Mark 14:32 And they came to a place named Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, Sit here while I pray. 33 And He took Peter and James and John with Him and began to be awestruck and deeply distressed. 34 And He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch. 35 And going forward a little, He fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour would pass from Him. 36 And He said, Abba Father, all things are possible to You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.
[Part 1 of 2] Taking with Him Peter, James, and John, He "began to be awestruck and deeply distressed" (v. 33). Regarding 388 "awestruck," C. E. B. Cranfield says that the Lord was "in the grip of a shuddering horror in the face of the dreadful prospect before Him." The Slave-Savior's sorrow and His prayer in verse 35 are the same as in John 12:27. There He said that He came for this hour; that is, He knew that the Father's will was that He should die on the cross for the fulfillment of God's eternal plan. According to verse 36, the Lord Jesus prayed, "Abba Father, All things are possible to You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will." The Triune God determined in His divine plan in eternity past that the Second of the divine Trinity should be incarnated and die on the cross to accomplish His eternal redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:7-9). Hence, the Second of the divine Trinity was ordained to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29) before the foundation of the world, that is, in eternity past (1 Pet. 1:19-20); and in the eyes of God, as the Lamb of God, He was slain from the foundation of the world, that is, from the existence of God's fallen creatures (Rev. 13:8). From the time of man's fall, lambs, sheep, calves, and bulls were sacrificed by God's chosen people as types (Gen. 3:21; 4:4; 8:20; 22:13; Exo. 12:3-8; Lev. 1:2), pointing to Him who was to come as the real Lamb foreordained by God. In the fullness of time, the Triune God sent the Second of the divine Trinity, the Son of God to come in incarnation to take a human body (Heb. 10:5) that He might be offered to God on the cross (Heb. 9:14; 10:12) to do the will of God (Heb. 10:7), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God's chosen people (Heb. 10:9-10). In His prayer here, immediately before His crucifixion, He prepared Himself to take the cup of the cross (Matt. 26:39, 42), willing to do this unique will of the Father for the accomplishment of the eternal plan of the Triune God. [Continued tomorrow] (c) Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Mark, pp. 388-389. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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