Mark 14:35-42 Take this cup
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 16, 2018, Mark 14:35-42
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.
Going on a little farther, he fell to the ground and kept praying that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. He kept repeating, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Yet not what I want but what you want.” When he went back, he found his disciples asleep. “Simon, are you asleep?” he asked Peter. “You couldn’t stay awake for one hour, could you? All of you must stay awake and pray that you won’t be tempted. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away again and prayed the same prayer as before. Again he came back and found them asleep, because they could not keep their eyes open. They didn’t even know what they should say to him. He came back a third time. “Are you still sleeping and resting?” he asked. “Enough of that! The time has come. Look! The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up! Let’s go! See, the one who is betraying me is near!”
(Revelation of God / Understanding the Text) The wait is over. The time that has been predicted since the fall of Adam and Eve has finally come. Jesus is becoming the true Savior of the world. When He became man, He became as the first Adam without sin. He became one of us as we were meant to be in the beginning. However, that was not enough. He needed to so identify Himself with us that we could be one with Him. He had to become us, the sinful us with a broken relationship to God. In order to reconnect us to the power of God, Jesus had to become us with our broken connection. When He reconnected on His resurrection, He brought us back into the full connection with the Father. Now the only lack of connection would be whether a person chose to be connected to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This then is the Holy Spirit’s job to live in us and connect us to Jesus and through Him to the Father.
What do you do with a dangerous contagious disease? You quarantine it, so it does not spread and then you work on healing it. On the other hand, maybe a better metaphor is a damaged power cable where the device is running on battery, but as soon as the battery runs out the device will be dead, useless and unable to run. However, if the connection to the power source can be restored, the device will continue to be charged. When we sinned, we damaged our connection to the Father which included His power to sustain us. However, God had a plan for a way to reconnect us even though we were damaged. We tend to think of physical damage just as we focus on the physical torture of the cross, but Adam and Eve still had their perfect physical bodies. The basic problem is not physical to be solved by a physical resurrection. Instead it is some kind of spiritual connection that is necessary for our survival. Without that connection to the Father’s lifegiving power, we begin to deteriorate on all levels-physical, mental, and spiritual. Jesus came to reconnect us to the Father through Him. We could not connect to the Father as we were so He modified Himself like an adaptor so that we could connect to Jesus.
It says that the process was so overwhelming that Jesus fell to the ground. He did not kneel to pray or calmly lay down. He fell because He could not maintain His ability to stand under the pressure of His transformation. The process was unbearable. We are told that Jesus sweat great drops of blood as this process happened. “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). One of the disciples witnessed this physical manifestation of what was happening inside Jesus and reported it. Whatever was happening to Jesus at this time was overwhelming with physical effects that almost killed His physical body then and there. An angel had to come and sustain His body to keep it alive. “And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43). The whole time this was happening, Jesus was crying out in agony for the Father to find another way to stop the transformation if possible, but only if the Father decided to, not from Jesus’ own decision. Jesus kept repeating this over and over to the Father. Out of His fear and agony, He cried out. When Jesus told the disciples “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak,” He may have been speaking of Himself.
(Understanding the Text) I know that there is a reason for the irresistible desire for sleep that overcame the disciples, but it is impossible for me to understand how they could see their Master in such pain and still sleep. I know that there is an explanation, but I still have not figured it out yet, except that it may be similar to the way my eyes go closed and sleep overtakes me as I have my devotional time in the morning. There are times when I am reading the Bible and fall asleep without warning. I think it may be one of the devil’s parlor tricks to be able to bring overwhelming sleepiness on us to prevent us from connecting with Jesus. The only way I know to combat this problem is to just keep plodding on through the devotion as soon as I wake up, even if I have to repeat a thought multiple times.
(Application) I cannot understand what was happening to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I can understand that it was unbearable and terrifying. I tend to avoid thinking about suffering because it is stressful for me, but I need to think more about what Jesus went through and to dwell on the fact that He chose to undergo torture because it was necessary to redeem me. The price that Jesus was willing to pay is incomprehensible to me, but I am grateful that He loved me enough to sacrifice Himself for me.
(Prayer) Help me to comprehend the magnitude of Your suffering for me and the love that dictated that You undergo that suffering. Create a new heart in me that looks with pity and love on the suffering of my fellow humans. Transform me into a creature who will never want to do anything to cause You to suffer again.