Saturday, April 12, 2025

Pressure Cooker

A Lenten series on Mountaintop Moments
– Jesus on the Mount of Olives
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Mark 14:32-42 

[In this Lenten series, we will be looking at Mountaintop Moments. These mountains are more than just geographical features. They symbolize divine encounters and moments of revelation, faith and transformation. In other words, meeting God on the mountain top.]

 

March Madness is a pressure cooker! You start with 64 college teams in each of the men’s and women’s tournaments playing in four regions across the country. Those 128 teams represent nearly 2000 student-athletes, all of whom have the same goal – get to the Final Four and win a national championship!

 

The problem is that you only get one shot at it. If you lose, you’re out. Your dream is shattered. Because of this, the further a team advances, the greater the pressure. You can tell that these young men and women are feeling it too. But, as intense as the pressure gets, there’s no comparison to the pressure that Jesus faced.

 

Prior to and during Passover, Jesus had been talking about his death. Three times he had predicted his death to his disciples. He described the woman who anointed him as preparing his body for burial. During the Passover meal, he told his disciples that the bread was his body, and the wine was his blood.

 

When Judas left the meal early to betray Jesus, the religious leaders had already made plans to arrest him and have him killed. Following the meal, Jesus told his disciples that they would all fall away, including Peter who would disown him three times. Jesus seemed to be walking into an inescapable web.

 

Like vice grips, Jesus’ life and mission were mercilessly squeezing him. Can you feel the pressure mounting? The pressure cooker was about to explode.

 

With his disciples following him to the Mount of Olives, Jesus went to an olive grove called Gethsemane, which means “oil press”. During ancient times, heavy stone slabs were used to crush the olives under immense pressure, squeezing out the oil into pits where it was collected. This is a metaphor for Jesus.

 

While the others stayed behind, Peter, James and John went with Jesus to pray. He became “deeply distressed and troubled”. This phrase, according to the New Bible Commentary, “express the utmost degree of unfounded horror and suffering”.

 

34 Jesus told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”        

 

35 He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 36 “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”    NLT

 

In Luke’s version of this agonizing prayer, Jesus was in such profound pain that "His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." You can almost feel the heavy stone slab squeezing the life out of him.

 

Clearly, Jesus was experiencing the emotions of being fully human. And yet, in the direst of circumstance, he managed to submit to his Heavenly Father’s will. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had taught his disciples how to pray: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. They weren’t just words for Jesus.

 

One final thought. Olive oil had many uses at the time, not the least of which was to anoint kings, priests, and prophets. The word Messiah means “the anointed one”. Jesus, the Messiah, was the King of kings and Lord of lords. Isn’t it ironic that he chose to go to an olive grove where he was arrested. It was a pressure cooker!

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

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