Everyone is reevaluating their priorities. With all the upheaval in society, we have to ask, “What matters most?”
For us, Jesus Christ is the paramount priority. Our first desire is to know and be known by him. “To live is Christ . . .” Paul says (Phil. 1:21). In a time of resignation and reluctance, we enter a season of Recommitment in November.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Jesus, you said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). I know, and you know better, that my love for you has faltered. My heart and soul are bent toward self. My mind is easily distracted and my strength fails. But I know you are gracious. Forgive me. Show me loving kindness. Reform my heart and soul, mind and strength, that I may be fully devoted to you. Amen.
Word: Mark 14:37-38
And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Meditation
It was junior year of high school. First period humanities class. And the teacher was giving a powerpoint lecture about ancient Greek pottery. Not the most interesting topic for a teenage boy. The lights were low. The room was warm. And then we all heard it. Bam. My friend had fallen asleep, his head hitting the desk and scattering his books.
We laughed. He blushed. The teacher didn’t seem fazed. After decades in the classroom he was used to the sleep habits of high schoolers and their effect on attentiveness at 7:15 AM. So he came up with a creative solution. The teacher called my friend to the front. Told him to operate the slide clicker and continued with the lecture. But within a few minutes, we saw my friend start to sway ever so slightly and his head began to nod before he finally jerked himself awake.
We’ve all been there. Fighting a losing battle against sleep. Whether it was during a movie or driving a car or in the middle of an early morning class.
I imagine that’s how it was for the disciples in the garden with Jesus. Where the urge to sleep was simply too strong. Jesus had asked them to stay awake. To watch. Mark uses the same word that we heard about earlier in chapter 13 as Jesus is instructing his disciples about his return and the end of the age. Just as they were supposed to watch for his return, Jesus wanted the disciples to watch now. With him. But no matter what they tried, one by one, they nodded off to sleep.
They slept. That’s the way it is, isn’t it? As a follower of Jesus it’s not too hard to think of times I’ve been asleep on the job. Things done and left undone. Opportunities missed. Hope placed in this world instead of in Jesus and his return. Yes, the spirit is willing. And yes, the flesh is weak.
But Jesus prayed. He prayed for his disciples. He prayed for himself and the task ahead. He prayed for you and me. And until he returns, Jesus will continue to pray and watch over you, even when you fall asleep.
We pray: Lord Jesus, forgive me for all the times I’ve failed to keep watch. For the smallness of my love, the slackness of my zeal, the shallowness of my faith. Forgive, O Lord, and watch over my coming and going, now and forevermore. Amen.
Prayer
O Lord Jesus, who bore the cross for us, help me to take up my cross daily and follow you. I love you; fill me where I lack love. Where my footsteps falter, be the strength in my weakness. I humbly ask you. Amen.
Benediction
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (I Tim. 1:17)