Mark 14:32–72 — The Hope in Our Failure

This sermon is from Mark 14:32-72 and is entitled, "The Hope in Our Failure."

Mark 14:32–72

It was delivered to Ecclesia Churches on Sunday, December 21, 2025.

In today's passage, we are going to witness one of the most challenging moments in the

life of Jesus.

And certainly, the crucifixion that followed was horrendous in every way.

the moment when Jesus was under the most pressure seems to really be the evening before. And I think

we can all kind of identify with the way that the moments leading up to a stressful choice or event

can almost be worse than the event itself. And while I'm certainly not trying to make less of

the cross in any way, I do think we would do well to not overlook these moments in the Garden of

Gethsemane, in which Jesus is making the decision to take the final steps of obedience to the Father's

plan for our salvation. He isn't just facing a cruel death, he's facing the prospect of bearing

the weight of the world's sin and taking the righteous wrath of God that's deserved by people

like you and me and being, in his own words, forsaken by the Father. Yet Jesus will also

utter the words, not my will, but yours, and submit to the coming trial and torture and

execution, all while his followers fall away completely.

So if you remember, Mark is writing this account first to the church in Rome, which was being

persecuted in the time that they would have received this.

They were under significant pressure, and they weren't always standing firm under it.

And whether you lived in Rome 2,000 years ago or in Iowa today, followers of Jesus can all identify with this experience of facing failure under pressure.

Maybe not the kind of pressure that Jesus was under, but pressure all the same.

We will sometimes fail to be disciplined, which leads to a kind of half-hearted devotion that is completely unprepared for temptation.

Sometimes we fail to actually trust Jesus in hardship, and we panic, and we turn to trust in other things that inevitably will fail us.

And sometimes we even fail to know where we stand as Jesus instructed us in chapter 13, and as a result, we fall apart under persecution and we deny him completely.

But the best news is in every way that we fail.

Jesus remained faithful to the very end.

He wholeheartedly surrendered to God's will and endured suffering and offers us forgiveness

for our failure.

He is the strength in our failure.

And not only does he give us an example to follow, he also offers grace and forgiveness

for those who fail.

So we'll follow Jesus through three different settings today.

His preparation for his trial, which involves honest prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Then his betrayal and his arrest.

And his trial and false accusations, finally.

So let's begin with this night of intense pressure in the Garden where he prays while

his disciples fail to stay awake.

This is Mark 14 beginning with verse 32.

And 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.

And going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible,

the hour might pass from him.

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.

And he came and found them sleeping.

And he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep?

Could you not watch one hour?

Watch and pray that you might not enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.

And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did

not know what to answer him.

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.

Rise, let us be going.

See, my betrayer is at hand.

I'll admit that prior to this, I don't think I've given enough thought to what Jesus was

actually facing here in the garden.

And I've even heard opponents of Christianity talk about how they don't understand the weight

of Jesus' sacrifice.

One particular man said if he knew he was going to rise from the dead, dying wasn't all that big of a deal.

And in one way, this guy understands the Christian perspective on death better than most Christians I know.

But if we're really going to understand what Jesus endured, we have to go beyond just the physical torture and death.

We've talked quite a bit throughout Mark about Jesus' identity as the holy and sinless Son of God.

We've also talked a lot about how his role as the Messiah will lead through suffering

before he emerges victorious.

But now, it's time for us to consider this suffering up close.

What Jesus is actually doing is not just physically dying for us, though that will involve tremendous

suffering as well, but his role as the Messiah actually requires him to take the sin of the

world on himself. This is not just the death penalty. It is taking on the weight of all the

sin of mankind, past, present, and future, from Adam and Eve through you and me. This is really

hard for us to wrap our minds around, and honestly, we really can't. But I'll give us the words of the

Apostle Paul again to make sure I'm saying this clearly. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, Paul writes,

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In the sacrifice of Jesus, an exchange is taking place, in which Jesus takes the weight or guilt of our sin before God, and we get his perfect righteousness.

So I want you to just think back for a moment to something that you regret, something you

really did feel bad about or feel guilty about and wish you hadn't done it.

Have you ever heard someone talk about getting something off their chest or having the weight

of the world on your shoulders?

No matter what it was, you should know first that there's forgiveness for that in the name

of Jesus.

But Jesus isn't just bearing the weight of one bad decision, like the one that you might

be thinking of.

He's bearing it all.

Every selfish act, every unkind word, every disobedient child, every less than loving parent,

every unfaithful spouse, every abusive father, every life taken by human hands, every bit

of sin that God's righteous anger burns against, which we call the wrath of God. That is what Jesus

is taking on himself. Remember, God is holy. He is perfect, and there is no sin in him, which means

that as a result of taking the wrath of God on himself, he will also experience the separation

from God that sin brings. Surely, this is something that we will never fully understand.

But if we can even comprehend a small degree of it, I believe our gratitude for what Jesus

has done will grow by orders of magnitude. So facing this tremendous pressure of this moment,

what does Jesus choose to do? How does he prepare to endure the suffering ahead? He goes to pray.

And there are two things I want us to look at here before the arrest takes place. First,

the way that Jesus prays, and second, why he wants his disciples and us as disciples of Jesus to pray.

Now, Jesus may have prayed for hours, but the way that he prays in verse 36 has three specific parts.

Let's read this one more time.

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.

So in that, first, he addresses God the way that a son would,

And the way he instructed us to pray, saying Abba, a fatherly term of affection.

But at the same time, while he recognizes the closeness of God, he also recognizes his

omnipotence, his all-powerfulness.

Jesus begins his prayer from a place of recognizing that God is certainly able to do all things.

Then Jesus says something that is so honest that it is almost shocking.

He says, remove this cup from me.

Even while Jesus is sinless, the suffering that he faces is real and he does not look forward to it.

Jesus honestly asks if there is another way other than the path that is before him.

But his final words here are, yet not what I will, but what you will.

Jesus ultimately submits completely to the Father's will.

He trusts the Father so completely that he surrenders to his plan.

And after setting an example in prayer, Jesus returns and he finds the disciples not waiting,

but sleeping and gives them some more specific instructions that we too can learn from.

He warns them in verse 37 to watch and pray that you might not enter temptation,

for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Jesus knows the temptations that these men will face to turn and run and deny him and disappear.

He knows that they may have the best of intentions by saying,

we will never deny you, but in their own flesh and strength, they will all fall away.

So what is the prescription given by the great physician here?