* Mark 14:32-42  Luke 22: 39-46: Jesus Prays in the Garden  3 22 09 ebc
As we continue this season of Lent, this morning we find Jesus praying in the Garden of G.  Jesus is faced with the biggest test and decision of his life. 
Would he stay on course or detour from the cross. Temptation:
J seen sun set last time, 15 hours body nailed cross/  24 hrs dead buried/ only 30 years old/ from ur to garden
We get insights into Jesus’ prayer in the Garden from Mt. 26, Mk.14, and Lk. 22.  All give us their take:

Jesus needed help in making an important decision.  What did Jesus do? WWJD- Payne Stewart.
*Jesus set the right climate:“he withdrew, knelt down & prayed.”  Mt: “fell on his face and prayed.”  Jesus found time to get away and pray when he faced a big decision.  Jesus spent 40 days in prayer and fasting before he was tempted in the wilderness.  Mk 1 says early in the morning Jesus arose and went to a lonely place to pray.  Lk 6: Jesus spent an entire night alone in prayer before he selected his disciples- modeled.
Jesus’ climate of decision making included time alone, with silence and prayer.  He knew he needed to hear the still, small voice of his Father, so he waited and listened in silence.  If we want to make wise decisions:  Sadly most of us have lives that are busy and noisy, filled w electronic distractions like cell phones, ipods, cable and internet.  Technology has personalized noise and allowed it to permeate every inch of life. Lewis: Thoreau:  “Most men live lives of quiet desperation.  Thurber:  Most men… lives of noisy desperation.”  
Jesus w/drew, knelt down & prayed:  our body affects our soul.  Kneeling reflects humility.  K Benches.  We have ordered some new banners:  “Be still and know that I am God”  to remind us of what Jesus did.
Lent:  Catholic bishops in Italy are asking their people to give up text messages, social networking sites, surfing the web and computer games.  Asking people to put down their ipods/ iphones (at least on Fridays) so that they can get quiet, pray to God, listen for his voice and deal with real people, real time, real world. 
Person: “my world is so crazy, so noisy/ chaotic and my mind never stops…It’s hard to pray!” Parrot joke?

* Jesus sought godly counsel: 
Jesus moved to the Garden of G from the Last Supper in the upper room (Lifegroup) where he was discussing his mission with his disciples.  They were arguing over which was the greatest and Jesus taught about how a leader is first a servant.  He washes his disciples’ feet and tells them to love and serve others as he had loved and served them.  Jesus speaks of how the bread and cup will symbolize his mission.  He saw Judas leave to betray him and he listened to Peter swear he would never deny him and then he heads outside to the garden with Peter, James and John- why?  Appreciates their company and desires their counsel.  But humans are human- disciples were tired/ fell asleep while Jesus was praying-Jesus cried out to His Father.  Three times Jesus addresses his Father and seeks His will and his wisdom.  What counsel do you seek when you’re facing a tough decision?  God has given us other people, His Word, His Spirit, His Son to help us.  As I look back over my life, I’m amazed at how many times God has sent godly people to help guide me.
Lk 22: 43 says, “An angel appeared to him and strengthened him.”  How many angels has God sent to me, to you?

* Jesus asked hard questions to clarify his calling:
3x he prays/question: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not as I will but your will be done.”  Jesus is wrestling with his human and divine natures.  His human nature responds with fear and doubt as he moves toward the suffering of the cross while His divine nature responds w/ submission to His Father’s will.  I think it’s significant that Jesus asks hard questions about his calling:  God is this right?  I’m struggling because I want to make the right decision but I’m just not sure.  Is there another way?  Another road?  Maybe Jesus heard his Father say back with the words of Proverbs 3:  “Trust in me w all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all you ways acknowledge me and I will direct your path.”

Notice that Jesus asks hard questions like all the Psalms (13) but he returns to faith:  your will be done.
The result of Jesus setting a proper climate, seeking Godly counsel and asking hard questions about his calling, was a renewed and * strong commitment to his Father’s will:  “The hour has come.  The Son of Man is betrayed.  Rise up.  Let’s go.  Here comes my betrayer.”  I’m going to follow you & do your will.

The movie The Passion has an interesting theme:  Satan follows Jesus everywhere seeking to trip him up. Last week Lk 5 ends: “Satan left him until an opportune time”-always there. In the movie the Passion:   Jesus prays:  Hear me Father.  Save me from the traps they have set for me.  Satan:  Do you really believe that one man can bear the full burden of sin?  Jesus:  Shelter me Lord.  I trust in you.  In you I take refuge.  Satan:  No one man can carry this burden.  It’s far too heavy.  Saving their souls is too costly… Who is your Father?  Who are you?  Jesus stands and steps on the slithering snake and severs it…powerful image that reminds us that Jesus rose up from the prayer of the Garden w a renewed, unshakeable commitment to God.

Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. In Mt. 26 & Mk 14 Jesus: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.  Stay here.  Keep watch with me.”  Here in this Garden that Lk. 22:44 says, “44And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” It’s significant that Jesus prays in the Garden of the G: literally the olive press.

It was in this very garden that whole olives were put into a circular stone basin in which a millstone sat.  A donkey or other animal was then harnessed to the millstone and walked in a circle, rolling the stone over the olives & cracking them.  The cracked olives were scooped up into burlap bags, which were then stacked beneath a * large stone column called a gethsemane.The enormous weight forced the olive oil to drip from the crushed olive into a groove and on into a pit at the base of the G, where it was collected and bottled.

So it was here, in the Garden of the G: the Olive Press, that Jesus got down on His knees and began to experience the weight of what was going to be laid on Him.  That weight was so incredibly heavy that it literally squeezed out of him his own blood.  In the Garden, God laid on Jesus the pressing weight of the sin of the entire world.  Jesus prayed w so much passion that blood was pressed from his body.  Blood Drive:

* When we face tough decisions we often feel the pressure, we feel the weight of the world bearing down on us & we wonder if we can make it?
Will we survive or be crushed under weight of fear/ anxiety
My birthday, I got this cross.  I put it on every day & pray but my shoulder and back hurt.  I found out even a little weight matters.    

God will allow all of us to experience the pressures of life to force us to reflect & decide, to depend on him.   Some of us feel the pressure of a physical illness or disability,  some feel the pressure of being a caregiver for a family member or friend, some of feel the pressure of trying to help our children and grandchildren find their way in this world,  the pressure of holding a marriage/ family together,  more and more are feeling the pressure of unemployment, job changes and financial hardships economy…  whatever pressure we face, let’s learn to pray like Jesus, “Father, not my will but your will be done.”  Paul felt the pressure of his thorn in the flesh & 3x he prayed removed. “My grace is sufficient and My power is made perfect in weakness.”

1 Peter 1: our trials help refine us and mature us, & * 1 Peter 5: 6-7: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Mule:

Jesus set a right climate to decide, he sought Godly counsel, he asked hard questions about his calling, he gained a strong commitment to his Father’s will despite the overwhelming pressure that he felt in the G.  How is it that Jesus came through his “dark night of the soul” with a renewed faith and new strength? 
He realized that his suffering would be used as part of God’s great plan. 

* When we realize that our trials are not just random events but part of a God’s greater plan for us and for others, then we can rest in God despite our suffering.

More than forty years after writing The Bridge of San Luis Rey, an older and wiser Thornton Wilder returned to the question of why good people suffer in another novel, The Eighth Day. The book tells the story of a good and decent man whose life is ruined by bad luck and hostility. He and his family suffer although they are innocent. At the end of the novel, where the reader would hope for a happy ending, with heroes rewarded and villains punished, there is none. Instead, Wilder offers us the image of a beautiful tapestry. Looked at from the right side, it is an intricately woven work of art, drawing together threads of different lengths and colors to make up an inspiring picture. But turn the tapestry over, and you will see a hodgepodge of many threads, some short and some long, some smooth and some cut and knotted, going off in different directions. Wilder offers this as his explanation of why good people have to suffer in this life. God has a pattern into which all of our lives fit. His pattern requires that some lives be twisted, knotted, or cut short, while others extend to impressive lengths, not because one thread is more deserving than another, but simply because the pattern requires it. Looked at from underneath, from our vantage point in life, God’s pattern of reward and punishment seems arbitrary and without design, like the underside of a tapestry. But looked at from outside this life, from God’s vantage point, every twist and knot is seen to have its place in a great design that adds up to a work of art.  There is much that is moving in this suggestion, and I can imagine that many people would find it comforting. Suffering is always hard to explain and understand especially when innocent suffer. But suffering as a contribution to a great work of art designed by God Himself may be seen, not only as a tolerable burden, but even as a privilege. One victim of medieval misfortune is said to have prayed, “Tell me not why I must suffer. Assure me only that I suffer for Thy sake.

In her book Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom told of the time she visited a hospital where polio patients were being treated.  The doctor in charge asked if she would like to speak to the patients.  The sight of the suffering deeply touched her.  “No, I think am unable to talk.  I just want to go off somewhere and cry.”  A moment later she changed her mind and ended up beside the bed of a man who could barely breathe.  She told him about Jesus and how God had allowed his Son to suffer for each of us.  Corrie writes: “I finished speaking and from my bag I took a small, embroidery.  On one side was stitched a beautiful crown.  The other side was quite mixed up.  ‘When I see you on this bed,’ I said, ‘not speaking, not moving, I think of this embroidery.  ‘Your life is like this.  She how dark it is.  She how the threads are knotted and tangled, mixed up.  But when you turn it around then you can see that God is actually weaving a crown for your life.  God has a plan for your life and He is working it out in beauty.”   The man picked up a pencil and wrote in shaky handwriting:  “Thank God I am seeing the beautiful side.  What a miracle!”  Most of the time, we cannot see the other side. But faith in God's Word assures us there is another side, and that even in our loss and pain, God is at work for our good. 

We found out who we really are and what we really believe in times of pressure, crisis, trials & hardships. 
During hard times, we pray and pray and often don’t feel that God has heard or that God will ever answer.

* Don’t be silent and don’t suffer alone as you feel pressures increase & the weight of your burden push you down.  It’s do easy to pull back and retreat into our private hells and refuse to be w/ or share w/ others.

Jesus:  “Come unto me all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Found a prayer card stuffed behind a hymnal where someone someone is crying out to God, questioning their life?,  asking for help to survive, to stay hopeful despite setbacks… but prayed card never got turned in… you got to let people know you're hurting to get help.  As Warren says, "Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing."

Prayer:

Closing Hymn No. 371- Have Thine Own Way Lord

The word "Lent" itself doesn't help us much. It is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "to lengthen" and refers to a season when the days become longer, i.e., spring. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says that the number forty was "evidently suggested by the forty days' fasts of Moses, Elijah, and especially our Lord himself." Since the fourth century A.D. the Church has generally observed Lent as a time of fasting, of inner examination, of abstaining from festivities, of alms-giving, and of more strict attendance at worship.  We are free to do as the Holy Spirit directs, in the light of Scripture. The real challenge facing the believer is not, therefore, "What shall I give up for Lent?" but rather, "How can I be filled with the Spirit?"   We could consider Lent a time of waiting to get our priorities in order. Then we could move to the Apostle Paul's injunction, "Be filled with the Spirit!" If we approach it in this fashion, Lent can become a beautiful and deeply moving experience of walking spiritually with Jesus on his pilgrimage to the cross. For as John tells us, he went to the cross not only to bear our sin but that he might send us his Spirit.