James Alex Gardiner
Mark 14: 32-42
I should like to try to say something about piety. It says in relation to the circumstances here that the Lord Jesus was "heard because of his piety" (Heb 5: 7), a very wonderful consideration. "He learned obedience from the things which he suffered", v 8. We have piety here, and obedience, and dependence. This is, of course, special, unique to Him, but the character of it is the same with the saints in whatever circumstances they may be passing through. We speak about piety as bringing God into our circumstances. I am not too carried by that expression. We bring our circumstances to God; they are ordered of God. It is a marvellous thing to think about that! Whatever happens, God is over all, and we need to be related to Him, consciously and constantly.
Think of the intensity of the relationship here between Christ and the Father! "Abba, Father", He says. How unique that is! He is the Servant in this gospel, but He is the Son of God. It is the "Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God", chap 1: 1. We find here the greatness of divine love, divine grace in all its fulness. Here we can see that God is not going to spare His Son. What a consideration that is, beloved! What a sacrifice that was on the part of God the Father! Think of what it meant to Him to be without Christ for three hours, three days and three nights. How deeply He must have felt that! But here the Lord Jesus is facing up to the circumstances. How awful they were! No preacher could ever enter into the depth of all that these circumstances meant. He says to the Father, "all things are possible to thee". He- had said that before in the gospels: "with God all things are possible", Matt 19: 26. "If ye have faith ... if ye should say to this mountain, Be thou taken away and be thou cast into the sea, it shall come to pass", Matt 21: 21. He says, "if it were possible ... take away this cup from me". And then He qualifies that. How beautiful this is, beloved! "But not what I will, but what thou wilt". How much there is in this! Think of the obedience, the committal, the devotion, and it depends upon what the Father wills, what He wishes to be done. The Lord says He would like it taken away, but not what He wills, but what God wills.
Now, this is piety, beloved. He is "heard because of his piety". "The mystery of piety" is a wonderful thing to think about. It applies to Christ essentially because "God has been manifested in flesh", 1 Tim 3: 16. But "the mystery of piety" can be entered into.and understood currently as we can see in persons overcoming circumstances. How are they able to do it? You wonder what Caesar thought when Paul stood before him. He says, "But the Lord stood with me ... " - there was piety in Paul; think of these circumstances in which he was - "and I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth", 2 Tim 4: 17. "The mystery of piety" is in operation; it is to be seen. Caesar never heard a defence like that in his life. "At my first defence", Paul says, "no man stood with me ... But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power", v 16, 17. See how we overcome in circumstances, beloved! Circumstances are not always adverse but we need to be with God in .them. -. --- - ~’--
The Lord goes on here. He comes and finds the disciples sleeping. Well, we do not want to be sleeping, beloved. If we are sleeping, we learn nothing. We are quite out of touch with whatever is going on. We can sail through things and we can carry on and so forth, but piety is bringing them to God and being with God, not just when something happens. That puts pressure on us, and we run to God.
The Lord Jesus has left us a Model that we "should follow in His steps" (1 Pet 2: 21), and this is part of the steps. This is how we go through exercises. He says to Peter, "Simon, dost thou sleep? Hast thou not been able to watch one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak". How salutary that is for all of us! When we come through, when we come to adverse circumstances, naturally, we want the Lord to bring us out of them, to deliver us from them, and quickly too. That is not what God has in mind. He wants us to go through the circumstances. He will not change them, but He will be with us in them, and you will find there will be support, the priesthood of Christ. "But the Lord stood with me". How wonderful to find the Lord with you in your circumstances as you move on this pious line.
The Lord goes three times to the Father, and He says the same thing, and finally He says to the disciples, "Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough; the hour is come". Mr Darby says that He gently rebukes and excuses Peter, as if walking in Galilee, Synopsis, Matthew - John, p284 (note). How precious and beautiful that is! He has overcome the circumstance and He goes into it in power. This was the Ark going into Jordan, two thousand cubits (Josh 3: 4), quite a distance; nobody is with Him; He is alone. That may have to happen to you. You may have to go through the thing yourself. You might not be able to carry people with you, but if the Lord is with you, you are consciously triumphant. Paul says, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ", 2 Cor 2: 14. Very wonderful scripture! And that is because he was with God. He prayed three times that the thorn might be removed, and then the Lord says to him, "My grace suffices thee", 2 Cor 12: 9. ’This is for your discipline.’ He learned that it was because he might be puffed up by all the revelations he had had. We have come to understand why the discipline comes upon us. It is necessary; it is all training; there is no school like the school of God; it goes on all your life.
I just think this is very wonderful, beloved, the awfulness of what was before Jesus: He was going to be made sin; and the greatness of the love of the Father that He is prepared to give up His Son, to not withhold.Him. We need to be careful the language we use, but the language of scripture is that: "He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?", Rom 8: 32. The whole of heaven, beloved, is available to us; the wealth of heaven is available; the wealth of the truth is available; but if we are not moving in a pious way, we will not get anywhere. It is moving with God in the wilderness. You will not need piety in heaven; you will not need piety sitting in the meeting although you need to be with the Spirit in the meeting; but facing the various circumstances of life, you need to walk with God. We can speak for long enough about Enoch and all those who walked with God. That is piety. And God came in and sustained them. You think of Enoch with his house. He walked with God and then he had a family and all the exercises and concerns that family brings; and God says, that is what is meant to be, Gen 5: 22. So you learn. If you are a father, you will learn fatherhood; if you are a mother, you will learn motherhood. What you find is yourself coming out in the children, and it is not what you may think are your best qualities either. All that is true, and God knows it and He means that to happen. Then, if you are with God, you can see, as Enoch did, he had a family and he still walked with God and he was conscious in himself that he had divine approbation.
These are wonderful things, beloved, and they are available to us, and we will be "heard" - think of the blessedness of that - if we are pious. It is very wonderful that it says that of the Lord Jesus! You would not think it was necessary to say that, but that is what the scripture says, "having been heard because of his piety". How real and practical and genuine and true the humanity of Christ is!
Well, that is all I can say, but I think it is very wonderful to think about, because immediately Judas comes, the Lord is in charge. He is in charge all the way through, the One who was crucified on the cross and who suffered; He is in charge of everything because He has gone through it with God. May the Lord encourage us, beloved, - He would do that - and may we prove the immensity of divine resource that is available to us! Every hour of the day God is available to us. How wonderful that is! The Spirit never forsakes us. How well equipped the believer is to go through the wilderness, ’this desert dry’ (hymn 228). There is nothing in the world to minister to us. Why should we in any way seek to appropriate what is in the world? May the Lord preserve us from it for His Name’s sake!
Aberdeen
16th October 2012