Humanity in the Garden > Mark 14:26-42
14:26-31 Quoting from Zechariah, Christ tells the disciples that their own loyalty to Him will falter this night. Yet His words are not of condemnation, but instruction. Peter tries to insist that he will remain faithful, only to be told by Christ that he will not only run, but also deny the Lord.
14:32-34 Jesus and the disciples arrive at Gethsemane and He takes Peter, James, and John a bit farther away, explaining that He is troubled and wants them to be in prayer.
14:35-36 Christ Himself then goes a few steps farther and prays, ultimately, that the Lord’s will be accomplished.
14:37-42 The disciples – who proclaimed themselves so loyal and strong before – are shown here to not even have the power to keep their eyes open and pray.
Emphasis: Christ is fully man and fully God – and we see aspects of both in these verses. The disciples, despite their best intentions, can’t even do the simplest of things.
Context: What will immediately follow this scene is the fulfillment both of Christ’s betrayal (predicted at the Last Supper) and the disciples’ falling away (at His arrest).
Theme: Christ is shown to be strong, even as He endures the agony of what is coming. The disciples are shown to be weak, unable to perform even the smallest show of loyalty to Jesus.
Gospel: The truth of every Christian is that we don’t have the strength, but Jesus does. Our hope is only in Him and His work, never in our own “strength.”
Applications: Our only hope is Christ – we must depend upon Him to do what we cannot and we must praise the Lord that we have a Savior who is perfectly obedient to the Father.
