it is there that we meet Jesus, the Saviour. It is there that we get to know Him better! It is here at the cross that He is able to wondrously “work” on us!
You see, your life is not defined or shaped by the things you want. Nor by the things you want to avoid. Your life is defined and shaped, and molded by living in the hands of a Saviour who finds you at the cross, where He also had to go. Finding you there, embracing it restively and sternly, He then raises you to a new and radiant life that far exceeds your fondest expectations! The gospel at the heart of this message is that “no” may bring us closer to God than “yes.” Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet, also spoke of being saved by God’s “hard refusals.”
This is not a sermon or paper about fatalism or resignation! I am not intending that you merely sit tight, bear through it all, or sulk over your state of life—or to stoically accept whatever comes your way. Even if you have to unbearably face the cross, and really bad things happen to you, you are not necessarily a miserable or powerless victim. Victims assume they don’t have a choice or options, and many suffer from denial, and others self-pity. Ah! But as Jesus illustrates, you can always choose your response, even to God’s “no”! Well, how? Read on.
NEVERTHELESS
Victor Frankel, who survived the Holocaust of WW II, claimed that in the Nazi concentration camps he learned that the last of all human freedoms, the one that can never be taken away, is the freedom to choose your response to anything. It’s an inalienable right of man! No matter how small the ration of bread he received, Frankel always chose to give some of it away to another starving prisoner. In so doing that, he chose to remain a human being; one with identity; one with dignity. He righteously and unrestrictedly chose not to be a victim, or to have a victim mentality!
Jesus, you can see, too, is clearly not a victim, because He makes the most heroic choice possible, even though Jesus did not receive everything He asked for in prayer.
“Nevertheless,” He says, “not what I want (will), but what You want (will)” (Mark 14:36). Ah! That “nevertheless” is the greatest synonym for faith we have. “Abba Father, You know this is not what I want; I can’t see how I will survive it; I can’t even see the good that will come out of it; nevertheless, I want what You want.” (Mark 14:36). When we do likewise, we put ourselves in the position to see God’s power at work. It’s an invitation to embrace the moments when God says “no.” Such moments bear tremendous potential for growth in faith. Choose to say “nevertheless” whenever God says “no.”
When you say, “nevertheless, I want your will, God,” you are placing your life in the hands of a God who can raise the dead. He can raise dead relationships, dead dreams, dead ideals, and even dead bodies. You can’t see that now. All you can see is the cross. But the new life is waiting, if you choose to live in the hands of God. You’ve got to choose to believe that. It is your choice—cherish it! It is the only way—yes, the only way your soul will survive the cross.
REFORMERS—NEVERTHELESS
When Martin Luther went to the ecclesiastical trial in Worms that he prayed to avoid, it was a defining moment; a state much like—sweating blood—profusely, horribly thinking his use to the church was over. Ah! But, because Martin Luther said, “nevertheless,” he was raised up to lead the Reformation.
When John Calvin went back to Geneva to lead the Reformation, he was painfully terrified. They had already thrown him out once, and he knew that in returning they might savagely kill him!
If John Calvin, an able combatant in the fields of theological controversy, had not said “nevertheless,” he could not have helped to lay the foundation of churches that were to yield fearless witnesses for the truth—“Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
What about you? As you perplexedly stare at the cross that now defines your future, as you hear God’s undeniable “no” to the request to avoid it, what will your response be? You can choose to be a victim and sink into despair and oblivion. Or, you can choose to have hope—exciting hope! You can choose to believe that nothing, not even death, can separate you from the love of God and God’s future filled with hope (Romans 8:38–39).
There is no cross without the resurrection. There is no resurrection without the cross.
Amen <><
John Theodorou
U.S.A.