In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faces the darkest night of his life and finds his closest friends asleep. In this episode on Mark 14:26–42, we listen to his anguished prayer, “Remove this cup from me… yet not what I will, but what you will,” and his piercing question to Peter: “Couldn’t you stay awake for one hour?” Along the way, we wrestle honestly with God’s sovereignty, human weakness, and why prayer matters when God already knows—and has ordained—what will happen.
In this week’s episode, we explore:
- How Jesus prepares his disciples for their coming failure—Peter’s denial and the scattering of the flock—using Zechariah’s prophecy about the struck shepherd
- What Gethsemane (“oil press”) reveals about the pressure Jesus endures as he becomes the sin-bearer for his people
- The contrast between Peter’s bold promises—“I will never fall away”—and his inability even to stay awake and keep watch
- Why Jesus is “greatly distressed and troubled,” and what it means that he wanted, in real anguish, to avoid the cross yet chose obedience anyway
- The meaning of the “cup” of God’s wrath in Scripture, and how Jesus drinks it down to the dregs so his people never have to
- How Romans 7 helps us see ourselves in the disciples: people who sincerely want to do good but find we cannot, left to ourselves
- The heart of the gospel in this passage: even when we want to obey and can’t, Jesus—when every fiber of him wants to turn away—does obey for our sake
- What justification, redemption, and propitiation mean in plain language, and why only God himself can solve the problem of our guilt
- Why prayer doesn’t change God’s eternal plan but does change us—strengthening our hearts to face suffering with the same steady resolve we see in Jesus
After listening, you’ll see Gethsemane not as a distant, mysterious scene but as the place where Jesus walks into the struggle you know from the inside: wanting to trust God and yet shrinking from the cost. You’ll be invited to bring your own weakness, fear, and confusion into honest prayer, trusting that the Savior who stayed awake for you—and went to the cross for you—now meets you in your temptations, strengthens you by his Spirit, and teaches you to “watch and pray” as someone already loved, forgiven, and made new in him.
Series: Questions Jesus Asked
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