Three Strikes, You're Forgiven: A 5-Day Challenge by Micah E. DavisSample

SCENE TWO: THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

VERSE: Mark 14:36

Mark then cuts to another scene of Jesus with his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus instructs them to “sit here while I pray.” (Mark 14:32, NIV) He takes Peter, James, and John with him and gives them specific instructions to keep watch. While Jesus is wrestling his own fear to the ground, Peter, James, and John fail their one assignment. When Jesus returns, they’re fast asleep. Notice who Jesus singles out: “‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’” (Mark 14:37-38, NIV).

It’s almost as if he’s saying, “Peter, didn’t you just say that you wouldn’t abandon me? I gave you a simple instruction to keep watch for an hour, and you fell asleep. I’m giving you the opportunity to go a different way. Pray. Stay alert. Because I know you want to follow me, but you’re struggling with temptation, and that will lead you where you swore you wouldn’t go.”

When I have most strongly battled temptation in my life, it has often been at night, when my body is weak, my mind tired, and my energy low. The disciples were in the same situation. Jesus instructs Peter to press into prayer as a means to overcome the temptation he is facing. If only Peter had listened . . .

Jesus goes back to pray and returns to find them sleeping again. Their embarrassment leaves them without words.

Jesus goes back to pray a third time, returns a third time, and finally says, “Enough!” (see Mark 14:41).

At this point, Jesus’ betrayers have come. Time’s up.

Three failures, they’re out.

I can’t help but wonder what must be going through Jesus’ mind. There has to be a mixture of anger, sadness, disappointment, and frustration brewing within him.

Think about the relationships in your own life where people have let you down multiple times. How do we forgive when we can’t forget? Well, we look to God. Specifically, we look to his character and ask that his character be infused into us as his image bearers.

In Exodus 34, Moses is on Mount Sinai conversing with God. The Scriptures say that God passed by Moses in the form of a cloud and said, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7, NIV).

Do you see it?

Forgiveness and accountability.

Righteousness and compassion.

Mercy, mercy, mercy, with justice in tow.

If you’re in need of care, God is compassionate and gracious. If you’ve messed up, God is slow to anger. If you need love, God is abounding in it. If you’ve been betrayed, God is faithful. If you need forgiveness, he forgives you. If you need to forgive someone else, he empowers you.

But . . . if you need justice, God is just. He does not leave the guilty unpunished. The invitation is for us to forgive, to allow God to heal and restore, and to trust that in the end, justice will prevail.

We serve a God who is both/and, my friends. He’s holy and kind, patient and powerful. He judges accordingly and demonstrates accountability, but it is all filtered through the lens of the cross. Through the lens of love, redemption, relationship, and reconciliation. Through forgiveness.

This moment of tension that we find Jesus in with his disciples is the very reason he came and died. God-in-flesh living out his character in real time. And the invitation he extends to us is to do the same.

For Reflection: When faced with recurring disappointment—from others or myself—do I lean more toward anger or compassion, control or trust? What would it look like to “stay awake” in the face of temptation—not just to avoid sin, but to remain present with Jesus in his suffering (and subsequently, my suffering)?