Mark 14:38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak
All of us are by nature self-absorbed. I think about myself. I know when I am hungry; I know when I am thirsty and I know when I’m not; I know when I’m cold; I know what I want and when I want it. I may have to work at knowing what other people need, but I always know what I need and what I want because I am by nature a self-absorbed being. That is very different than being self-aware, looking at oneself objectively and realizing what your needs and weaknesses are and perhaps how God would see you.
Mark 14 is a fascinating study about how unself-aware we are by nature. There are three little pictures here, and in each case you realize how little we are aware of our own selves. Jesus is with His disciples at the Last Supper and He says that one of them will betray Him. Now we know that would be Judas, but surprisingly none of the other disciples knew that. In fact, Judas was the one who carried the purse and he must have been well trusted.
When Jesus made this shocking announcement, the Bible says in Mark 14:19, “And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I?” It’s amazing! Wouldn’t you think they would say “Ah, Judas, he is the guy that is guilty. I’ve known it from the start.” None of them did that and in fact they all wondered if it would be themselves. This is interesting because they were totally blind to who Judas was and they wondered about themselves.
In verse 31 you find kind of the other end of the spectrum. Jesus tells Peter that he will deny the Lord Jesus. Verse 31 says, “But he [Peter] spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.” You might think that Peter was just a hothead. He didn’t know what he was saying and just talked all the time, but all of the disciples said the same thing, that none of them would deny Jesus. Yet when Christ was taken to be crucified many of the disciples ran, Peter did deny Jesus, and they were probably all ashamed and shocked.
When Jesus was in the garden with Peter, James, and John praying, He said, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” These were men who wanted to do the right thing. They had a ready spirit but their flesh was weak, so they could not tarry with Jesus in prayer. They did not know themselves.
I oftentimes explain my motive. I may do something that looks bad, but I know I have a good heart so I explain my motive. Someone else does something that looks bad and I attribute motives to them. I think, “Well, I know why they did what they did.” Even if it is not something overtly bad, I might think, “I know the bad motives behind that.” Well, I do not. I tend to explain my motive but attribute motive to other people. All that is to say that we are self-absorbed but very rarely self-aware.
Untested character really isn’t worth much. It is easy to say, “Well, if I was in their shoes, then I would have done this or that.” But human nature is what it is. The truth is, Jesus is objective; He is the Creator and the Sustainer. What are we? We are subjective with a very limited perspective. We are the creation and are weak. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The answer is in the next verse, “I the LORD.” The real test of your character is who you look to when your character is tested.
One place we often look is to others. That is a problem. Later on, Jesus told Peter that Peter would be martyred for the cause of Christ. Peter saw John standing around and he very naturally said, “What about this guy? What will he do?” We are always concerned about what other people will do and we lose focus on our response to the Lord Jesus and what we should do. So, the real test of your character is who you look to when your character is tested.
We can look to ourselves. That is a mistake because we are so limited in our virtue and in our physical strength.
The place we ought to look is to the Lord. Who is the Lord Jesus? He was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” So, when you are tested today, you can look to yourself, you can look to others, or you can look to the Lord Jesus. “The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” We are very self-absorbed and not very self-aware. The answer to this is in times of testing we need to look to the One Who is greater than we are, the One Who knows more than we do, the Lord Jesus.