Mark 14:32-42
The Prayer of Gethsemane
32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
37 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
39 Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. 40 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
41 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 betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
1 John 4:7-21
God’s Love and Ours
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Three of our Great Saints, Mark, John and Paul teach us much about love...They learned these many things of love from their Great Teacher...They acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God, and God lived in both of them...They relied on the love of God to get them through their days...They had great faith, and through their faith they built their lives on love...St. John teaches us that love drives out fear...Mark, on the other hand, writes here about Jesus on the night of His arrest, and if Jesus were to fear anything -it certainly would be the night of His death...
St. John teaches us that God is love...We know the God is Perfect...So Perfect Love has no fear...One who is completely dedicated to God and has God as the central focus of their lives, the have no fear...This is because no one has fear that is perfect in God, and His love...Jesus understood this...He lived each day of His life, knowing the day and the hour of His death on the cross...But yet, the night before His arrest, He is the One comforting His disciples and telling His disciples not be troubled, but to trust in God, but also to trust in Him (John 14:1)...It does not seem that He is anxious before His death, but He does pray to His Father in Gethsemane to complete the work that He had given Him (John 17:4)...He had no easy task in this work in taking on the sins of the world, as would ask His Father for help -like any good Son would...Jesus was not half Man, and half or partially Divine...He was fully a Man, and fully Divine...The Man in Him was troubled and distressed, and overwhelmed with sorrow...But He prays to do God's will, and not His will (Mark 14:32-42)...Man must face his own death, but Jesus here had to face not only His death, but must take on the sins of the world...God sent us His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins...Jesus knew the love His Father had for Him, and us...Maybe, and this is only one interpretation of Jesus' pray in Gethsemane -was that He would be separated from His Father for the first time, as He died on the cross and took on our sins...But maybe, being distressed, and troubled, and having a soul overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death was not fear in Jesus' mind, it was just perfect distress, perfect trouble, and a feeling of being overwhelmed...We know that in the loneliness of dying, He wanted His two friends, Peter and John there...He wanted them to keep watch and pray, so they could remain strong and not fear what was coming...St. Mark does not use the word fear, in these passages...Jesus last statement in Gethsemane that night is "Rise let us go! Here comes My betrayer!"...This now does not seem like a statement of or about fear...But as a side-note, Jesus does surprise many theologians and readers by using the term Abba, to call His Father, which in Aramaic is like calling Your Father, Daddy...Jesus is doing this on the lonely night of His arrest, to show us the intimate relationship He has with His Father...
Jesus knew what was coming...He knew He would physically die, and be resurrected...He talked about His resurrection throughout the gospels...He new He would rise again, and be with His disciples for forty days (Acts 3)...He knows that God is love and trusted Him, to do His will, and bring Him back to life in the Spirit...