Thursday – “Sleepy Heads”
(Matthew 26:36-46)
4th in a series on “Passion Week”
Introduction:
“A man finally went to the doctor after weeks of symptoms. The doctor examined him carefully, then called the patient’s wife into his office.
“‘Your husband is suffering from a very rare form of anemia. Without treatment, he’ll be dead in a few weeks. The good news is it can be treated with proper nutrition.
"‘You’ll need to get up early every morning and fix your husband a hot breakfast – pancakes, bacon, and eggs. He’ll need a big, home-cooked lunch every day and then an old-fashioned, meat-and-potatoes dinner every evening. It would be especially helpful if you could bake frequently – cakes, pies, homemade bread – these are the things that will allow your husband to live symptom-free.
“‘One more thing. His immune system is weak, so it’s important that your home be kept spotless at all times. Do you have any questions?’
“The wife had none.
“‘Do you want to break the news, or shall I?’ asked the doctor.
“‘I will,’ the wife replied.
“She walked into the examination room. The husband, sensing the seriousness of his illness, asked her, ‘It’s bad, isn’t it?’ She nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. ‘Tell me, what is it?’ he asked her.
“With a sob, the wife blurted out, ‘The doctor says you’re gonna die!’” (Edward K. Rowell and Leadership Journal, 1001 Quotes, Illustrations and Humorous Stories for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers (Baker Books: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, 1997), 209).
What lengths are you willing to go for others? When someone else is experiencing difficulty in life, do you go above and beyond the call of duty to extend a helping hand? Do you go the extra mile?
As we’ve been talking about the final week of Jesus’ life, we come to Thursday and Friday of the “Passion Week.” Thursday was Jesus’ last day of freedom; for at the close of the day – after he had prayed in the garden of Gethsemane – he was handed over during the late night hours to the Temple guards who would take him into custody on bogus charges for crimes he didn’t commit. This was a time when he needed the support of his close friends, but was left all alone to struggle through the task that lay ahead.
Let’s read this section of scripture about that late Thursday night prayer in the garden of Gethsemane…
Matthew 26:36-46 (NLT)
Then Jesus brought them to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, "Sit here while I go on ahead to pray." [37] He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he began to be filled with anguish and deep distress. [38] He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me."
[39] He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine." [40] Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, "Couldn't you stay awake and watch with me even one hour? [41] Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak!"
[42] Again he left them and prayed, "My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away until I drink it, your will be done." [43] He returned to them again and found them sleeping, for they just couldn't keep their eyes open.
[44] So he went back to pray a third time, saying the same things again. [45] Then he came to the disciples and said, "Still sleeping? Still resting? Look, the time has come. I, the Son of Man, am betrayed into the hands of sinners. [46] Up, let's be going. See, my betrayer is here!"
If not for careful reading at this point in the final week of Jesus’ life we miss some very crucial things. We miss the commonality of a man who the prophet Isaiah says was acquainted with the “bitterest grief.” A man who “was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows.” If we’re not careful we’ll miss these points on that final Thursday prayer in the garden, and we’ll miss the humanity of Jesus as he struggles with overcoming the fear of a brutal death on the cross and ultimate separation from God as he takes on the sins of the world – the sins of each and every man and woman on the face of the earth.
We do well to remember the description given to us by Isaiah, for it tells us something very important about the nature of God. It tells us about the great lengths God’s love was willing to go so that we might know him eternally.
Listen to this:
Isaiah 53:1-12 (NLT)
Who has believed our message? To whom will the Lord reveal his saving power? [2] My servant grew up in the Lord's presence like a tender green shoot, sprouting from a root in dry and sterile ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. [3] He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.
[4] Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! [5] But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! [6] All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.
[7] He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. [8] From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins—that he was suffering their punishment? [9] He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man's grave.
[10] But it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and fill him with grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children, many heirs. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord's plan will prosper in his hands. [11] When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. [12] I will give him the honors of one who is mighty and great, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among those who were sinners. He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners.
Though Jesus was God in the flesh – God with us (Emmanuel) – he was also very human indeed. He could have never redeemed us if this weren’t so. And because of this there are three distinct things we can gather from this scene of Jesus praying in the garden, three distinct things that open us to the reality of Jesus’ humanity, three distinct things that validate the adequateness of the perfect sacrifice Jesus made on the cross of Calvary, and lastly three distinct things that enlighten us to the great lengths that God was willing to go to show his love for us:
1. Jesus experienced anguish and deep distress.
D. A. Carson reminds us that, “In the first garden [the garden of Eden] ‘Not your will but mine’ changed Paradise to desert and brought a man from Eden to Gethsemane. Now ‘Not my will but yours’ brings anguish to the man who prays it but transforms the desert into the kingdom and brings man from Gethsemane to the gates of glory” (D. A. Carson, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 8 (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984), 545).
In his writings to the Romans Paul says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We, like Adam and Eve, have all fallen short of God’s glorious plan for humanity. If we say that we have never sinned we are liars, and in essence, we’re calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. We have consciously, and even sometimes subconsciously, taken on a life of selfish and vain pursuits ultimately claiming that it’s not God’s will but ours that we are willing to follow. And the problem is: when we live under these pretenses we forfeit the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross who said in the Garden of Gethsemane just hours before his death, “Not my will but yours” to the God of all creation.
Jesus was deeply distressed not because of his lack of love, but, in fact, because of his unfailing, unconditional love of the Father and compassionate love for his fellow man. A love that’s willing to take on the sins of the world, a love that’s willing to suffer and die when no wrong was committed, is a love that experiences anguish and deep distress at the thought of separation from the ones he loves.
This cup of suffering that Jesus prays about in Gethsemane is not the cup of physical suffering and death, but rather the cup of separation from the Father. In order for this sacrifice to count, this perfectly innocent man experienced hell on that dark and dismal day when he took the sins of the world upon himself, and incurred the punishment that was inevitably reserved for each and every one of us.
In his book, Jesus the Messiah, Robert H. Stein writes,
“Jesus feared the agony of experiencing the wrath of a righteous God against sin. Whereas believers go through the experience of death with a real sense of God’s presence, Jesus was about to experience abandonment by God. Believers who walk through the valley of the shadow have God’s assurance and promise: ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’ (Heb 13:5). Jesus knew, however, that he ‘would become accursed’ during the very hour he needed God most. Nowhere do the horror and tragedy of sin become more evident than in Jesus’ anguished cry from the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mk 15:34)” (Robert H. Stein, Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ (InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, Illinois, 1996), 216-217).
2. Jesus longed for companionship and encouragement during the most difficult time of his life, but instead experienced great loneliness.
Have you ever been in a crowded room full of people, and yet felt completely and utterly alone?
We all long for companionship and encouragement. We all long to know that we’re not alone in this great big world, especially when times are tough. Think back to a time when things were rough for you. Did you feel alone? Did you have anyone there – I mean really there – who you could lean on and received support from?
Jesus was facing the toughest decision of his life. He knew what was required of him; he knew that his own death was immanent, and he took three of his closest friends with him to pray.
However, Stein reminds us of the ever-present reality and tragedy that must not be overlooked at this point:
“Throughout his ministry Jesus provided for the needs, guidance and teaching of his disciples. At Gethsemane we see, perhaps for the first time, an occasion when Jesus needed his disciples. How encouraging it would have been as he faced the cross to know that his followers had shared his agony at Gethsemane. How meaningful it would have bee for Jesus as he went through his suffering to have remembered that Peter, James, and John had shared his sorrow and had fervently prayed on his behalf. But they failed him, for ‘he came and found them sleeping’ (Mk 14:37, 40; compare 13:36). Earlier the disciples failed to understand his teachings concerning his death (Mk 8:32, 9:32; 10:32). Now, when he sought their assistance during this crucial hour, they failed him again [not once, not twice, but three times]. The disciples were already beginning to forsake him (Mk 14:27-31)” (Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ, 217-218).
“In the summer of 1989, Mark Wellman, a paraplegic, gained national recognition by climbing the sheer granite face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. On the seventh and final day of his climb, the headlines of the Fresno Bee read, ‘Showing a Will of Granite.’ Accompanying the headline was a photo of Wellman being carried on the shoulders of his climbing companion Mike Corbett. A subtitle said, ‘Paraplegic and partner prove no wall is too high to scale.’
“What many people did not know is that Mike Corbett scaled the face of El Capitan three times in order to help Mark Wellman pull himself up once” (1001 Quotes, Illustrations and Humorous Stories for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, 388).
We all need this kind of support; and in his darkest hour, Jesus needed this kind of support from his friends. He longed for companionship and encouragement, but instead experienced great loneliness.
The disciples found it difficult to stay awake that fateful night. Even toothpicks couldn’t keep their eyes from closing to the reality of what was about to happen within a few hours.
3. Jesus experienced peace and resolve through God’s will and purpose for him.
Ben Johnson said, “He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity. Heaven prepares good men with crosses.”
After he had prayed a third time in the garden, he stood refreshed and at peace. This man who had agonized over the path that lay before him stood firm in his resolve to accept his calling and lay his life down for the whole world. This man once so full of anguish, sorrow, and deep distress was now filled with a dogged determination to fulfill the Father’s will for the redemption of humanity.
Jesus was empowered by his time with the Father there in the garden of Gethsemane. When he rose that final time after he had prayed, he rose not out of defeat but in victory, with a courage and strength to stay the course. He wasn’t bitter or resentful, he didn’t blame a fallen world or humanity for his plight, he didn’t shake his fists toward heaven and blame God for the coming crisis; Jesus calmly and willingly accepted the cross and ultimately trusted the Father.
It should be noted that, “Peace is not the absence of trouble. [But rather…] Peace is the presence of God” (1001 Quotes, Illustrations and Humorous Stories for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, 128). When Jesus walked toward his betrayer there in the garden, he did so with the peace of God residing in his heart; he did so with the peace that passes understanding.
It was there in the garden of Gethsemane that the victory over sin was finally won. This was the defining moment in history for salvation of all mankind: when Jesus rose in triumphal defeat over temptation to give in to his fears.
Conclusion:
If we take a good hard, long look at ourselves as a country, there are many things that mark us and define us as a people; some things good… some things bad. Though the American ideal is that everyone is equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, there was a time when we, as a people, didn’t live this way. In his book entitled, A Pretty Good Person, Lewis Smedes writes about one of those defining times within the history of the United States that times were difficult; where to do the right thing was to face certain ridicule, persecution, and condemnation… where to stand up for the right thing was to face possible injury, and even, at times, death. Listen to this section from his book about ethnic integration of the public schools in New Orleans:
“A federal judge had ordered New Orleans to open its public schools to African-American children, and the white parents decided that if they had to let black children in, they would keep their children out. They let it be known that any black children who came to school would be in for trouble. So the black children stayed home too.
“Except Ruby Bridges. Her parents sent her to school all by herself, six years old.
“Every morning she walked alone through a heckling crowd to an empty school. White people lined up on both sides of the way and shook their fists at her. They threatened to do terrible things to her if she kept coming to their school. But every morning at ten minutes to eight Ruby walked, head up, eyes ahead, straight through the mob; two U.S. marshals walked ahead of her and two walked behind her. Then she spent the day alone with her teachers inside that big silent school building.
“Harvard professor Robert Coles was curious about what went into the making of courageous children like Ruby Bridges. He talked to Ruby’s mother and, in his book The Moral Life of Children, tells what she said: ‘There’s a lot of people who talk about doing good, and a lot of people who argue about what’s good and what’s not good,’ but there are folks who ‘just put their lives on the line for what’s right’” (1001 Quotes, Illustrations and Humorous Stories for Preachers, Teachers, and Writers, 221).
What’s your garden of Gethsemane? Who are the people lining both sides of your pathway shaking their fists and shouting threats at you?
No one ever said the road to right living would be easy. Jesus never promised a life without pain, sorrow, difficulty, and, even sometimes, loneliness. However, Jesus did promise us abundant life, he does offer the peace that passes all human understanding; he does offer us salvation if we would only believe.
The way I see it, we all have two paths to choose from: 1) The first is a narrow path; difficult to traverse at times, but the only path that leads to freedom. The only way to travel this path is to be in relationship with Jesus, trusting him, and walking hand in hand with him along the way. 2) The second path is wide and appealing. It looks easy enough, but the problem is only sleep-walkers take this route. It’s filled with people wandering aimlessly, trying to make it on their own terms, and in their own strength.
Jesus chose the path to that would ultimately lead to freedom; yes, freedom for him, but also – and most importantly – freedom for us to. So which do you choose: The path to freedom or the path to indifference and slavery to self?
