Praying in the Hour of Temptation
Mark 8:34-38, 14:32-42
This past Lord’s Day, and just again this evening we’ve heard Christ foretell of his death in Mark’s account of the Holy Gospel. There he said that the Son of Man had come to suffer many things, to be rejected by the chief priests, the scribes, and the experts in the law, and to be crucified. And then when his disciples rebuked him and rejected this as nonsense, he condemned them, and instructed them saying this; that if ANY wish to follow Him. If any wish to have any part of Him, – if any wish to know Him, or to be known by Him, they must deny themselves, and they must themselves also join Him – in taking up the cross, and the suffering, and the rejection, and the death that He takes. They must give up their lives. They must surrender themselves to the will of God. And this is what we see today in our Gospel reading from Mark 14 as Jesus invites His three closest disciples into a time of prayer and presence with Him in the time of His greatest trial and suffering, isn’t it?
The context is this. Jesus here has already gone through the triumphal entry, the bulk of holy week, and the last supper, all that is in the past for Him at this point. And now He finds Himself looking toward the cross. The eve of the day has been approaching. And now it is here. The night before His crucifixion. The night before the worlds salvation – had come.
And now, at this point, St. Mark tells us, now – He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. And why is that? Jesus had been foretelling His own death before hand. Not as a maybe but as a definite. As a must and a will. The Son of Man has come to die. The Son of man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. The Son of man – will be rejected, and hated, and scorned, and crucified – and lifted up on the cross. And that IS how the world will be saved. This was the core essence of His preaching and teaching. And never before in those times did He seem to give even a slight inkling that the notion scared Him or made Him uncomfortable. Yet here, yet now – when the moment itself is coming in less than 24 hours – now He begins to be troubled within Himself, and deeply distressed. To the point that He says to His disciples my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, EVEN UNTO DEATH. Why now, Jesus? Why is this happening to Jesus NOW?
Think back to First Sunday in Lent. It’s the same every year. What is the gospel reading? Do you know? It’s the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the desert. And what is the temptation? There are three of them, and this is an easy way to remember this. The first is -? IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD, command that these stones become bread.That is – end your voluntary fast. To satisfy your hunger. To save yourself from pain. The second temptation –? IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD, THROW YOURSELF DOWN FORM THE TEMPLE, For it is written:‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’and,‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ That is – show the world who you are. Display your divine glory, – save yourself from certain death! The third and last temptation – Satan said to him, fall down before me and worship me and I will give to you all the kingdoms of the earth. That is, receive the glories and the power and the dominion OF the world, bypass the cross, the lowliness the suffering, the peace – and rule with power and violence.
And what is all of this, really? It is the temptation to avoid suffering, and to take the easy way out. To save oneself from hunger, from pain, and from death. To achieve glory and a kingdom on earth by Divine might. All of this is what? Is a temptation to forsake the cross. To refuse suffering, and lowliness. And to enjoy luxury, and comfort, and the desires of the self. It is a temptation to not save us.
But while Jesus succeeded in fending off those temptations of the desert, that would not be the last time He faced them. For after these temptations, St. Luke tells us that when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. That is – that He would return. And come again with these temptations, at a more opportune time. In a more pressing circumstance. And so he does. The night before Jesus’ crucifixion – again, Satan comes. And what is the temptation? It’s the same as last time. Don’t die. Don’t go through with it. Don’t suffer. Don’t be rejected. And again this temptation will come to Him, more and more as He walks to the top of Mt. Golgotha. Time and time again to show them, to demonstrate to them who He is. To take Himself form off the cross. TO indulge their desires to SEE who He said He was. It will come within the sorrows of His own soul. It will come from Judas and the soldiers that come to arrest Him. It will come from the chief priests, from the scribes and the pharisees. It will come from Pilate, from the Roman soldiers. From those who mock Him on the cross. It will even come form the men crucified beside Him. If you are the Son of God, save yourself. If God loves Him, then God will save Him. Call down the angels, they said. Prophesy and tell us who hit you, they said. Show to us that you are who you say you are, they said. Again and again –an “out” was given to Him. Again and again, the temptations of Satan would come against Him.
And so when this begins against Him. And He feels sorrowful in the depth of His soul, even unto death. When these temptations come against Him. What does He do? What is His first inclination? On the cusp of the fulfillment of His life and ministry, on the cusp of the end of His earthly life. On the cusp of His death, when the moment has come to decide. To flee, or to die – what does He do? Does He go to the casino to hedge his bets? To the bar to blow off some steam? Does He sit at home and watch Netflix to get some rest before the show really starts? No? What then does He do? – He prays. Here He faces a great trial, a great test. Not just the suffering and pain of death in the worst form – that of crucifixion, but the pain and the guilt and suffering and shame of having to bear the whole weight of the sin and the guilt of the world. And to die the death owed for it. To face the full wrath and anger of God, – to suffer the Father turning His face away. The greatest pain. To be forsaken. To be cursed. To be condemned under the full weight of the law. And here in this He shows us the way through all trials, and all temptations. It’s prayer.
To go, in that time of struggle, that time of trial and of temptation TO THE LORD, and GIVE IT TO HIM. TO commune there with Him in the midst of it. To make known your struggle to Him, and to bring back to Him His promise that He’ll bring you through it, and to hold fast to that in faith. Submitting to His will. Being changed, and transformed by your encounter with Him. That is what Jesus does. And that is what we need to do.
“Watch and Pray,” Jesus says to His disciples. Watch and pray. That is STAND GUARD. IN PRAYER. This is the stance, the posture of the Christian church. Not just during temptation but at all times. TO stand steadfast and on guard at all times, in prayer, lest we fall into temptation. Does that sound “casual” to you? No? No – because it’s not. This too, is instructive for us. When we are faced with temptation, what ought we to do? – we ought to pray. Yes, BUT WHAT KIND OF PRAYER? A casual prayer? Is Jesus talking about casually listing off wants, needs, and requests to God in passing when He remembers? Is He talking about a relaxed “conversation’ with God? Not at all. What’s He talking about? He’s talking about an intense, critical kind of prayer. A militaristic kind of prayer. He’s speaking here of the kind of prayer done by soldiers arming the battlements of a fortress under siege. WATCH – He says. – PRAY He says, lest you fall. Lest the devil come and devour you in the night while you sleep, He says.
And so, falling face down, prostrate toward the ground, our Lord, in His greatest time of trial PRAYS.
And what did He pray for? He prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. Saying, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” again and again and again – for THREE HOURS, we are told, he prayed this prayer, SAYING THE VERY SAME WORDS we are told. Again and again and again He focused His heart, His soul, His VERY BEING on this one prayer for His FATHERS will to be done. And so He brought there His temptation to the Father. That He not go through with it. But – with that, and in that, He sought to bring Himself FROM THAT, and into line with the will of the Father.
So many times we forget this when we pray. We pray, say we’re struggling, and we pray – Lord take away this disease. Take away this problem in my life. Take away my desire to sin. We pray give me this, we pray give me that. Is that stuff we should pray for? No. What really is it that our prayer should be? We pray it every liturgy. If you’re good Lutherans at home you’ll pray it several times a day. The Our Father. – FATHER, YOUR WILL – (not my will), YOUR WILL be done. On earth. BY ME. Just as your will is done in heaven. What is this to say? It a prayer that God makes His will done in us. That He makes His will done to us. That He accomplishes His will – THROUGH us. What of this is about me? What of this is about my wants? What of this is about my desires? See here is the thing friends – what is prayer? Is it a time when we tell God how to be God? As though He doesn’t know? When we tell God what we need? As though we know better than He does. Is prayer when we summon gifts from Him? No – far be it. Look at your catechisms again. What is the recurring theme here? It is this – THIS THING COMES TO US EVEN WITHOUT OUR PRAYER. See, Every single thing we pray for is already promised or else it isn’t something we should pray for. Prayer isn’t you asking for something that you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten because God didn’t know you needed or didn’t want to give it. Prayer is us bringing God’s promises back to Him IN FAITH. We don’t pray to change God’s mind. But to change OUR HEARTS. We pray to gain confidence, endurance, forgiveness – things promised by God and freely given in Christ. We don’t pray to GET, but we pray to – BECOME. And so He prays, (and so we pray), YOUR WILL be done. In me. Through me. For me. And to me.
But as JESUS prays, His disciples (like us, even still) sleep. And this is the way He so often finds us, isn’t it? Not watching and waiting. Not praying or fasting. Not singing nor praising nor serving. But what? – SLEEPING. Idle and unconscious. This is how we coast through so much of our life. Spiritually sleeping. Unaware of what goes on in the spiritual realm, – unaware and unactive. Uncaring and apathetic. Like soldiers arming the battlements of a besieged city, who are SUPPOSED TO BE watching, and praying – we are the soldiers sleeping. And so Jesus comes to them, and says; Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour?
And why is Jesus so concerned? Because Satan came to sift Peter like wheat. And the Lord had warned him, to watch and pray, to be on guard because the devil was prowling around looking to devour him. Did Peter listen? No. Peter couldn’t even pray 1 hour of vigil with Jesus. And yet Jesus warned him saying to him, Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. Because it is from prayer that the endurance and the perseverance to push through the temptation, and past the trials, and beyond the struggles is gained. Peter fell because he did not pray. So also the Lord Jesus says to us, – watch and pray. So also He says to us, can you not watch but one hour? So also He says to us, BE ON GUARD, AND BE WATCHFUL, FOR THE DEVIL PROWLS, seeking the souls of those who SLEEP on God and His gifts. Seeking to TAKE WITH HIM to hell those who do not guard their souls. And so he does, and so he did to Peter. And though Peter was not ready, the hour had come. And so Jesus awoke them a last time, saying; are you STILL sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. And from then He goes. And as Jesus goes He goes with a confidence. How did He gain it? Prayer. Jesus endured this through prayer. Jesus again beats back temptation through prayer. But what of Peter? He fell. Didn’t he??
So, how then will you endure when you suffer? How will you stand the trials and the tribulations that are coming for you in this life? Will you watch and pray? Will you stand guard over yourself and your neighbors? Or will you sleep? I bid you pray, and – I bid you do it in a way that isn’t casual. That you don’t fall into the temptation of believing that prayer is useless or that God “isn’t listening.” I bid you know these truths deeply. God has commanded you to pray. And He has promised that in your praying, He will strengthen you, as you bring His promises back to Him in those prayers, and wrestle with Him in those times, and bring to Him your concerns and your struggles and trials and temptations and fears and doubts – that He will transform them, and you yourselves, into doers of His will, and believers in His Word, and receivers of His promises and all His gifts. That you come closer to Him and He closer to you. That you dwell more in the light, in the face of THIS DARK NIGHT. That in prayer you seek Him, as you experience yourselves being sought by Him. I bid that you pray in this way. That you take God’s own Words, in His holy Scriptures, and that you read them, and recite them, with hearts FULL of feeling and concerns and fears, and that you believe what He has spoken and which you speak back to Him. That you make TIME to pray. And that you do it every day. That you pray the hours of the church. That you pray WITH the church. That you pray FOR THE CHURCH. That you pray as the watchers on the wall. That you pray for the defense, for the good, and for the salvation – OF ALL. For all of this I pray in the name of the + Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
