Keeping Watch in the Garden Matthew 26:36-46
Prayer:
I stand here close beside you. Your anguish I would share. O Lord do not despise me, in this your heart’s despair. For when your heart is drooping in death’s last agony, my arms will be about you and hold you close to me. Amen. (#17)
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.
I would like you to close your eyes and imagine that one of the characters in our lesson this evening is going to speak to you. Imagine him sitting in the garden, half asleep, trying with all of his might to stay awake, but every now and then nodding off to sleep.
You can hear his the words in his mind as he mulls over the events that have led up to this moments, and what he think about the prayer Jesus is saying as he hears tiny bits and pieces.
Peter is thinking: “I can’t stay awake. I want to but it has been a long day, hey a long week. Jesus is speaking about strange things, death, betrayal, and then he let that woman anoint him with oil when we could have sold it for a lot of money.”
“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” He said his soul is sorrowful even unto death!! Death!! But I thought he was the Messiah, the one who would lead us to victory. Judas and I have spoken about that at great length. The Messiah is the one that will bring us out of this bondage of the Romans and deliver us into our land once again.”
“I just don’t understand.”
“I can hear part of Jesus’ prayer and He is saying:’“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
“See he doesn’t want to die, but then he says not my will but yours Father. God wants Jesus to die?? I can’t stay awake.!!!”
“What, oh Jesus, sorry I just nodded off.”
He is upset saying to me: Peter “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
“Jesus went back to pray, but I have all kinds of questions to ask. How can God want you to die? How can you be the Messiah if you are going to die? And when?”
“Wait I remember something Jesus said after he told us about separating the sheep from the goats. “
Jesus said, "You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified."
“The Passover is now and Jesus will die soon.” “How can the Messiah die, and die on a cross and still bring salvation to His people. How? How?”
“I think I nodded off again. Did Jesus come back and find me sleeping?? I hope not. I wanted to stay awake, but my mind is so full of questions, and doubts, and I can’t explain this feeling of despair I have in the pit of my stomach.”
“Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
“What!!! he wants us to follow him and he is going to be betrayed!! Who? What? Why? I feel sick!!"
And Peter goes off to follow Jesus!!!
This contradiction that Peter has in his mind and soul about Jesus, Jesus being the savior of Israel and bringing glory to the land and driving out the Romans, a theology of glory, and Jesus dying on a cross, the theology of the cross, that through brokenness of the cross came the glory of the Easter resurrection, that contradiction is still with us today.
Some see in the theology of glory that if you have faith enough, if you believe enough, then all of life will be glorious. You will have health, wealth and happiness. God brings all glory to life.
For example. When Kurt Warner won the supper bowl, when everything was going well for him, leaving the Barnstormer, making if big in the NFL, he kept thanking God, giving God all the credit. And I asked myself, what happened if it didn’t turn out so glorious, would he still be sharing his faith? And this year, everything went just the opposite. He got hurt, he didn’t throw the ball as well, and he did not say anything about God in all of his interviews.
Was God there in the bad times and well as the good?
A theology of the cross says that God is there in the bad as well as the good. God can handle our bad times and we must turn to Him then, because he can give us courage to live with the burdens we all carry.
Let me illustrate: The tragedy left the man homeless, widowed and fatherless. Fire had swept through the trailer, and all was lost. It took some time for the full weigh of the loss to descent, and when it did, he was nearly crushed. Like Job in the O.T. he would not be comforted...When the gift of shock was lifted, anger, resentment filled every waking thought.
God had not been fair to him. God had not protected his family. He had not come to him with a special visitation to explain the "why" and the "what next". He was in a wilderness as rugged as the Sinai.....The greatest temptation was to add to his losses by forfeiting his faith. He felt justified.
No one would fault him. Some might even support him. He prayed angrily now, daring God to hurt him further, and challenging him to give any reason to hold on to the thin thread of his faith that was left. He prayed angrily, but he prayed, and God could handle it....The anguish continued to mount until one afternoon he uttered a cry so forcefully, it could only be described as a scream. No word was spoken, just a loud angry scream against the forces of heave and hell, as if to say,"I’ve hurt all I can, and I’ve paid my dues for love.... Help me."....
The silence that followed was quieter than silence. A peace was evident for the first time in months.
Scripture might have said, "Angels came and ministered unto him. "Satan had been overthrown, and health was coming back,for he believed, at last, that God was caring for those he lost. That God was caring for Him. that God could handle his honest anger, his honest emotions, that God can handle all our pent up emotions, feelings, denials running away from the hurts and pain of life.
God can handle it. We must let Him, for when we do, then, we will come to know the great and powerful love and mercy He has for us. God can handle it, period. Let Him.
Our lives to not have to be all glorious to feel the glory of God. The glory of God can be felt in the depths of despair, loneliness and pain. Jesus felt all the loneliness, pain and brokenness of the world, our world of our lives on that cross, so He does understand when we cry that life is not fair.
We live in a world that is not fair, that is not fully redeemed from sin and death. But God is there. He does not cause all the suffering we feel, but is there to redeem it, to give us grace to go on.
A story from a pastor in Ohio: My brother served his first parish in Massillion, Ohio, as an associate pastor, with the late Pastor Maurice "Mo" White. Pastor White was a very large, strong and vibrant man.
During one Lenten season, one of the older, but faithful members of the church came with her husband to an evening Lenten service. As they were leaving the service, the woman somehow fell down the outside flight of steps and broke her hip. For some unknown cause, she did not recover from the hip surgery and died in a few short days. Pastor White stood with the bereaved husband by the casket the night before the funeral.
Many people came to offer their sympathies. Some were saying to the sorrowing husband, "God must of had a plan for this, so accept it." Another said, "It was God’s will and we must live by it." Still another said,"Somehow God planned this to test your faith!!" And still another said,"There is a sliver lining in every cloud, you will find God’s reason behind this eventually."
Pastor White left that funeral home filled with a very strong emotion of anger at the "babbling", as he put it, he heard that evening. He went to the study and rewrote the beginning of his funeral sermon.
Pastor White began his funeral sermon with this phrase: "My God does not push old ladies down church steps!!!" Then he proceeded to explain that God cannot be blamed or accused for all the brokenness of this world. If God is the author of death, how, how can He be at the same time the author of life as shown through the resurrection we celebrate each Sunday and especially on Easter. Is God the God of the living, or the God of the dead? You cannot have it both ways.
"My God does not push old ladies down church steps!!! My God is the God that stands with that husband at the casket and says: “ I feel your hurt, I feel your loss, I feel your heartache.” I am there with you on your individual cross and will in my way, my time, redeem this situation, trust and have faith.
In this world of brokenness and heartache, we do not need a only a God of glory who makes us feel guilty if your lives at not glorious, we need a God of the cross to stand with us and turn our pain into His glory.
A closing poem by William J. Patton entitled Hands says:
The old man sat there looking at his gnarled, wrinkled hands......There was a young child on the ground in front of him playing in the sand......
"Hi mister," the child said, "Your hands sure do look old."....
"Yes," said the old man, "Watch these hands and behold"-----
.....Slowly, the old man opened his hands....As he did, a single drop of blood fell to the sand....
The child looked into the eyes of the old man...then looked down and saw there was a hole in each hand............
The old man looked at the child and said, "Do you know who I am?"....
"No," said the child as he looked at the old man....
"I am who I am." said the old man......The old man reached out and touched the child and was gone.....
A smile came on the child’s face, for he knew never again would he be alone.....The child turned to play and saw where the single drop of blood had hit the sand....A rose bush did stand........
The young child went on playing in the sand.....Every now and then he would stop...and look at his hands....
poem by William J. Patton entitled Hands says:
The old man sat there looking at his gnarled, wrinkled hands......There was a young child on the ground in front of him playing in the sand......
"Hi mister," the child said, "Your hands sure do look old."....
"Yes," said the old man, "Watch these hands and behold"-----
.....Slowly, the old man opened his hands....As he did, a single drop of blood fell to the sand....
The child looked into the eyes of the old man...then looked down and saw there was a hole in each hand............
The old man looked at the child and said, "Do you know who I am?"....
"No," said the child as he looked at the old man....
"I am who I am." said the old man......The old man reached out and touched the child and was gone.....
A smile came on the child’s face, for he knew never again would he be alone.....The child turned to play and saw where the single drop of blood had hit the sand....A rose bush did stand........
The young child went on playing in the sand.....Every now and then he would stop...and look at his hands....
Amen
