Gethsemane
As this is Easter Week, otherwise known as Holy Week or Passion Week, we reflect on the epic events at the conclusion of Jesus' earthly ministry. Perhaps one of the most interesting events was the time Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane just prior to His arrest, trial, and crucifixion. It was here that we see how He, though He was fully God and fully human, struggled with knowing what lay before Him.
Matthew 26:36-46 reads, "Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!""
In "The Chosen - Last Supper," most of the last part of the movie was focused on Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane where He prays in anguish to God expressing the grief and burden He feels. Though I've known about Jesus' time in the Garden for many years, I've never really focused on it as much as I did in the movie and have thought about it recently. How Jesus struggled under the weight of the path the Father had laid before Him knowing that His disciples would fail Him, that He would be mocked and ridiculed, that He would be physically beaten and crucified, but more significantly, that He would bear the sin of the world on the cross requiring the Father to temporarily turn away from Him. With all that before Him, Jesus still prayed "your will be done."
We often struggle under the will of God, under the weight of the path we're called to tread. Jesus' struggle in the Garden felt familiar because sometimes the only way forward is one of sorrow and difficulty. There are no other options. And so we pray. We ask others to pray. We lay our burdens at God's feet. We earnestly ask God for help knowing that He understands what we're going through. Of course, we're not like Jesus. Far from it! Yet God will give us His presence and His strength to press on.
God bless,
Pastor Darren
