Mark 14:32-38 “He (Jesus) took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’” Going a little further, he (Jesus) fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.’”

Let’s say you are at the doctor because he wants to discuss the results of your latest blood test. It turns out you are pre-diabetic. If you are going to avoid going on insulin, you need to cut back on the sweets and the carbs. After the visit you return to work. Next to the office is a donut shop. Wafting through the air is that sweet smell of donuts in the fryer. Every day it confronts you when you arrive. Many days it has pulled you all the way in. It will still be calling each morning when you get out of your car. Is that disappointing? Or does it feel almost comforting?

Is temptation your friend or your enemy? You know the right answer. But that doesn’t make it easy to resist. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus warned his disciples about the lure of temptation. These three men were caught in an internal tug of war. Which was stronger: love for Jesus or desire for personal comfort?

They could see that Jesus is in obvious distress. When ever had they seen him ask for help like this? He had never hinted he might need assistance himself. No doubt these three were eager to do their part.

But their stomachs were full from the Passover Feast. Jesus’ words at the dinner had been emotionally draining. It was late. Now Thursday had almost turned into Friday. The night was chilly, and they were sitting there while a few yards away Jesus was pleading and sobbing. Their eyes were heavy. You know that feeling when you are driving late at night, and your head bobs, and you drive for stretches when perhaps you didn’t actually sleep, but you have no memory of the last mile you have traveled?

The three friends fall. Three times before this evening is over love loses to personal comfort. Temptation wins. They sleep.

We don’t find that hard to understand. We know how hard it is to tell the body “no.” My spouse, my children, my friends may need me to show a little self-control, to demonstrate some discipline. But the craving, the urge, won’t leave me alone. “Forget you,” we finally say. “I don’t care. I’m going to do what I want.”

That was one temptation. There was another like it, only immeasurably more intense. Would the choice be love, doing what my neighbor needs, or seeking personal comfort? “Going a little further, he (Jesus) fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.” Jesus didn’t desire rest. He wanted to avoid the pain. And this was no ordinary pain. They would whip him until they tore the skin and flesh from his bones and the blood flowed. For six hours they suspended his body from a cross with spikes and watched him slowly suffocate. Even God in heaven turned away from him while his body endured eternal justice for the crimes of all humanity. No, it wasn’t a nap that tempted Jesus. It was some way, any way out from suffering unlike anyone else has ever endured.

And if he gave in to the temptation? Then love was lost. Hanging in the balance was not the need of an individual friend or family member. It was the eternal fate of all humanity. Would heaven be ever empty and hell forever full? It all depended on how Jesus responded to this temptation.

Jesus submitted his will to God’s. “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Doesn’t that attitude sum up the entire Christian life? Every day is a new opportunity to crucify our will, our desires, in favor of our Father’s. Every day is an opportunity to say, “Not my will, but your will be done.” Here Jesus’ prayer reveals that he knows what to do with temptation when it seems too much to bear.

There is something better here. Gethsemane is not just our example. It’s our victory. Our battle with temptation does not begin where Jesus’ battle ended. Ours ends here, too, in the garden, when our great saving Substitute overcomes. We still wrestle to resist the magnetic pull of one temptation after another. The force feels irresistible. You fall, often. So do I.

But our heavenly Father does not see a beaten sinner pulling himself up from the ground after another loss, ever. He sees a perfect son, a holy daughter, submitting to his will. He sees us in Jesus’ skin embracing the path he wants us to follow.

He sees our many surrenders to sin painted in deep red, washed in Jesus blood, until he can’t see them anymore. He sees them nailed to Jesus’ cross and buried in his tomb, disposed of forever. Today he doesn’t see them at all because Jesus embraced his cross, fulfilled his Father’s will, and saved the world.