What sort of leader do we want? Leaders are revealed in a crisis. The crisis Jesus faced at Gethsemane shows him to be a king without equal. Knowing the cost of the cross, he chose to bear it—a decision made all the more poignant by what followed. It reveals his unparalleled obedience, courage, and love.
The king’s astounding prayer
Mark 14:26-72
Jesus Foretells Peter’s Denial
26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ 28 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 29 Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” 30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” 31 But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” 35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 37 And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. 41 And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus
43 And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. 44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” 45 And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 46 And they laid hands on him and seized him. 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 48 And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? 49 Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 And they all left him and fled.
A Young Man Flees
51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Jesus Before the Council
53 And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. 54 And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. 56 For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. 57 And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” 59 Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. 60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” 61 But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. 65 And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.
Peter Denies Jesus
66 And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. 69 And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” 72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
This transcript has been automatically generated
Now this week I got this through the post. It’s my poll card for the elections in May coming up, not very far away. I’m going to need to make a decision on who I reckon should be on the Tower Hamlets Council and who should be the mayor. And if I’m going to take my democratic responsibility seriously, then I’ll look into all the candidates and work out what kind of leader they’ll be. You can ask me in May whether I have done that.
But leadership styles are constantly being debated, aren’t they? I imagine for the French presidential elections, if we’re in France at the moment, everybody would be discussing different leadership styles. And even when there’s not an election, it’s always on the news. Conversations about Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer, the styles of Joe Biden or Vladimir Putin. And more recently, we ask a lot more of the leadership style of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president.
And my favourite fact about Volodymyr Zelensky is that he He provides the voice for Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian dubbing of the Paddington films. I don’t know if you knew that. Lots of us do know that he used to work as a comedian, even performing as the lead in a 2015 show called The Servant of the People about a guy who unexpectedly became the Ukrainian president. And then he became the Ukrainian president for real. Life imitating art.
I really enjoyed the headlines when they came out. It was quite interesting to hear of this comedian who’d somehow made it to the top of his national politics. But of course, the real test of his presidency has come so recently. Leaders are revealed in a crisis. And he seems to have come out on top, doesn’t he?
The media in this country at least is filled with his praises. The Financial Times has described him as a modern icon. This comedian turned president has emerged as the world’s strongest and most charismatic leader.
So what about the carpenter turned preacher at the heart of Christianity? What kind of leader is he? Whether you’re a Christian or not, you’ll know lots of things, I imagine, about Jesus Christ, the figure at the centre of the Christian faith. If you are a Christian, you describe him as your leader, your king even. But what kind of king is he?
Now that is the purpose for which Mark’s Gospel is written. From the very opening verse, he tells us that it’s the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In other words, this book is the momentous news about Jesus the King, and the rest of his book goes on to unpack what it means for him to be King, what sort of King he is. But leaders are revealed in a crisis, and it is as we come to the end of the account as Jesus faces his death head-on that we come to see the sort of King that Jesus is in Ultra HD vivid detail. And we’re dipping into Mark this evening because we finished our series in Genesis, which we’ve been working through for the last couple of months.
We’re going to move on to Job after Easter. We had a one-off and I had the chance to speak on my favourite passage in the Bible. I genuinely think it is my favourite passage. Often whatever I’m looking at in the Bible is my favourite passage, but If you ask me in 6 months, I still think I’ll say this one. We won’t have time to see everything it has to say.
Some of us are studying Mark in our small groups. You’ll get to explore it more next term. But we’re going to focus on this crisis moment in Mark, particularly the scene in Gethsemane, and to see what it reveals of our King. I will focus particularly on what I’ve said at the top of the handout is the King’s astounding prayer. Now that is the title of this talk, The King’s Astounding Prayer, and verse 36 is printed on the handout for you.
Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will but what you will.
That’s probably a familiar prayer to lots of us. Indeed, we’ll see lots of familiar things this evening. But as the American pastor Dane Ortlund has said, the gospel is not a one-time vaccination that spares us from hell, but food to nourish us all the way to heaven.
And so I hope that this evening we’ll see how to feed on familiar truths, how to play with ideas in our heads to enjoy what God has to say for us even when it’s familiar, and to do that particularly with Mark 14. And hey, maybe I’ll even persuade you that it is the best passage in the Bible. Come and tell me if I’ve managed that at the end. But we’re going to focus on 2 particular truths, 2 particular things that Jesus’ prayer reveals about him. Firstly, Jesus knew the cost.
Jesus knew the cost. Let me set the scene in case we’ve forgotten the beginning of the reading. It is the night before Jesus’ death. He’s He knows he’s about to die. He’s told the disciples several times, and his death hangs heavy over the whole group.
He heads to a familiar garden, the Garden of Gethsemane, a place that we know from other parts of the Bible he’d been to lots of times before. In many ways, this should have been a safe space for Jesus, but there’s something different about this visit. Verse 32, they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.
And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.
Throughout Jesus’ life, he’s been Mr. In Control. Nothing seemed to faze him. He slept his way through a life-threatening storm and when woken simply rebuked the weather. When he was confronted with demonic spirits, he just commanded them to leave.
And when the religious leaders were plotting to kill him, he took it in his stride, exposing and even humiliating them. Throughout his life, he has been Mr. In Control.
Excuse me, it’s not COVID.
Jesus has been Mr. In Control, but now he is in agony, reduced to tears. He’s falling on the ground and pleading with the Father in prayer. Verse 35, and going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
Why is he so upset this time? Well, verse 36 gives us the answer. Jesus said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Remove this cup from me.
Of course, it’s not a literal cup. That’s not why I’ve put cups on the pulpit this evening. That’s because of my cough. Jesus is referring to an image used often in the Old Testament to speak of what’s coming to you, most commonly the wrath of God that is coming. There’s some verses on the handout you can look at later that use that same language to speak of God’s wrath.
Isaiah 51, for example, says, wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. The cup that Jesus is talking about is the cup of God’s anger. And the story of the whole Bible is the story of humans rebelling against the rightful ruler of the world. If you’ve joined us for our series in Genesis, you’ll have seen that though God gave us a wonderful world, we have rejected him as ruler. We’ve essentially declared war on God, and that is at the heart of what the Bible calls sin.
And being the one true God, he rightly responds in judgement. God’s just response to sin is his wrath. Not a flying-off-the-handle, capricious, uncontrolled rage. No, God’s anger is measured. It’s just.
It’s fair. It’s entirely in control, in proportion. But it is wrath. It is anger. That’s the clear teaching of the whole Bible, the same teaching picked up by Jesus in his ministry.
And it is that same wrath that Jesus was facing as he drew ever closer to the cross. Of course, Jesus didn’t have any sin of his own to pay for. He lived a perfect life. Rather, as we said together earlier, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. As our final song is going to put it, he had no tears for his own griefs but sweat drops of blood for mine.
Now Jesus had no sins, no griefs of his own to pay for. He was facing the wrath of God because of me, because of you.
And so verse 35, he prays that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
Is it possible?
Of course it wasn’t. As if in answer to his prayer, he returns to the disciples time and time again and finds them sleeping. Because the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
As willing— excuse me— not meant to be an illustration of weak flesh.
But it’s true, isn’t it? It’s true in our experience. As willing as we are— how willing I have been for my cough not to be a problem— the reality is that we are incapable. And we’re particularly incapable of dealing with the problem of our sin, aren’t we? We need Jesus to do it for us.
We can’t fix ourselves. It’s a really important lesson for our world today, with so many determined to try and get to God by their own efforts. To prove that they are good enough.
But there is no other way. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. We could spend the whole evening dwelling on that, but the danger is we swing the camera around to stare at ourselves and miss why Jesus is centre stage as Mark takes us through this crisis. He wants us to see what it reveals about Jesus. What are we seeing about him?
Well, partly that as Jesus stepped in Gethsemane— into Gethsemane, he knew the cost. He knew our failure, the sins of the whole world. The cup that he was about to face was pressing upon him with all its devastating weight, and he knew it in its entirety. Our politicians are always claiming to know it’s going to be hard. Oh, I know it’s going to be a battle, but I’m ready for it.
They don’t have a clue, not really. But Jesus did. He knew it in its entirety. And if we need any help believing Jesus’ insight into our failure, consider how much he needed to know to say what he said in verse 26. Just look up at verse 26.
When they’d sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, you will all fall away, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But after I’m raised up, I will go with you— I go before you to Galilee. That required a lot of foreknowledge, didn’t it? I needed a clear vision of the next few hours, a foresight of the armed mob that would descend.
A drone’s-eye view of the disciples scattering, even to see his resurrection and his rendezvous with the disciples in Galilee. But it’s even more detailed than that. Verse 29, Peter said to him, even though they all fall away, I will not. And Jesus said to him, truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me 3 times. Now do you see how thorough Jesus’ foreknowledge was?
That Peter’s own failure was comprehensively known by Jesus beforehand, his every denial numbered, set against the events of the day, recorded with a timestamp. Jesus knew the identity of his betrayer, that Judas was about to walk through the gate of the garden. He knew the conversations that would happen through his trial, even out in the courtyard. He even knew the sounds, that would dominate the backing track of Peter’s denials. The first crowing of the cock, how far through Peter’s conversation he’d be, and then the second and the third denials, and then the sound of the cock as it took up its fateful cry once again.
The foreknowledge of Jesus is so comprehensive it comes with surround sound.
And so also he knew what you would do. What happened last night, what happened this week, that thing for which you feel most shame, which you’re so glad no one else knows— Jesus knows. Jesus knew.
The foreknowledge of Jesus is so comprehensive it comes with surround sound.
There have been no acts of sin committed in the last 2,000 years that have caught Jesus by surprise. When he resolved in eternity past to go to the cross, he knew exactly what you and I would do. Things that we don’t even know about yet, he knew. Even in Gethsemane, as he prayed that prayer, he knew the fullest depths of human sin. When he said, remove this cup from me, he knew the cup that he was facing.
And we would cower in overwhelming shame were it not for the extraordinary way that his prayer ends. It is with that same knowledge that Jesus went on to pray, yet not what I will, but what you will. Jesus, he knew the cost, but astonishingly, he chose to bear it. Jesus chose to bear it. Verse 36 again, and he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.
Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.
There on that night, Jesus chose to bear the wrath of God. The wrath that we deserve. In a sense, as I said, he made that decision in eternity past. God planned this even before the world began. Jesus didn’t change his mind.
But there is a sense in which we see in these few verses the resolve of Jesus to face the wrath of God, his active decision to choose the cross. Isn’t that what he’s choosing as he prays that prayer? Yet not what I will, but what you will. It is the decision to do the Father’s will, and it is a decision he had to keep making time and time again throughout that Thursday evening. It’s the extraordinary thing I found as I’ve come back to this passage again and again.
There’s so many more layers to spot as you come back to it. At that moment, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, a garden that Judas knows well. They’ve been there often in the past. With every extra second that Jesus spends there He knows that he is giving Judas more time to find him, but he returns every time to commit himself to the Father with the very same prayer. Verse 39, and he went away and prayed, saying the same words, not my will, but what you will.
And so with every delay of the betrayer, with every new chance to escape, Jesus stays there and resolves to bear the cost.
And then the moment arises as Judas is just outside the garden. You can imagine him just through the door in the south transept. He’s about to come through. Jesus has still got time to escape through the other end of the garden, make a getaway. He knows what’s coming.
He knows the cost. But instead of escaping, he says, verse 42, Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. He’s not making a run for it. No, he’s rising to the occasion.
The moment has come. Time to step up. This whole band comes running in, and they’re coming up either side armed with swords and clubs. Now tell me, what would you do if you were Jesus in that moment as Judas comes in in all his hideous traitorous insincerity? Wouldn’t you strike him down, cast him away, save yourself from the wrath of God that is about to come the other side of Judas’s odious betrayal?
And yet he allows Judas to come, to come close, to say, Rabbi, even to kiss him.
The same one who knew the cost of the cup, bore the indignity of the traitor’s kiss.
The disciples around Jesus, they’re far less interested in letting this go ahead. One of them jumps to his aid. Verse 47, one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And it sounds like Jesus is going to kick back as well. Verse 48, Jesus said to them, have you come out as against a robber?
With swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. You see, he’s got them. They’re exposed. This armed crowd who claim to be doing the Lord’s work are shown to be nothing more than an opportunist mob.
But then end of verse 50— verse 49, but let the Scriptures be fulfilled. And with those words, all hope of a turnaround is lost. A single sentence that extinguishes any faint glimmer of hope left in that garden. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled. Jesus is saying, this is going to happen.
Although we could take you down, although we could fight our way out, let the Scriptures be fulfilled. Jesus will go to his death. Now that’s too much for the disciples. They all left him, verse 50, and fled. Indeed, they’d rather run away naked than continue to hang around with this man with a death wish.
And so Jesus goes to his death, betrayed and alone, for the very people who abandoned him. For me. For you.
Still, even after that, Jesus had a way out. Mark takes us through the sham trial at this absurd court in front of the high priest, and it’s clear that Jesus still has a way of escape. Because the prosecution are so monumentally inept. Anyone who works in courts, you can tell me later what they should have said. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this.
Verse 55: Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. I mean, how stupid do you have to be if you’re lying about someone and you still can’t make them look guilty? That’s pretty poor, isn’t it? But verse 57, some took up— stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, we heard him say, I’ll destroy this temple that’s made with hands, and in 3 days I’ll build another not made with hands.
Which is striking because that’s actually very close to something Jesus really did say back in chapter 13. Jesus had said he’s going to overthrow the temple. They’re getting really close to actually saying something Jesus did say. But verse 59, Even about this their testimony didn’t agree. They’re useless.
They can’t even string together a single viable accusation. So they changed tack. Notice the subtle difference in verse 60. The high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?
Feels like he’s trying to get Jesus to incriminate himself, doesn’t it? They’ve got no case against him, so they try and get him to help them out. And the high priest is giving the impression that Jesus is on the ropes, but really it’s him, the high priest, who is desperate. Their case is about to fall apart.
And so Jesus, betrayed by one of the 12, illegally abducted from an evening in a public garden, hauled in front of the temple authorities, and uselessly prosecuted by the most incompetent lawyers you’ve ever encountered, All he has to do is remain silent and they don’t have a case against him. All he has to do is keep his mouth shut and he’s home and dry. All he has to do is stand there and he wouldn’t face the wrath of God.
How much easier it would have been to let them struggle than to make that choice. But even as he knew the cost Jesus chose to bear it. Verse 61, and Jesus remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
That’s all they needed. Verse 63, the high priest tore his garments and said, what further witnesses do they need? Do we need— you’ve heard his blasphemy. What’s your decision? And they all condemned him as deserving of death.
They jump on his statement. They deliver the death sentence. Though he spoke the truth, they call it blasphemy, and they condemn him to death. Even while Peter is in the courtyard denying he’s ever met Jesus, Jesus stands before the whole council and feeds them the only thing that they are able to use against him— his true identity.
With every election, we’re asked to throw our support behind someone in an array of potential leaders. And if we’re going to exercise our democratic responsibility properly, we’ll look into each candidate and ask the question, what sort of leader will they be? But ultimately, leaders are revealed in a crisis.
And in Mark 14, we have the greatest crisis ever faced, but we see the greatest leader who ever lived. Jesus the King who knew the cost and who chose to bear it. It’s staggering, isn’t it? Jesus the King of perfect obedience. Whether news headlines and social media threads are saturated with reports of our leaders’ failures, Isn’t it such comfort to know that Jesus has always perfectly obeyed God the Father, for whom there will never be a tabloid scandal, for whom there will never be a sordid headline?
The King who always does what is right, who always does what God says. The King who prayed even when it cost him the most, not what I will, but what you will.
A King of perfect obedience. A king of perfect courage. What courage! And we see glimpses of courage in today’s leaders, don’t we? And maybe you’ve seen those pictures of Zelensky wandering around Kyiv, walking around its streets without any protective jacket on.
Courage to a point. But here the Son of God stepped in front of the barrel of God’s wrath with ample opportunity to turn back. And in every case, he would have been within his rights. Yet with each opportunity, it was as if he expressed that prayer once again: not what I will, but what you will. What courage to make that choice again and again and again.
Jesus, the King of perfect obedience, perfect courage, and perfect love. Such love to face God’s wrath for us, for a rebellious world, to love us so much that he’s willing to accept the punishment for crimes that we have committed against him. If Putin’s ever brought to trial for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, can you imagine Zelensky stepping into the dock on his behalf and facing the punishment for him? It’s inconceivable, isn’t it, that anyone would do something so extraordinary, so selfless, that anyone would show such compassion for someone who doesn’t deserve it, that anyone would show such love to the very people who had done him so much harm. And yet that is what happened at the cross.
It is the decision that Christ made at Gethsemane. We are those who declared war on God. We’ve rebelled against him. We deserve his judgement. And Jesus, knowing everything you and I have ever done, everything we will ever do, climbed into the dock for us.
He knew how little we deserved it, how hard we would find to believe it, and yet he wrote his compassion into the pages of history. So that even we can’t deny it. A permanent declaration of his love for sinners like you and me.
It is a declaration that will occupy our praises for all eternity. As our closing song is going to put it, when with the ransomed in glory his face I at last shall see, ’twill be my joy through the ages to sing of his love for me.
And it is a declaration written into the pages of history that we’re inevitably going to focus on over the next week, aren’t we, as Easter comes. Now, throughout the year, but particularly at Easter, we’re prompted to consider Jesus’ death on our behalf, to go back to the heart of the Christian faith. And if you’re anything like me, the temptation can be with these familiar passages just to sort of skim through them. Oh yeah, that’s pretty basic familiar stuff. Yeah, I know all this already.
But as Dane Ortlund has put it, the gospel is not a one-time vaccination that spares us from hell, but food to nourish us all the way to heaven.
Don’t you want to feed on this precious news this Easter? Leaders are revealed in a crisis, and oh, what a leader this crisis reveals. Let’s step into that garden with the gospel writers and behold our King in ultra HD vivid detail.
Let’s listen carefully to the soundtrack of Gethsemane. Not to the wind rustling through the trees, if there was any, and not to the quiet sleeping of the exhausted disciples, but to the astonishing prayer of the King.
Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.
Yet not what I will, but what you will.
How marvellous, how wonderful.
Let me lead us in a prayer.
Our Father, we praise you for our King, the Lord Jesus. We praise you for the wonder of his rule, of his leadership. We praise you that he is the one who knew and who chose.
And we pray that as we consider these events again this Easter, you might give us great joy in beholding our King and give us fresh resolve to follow him. In Jesus’ name, amen.
