Mark 14:26-42 2. What part of Rich's sermon or scripture passage this

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::Life Group Resources:: Life: Unlimited :: Friendship That Turns Strangers into Family:: November 12/13, 2011

Gathering Together 1. What characteristics in friends are most important to you and why?

Reading the Text~ Read: Mark 14:26-42 2. What part of Rich‘s sermon or scripture passage this week was particularly important or meaningful to you? 3. Before Jesus breaks down in the garden of Gethsemane (14:32-40), what does Jesus predict his disciples will do in the near future (14:27-30)? 4. Contrast the disciples‘ response to Jesus‘ predictions (14:29-31) and his request to ―watch and pray‖ (14:38). a. What characteristics describe the friendships represented in this passage (Jesus, the disciples, and even God)? 5. Describe Jesus‘ emotional state in Gethsemane (14:32-40). Jesus prayed for rescue three times. Why do you think God did not grant his request? Going Deeper 6. Now read Ephesians 2:19-22. When we are in Christ, how do these verses describe our relationship with God? Our relationship with other Christians? a. How does the characteristic of Uncommon Friendship… that turns strangers into family relate with being ―members of God‘s household‖ (2:19)? Living It Out 7. As we celebrate All Saint‘s Day, take some time to remember and share about a good friend who is no longer with us. 8. The disciples slept, then later Peter acted violently, and through it all Jesus remained the faithful friend. Faithful friendship is found in between passivity and aggression. a. How does society today define what it means to be ―friends‖? b. Characterize your friendships. How does Jesus‘ example breathe new life into your current friendships? How can you deepen your friendships this week? 9. From the commitment card given out in services, share your character strengths in leading a life that reveals God‘s goodness. What do your friends, family, or Life Group see as your strengths? Which of the eight Life Marks would you like more of and why? Prayer Beit (Rachel) Netanel: We pray that you will use Rachel Netanel as she communicates the Bible to Arabs and Jews in Israel. Multiply her outreach efforts through weekly Bible studies and community festivals. Stephen’s Children: We ask the Lord to give their workers faithfulness, courage, stamina, protection and joy as they teach the Children in Egypt. May the children see and understand the love of God, and choose peace and not hatred towards each other.

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::Life Group Resources:: Life: Unlimited :: Friendship That Turns Strangers into Family:: November 12/13, 2011

This week’s focus. Jesus had friends. In Gethsemane, Jesus meets the dreadful silence of heaven and wants to rely on his friends support. The disciples have good intentions of being faithful friends. But good intentions are not enough. Most of us intend to be good, to be more compassionate, more prayerful, and more forgiving. It‘s just that there is this gap between what we intend and what we do. Friendship is not passivity (sleeping disciples), and it is not aggression (Peter defending Jesus with a sword). Friendship is embodied in Jesus Christ‘s sacrifice– ―greater love hath no one than this: to lay down one‘s life for one‘s friends‖ (John 15:13). Mark 14:26-42 14:26. They had sung a hymn. The Passover celebration ended with singing the second part of Hallel, Psalm 115:18: ―it is we who extol the LORD, both now and forevermore. Praise the Lord.‖ 14:26. They went out to the Mount of Olives. The walk to the Mount of Olives took at least fifteen minutes. Picture the setting with the temple as the pinnacle of Jerusalem, and the focus of the faith of all Jews in every land. Directly across from the temple, separated from it by the deep Kidron Valley, and up on the side of the Mount of Olives, lay the Garden of Gethsemane (which means oil press), an olive orchard where Jesus often stopped to rest and pray. On the other side of the city, just outside the city walls, was the public execution ground, Golgotha—the place of the skull. 14:27. I will strike… Here Jesus cites Zechariah 13:7, describing that a flock is scattered without the shepherd to guide them. Some scholars think this is not a chastisement but a directive, where Jesus is telling his disciples what to do when he is arrested: scatter! Because then he will gather them again after his resurrection (14:28). 14:28. After I have risen… Jewish people in this period were not expecting a resurrection of a given person distinct from the resurrection of the whole nation. Further, they certainly would not have expected a migration to Galilee to follow it. God‘s people would gather in Jerusalem in the time of the end (Joel 2:32). These expectations may be why the disciples ignore this part of Jesus‘ statement. 14:29. Peter. Peter‘s heart is in the right place. He is the first disciple to confess Jesus to be the Christ. He declares his faithfulness even to the point of death, but then Jesus is arrested and Peter disappears into the shadows. Then he denies even knowing Jesus. But Peter is a perfect example of an imperfect, broken, and transformed Christ follower. The very mouth that denied he‘d ever met Jesus became the voice of truth and mercy to the early church. The very hands that tried to kill a soldier in anger with a sword became the hands to heal and to build up. The very feet that fled Jesus at his arrest became the very feet that stood firm to God‘s convictions even to the point of death. 14:30. Before the rooster crows twice… Ancient sources typically regarded the rooster as a reliable reporter of the advent of dawn, but commentators report that in Palestine nocturnal crowings are familiar to the night watchmen beginning at 12:30 a.m.; the second was about 1:30 a.m. In either case the point is that the denial is imminent. 2

::Life Group Resources:: Life: Unlimited :: Friendship That Turns Strangers into Family:: November 12/13, 2011

14:31. But Peter insisted emphatically…and all the others did the same. Their protestations of loyalty must be taken with complete seriousness. When Peter led the disciples in declaring that they were ready to die for Jesus, he was not making an idle boast. The loyalty they offered Jesus was put to the test when he was arrested, and one of them grabs a sword to defend him (14:47). They were, in fact, ready to die to save his life, but Jesus did not want his life saved. 14:32–34. They went to a place called Gethsemane. Jesus and his disciples may have arrived at Gethsemane by 10 or 11 p.m. (which was late in that culture). It was customary to stay awake late on Passover night and to speak of God‘s redemption. The disciples had probably stayed up late on nearly every other Passover of their lives. 14:33–34. He was deeply distressed and troubled. The Greek word translated ―deeply distressed‖ actually means ―astonished.‖ More literally Jesus was greatly astonished and amazed. The word for amazed is also used in Mark 10:32 for the amazement of the disciples when Jesus headed toward Jerusalem, and ultimately, his death. Now Jesus himself feels amazement as he directly faces the struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. Think back on the Gospel of Mark up to this point. Jesus has been totally unflappable. But here, suddenly, something he sees, something he realizes, something he experiences, stuns the eternal Son of God. Jesus is also, according to the text, ―troubled.‖ The Greek verb here means ―to be overcome with horror.‖  ―Here Jesus, just before his execution, opens his heart to his disciples, opens his heart to God, opens his heart to the readers of Mark‘s Gospel, and lays bare his struggles, his agony, his fears about facing death. He turns to God and pleads, ‗Is there a way this cup can be taken from me? Is there any way I can be let off the hook? Is there any way I can get out of this mission?‘ Up to this point Jesus has been completely in control. Nothing seems to have surprised him so far. Jesus always knows what‘s going on: Nothing seems to jar him. But all of a sudden we read that ‗he began to be deeply distressed.‘ All his life, because of Jesus‘s eternal dance with his Father and the Spirit, whenever he turned to the Father, the Spirit flooded him with love. God is the source of all love, all life, all light, all coherence. Therefore, exclusion from God is exclusion from the source of all light, all love, all coherence. Jesus began to experience the spiritual, cosmic, infinite disintegration that would happen when he became separated from his Father on the cross. Jesus began to experience merely a foretaste of that, and he staggered. 14:35-36. Abba, Father. ―Abba‖ is the Aramaic word for ―Papa,‖ a term of great intimacy and affectionate respect. It was normally the first word a child would utter, but adults could use it for their fathers as well, and students sometimes used it of their teachers. Perhaps because it implied such intimacy, Jewish people never used it of God (though they did call him a heavenly father) except in an occasional parable by a charismatic teacher.  Take this cup from me. Jesus elsewhere refers to the cross as his cup (Mark 10:38; 14:23–24). In the Old Testament, ―the cup‖ is a metaphor for the wrath of God on human evil. It‘s an image of divine justice poured out on injustice. For example, in Ezekiel 23:32-34, we read, ―You will drink ... a cup large and deep; …the cup of ruin and desolation… and tear your breasts.‖ Similarly, in Isaiah 51:22, God speaks of ―the cup that made you stagger; …the goblet of my wrath.‖

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::Life Group Resources:: Life: Unlimited :: Friendship That Turns Strangers into Family:: November 12/13, 2011



―The Greeks and Romans have left us many stories of leaders and heroes as they faced death, and without exception these people were calm and dispassionate in their final hours. By contrast, in Jewish literature when Jews wrote accounts of the deaths of major figures and heroes they did not make them cool and removed like the Greeks; rather, they are shown as hot-blooded and fearless, and they praise God as they are being sliced to pieces by their persecutors. Nothing in either of these traditions—indeed nothing in ancient literature—resembles the portrayal that Mark gives us of Jesus‘s final hours as he faced his death.‖ Keller

14:37. Sleeping… couldn’t you keep watch. Sleeping is a basic Christian symbol for infidelity. Literally and figuratively the disciples are being unfaithful friends to Jesus in the hour of his greatest need. Jesus asks them to ―keep watch.‖ This is a stronger request than stay awake. The disciples were to ―stand watch‖ like the porters, the slaves in charge of the door, in the parable in 13:34–36. 14:38. So that you will not fall into temptation. ―Temptation‖ here is ―testing;‖ given the common Jewish religious uses of the word, Jesus is saying: ―so you don‘t fall prey to the testing you are about to face.‖ The contrast between ―spirit‖ and ―body‖ is not meant in the later Gnostic or Neo-Platonic sense (the soul is good and the body is evil); but rather that though one may mean well on impulse of ―spirit‖ in many cases in Proverbs, the body is susceptible to exhaustion. 14:39. Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. Three times Jesus anguished in prayer. Three struggles to accept the will of God. And there is no reassuring voice from heaven. God does not open heaven like at Jesus‘ baptism. There wasn‘t a dove descending; no ministering angels came to serve him. God has already spoken and his son had to obey. He will not sneak away in the darkness. He will not fight to save his own life. He takes the nails. He receives the kiss of betrayal. 14:40. They did not know what to say to him. The disciples were dumb in the face of Jesus‘ glory (Mark 9:6) and now are numb in the face of his anguish. The hour has come, and the disciples are found snoozing. They fail miserably in their responsibilities. 14:41–42. Enough…Delivered into the hands of sinners. Jesus‘ prayer in Gethsemane ends when he senses that the hour has come. The verb can be translated, ―enough!‖ and is frequently, used in a commercial sense, to mean ―paid in full,‖ ―the account is closed.‖ Jesus‘ use of ―sinners‖ to refer to the men dispatched by representatives of the Sanhedrin is strong language, especially in view of the way most people would use the word (Mark 2:16). Resources Taken From 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary : New Testament (Mk 14:26–39). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press. Richards, L., & Richards, L. O. (1987). The teacher's commentary (631). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books. Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Mk 14:33). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems. Wright, N. T. For Everyone Bible Study Guides: Mark. Downers Grove: IL: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Wright, N. T. Mark for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Life Change Series: Mark. Colorado Springs, CO: The Navigators, 1995.

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