The Garden - Mark 14: 32

The dinner was drawing to an end shortly before midnight. The servants were about to come in and clean the table and blow out the candles. Judas had already left to go and betray Jesus. The remaining disciples were wrestling with all that Jesus had told them and the many ways this Seder meal was different from any other they had experienced - Jesus washing their feet, the teachings Jesus had given to them, the broken bread and shared cup with words of a new covenant. Did they realize that something was about to happen to their Lord?

Just before they finished their meal, they had one final concluding ritual, the singing of the Hallel, or praise, which is comprised of a selection of verses from the psalms, specifically psalms 113 to 118, with phrases such as “O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever.” During the season of lent, we lock away the “Hallelujahs” or singing of praises, and do not bring them out again until Easter morning. When I was in seminary I attended an Episcopalian church. One of the most vivid memories I had was of the first Sunday during Lent, my first year. The children marched into church carrying a large banner, chains, and a trunk. They watched as the pastor unrolled the banner with the word, “Hallelujah” scrawled across it and children’s pictures surrounding it. She then rolled it back up, placed the banner in the trunk and had the children help her wrap all of the chains and various locks around, effectively sealing it shut. She explained that we don’t say, “Hallelujah” during Lent because it is a time to focus on our spiritual journey to the cross during Lent when we express sorrow for the sins that put Jesus on the cross and so we could greet the risen Christ on Easter morning with a great shout after we have prepared our hearts.

I struggled with that and still do today. Aren’t we supposed to find joy in Christ at all times? And yet, that image of the children locking away their “Hallelujah”s really touched me as well. Was this not the last time for a few days that Jesus and the disciples would sing songs of praise to God as well? Did Christ find comfort in singing one final song of praise, one about trusting God even in the face of our enemies, before he lead the disciples into the garden of Gesthme where he cried out in such deep despair? Did the words echo in his mind?

After the Hallel was sung, Jesus lead a few of his disciples through the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, where he knew that he would be arrested. As he walked with his disciples, he altered what he said at dinner, saying that all of the disciples would now betray him. Peter protested, but Jesus knew that he would deny even knowing him at all. How heavy Jesus’ heart must have been that night - not only facing his own painful death, but knowing that those closest to him would betray, desert, and deny him.

Yet, he lead his disciples, those he loved, to this garden, despite knowing what was to come. The gospels tell us that this is a place where Jesus went to pray before. It is a place where he could see the city of Jerusalem and the temple before him. The gospel of Luke says that he went to this garden every day during the week leading up to his arrest. There was simply something about this place.

In 2006 I went to the Holy Lands. In what is believed to be the Garden sits the Church of All Nations. We visited many many churches during our ten day trip, too many for me to even count. But this church was one of the three that I remember. When you walk into the church there is an iron fence up where the alter would, which is around a large stone. We were told that tradition said that this is the very place where Jesus came to pray the night he was arrested. The group I was traveling with were religion students - we knew that this may not be the exact place where Jesus came to pray, but the accuracy wasn’t what we cared about. We just all sat silently thinking about the importance of the garden. The place where Jesus came and cried out to God. The place where his friends betrayed him. Many of us shed silent tears in that holy place. This is the place where the suffering began. This is the place where Christ suffered in order to understand my suffering and to free me from the captivity of my sins, and that was simply overwhelming.

As they entered Gethsemane, Jesus asked his disciples to stay awake, keep watch, and pray. He took three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, even father into the garden with him. It was not until he was alone with these three close friends that he began to express his anguish. He needed to share what he was feeling with God and his friends.

I identify with Jesus in the garden because it is the place where he suffered with those whom he loved. The place where he cried out to God to take this cup from him, if it be God’s will. Have you had a time in your life, when you have just felt deep anguish? A time when you need to be surrounded by friends as you cry out to God? Friends who do not need to say anything, but simply need to be there as a presence, knowing that they are there for you. Jesus revealed what he was feeling to these confidants. The gospel of Matthew tells us that he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me” before venturing a few steps ahead to throw himself before God in prayer.

Some people feel uncomfortable with Jesus in the garden. They don’t like to think of Jesus agitated or afraid. They don’t like to think of him being sorrowful. Some people in their discomfort try to gloss over it - making it into something spiritual, but that is not the message of the gospel writers. They tell us that Jesus was distressed about his impending arrest and torture. Jesus was feeling what most, if not all, human beings would feel if they were faced with the same circumstances. Jesus was showing that he was fully human and fully divine in the garden as he wept. Jesus understands what we go through in times of sorrow, because he has gone through the time of ultimate sorrow, just as Jesus understands the temptations we face, because he faced them at the beginning of his ministry. We have a Lord who can fully understand us, because he has been there.

Other people become upset because Jesus asks God to take this cup from him. They think it shows a lack of courage or strength. But how many of us have been asked to do something by God that we did not want to do? Something that we have wrestled with before finally giving the answer, like Jesus, “not what I want, but what you want.” Jesus resisted as we resist when things are so complicated, so frightening. I don’t believe this showed a lack of faith or courage on Jesus’ part - it showed honesty in the struggle. Jesus was not the first to struggle in this way, and he would not be the last. But Jesus accepted God’s will for him in complete trust.

By now it is well after midnight, between one and three am. Judas arrives in the garden with the religious authorities, to hand Jesus over to them. They came at night in order to avoid any uprising from his followers. Its a powerful image isn’t it? Jesus being betrayed by a kiss. Why would Judas do that? Some scholars believe it was because Judas became disillusioned by Jesus, wanting him to be a military hero. Others believe he was simply greedy. Still others believe he did it to test Jesus, to force him into action. Whatever the reason is, have we not all betrayed Jesus for similar ones? Judas and the rest of the disciples get a lot of flack for betraying Jesus, but I’m glad it is recorded in the gospel. For just as I identify with Jesus crying out to God in sorrow, I equally identify with the disciples betraying him. I have betrayed Jesus. You have betrayed Jesus. We have betrayed our Lord and friend.

Chaos broke out in the garden, just the religious leaders were trying to avoid, when Jesus was arrested. In the gospel of Luke we are told that Peter wielded a sword and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers, which Jesus healed. Jesus healed the one who came to arrest him! Jesus was shackled and the disciples fled, a mark of their betrayal. And when the dust settled, Judas was the only one who remained.

When I was little, one day I came across two pictures of Jesus tucked away in boxes at my grandma’s house when I was helping her clean. One was the picture that hung in my kindergarten Sunday school class, and still does to this day - Jesus holding sheep, symbolizing that he is the good shepherd. The second I had never seen before. It was Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane, kneeling on a rock, with a look of anguish I can still clearly see in my mind. What was this image of Jesus trying to communicate? I think this is the image of Jesus as we can most clearly connect with him in our times of suffering.

Jesus taught from the psalms quite often during his ministry, quoting selected verses. He sang from them at the Last Supper with the Hallel and quoted them as he died upon the cross. They were an important part of his life. He surely had them running through his mind as he prayed to God in the garden. Psalms are gifts to us, because they embrace human emotions. I would like to challenge you to find a Psalm over the week and make it your own, just as Jesus did. Let it settle into your heart and your mind. If you aren’t sure what Psalm you would most identify with let me ask you. Are you in a place filled with despair? Look at Psalm 137. Are you in a place where you feel hope? Look at Psalm 138. A place where you want to understand better who God created you to be? Psalm 139. Or perhaps you want to explore the Psalm that Jesus recited part of at the last supper? Look to Psalm 118.

Psalms are a gift to us. Emotions are a gift to, even during the times when they are deeply distressing. May we remember that we worship a Lord who understands everything that we have went through, no matter how painful, because he was in that place in the garden that night. The place where he was abandoned and betrayed. The place where he faced death and felt deep anguish and sorrow. A place where he affirmed that it is okay for us to ask God to take our cups of hardship from us, and where he taught us how to trust God even in the face of the impossible. But Jesus taught us an important lesson too. He taught up that even in the face of sorrow we can pray, “not my will, but thine be done.” Rev Adam Hamilton in preaching on this topic reminded his congregation that sometimes that prayer is going to lead us some very hard and trying places. But he also reminded them, that the answer will never be to die on the cross for the sins of the world. Jesus even in his sorrow, gives us strength and a model for our journey. May we seek to be people who pray each and every day, “not my will, but thine be done.” Amen.