Mark 14:32-34 Among the Olive Trees
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: April 14 & 15, 2018, Mark 14:32-34
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
And they came to a place named Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray. And He took with Him Peter and James and John. And He began to be greatly amazed, and to be very heavy. And He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful to death. Stay here and watch.
(Revelation of God) Gethsemane has become synonymous with suffering and betrayal, but before that night it was a beautiful refuge that Jesus frequently went to when He wanted to be close to His Father and away from the city. It was His place of prayer and meditation. It was peace and tranquility. It was on the Mount of Olives which means that there were a lot of olive trees around. At night, the sound of the rustling of the leaves as a breeze blew through would have been a calming influence. As the sins of the world began to be laid more and more heavily upon Him, Jesus came to this place with its peaceful memories. Maybe, He was hoping that the natural beauty and serenity surrounding Him would strengthen Him as His transformation into the snake-on-the-pole to sin occurred.
(Understanding the Text) According to Josephus, all the olive trees around Jerusalem, including on the Mount of Olives, were cut down by Titus during the Siege of Jerusalem. Thus, the olive tress that are on the mountain today while very old are not the same trees that Jesus walked among on His way to Gethsemane. As I study history, I think it is interesting that God allowed most of the places that were important in Jesus’ story to be totally destroyed. I think He was taking away the potential to venerate these places over Himself. Of course, men found ways to do this anyway, but they did not have any excuse for their idol worship of sacred places. God left no room for confusion. F. F. Bruce’s commentary says that the early Christians never even thought about the places as special. Instead, they only focused on the events that happened in those places and the people who experienced those events. It was not until late in the 2nd century that one particular place began to be revered, and that was Peter’s tomb in Rome. Pilgrimages to holy sites did not come into vogue until Constantine’s conversion in the 4th century. Thus, it was only a long time after the death of all the generation that knew Jesus that veneration of places, a form of idol worship in the way it was practiced with pilgrimages, became accepted. (page 1021)
According to the ISBE dictionary, the word Gethsemane is “probably from the Aramaic gath shemānı̄m, “oil press”)” Thus, there must have been an olive press in the area. Matthew and Mark both call Gethsemane /kho-ree’-on/ which means “a spot or plot of ground: – field, land, parcel of ground, place, possession” according to Strong’s dictionary. On the other hand, John calls it “kēpos /kay’-pos/” which means “a garden: – garden.” ISBE dictionary says “The owner – whom conjecture suggests as Mary the mother of Mark – must have given Jesus and His disciples special right of entry to the spot.” Thus, if the upper room house did not belong to Mary, the young man (Mark) who ran away might have been in the garden for some other purpose because it belonged to his mother and simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, the idea that He followed them from his home makes more sense to me.
Jesus seemed to have several “home bases.” In Capernaum, He considered Peter’s house His home. When He was in Jerusalem, He tended to commute from Bethany and stay in the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, but it may have been that Mary, the mother of Mark, provided Him with a home base within the city. We always focus on the disciples, but there were more friends that Jesus had on this earth than simply His twelve disciples and the women who traveled with Him. There were people along the way who provided places of rest and sustenance, maybe even clothing, a place to bathe and wash clothes, and other necessities. Mary seems to come up again and again in this context both in the Bible and in tradition. She raised a son who would write one of the books of the Bible and be intimately associated with Peter, Paul, and Barnabas. She must have been a remarkable woman, especially considering she employed such an airhead servant as Rhoda.
(Application) As I study the Bible more closely, I run into hints of special people who are not in the central story as told in the Bible, yet they were just as much a part of the story as the ones recorded. When we get to heaven, there will be a lot of stories to tell. Lots of people had different roles to play in Jesus’ ministry. Some stayed in one place and provided a refuge for Him when He passed through; some followed Jesus wherever He led; some were only with Jesus a short time while others stayed with Him always. All played roles in His ministry. Here and now, there are different ministries also. Unfortunately, I have a limited imagination and when I think of serving Jesus, I tend to think of only a few traditional roles. I need more imagination and understanding as to what service to Jesus means.
(Understanding the Text) Jesus told most of His disciples to sit down and wait in an area while He went to pray. He did not turn to them for comfort as He did Peter, James, and John. He seemed to want to have the other eight disciples near, but not too near. He wanted them to be in one place but not with Him. I wonder if He knew that if they were with Him that there might be a chance that the situation would not be peaceful and proceed the way that He wished. For example, Simon the Zealot might not have stopped fighting when Jesus told Him to, unlike Peter who obeyed his Master’s command to stop. I have wondered in the past about Jesus’ favoritism of Peter, James, and John. Did He love them more than the others? Scriptures would seem to negate this idea of God playing favorites in His affections, so why was there a favored inner group? In that case, another question would have been why were there the favored 12? I think I have some insight today. It was not who God loved more or better; it was who loved God more and better. It was not about affection, but about obedience. Jesus could trust Peter, James, and John to obey and to work well together. They were His “go to” team not because He liked them better than the others, but because they were the most trustworthy-both to obey Him and to work well together to accomplish the tasks that He set before them.
The ESV says “And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled” (Mark 14:33). The LIV (Literal Translation) says “And He took along Peter and James and John with Him. And He began to be much amazed and to be deeply troubled” (Mark 14:33). I understand the idea of greatly distressed and troubled, but the idea of amazed found in the KJV and the LIV sounds confusing since amazed tends to be a positive world. The original word is “ekthambeō Thayer Definition: 1) to throw into terror or amazement 1a) to alarm thoroughly, to terrify 2) to be struck with amazement 2a) to be thoroughly amazed, astounded 2b) to be struck with terror.” Thus, this word means that Jesus, the King of Kings, God Himself, was terrified. I can understand why the KJV writers used the “amazed” definition and the ESV just said “greatly distressed.” However, the original word is very negative and very strong. “Greatly distressed” is just not strong enough, and “amazed” while strong does not have the negativity this word is expressing. My point is that most Christians emphasize the physical suffering of Jesus in His trials and on the cross. However, they lightly pass over Gethsemane. I believe that Gethsemane was the beginning of the real torture and that the physical was actually not the worst of what was happening.
(Revelation of God) Jesus was on a timetable that final week and needed to get the ministering stage of His mission completed. He timed this final week carefully. His final message to His disciples before the next stage of the mission started was that He knew that they would fail Him, but that it was okay. He would meet with them again in Galilee after the task that He was about to complete was finished. Then, He told most of them to wait in safety while He went to pray. They had no idea that He was about to undergo a horrible agony. Maybe, Jesus was protecting them from seeing Him in the tortured state that He was about to experience.
Then, the transformation began. Jesus began to become sin for us. Paul describes what happened as “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that God’s righteousness would be produced in us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Mark tells us here that as this process began Jesus (who as God had had many experiences) became terrified at what was happening to Him. As He was transformed from sinless to sinful, He suffered. Sinful at its basic meaning is separation from God. Thus, this process was separating Him from the Father, from the Spirit. Jesus describes what He is experiencing as “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful to death,” yet Christians have glossed over this mental anguish as being less important than the physical anguish of the cross. Like with many mental and emotional issues, we pooh-pooh this as just a slight problem or exaggeration. However, Jesus was not given to exaggeration. If He said that mentally He was so sad that He was dying, then He was dying from the oppression in His mind. The ISV translates it this way, “I am deeply grieved, even to the point of death.” Grief seems to be a better word than sorrow because it carries the stronger feeling that happens when someone we love dies. It is sharper and more overwhelming whereas “sorrowful” has a softer quieter feel to it. Jesus was undergoing something overwhelmingly negative. It was terrifying and caused grief and was actually killing Him.
Jesus tells Peter, James, and John to stay and watch. I am not sure if they were supposed to watch Jesus, or if they were supposed to watch out for the soldiers so that Jesus could be warned of their approach. Did Jesus worry that as He became separate from the Father and Spirit that He would not be aware of the approaching soldiers and thus, He might not be able to protect these three when the time to be taken away came? Did He try to get them to protect themselves because He could not? This makes sense with His character. Even at the time when He was in His weakest, must vulnerable, most painful state, His thought was of trying to protect His disciples.
(Revelation of God / Application) God loves me. He does not play favorites with His love and giving. The only reason that it might seem like He is playing favorites has to do with my willingness to obey and follow His leading. It has to do with God seeing and knowing the real me and trying to fit me into the best place in His plan based on my abilities and upon my willingness to let Him lead. He will not force me and will only lead me as fast as I can go. Others may be more faithful and trusting or they may have different talents than I do. No matter whether I am a leader or follower, whether I feel like exciting things are happening for God or nothing is happening, it does not change the fact that God simply loves me and knows me and is intensely concerned for me and wants to be one with me. He holds back for my sake not out of any lack of interest in me. Just as Jesus was concerned about the individuals around Him as He became the sacrifice for the whole human race, God can be intensely interested in me as an individual working with my specific needs and growth while also using me as His servant in His bigger plan for the salvation of mankind. Unlike limited humans who cannot focus on both the big and small pictures at the same time, God can work with me as an individual at the same time He works out the plan of salvation with me as one individual component among many. I must trust in both His wisdom for my life and His desire to be with me.
(Prayer) I cannot imagine the agony that You endured for me. Your love is amazing in a positive way. You are beautiful beyond my comprehension. Help me to understand more and more of Your beauty and to communicate who You are to others so that they can share in that amazing understanding.