The Gethsemane Failure

Mark 14:41

New International Version

Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.

For Meditation

As I sit here licking my wound, Gethsemane opens to me freshly. O, how things could have been different if I only had stayed awake! Now I know the significance of prayer. If Jesus struggled in prayer, I need it more. His life was all prayer.

I remember the day He fed the five thousand. It was a simple prayer with the raised bread and fish. Nothing fancy. No long, flowing words to impress. Amazingly, twelve baskets of leftover stood as evidence of God’s provision in the end.

That is why the Master told me specifically to watch and pray, that I do not fall into temptation (Mark 14:38). But I could not. My spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. How well the Master knows me!

I tried to be bold when they came for Him. You know when you mess up, and shame haunts you. You push yourself to show you are not so weak as they may have thought you to be. So, I cut off the ear of Malchus to show my Master I meant what I said—to die with Him (John 18:10). But His rebuke slew me (11). If you ever thought that Jesus does not know our hearts, think again!

You should have seen me as I followed Him to the high priest’s house at a distance (54). I have never been that scared. All my boasting about my bravado left me. If there was ever a coward named disciple, that was me. So, I followed in the shadows, avoiding detection.

Now, I wish John had not secured a pass for my entrance to the courtyard, for that is when all my woes came crushing on me—the disgrace and shame of betraying my Master.