Gleaning from Mark

So, I need to set this up. Every semester I get asked to speak for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on campus at Frostburg State. I enjoy it in many ways because several of the students that attend come to our church and it gives the pleasure of speaking to about 30-50 college students. One of the things that has bothered me about it is that every semester they usually have a topic or passage they want you to speak on, though most semesters they have a few dates that are open to what ever God leads you to do. Well, when I was called by Mike, who is scheduling speakers and attends our church, he gives me a list of about four topics, all dealing with the book of Mark, to choose from. So, I pick "Jesus' Relationship with the Father in the Book of Mark."

Now, let me say, I have always had a hard time speaking on things that I am forced to speak on that I have not yet already prepared for or worked through. I really was not looking forward to it. Well, God started blowing my doors off.

I read through portions of Mark, read some introductions to Mark, and looked up the word Father in Mark, then started commentary and word study work. Here is what God spoke to me about.

First, the word Father is used 16 times in the NIV, but of those times 3 times it is used to refer to God. So, I am thinking that this is going to be boring. Of those three times Mark 11:25 says, "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." That doesn't give much insight into this idea that I am to be exploring. Another passage is Mark 13:32, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Both of these are awesome passages but they do not shine to much more light on the subject with which I am tasked with. The final passage that I look at relates well and that is 14:36, which I will unpack a little later.

The next thing I look at is the first interaction of Jesus with God in Mark 1:11 at the baptism of Jesus. This passages gives a lot of information about their relationship. Jesus' baptism is not a baptism of repentance as everyone else who was baptized by John. On the other hand it is a sign of obedience and openness to God's plan for His life, which gives a whole new light to believers baptism. The baptism also launches Jesus into the servant role of obedience that will eventually lead to His death. This shows that divine authority is linked to humble subjectivity. From the beginning of Jesus' ministry he is shown as the submissive Messiah. This idea of of the submissive Messiah, which was a foreign concept to the Jews of the day (an understanding the of the Jewish idea of the Messiah in NT times is needed), is pushed forward throughout the book of Mark. One of my all time favorite passages of scripture, Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" speaks of Jesus' submissiveness. More to come on Mark 10 as it relates to Jesus' relationship to the Father.

Now back to Mark 14:36. The context of which is Jesus in the Garden before his death. Jesus goes to the Garden and asks them to sit and prayer. Then he takes his inner circle, Peter, James and John on further and tells them of his distress, asks them to pray and then goes further and prays. Verse 36 shows his prayer, "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Jesus lying on his face which is different from normal prayers that were done standing up with arms out stretched. Lying face down is a sign of distress. Many know that the word "Abba" is an Aramaic word that could be translated in to English as "Daddy." Jesus recognizes the power and authority of God and then makes his request to God, "Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." In the Garden there is no retreating from the obedience that Jesus displayed at His baptism. Jesus though is met with silence, no angels, and no doves at his request for deliverance from what He is about to go through. Ultimately, like all of us, Jesus is delivered through His death. As I read over it again I came to the question of, what does Jesus mean by "this cup? " I know the simple Sunday School explanation, I had formed that in my head many moons ago, that Jesus is asking God to remove what he was about to go through. But why use the term "this cup?"

As I dug deeper and deeper into this idea God started showing it clearer and clearer. First, I went back to Mark 10 and the verses preceding verse 45 I has sited earlier. This is the story of James and John asking if they could sit at the right hand of Jesus and says to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared." There is that word again, "cup." Well, you study the word in the Greek and you get, "to drink," or "a drinking vessel, a cup." The word is used metaphorically to describe someones lot in life or their portion that God presents to them to be drunk. It is also used in reference to God in His wrath that He causes the nations to drink.

Then I was led to Psalm 75:8, "In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs." Things go interesting when I looked up the word cup in this passage in the Hebrew. Astounded to find the word cup is the word kos which is feminine noun meaning a small drinking cup or goblet. It used to describe the judgment of God on the wicked in scriptures like Habakkuk 2:16, "You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory" or a cup of deliverance and salvation seen in Psalm 116:13, "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD."

The word kos has another meaning in the Hebrew, it means a pelican or little owl. We see it in Leviticus 11:17, Deuteronomy 14:16 and Psalm 102:6. The first two refer to the owl being unclean in Jewish law to eat. The Psalm passage says, "I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins." The owl symbolized a forsaken place in the Bible. We see the imagery used to describe the judgment of Edom in Isaiah 34:11, "The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation."

All this just brought new light to what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. He was willing to become the forsaken one, so that we would not have to. He was willing to take the cup of judgment so we would not have to. He was willing to obey and do what is best for us, even though we don't always obey and do what is best for us.

Which brings me to an interesting progression I see in Mark

Mark 1:9-11 (Baptism)--shows the willingness of Jesus to do His Father's will
Mark 10:35-45 (James and John)--shows an understanding of the significance of doing His Father's will
Mark 14:35-36 (The Garden)--shows the acceptance of His Father's will
Mark 14:42 (Leaving the Garden)--shows the doing of His Father's will

The model that Jesus portrays and the model that I have always understood him to portray is an implicit trust of His Father and the will His Father had for His life. We find it hard to trust people and that makes it difficult to trust God as well, but to become more like Christ, we must be willing to lay our plans at God's feet, not aside, and ask how God desires to use us for His Kingdom work. We must trust as Christ trusted.