15. Mark 14:37-42

Posted by DJL on Mar 9, 2012 in Lenten Devotions | 6 comments

He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him. He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.”

There are two standard ways to read this scene. The first is to focus on Jesus’ agony. The poignancy of Jesus’ need, the full humanity demonstrated by his desire to be accompanied by his companions, his disappointment at their inability even to keep awake – all of this is read as part of Mark’s stark telling of Jesus dark night of the soul.

The second way is to focus on the faithlessness of the disciples. Feet of clay – let’s make that bodies of clay – they regularly and reliably misunderstand, fall short, and fail their Lord. This is part of Mark’s message to Christians who may have lost faith during persecutions: “If these guys can be disciples, so can you!”

While I think there’s a lot to commend about either of these ways of reading this scene, this time around I was struck by the possibility that there’s more going on here than initially meets the eye. Keep in mind that immediately before the passion narrative proper starts in chapter 14, Jesus says the following:

But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake! (Mark 13:32-37)

So here we are, a chapter later, and his disciples cannot keep awake, not even for an hour. Do you remember what Jesus was talking about that necessitated watchfulness? The coming of the Son of Man, God’s redemption, God’s act of deliverance for Israel and all the world!

We have seen many predictions of the end and lots of talk about Christ’s second coming in recent decades. When I was a child it was Hal Lindsey and The Late, Great Planet Earth. Ten or fifteen years ago it was The Left Behind series. More recently it was Harold Camping and his billboards predicting Jesus return in May, and then October. And the Mayan calendar supposedly predicts the end of the world later this year, on December 21 (my 48th birthday, in fact – what fun!)

But what if Mark directs our attention to another place to look for the coming of the Lord in power? No wonder Jesus is so adamant. After all, it’s easy to miss God’s presence here, on the cross, because it’s about the last place you’d expect God to be. The Son of Man comes, as it turns out, in vulnerability rather than might, in weakness rather than strength, in love rather than hate.

It’s not what we’d expect – it’s not what the world expects – it’s certainly not what the disciples expected…and so they fell asleep. Yet whether they are watching or not, the God of the heavens and the earth comes wrapped in the vulnerability of human flesh in order to take on our lot and our life and redeem all the world.

It’s an awesome sight, but easy to miss. So what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake and watch!

Prayer: Dear God, help us to fasten our eyes on your Son as he makes his way to the cross, the place of his shame and our redemption, the place where you are revealed to us most clearly. In Jesus’ name, Amen.