God’s Word for You
Mark 14:39-42 My betrayer has arrived
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, January 28, 2024
39 He went away again and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And once again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy. They did not know how to answer him. 41 Then he came the third time and said to them, “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 Get up, we should be going. See, my betrayer has arrived.”
Luke tells us about the Lord’s sweat falling like drops of blood, and about the angel that comforted him (Luke 22:43-44). Matthew focuses on the number of times, three, that Jesus came and found his disciples sleeping, which Mark also does, adding the comment (probably from Peter) that “they did not know how to answer him.”
A second and a third time, Jesus went off by himself and prayed. Each time he prayed the same thing (Matthew 26:44): “Not what I will, but what you will, be done.” He wanted to live, as any living being wants. Confusion, depression, torture and other agonies bring up thoughts about death, but God made us beings of life, and his will is that we would live and carry out his will. God’s holy and divine will is supreme, of course.
Since Jesus here is on his knees, face to face with the will of his Father, it is a place to ask the question: Since God is almighty and all-powerful, why is there evil in the world? Is that a part of his will, too?
1, God is not the cause or author of sin; not in any sense. God did not create man to sin (Genesis 1:31), and he did not make any decree that man should become sinful. Nor did God approve when sin was introduced into the world. In our Confession we maintain and believe: “God is not a creator, author, or cause of sin, but by the instigation of the devil through one man sin has entered into the world” (Formula of Concord).
2, It is presumptuous for man to ask, “Why does God permit sin to happen if he hates it?” Man cannot sit in judgment of God. Man cannot criticize the ways of God. “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” (Job 40:2).
3, A way of thinking about God’s allowance for sin, once sin had come, is that each person, both believer and unbeliever, is a descendant of Adam and Eve, our first parents. If God had annihilated them after sin came and had started over with a new creation, then none of us would have come into being. Our existence would have been wiped out along with Adam and Eve, for we are all numbered down from Adam (Jude 1:14). Therefore, each of us can say, “If God had destroyed those who first sinned, I would not exist, either.”
4, If we should ask, “Is evil a part of the divine will?” then we must necessarily distinguish between the evil of punishment and the evil of fault. Just a few days ago, a man was put to death in Alabama for having murdered the wife of a pastor in the 1980s. The murderer’s wife made a statement to the press after his death that his punishment was, in effect, evil (in her grief, it is understandable that she would say something like that—for those who mourn are difficult to comfort, Jeremiah 16:7). God allows the punishment of sin for the sake of divine justice. This is what the prophet meant when he said about rebellious cities: “If a disaster takes place in a city, is it not the Lord who has done it?” (Amos 3:6). But God does not ever desire or will the evil of fault (which is sin). “For you are not a God who takes pleasure in evil. With you the wicked cannot dwell” (Psalm 5:4).
5, When God’s will runs contrary to the will of man, the fault is in man. God may do this to punish (see number 4 above) or he may do this to stir up true and serious humility. We must subject ourselves to God’s will, as Jesus did in Gethsemane with his profound and absolutely heart-felt words: “Not my will, but your will be done.” We also have the example of holy men of God: Eli said: “He is the Lord. Let him do whatever is good in his eyes” (1 Samuel 3:18). Joab said, “The Lord will do what is good in his eyes” (2 Samuel 10:12). David said, “If the Lord says to me, ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ look, here I am. Let him do to me whatever is good in his eyes” (2 Samuel 15:26). And we have the words of the historic Judas Maccabeus: “As God’s will is in heaven, so let it be done” (1 Maccabees 3:60). “And if the Son of God has been obedient to do the will of his Father, how much more ought the servant be obedient to do the will of his master?”
After his third prayer, Jesus woke his disciples up. The detail is omitted, but Jesus and the three certainly went back the few yards through the little grove to the gate where the other eight were also sleeping. “Get up,” the Master said to them. “My betrayer has arrived.” The Greek verb is the perfect tense, which describes an act with results that continue on into the future, a “lasting result.” The result in this case is the betrayal and arrest of the Son of God, to be handed over and to be put to death for the sin of the world. This was John’s original prophecy about him (John 1:29). This was the good that Jesus came to do. Therefore let us reject the slavery of sin and cling to the good! “It is wretched slavery to want to be free to do evil.” True freedom is to serve God, and to imitate him.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.