The Grand Canyon is beautiful, but a dangerous place to visit. It is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and over a mile deep in some places (6,000 feet). The extreme temperatures (which often exceed 100 degrees) can quickly lead to heatstroke and dehydration. So no one is surprised that there are nearly 700 deaths that have occurred in the Grand Canyon.
What is surprising is that many die through their own carelessness. According to author Michael P. Ghiglieri, a number of people have gone “over the edge”, because they ignored posted warnings and walked out to their death.
For example, a 38-year-old father ignored numerous warning signs and then jokingly frightening his teenage daughter by leaping on to a guard wall. He flailed his arms as he pretended to lose his balance. Then he comically “fell” onto a ledge he assumed was safe, lost his footing and really fell 400 feet into the void below.
Another example is about an 18-year-old woman who was hiking on the North Rim Trail, ignored warning sign and decided to venture off the beaten path to have her picture taken at a spot known as Inspiration Point. She sat down on the ledge of the 1,500-foot deep canyon, the rocks gave way, and she plummeted to her death.
These deaths were not only tragic; they were also completely avoidable. If only people didn’t have the attitude, “I can get close to the edge without falling.”
There are people who approach life with an attitude of self-confidence that makes us think we can do it. While avoiding God’s warning in the Bible they edge right up to disaster, confident that – unlike other people – they can avoid the fall. (Tom Ricks, Kirkwood, Missouri; www.PreachingToday.com)
Many Christians handle life with the attitude of “I’ve got this,” expecting the tempter or temptation to disappear. This passage describes what happens when we approach life with that attitude.
In Mark 14, Jesus’ disciples seem to have the attitude of “I’ve got this.”
Mark 14:27 “Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered.”
In other words, when the religious rulers arrest Jesus, it will cause His disciples to move away from Him. They don’t want the same thing happening to them, so they will flee.
Even though troubling times are ahead, even though His disciples will fail Him, Jesus holds out the promise of restoration.
Mark 14:28 “But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”
Oh, what grace! It’s like He says to them, “Hey, I’m going to be killed. You’re going to desert me for fear of your lives, but we’ll get together again and I’ll go before you after I rise from the dead.”
But notice the confidence of Peter in Mark 14:29 “Peter said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be.”
Even though all the rest will stumble, I will not, I will stick by you no matter what. “Jesus, I’ve got this. You don’t have to worry about me. I can handle whatever happens, so count on me.” That’s Peter’s attitude, but look at what Jesus says to him.
Mark 14:30 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”
Jesus says to Peter, “You will not only desert me; you will disown me not once, not twice, but three times before sunrise in just a few hours.” You see, it’s already late in the evening. The Passover meal starts at sundown and lasts a few hours, and this all happens after the Passover meal. So it’s probably about 10 or 11 at night (maybe later). In other words, Jesus is telling Peter, “In less than 8 hours, you will disown me three times.”
Mark 14:31 But he spoke more vehemently, “If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all said likewise.
They ALL said, “I’ve got this!” But Peter says it with intensity. How ironic that just a few hours later, we find in verse 71, Peter uses the same word to swear that he never knew Jesus.
So a believer should not…DEPEND ON OUR OWN STRENGTH.
Don’t feel that you’ve “got this” because pressure and circumstances change, just like it did with Peter and all Jesus’ disciples.
The people that should have remained loyal to Jesus, were His own disciples, who spent the last three years with Him. They heard His wonderful teaching. They saw His miracles. They experienced His power on a daily basis. Even when the crowds left Jesus because they were offended by His teaching, His own disciples stuck by Him. Jesus asked them in John 6, “Do you want to go away as well?” And Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:67-68).
If anybody should have remained loyal to Jesus, it should have been Peter. But when the crisis came, his own will-power was not enough to keep him from shamefully turning away from Jesus. The best of us cannot remain faithful in our own strength.
We get over-confident, and that over-confidence can lead to a fall. Now, that’s not just what the Bible says. That’s also the conclusion of a research study.
Northwestern University ran a series of experiments that placed college students in “tempting situations” to smoke, eat junk food, or forgo studying. The research found that we often display what’s called a “restraint bias.” In other words, we tend to overestimate how much self-control we will have against temptation when we’re not in the “heat of the moment.” Our “restraint bias” causes us to think that we can handle more temptation than we actually can. The lead researcher Dr. Nordgren warned that “Those who are most confident about their self-control are the most likely the same to give in to temptation.”
So how do we deal with our deluded sense of self-control? This secular study sounded very theological, “The key is simply to avoid any situations where vices and other weaknesses thrive and, most importantly, for individuals to keep a humble view of their willpower.” (Jeanna Bryner, “Temptation Harder to Resist Than You Think, Study Suggests,” Live Science, 8-3-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
The Bible has said all along: Don’t be over confident; don’t depend on your own will-power to keep you safe from falling. Don’t depend on your own strength through life.
Instead, we need to…DEPEND ON THE LORD.
Recognize your own vulnerability and rely on God. Know about the pitfalls and pray. That’s what Jesus Himself did. He had a very different attitude than His disciples as He approached the cross and the temptation to resist the Father’s will.
Mark 14:32-34 “Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”
All this takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane, a very fitting place for what Jesus is experiencing. Gethsemane literally means “an oil press,” and it describes a place where oil is forced out of olives. Jesus was being severely pressed. Verse 33 says he was “greatly distressed and troubled”. He was overwhelmed with alarm and anguish.
Strong’s concordance notes that the Greek word for “troubled” is the strongest of the three Greek words in the New Testament for depression. Jesus does not go into the coming crisis with a self-confident bravado, as one might expect of the Son of God. Instead, He enters His great hour of trial, fully dependent upon His Heavenly Father to see Him through.
Mark 14:35-36 He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
The “cup” is a Hebrew term for God’s wrath for sin (Isaiah 51:17,22), which Jesus was getting ready to bear on our behalf. He was not dying for His own sins; He was dying for your sin and mine. And the prospect of experiencing His Father’s anger against our sin was the most He could bear.
From eternity past, Jesus had experienced intimate fellowship with a loving, Heavenly Father. It is all He had known. Now, for the first time, Jesus was about to be alienated from that love. For the first time Jesus was going to experience separation from the Father, who was going to pour out His cup of wrath because of our sins. He was distressed because He couldn’t stand such alienation from His Father, even for a few moments.
Look at how Jesus addresses God in verse 36: “Abba, Father” – Papa, Daddy. “Abba” was a term of dependence used by Hebrew children when they addressed their fathers. Up until this point however, Jewish people were very careful addressing God and His name or any association to Him in a common way. But Jesus did, because that’s who God wants to be to us.
On our flight back from Israel we sat close to a young Jewish family and we enjoyed the sweet words of a 4 year old girl addressing her “Abba.” She cuddled him and stayed so close, slept on his lap and he made sure of a safe trip.
Jesus came to His father, expressing the anguish of His own heart and asking to be exempt from the experience of such dreadful separation. Nevertheless, He submits to His Father’s will – “not what I will, but what you will.”
Jesus won the battle with temptation not through a self-confident bravado, which says, “I’ve got this.” No. He won the battle with temptation through an agonizingly humble dependence upon His Heavenly Father. And He urges us, His followers, to do the same.
Notice that Jesus took the disciples to be with Him in Gethsemane not because He needed company but because they needed Him. Notice what He says to Peter.
Mark 14:37-38 “Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus is not so much concerned about having friends in His hour of trial, as He is concerned about His disciples’ vulnerability. They had expressed such self-confident bravado that He knew they were very open to failure, so He urges them, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation”. They had boldly declared that they would die for Jesus, but they couldn’t even stay awake with Him for one hour. This happened three times!
Mark 14:39-42 “Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words. And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him. Then He came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. “Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”
The great “trial” is about to begin, but the disciples are woefully unprepared, because of their complacent pride. Three times Peter had failed to watch and pray; three times he would fall into temptation and disown Jesus.
This is a warning, especially to those of us who have walked with Jesus for several years. We cannot grow complacent in our walk with Christ, full of bravado and self-confidence. Instead, we must watch and pray lest we too fall into temptation.
First, Jesus said to watch! Stay awake! Be alert! The temptation to sin is so subtle, so devious; it can overwhelm you before you even know what hit you.
A scientist named Temple Grandin was asked to research an important issue concerning an animal’s experience of high stress levels prior to slaughter. They found that hormones are released that lower the meat quality. So Grandin explored how to keep the cattle calm.
Grandin’s research has found one simple observation: that novelty or change stresses cows. The key is to keep everything feeling and looking as normal and natural as possible.
The result became known as Grandin’s techniques for gently killing the cows: Here is the method.
Workers shouldn’t yell at the cows, and they should avoid using cattle prods, because they are not needed and counter-productive.
It’s important to keep the cows content and comfortable; they’ll go wherever they’re led.
Don’t surprise them, don’t unnerve them, and above all, don’t afflict them (well, at least not until you slit their throats at the end).
The technique Grandin devised revolutionized the big slaughter operations. With this method the cows aren’t prodded off the truck, but are led, in silence, onto a ramp. They go through a “squeeze chute,” which had a gentle pressure device that mimics a mother’s nuzzling touch. The cattle continue down the ramp onto a smoothly curving path. There shouldn’t be any sudden turns. Supposedly, the cows have a sensation of going home, the same kind of way they’ve traveled many times before.
As they mosey along the path, they don’t even notice when their hooves are no longer touching the ground. A conveyed belt system slightly lifts them gently upward, and then … a blunt instrument levels a surgical strike right between the eyes. They’re transitioned into meat, and they’re never aware enough to be alarmed. Grandin who became the pioneer of this technology affectionately gave it a nickname. He calls it “the stairway to heaven.” (Russell D. Moore, Tempted and Tried, Crossway, 2011, pp. 25-26; www.Preaching Today.com)
It is an effective way of the tempter and the moments of temptation. We can stay content and comfortable, looking at a path that appears to be a “stairway to heaven” until we are hit right between the eyes. How many times do people try to justify their sin and say “But it feels so right” or “I’ve prayed about it” or “I have peace about it, which makes you feel more tranquil, yet we really are nearer to danger or destruction.
The Bible says watch! Stay awake! Be alert! And pray. Like Jesus, depend on your Heavenly Father. Humbly express your own weakness before your Heavenly Father, and plead for His help.
A believer should not be a person who walks into situations with self-confidence. In the Christian life we must never think we can depend on our strength. Instead, depend on the Lord. “Watch and pray that you will not fail in temptation.”
John 15:4-5 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
“In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence” -Proverbs 14:26
The disciples obviously learned this lesson and went to boldly and confidently live for the Lord. We are commanded to “be strong in the Lord” -Ephesians 6:10.
So let’s reject “I got this” and embrace “God’s got this.”