Enough, the Time Has Come

“He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and horrified. Then He said to them, “My soul is swallowed up in sorrow — to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.” Then He went a little farther, fell to the ground, and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” Then He came and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you sleeping? ” He asked Peter. “Couldn’t you stay awake one hour? Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Once again He went away and prayed, saying the same thing. And He came again and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to Him. Then He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come. Look, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go! See — My betrayer is near.”” (Mark 14:33-42 HCSB)

What a difference a few minutes can make. One minute, things are going good and life is humming along and then, wham, the next minute everything changes and it feels like life has fallen apart and nothing will ever be the same. I’ve had moments like that, haven’t you?

One that sticks out in my memory is the morning I received a call from my mother and all she said was, “Gary, it’s your dad…” I knew instantly that my dad had died and my whole world had turned upside down. My children would never really get to know their grandpa. In an instant, he was gone. Another is when my daughter called with panic in her voice and said, “Dad, I can’t get Haydn (my youngest granddaughter) to wake up. She’s been sick all night and she won’t wake up. What do I do?” I said, “Get her to the hospital, now! We will meet you there.” It took several hours for us to find out that she was in a diabetic coma and we weren’t sure if she would ever wake up. It was a long, hard week that was filled with doubts and fears, but she finally woke up and now lives each day with the physical struggle of type 1 diabetes.

Last week, we took a look at the struggle Jesus faced when confronted with taking on the sin of all humanity and the cup of God’s wrath and judgment against it. “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 HCSB) The Son of God who has never known separation from His Father and His love is beginning to feel that separation and the full wrath of God on the sin of mankind. He knows God is able to do the impossible and remove “this hour” from Him but the Son surrenders His desire and will to God’s will and drinks the cup of God’s wrath, even the dregs.

While He labored in agony and prayer over this moment, He asked His closest friends to stay awake, watch and pray. While He struggled with and surrendered His will to God’s will, their eyes grew heavy and they fell asleep. As Jesus said, their spirit was willing but their flesh was weak. What an awful contrast. What a humbling truth. They couldn’t stay awake in the hour of their friend’s greatest need. This will be our focus, this week…

It is tempting to contrast and compare Jesus’ struggle with our own and to conclude: He’s the Son of God, of course He was able to submit His desire and will to God’s but we aren’t and we cannot. Ah, but there’s much more going on in these verses than just an acknowledgment and acceptance of man’s sinful nature and surrender to it. The struggle Jesus faced in this moment was with His human nature and its submission to God’s purpose and plan. Isn’t that the same thing they faced and the same thing we face every day, bringing our will and desires into submission to His?

Now, it would be remiss of me to suggest that this is a simple matter. It isn’t in any way. There’s nothing simple about it. In fact, it is impossible for man to understand and submit to God’s will without the help of the Holy Spirit. That’s why scripture says, “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6 HCSB) Or, as Paul says: “For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:7-8 HCSB)

Ah, faith… that misunderstood element of the Christian’s walk with God and that thing we cannot have in and of ourselves. Many people, especially those who don’t know or believe in God, think that faith is doing something or believing something or someone without reason, logic or understanding. In other words, you do it or you believe it just because that’s what you’re supposed to believe or do or because you’re told to believe it or do it.

But that’s not faith. Faith is NOT something your work up, it is something that develops in you because of a merciful, faithful God. Faith is learning to trust God even when you don’t understand or desire His will, in a particular matter. That’s what Jesus faced in this circumstance. He was feeling overwhelmed with these things, to the point of dying, but instead of rejecting God’s will He surrendered to it, through prayer, because He knew His Dad’s heart and His desire for mankind. He didn’t blindly accept what would come, He accepted it with His eyes wide open, fully aware of where this decision would take Him but He chose it, regardless of the consequences. Why? Because He fully trusted His Abba and His plan: “Not what I want, Dad, but what You want.”

But submission to God’s will is not what we often choose. We often choose to lie back, take it easy and drift off to sleep… blissfully unaware of and uninvolved in the spiritual battle raging around us. After a period of prayer, Jesus returned and found the three of them sleeping. “Couldn’t you stay awake one hour? Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Stay awake and pray, because temptation is real and the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Prayer is often chided as being what Christians do when other people are in need of action. Something horrendous happens in our world and Christians “share” thoughts and prayers. Let me tell you, prayer is not just closing one’s eyes and offering up a few words of desire and hope to a distant and uninterested deity. For a Christian, prayer is where we must go to get strength, wisdom, hope and to address the issue of desiring our own will above God’s. Notice, Jesus goes back to pray in the garden three times praying the same thing, the same words. Not because God needed convincing but because He did. There is strength and resolve found in the act of prayer and in the submission of our own will to the Father’s. Three times Jesus prays these words and submits His will to God’s will. Three times He finds them sleeping…

The standard joke in church is about how long the preacher preaches and how many people fall asleep while he’s doing so. Perhaps I need to learn to close my sermons with Jesus’ words: “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come.” It is possible to translate this question about sleeping as a statement and not a question and to translate the word “enough” (Greek: apecho) as the question “is it far off/away?” Like this: “Still sleeping and resting. Is it far off? No, the time has come. Look, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Is Jesus’ emphasis on their sleeping or on their unawareness of the timing and events that are happening around them? Perhaps, both. They are related. They slept because they failed to recognize the urgency of the situation. How often do we sleep while God is at work? How often are we blissfully unaware of the spiritual battle that rages around us? Paul says in Romans 8, “those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh.” Living according to the flesh means that our focus is on the the needs, desires, and attractions of the physical things in life. Our focus is on enjoyment, pleasure, feelings/emotions and the fulfillment of those things in our lives.

Please notice, I didn’t say that God didn’t make life so that it can be enjoyed. He did and He does. That’s why we enjoy the beauty of art, music, the colors of the changing seasons and a child’s smile and giggle. That’ why we enjoy the flavor of good food, the pleasure of good friendship and the touch from a loved one’s embrace or kiss. That’s why we enjoy the smell of biscuits in the oven, flowers in bloom, the scent of the breeze after a thunderstorm and mom’s cologne or dad’s after-shave. It’s not about enjoying these things, God gave them to us to enjoy. It is about focusing our lives on them to the exclusion of God and His will.

You see, I love the smile on my grandchildren’s faces when I give them a gift and the touch of their skin against mine and the smell of whatever they’ve gotten into when I give them a hug. But I long to see more than that in their lives. I want to see the satisfaction of them knowing God in a personal way and the changes that makes in how they view themselves, one another, the world around them and their purpose in life. I want them to know that God has more for them than the pleasures of this physical life. He wants to use them to show His love to others. I want them to know that there’s more to life than the pleasures this life offers.

C.S. Lewis said, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Why do we continually seek to satisfy that which cannot be satisfied by the things this world has to offer? The only thing that can satisfy this longing within us is that which another life offers to us, eternal life. As I’ve stated many, many times: eternal life is as much or more about the type and quality of life than it is about the longevity of it. Eternal life is all about the kind of life that we are meant to long for and to seek, life as it is meant to be. A life in which all of our needs, desires, hopes and dreams are fulfilled by the One who created us, loves us and longs to embrace us and show us. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

“Enough! The time has come. Look, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go! See – My betrayer is near.”

If everything this world had to offer could give us what God intended, Jesus would not have needed to come or to die. This “flesh” life gives us just enough of a taste of that “spirit” life to cause a longing, a desire for the real thing. However, we often settle for a cheap substitute.

Sitting near me are two pair of cheap shoes that do not fit my feet and that I’m preparing to give away. Why? Because I’m cheapskate and I learned to hunt for a bargain from my mother – the queen of Goodwill and garage sales. While looking for a good pair of shoes, I settled on purchasing what seemed to be a bargain. Shoes that were sold as “name brand” that are clearly NOT what I expected and NOT what I wanted. What will I end up doing? Buying another pair at regular price to get what I need and expected the first time. I will end up paying more because I thought I could get what I needed with a cheaper purchase. Boy, was I was wrong. My wife would say, “you usually are.”

We often do the same thing when it comes to life, real life. We settle for a cheap substitute that doesn’t quite fit right. It works – somewhat, but not well. We get by but we always feel like something is missing and we could have done better. We can do better. Instead of lying there, sleeping… Get up; let’s go! Jesus came to show us the way to life. He said, “A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:10 HCSB) Jesus came to give us abundant life – life so full of real joy that it bubbles up and splashes out on everyone around us.

Abundant life is not a life free of problems or challenges. It is a life that is filled with God’s glory, love and presence. It is a life that is able to lean into God’s glory, love and presence in the midst of those circumstances I cited at the beginning – the completely unexpected death of my father when I was 30 years old and standing by my granddaughter’s hospital bed as I prayed she would wake up from her diabetic coma and be ok. God didn’t abandon me in these times, He stood right there with me.

Do I fully understand why these things happened? No, of course not but I know His heart and I trust His hand. I have full confidence that one day I will see my dad, again. He had a deep, deep faith in Jesus. I look forward to feeling the scruff of his five o-clock shadow on my cheek and smell the Old Spice on his neck as I hug him. I am fully confident I will walk with my granddaughter in the new Jerusalem and not have to worry about whether she’s checked her blood sugar lately.

How can I be so sure? Not because of anything I’ve done, but because of everything He has done. But, enough of all that… the time has come. Will you believe and trust Him? Get up; go see. He’s worthy of your trust.