Title: Rise up and go with the Lord.
Content Title: Rise up and go with the Lord.
Text: Mark 14:32-42
Today we celebrate the second Sunday of Lent. Lent is a season to meditate on the shame and suffering that Jesus suffered to bear our sins and transgressions until He died on the cross, and to offer special prayers just like Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days. If the Old and New Testaments, the scriptures of Christianity, are God's epic to save mankind who have fallen into sin, the long record was finally completed when Jesus died on the cross saying "It is finished" and died. As we well know, the saints of the Old Testament were allowed to sacrifice livestock such as sheep, goats, and doves, and sacrificed their blood in order to relieve the guilt of their sins committed knowingly and ignorantly before God. This system was nothing more than a shadowy, symbolic system that would receive complete atonement only when the coming Messiah was to be wounded and put to death before God as a sin offering. The purpose of Jesus, the Son of God, coming into the world was to sacrifice his body as a sin offering for sinners. Today's text is a record of the events in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus overcame himself with the most desperate prayer while he was on earth and made a decision to dedicate himself to God.
At night, without going to bed, he took his disciples and went out to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane opposite Jerusalem.
First, it is the Lord who is ready to submit to God's will through bloody and sweaty prayers who remind us to get up and go together. Hebrews 5:7 says, “Jesus, while on earth in the flesh, offered up supplications and supplications with intense cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and received an answer from God.” As we often say, Jesus experienced the heartache of the cross in Gethsemane. The next day, after being crucified, Jesus suffered from thirst in his body and the pain in his bones, without any pain in his heart. Most of us, both in our daily prayer life and in our special prayers, were just trying to fulfill our needs. Even if I prayed all night and fasted, it was only to the extent of using a group to make my wish come true. Mature prayer requires the determination to dedicate myself to use me as an instrument to accomplish the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Second, the disciples who had to get up and go with the Lord were shameful people who did not stay awake for even a moment and slept and didze.
Although the Lord chose 12 disciples, He especially loved 3 of them and was close to them. When he went to pray on the mountain of change, only these three people accompanied him and showed him a mysterious spiritual experience. Even when praying in Gethsemane, he asked 8 people to sit at the entrance of the garden and 3 people to stay awake and pray. The special grace of the Lord shows that it entails a weighty mission. Unfortunately, however, I did not live up to the will of the Lord who was especially accommodating, and I fell asleep without waking up for even a moment. I had to stay awake and pray, but I fell asleep because I couldn't overcome the violent drowsiness. These disciples were very embarrassed and did not fulfill their duty as disciples to pray for the Lord who is struggling.
Third, the direction the Lord asked us to go together was the field of suffering and trials waiting.
The Lord knew the disciples who were not awake to pray, and they were weak in flesh, so how could he have led them to go together to the cross? I couldn't pray, so I believed in the sword, but when this too became useless, everyone ran away. In Gethsemane, the Lord, who visited and awakened the disciples three times during the difficult prayer of submitting their fleshly desires to the will of God, prayed hard for these weak disciples as well. We, who have a desire in our hearts and sit back with the excuse of weakness in our bodies, must get up. We must boldly go to the field of suffering and sacrifice where the Lord is going. During Lent, we should move forward with Jesus with a deeper prayer decision rather than a shallow sentimentality. Amen.