Mark 14:27-42

When push comes to shove, are you one of the people who fight through or are you one of the people who give up? I struggle with this question as a person. I’ve never liked to be a person who gives up, who fails really, but on the other hand, if something isn’t going to happen, it isn’t going to happen. There are times when no amount of banging my head against a door will cause the door to open. Sometimes it just makes my head hurt.

Today’s passage seems to be about failure. Failure is something we fight against with ever fiber of our being. No one wants to be known as a failure; but then we often have differing definitions of failure. Even when we fail, the failure isn’t as important as the failure’s effect on us. I’m told the Abraham Lincoln was a colossal failure. He ran for all sorts of offices, state legistator…finished in 8^th place out of 13 candidates. Ran for congress, but failed to get the nomination from his own political party. Campaigned several times to be the Illinois senator, but circumstances caused him to not win the seat. And then was elected President of the USA, and became perhaps the greatest President we have ever had.

Even though Jesus triumphs in the end, a lot of His ministry, and a lot of ours, appears to be a failure at first glance. The disciples were not gung ho for persecution. They didn’t always understand what Jesus was saying, they failed. They failed to be faithful to Jesus, they failed to trust Him, the failed each other. Let’s read about some failures…

“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

“’I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’

But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.

Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!

Let’s pray.

So we are nearly done with Mark. We are in the midst of the culminating events of Jesus ministry and life. The trek of His ministry through Israel and a bit beyond is over. The physical healing ministry is over. His teaching ministry is over with this last chastisement of the disciples, which I imagine is not how they would have wanted it to end. The teaching, the healing, Jesus ministry, except for His death and resurrection, is over. The Passover meal is done, the celebration of remembrance is done; it is nearly time for the final act in Jesus life. Too bad it starts with the disciples failing Jesus one last time.

I continue to like the disciples of Jesus, these 11 apostles, because they are so like me. I really mean it this time Lord! This time I won’t sin! This time I won’t blow it! Famous last words. All the good intentions in the world, that’s what I have…that’s what we have. So I really appreciate these disciples. They really want to do what is right, they really want to follow their rabbi, their teacher and friend. And they are really going to blow it. They are going to act like we would have acted; all the best of intentions and a really pathetic follow-through. You’d think that having walked with Christ, having seen all His miracles, having listened to Him, watched His life, seen the kind of folks He hangs out with like Moses and Elijah, that they wouldn’t blow it. You think that walking on water, casting out demons, raising the dead for pete’s sake, would solidify their allegiance and stiffen their spines. You’d think. You’d think that having attended church for all my life, having accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior in college in a very life-changing way, having taught junior highers, senior highers, little kids, older peoples, having graduated from seminary, having studied all sorts of things related to God that I would be a super-Christian, trusting God in every way, tuned in to God’s will for my life, ready and willing to sacrifice all He asks in order to serve Him. You’d think. Instead I seem to go from failure to failure. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but I focus on my failures more than my serving God. I fail. Maybe you do too. And so when I read about the disciples failing, I begin to believe that there may be hope for me too.

I was reminded of Romans chapter 7 where Paul writes about his failures in a way I think we all can relate to. Verse 15ff “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know nothing good lives in me, that is , in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Failure. Even in Paul, even after all those years knowing Christ and living for Him. The good news is that failure is neither fatal or permanent.

Let’s check it out.

“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

“’I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’

But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

Famous last words. I will never disown you. And of course, we know how well that turns out. That commitment lasts maybe 12 hours. It will be next week when we read that as soon as Jesus is seized, everyone deserted him and fled. Hard to believe that these are the men who will build the church, the following of Jesus that has endured to this day. Something happens between this time and the men we read about in the Book of Acts. The men in Acts were committed to Christ, and most of them died in nasty ways telling about the love of God in Christ. What happened? Jesus died, and then was resurrected. They saw the truth, and it strengthened their spines, encouraged their spirit. And they were given a gift of power to proclaim Jesus, the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit of God sent to these timid believers that matured them quickly; transformed them from well meaning but self centered followers into men who would pay any price to be faithful to Jesus.

Ultimately it is God who takes this failure, the disciples failing to keep their word for more than a few hours, into men of faith who would sacrifice their lives before failing again. Ultimately it is God who takes the apparent failure of Christ; His capture and execution and turns it into the triumphant resurrection and eternal life that is our hope and faith. Ultimately it is God who takes our failures, if we let Him, and uses them to transform us into His image, who uses them to change our character into people who will be faithful to Him no matter what. Everyone fails at something. The real question is if we will allow God to work in us to turn that failure into a learning experience, or whether we will continue to do things our own way. A failure shouldn’t be what we define as a failed attempt to do our plan, to accomplish our goals. Instead, for Christians, failure is a not following God’s ways. That can look like sin, that is confessed and forgiven, and we pray that the Holy Spirit will use that confession to change us into God’s image, that we might become more useful to the kingdom of God as God uses our confession to change us. A failure can also be the decision not to do something that we are asked by God to do; to teach a class, to volunteer with the children in church, to give a monetary gift to the church. Those failures also can be used by God to shape so that the next time we are asked to do something, we don’t shy away but step up to serve God and others, even though it may cost us something.

This is one of the most poignant scenes of Jesus life. Jesus knows what is coming. What an awful thing to know the time and way of one’s own death. Especially the death Jesus is facing. So He goes to His knees to pray. An honest prayer, a prayer of fear, but over that, a prayer that He would continue to serve the Father obediently, even to death. This is a hard prayer to pray. Have you ever tried to pray this? God please don’t let this happen. Yet not what I will, but what your will would be. This always seems like a great prayer, but it is so hard to really mean it. It is so hard to say, I don’t want this to happen. But if it does, you are still in control, you are still my God, I am still your servant.

This is often the breaking point of faith. Something happens that we have feared for weeks, months or even years. A relationship ends. A needed friend passes. We are praying for something and what we fear happens. This is happening to Jesus. The end is coming, the guards are searching for Him, Judas is betraying Him, He is crying out to God on His knees, and all around Him the disciples are failing Him. Sometimes life can be like this. Our world seems to be falling down around us, and our friends fail us. Our mentors, our family, our neighbors fail to see what is happening and help us. And in the end there is only God. There is only the faith that has sustained us in the past, and the faith that has sustained generations of people over the centuries. It is the commitment to follow God through what is asked of us that Jesus demonstrates here. In the very worst of times, Jesus commits Himself to God’s ways instead of His own. What a challenging example for us; come what may to desire God’s will above our own. Lay down your life, the gospel says to us again and again, because that’s what God asks of us. To trust Him in the very worst of times, when we pray and perhaps hear nothing but the silence, the challenge is still to follow God, to do what we’ve been called to do and be.

Trusting God in the silence, trusting God in adverse circumstances, that is triumph, not failure. From most viewpoints Jesus life was about to end in failure. His disciples will run away, and He will be executed. But the Christian way is not the world’s way. What appears to be a failure is a triumph, and often what appears to secular people to be a great success, can be, in the eyes of faith, and in God’s ways, an awful failure. A business success that takes your focus toward the things of this life and away from God, that is a Christian setback. My friend is pasturing a church that is looking to kick her out because she keeps telling them they need a personal relationship with God, she keeps telling them that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. And for that, the church will remove her as their pastor. So is that a failure, or a triumph? She has been faithful in her call, and faithful to God. That is a triumph to me, but it can look like a failure. In the world it looks great, but in the kingdom of God, it could be a step backward. God brings triumph out of apparent failure; He did it with an Jewish Egyptian prince escaping a murder rap who eventually led His people out of captivity. God triumphed in the death of His Son on the cross; in that action our sins were paid for and we were set free to fully follow God. God triumphed with these disciples who broke these commitments, but came back later to start the church.

Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.

3 times. 3 times Jesus asks them to stay up and pray for Him and with Him. 3 times they fail to do such a little thing for their teacher, their friend, their Messiah. We see the depths of Jesus’ sacrifice, and His obedience to the Father as contrasted by the disciple’s inability to stay awake even for a little while to support Jesus. It is no coincidence that Jesus describes His upcoming task as a “cup”…this cup is my blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins. His blood poured out on our account…if there is another way for the salvation of humans to happen, take this cup away. But there is no response, no dove from Heaven, no voice from Heaven, merely the silence of duty asked for. All around Jesus the sleeping disciples speak of failure; but Jesus will not fail. He is headed toward the cross, through the torture of a sham trial, the physical punishment, all of which looks like a failure. The Pharisees and chief priests are going to think they have won; saved Judaism from a false prophet. But really what appears to be their triumph is in fact God’s victory of evil, God’s victory over our sins.

We all fail, in one way or another. It is part of the human condition. We fail each other, we fail ourselves, we fail God. The key is not the failure, but what we do with it. If we bring our failures to God, we get to see what He can do with those situations. We bring our sins, those failures to God, and He cleanses us, views us as sinless because of Christ in us, because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. It remains to be seen what God will bring out of my friend’s apparent failure with her church. It remains to be seen what God will make out of our failures; it is my conviction that God brings good out of what was intended for evil. Not that we should strive to fail, but more that God is God even when things appear to be going in the wrong direction. It is then most of all that we should be seeking God’s face, seeking to lay our lives down before His throne, striving to be obedient in those hardest of times. That we fail is not in question. The opportunity to serve God, to follow Him comes after the failure when we turn to Him with our failure. See and taste that the Lord is good, see what good God will bring from the chaos of our lives.

Let’s pray.