Thursday, March 20, 2008

Silence at Gethsemene

Mathew 26:36-46 36

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. 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. 39 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. 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour? he asked Peter. 41 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. 42 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.43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!

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Our Lord’s overwhelming sorrow at Gethsemene is stunning, in light of who He is.

He is the One who Matthew describes as “God is with us” (Matt 1:23). He is the One His Father, God, affirms at His Baptism: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased (Matt 3: 17). He is the One who is transfigured before these same disciples present at Gethsemene, when the Father sets Him above Moses and Elijah, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with Him I am well pleased; listen to Him!” He is the One of whom Peter declares, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” To which Jesus responds, “Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” (Matt 16: 16-17) He is the One who, just a few days ago, crowds in Jerusalem received, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Now consider this scene at Gethsemene! Here is this same Jesus Christ, Son of God, the One who comes in the name of the Lord…here He is “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” needing all-too-human companions to be near Him to offer a ministry of presence, turning to His all-too-silent Father in urgent, fervent prayer, as He is literally weighed down by the intensity of His grief: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” He prays, with His face to the ground.

Did you hear that? In saying, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” the Lord Jesus Christ is admitting that at this moment of intense sorrow, the Father and the Son are not of one will!

Have you ever been there? Have you ever been at a place in your life where our Father in heaven is silent in the face of your anguish? Have you ever been at a place in your life where you really need companionship, but when even your closest human companions are not any help? Have you ever been in a place in your life where you know your own will is not in agreement with the will of God?

I know I have.

And here is the mind-boggling truth: Jesus Christ has been there, too.

I don’t know about you, but I thank God that Gethesemene is recorded in His word. It tells me that when we are weighed down by sorrow and feeling all alone and when we feel like we are not of one will with our Father in heaven, well, our Lord Jesus Christ understands. We don’t have to pretend with Him. We can be completely honest with Him in this relationship. What the writer of Hebrews says about Jesus Christ is absolutely true: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) Jesus Christ knows what it's like to want something other than what our Father in heaven wills for our lives.

But, let’s be clear that Jesus surrenders to His Father's will. Even as He recognizes that He wills something different, He surrenders to the will of His Father. Even when the Father is silent in response to His prayer, He surrenders to the will of the Father. Even when He is weighed down by intense sorrow because of His Father's will, Jesus Christ surrenders to the will of the Father. It may be that what Jesus says to the disciples is something He is actually experiencing Himself at this moment in Gethsemene: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

Jesus might have been feeling a strong temptation to not drink this cup of terrible suffering. This is One who was accustomed to being of one will with the Father. This is One whose very nature is in accordance with the Father. At Gethesemene, the Lord knew not just that He would suffer intensely, but also that He was going to experience the utter hell of separation from His Father (His actual death). How tempted He might have been not to drink this cup of suffering and separation!

Listen carefully to the Lord’s prayer at Gethsemene: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. And: “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

But, aren’t all things possible for God? Yet, Jesus seems to understand that there is a divine necessity in this particular order or things when He says “if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” It reminds me of a very different set of circumstances when Jesus understood that God’s way -- inexplicable as it might be -- must be followed. It was at the time of His baptism, when John the Baptist, with good reason, protested Jesus coming to him to be baptized, arguing that it should really be the other way around. Jesus responded to John the Baptist, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) And here at Gethsemene, Jesus seems to understand a moment of divine necessity…it must happen to fulfill God’s righteousness. And Jesus is all about fulfilling His Father’s righteousness; however strange it might be to human ears and sensibilities. When Peter declared, for example, that Jesus was the Messiah, he got it right, but he didn’t get that the Messiah had to suffer and die. So when Jesus told him so, Peter responded, “God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to you.” (Matthew 16:22) And Jesus rebuked Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Matthew 16:23)

Poor Peter. Really, he was on the same page as John the Baptist: He didn’t quite get God's unfamiliar way of doing things.

Ever been there?

I know I have.

It’s too bad Peter was asleep at Gethsemene. Maybe if he’d been awake, He could have seen and heard how it is when someone sets their mind on divine things. Here is Jesus Christ in a very human moment: weighed down by sorrow, not of one accord with the will of the Father, hearing only silence in response to His anguish. (Listen to God’s silence at this moment. It’s deafening!) You would think, wouldn’t you, oh human, that God could have spoken a word of comfort when His Son poured out His heavy heart and soul? And, yet, Jesus knows to turn again and again to His Father even, or perhaps, especially, in this moment.

Listen, again, to the Lord’s prayer at Gethsemene: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

This is not the high spiritual experience of His Baptism or Transfiguration. Jesus is not affirmed or exalted. And God does not speak. But, here is the Son, our Lord and our example, turning to His Father, admitting His reluctance to do the Father’s will, because He recognizes what it will mean, and stil yielding completely to the will of the Father, placing not just His mind, but His life in the center of His Father’s will.

If we call ourselves disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, He must be our example. If we call ourselves disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, His prayer must be our prayer. If we call ourselves disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, His ways must become our ways.

This means that, though there will be times in our life when God’s will and way is strange to us, an affront, even, to our human understanding…yet we must yield; though there will be times in our life when God’s will weighs us down with sorrow… yet we must yield; though there will be times in our life when God’s will is contrary to our own will…yet we must yield; though there will be times in our life when God is mysteriously silent when we most want a word of comfort… yet we must yield.

How is this possible?

Here’s where we come back to personal relationship, and what we know to be true, not just of who God is, but who we are in relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I think that Jesus was able – and willing – to surrender at Gethsemene because He truly knew -- and loved -- His Father. His was a long, intimate and enduring relationship with His Father. So, Jesus knew and returned His Father’s steadfast and everlasting love. Even intense sorrow at Gethsemene, and knowledge of the terrible suffering that was to come, couldn’t alter His Father’s character. Jesus knew His Father is faithful and trustworthy. And Jesus knew that He was God’s beloved Son. He’d heard it more than once before, and He’d experienced it in intimate, living relationship with His Father.

Here’s what’s so amazing: The same holds true for each one of us. In Christ, God is our Father, every bit as much as He is Jesus’ Father. And He loves us, too, with an everlasting love. It's up to us to return that love as Jesus did. When we come to know Him, we will find Him to be faithful and trustworthy. And we can rest assured, like Jesus did, and hold fast to our Father, no matter what.

But, we cannot have this kind of radical relationship of trust and abandonment, if we do not know that God truly does love us. And we cannot have this kind of radical relationship of trust and abandonment, if we do not know how faithful God is. And the good news is that God Himself initiates this relationship.

The truth is that this life of faith is not all joy, not all peace, not all highs and ecstasy. But still faith endures because of this Almighty God, who is faithful, and who loves us with an everlasting and immutable love, which He proved to us in that, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And the truth is the life of faith requires us to believe that, even when God is silent, God is present. And the good news is that God enables this faith.

Look again at Gethsemene. Jesus Christ keeps going to the Father, even though the Father is silent. And, while at first the Lord tells His three disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” and then falls with His face to the ground to pray, by the time He has finished praying to His Father three times and surrendering to His will, the Lord is somehow on His feet again, miraculously strengthened and determined to do the Father's will: “Rise! Let us go. Here comes my betrayer.”

It looks like God the Father has silently, but surely, lifted up the Son. Through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we can count on our Father to do the same for us.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)


Thanks be to God! Amen