TGBC Tuesday, 9 Feb 2021 Mark 13:26-42 at Gethsemane
The Last Supper is over, with all its fraughtfulness.
Okay, fraught.
The nightmare commences.
26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
(Zechariah 13:7–9; Matthew 26:31–35; Luke 22:31–38; John 13:36–38)
27 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, h for it is written:
‘I will strike the Shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’ i
28 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
29 Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I never will.”
30 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”
31 But Peter kept insisting, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You.” And all the others said the same thing.
Jesus Prays at Gethsemane
(Matthew 26:36–46; Luke 22:39–46)
32 Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus told His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
33 He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed. 34 Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”
35 Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour would pass from Him. 36 “Abba, Father,” He said, “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”
37 Then Jesus returned and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you asleep?” He asked. “Were you not able to keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
39 Again He went away and prayed, saying the same thing. 40 And again Jesus returned and found them sleeping—for their eyes were heavy. And they did not know what to answer Him.
41 When Jesus returned the third time, He said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? That is enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise, let us go. See, My betrayer is approaching!”
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Mark 14:36, Christ's human will up against the divine will of the Father, brings to mind the 451 AD Council of Chalcedon, known like the earlier Councils for gathering to address issues to damn as heresy, their opposites to erect as orthodox. Chalcedon declared Christ having two complete natures in one person, a divine nature and a human nature, including a human will and a divine will. At Mark 14:36 the human will differs from but yields to the divine will of God the Father. The sort of Christological fine tuning that was of such great importance to the bishops at the General Councils is difficult to understand today.
My own simpleton (yes) view is that Mark writing about Jesus had no idea of stirring such intense, bitter, and sometimes murderously violent, theological battles as were waged in later centuries, and Mark would have been appalled. Further and especially, that the Christology issues the Councils discussed and decided on, declaring as heresy the differing views and anathematizing all who disagreed, were all beyond human knowing anyway. The Nicene Creed a case, as F Schleiermacher observed. In a sense (you have to read the thorough history of the Councils, not just their decisions, and for that my best rx is Jenkins' book The Jesus Wars ... ) the Councils gathering to define God have an unsettling likeness in the story of Bel, constructed by humans, for humans, to be and do what humans expected of the most perfect god they could imagine. Although one might discern the work of the Holy Spirit in, with, over, behind and under the Church Fathers.
At any event, the Councils did serve emperors who wanted to use the Christian religion as a basis for unity across the empire, and they did serve to establish theological boundaries without which the Universal Church could not possibly have survived and, for all its faults, virtues, doctrines, dogma, creeds, and faith, evolved into what it is today.
The picture is from The Passion of the Christ, opening scenes, Jesus praying and agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane, and there as we look on from our Time, watched and threatened by The Evil One, who moves about him.
Why, as depicted in the film, might The Evil One have been there? I have wondered all these years since my first extremely traumatic viewing of it. Jesus says to Simon, "Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation." Perhaps the Satan, in the film a darkly sinister female figure, is indeed there to tempt, as in the beginning of the gospel s/he tempted Jesus, in my mind tempted Jesus to decline the role of Son of God. And so perhaps s/he is there to tempt again, i.e. to tempt Jesus to leave right then and there before Judas and company arrive? Was Jesus so tempted? Wouldn't you have been?! I mean, as Mary Magdalene sings in Jesus Christ Superstar, "he's a man, he's just a man".