A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier during Midweek Lenten Vespers, March 16, 2022. This is the second sermon of the series, “Places of the Passion”, meditating on the Passion History drawn from the Four Evangelists.
The Garden of Gethsemane – A Place of Prayer and Betrayal
The Passion History, Part 2
After the intimate scenes of the Last Supper shared between Jesus and His disciples in the Upper Room, we are led by our Lord out of Jerusalem to a garden known as Gethsemane. The name Gethsemane means “olive press” in Aramaic. Even to this day in the place pointed to as the garden where Jesus spent part of the night of Holy Thursday in prayer, one can find olive trees which would have been harvested for their oil which was made from the press that was there. And some of these trees even date to the time of Jesus, and they could have been silent witnesses to the events of Jesus’ prayer and betrayal on that dark and doleful night.
It is these two events in the Garden of Gethsemane which frame our reflection tonight, seeing here in this garden a place of prayer and a place of betrayal. As we look at these events, we are once again called upon not only to see what happened to our Lord Jesus, but also to see ourselves in this moment as well, and to consider what these things teach us about our continued walk with our Savior through the days of our lives.
We are told at the beginning of tonight’s reading from the Passion History that this moment spent in Gethsemane was not the first time in this place for Jesus and the disciples. Coming to this garden was a part of Jesus’ “custom”, and that it was where “Jesus often met there with His disciples.” While it is only this time on the Mount of Olives where Gethsemane is mentioned by name, there were times when Jesus met in this vicinity while in Jerusalem to spend time with the Twelve apart from the crowds to teach them. This is why we are also told that Judas would have known of this place and why it would be the most opportune location to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.
Yet on this particular night, there was no teaching of the disciples, but time spent by Jesus in prayer with His Father. As we look at Jesus in this time of prayer, we come to see a side of Jesus which is perhaps not often contemplated or considered. Sometimes in the Gospels, we may look at Jesus almost as if He were some sort of “superhero”—battling the forces of evil, performing wondrous miracles, powerfully speaking the Word of truth, and even overcoming the resistance of powerful people who seek His life. All of these things which Jesus did do shows us the power hidden in this Man who is indeed also the Son of God.
But in Gethsemane, much of the “superhero aura” surrounding Jesus seems stripped away. He comes to this place with the disciples with His soul “exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” Of all the people in the garden, it is Jesus who knows the full plan that lays ahead to be fulfilled. He knows where this story will ultimately end. And as He faces this reality, surrounded by the disciples whose presence He hopes will be a comfort to Him, Jesus comes to have a heart-to-heart conversation with God the Father.
Jesus’ three-fold prayer on this night makes the same request of His Father and states His own commitment each time. “Father, if You are willing, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” This prayer shows us in equal parts both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus. As a Man, Jesus knows that He has been given this “cup” to drink—the pain, suffering, agony, and woe of the Passion that lays ahead, ending with the Cross and His death. Knowing what lays ahead, what person wouldn’t ask, “Isn’t there another way?” And Jesus does ask exactly that. In some ways, it is this moment which could possibly be seen as the last temptation which Jesus faced, seeking another, possibly easier, way to bring about forgiveness, life, and salvation for the world—something other than the required sacrificial offering of Himself and His life. And as ones with whom we share the same flesh and blood that our Lord Jesus bore, none of us could perhaps blame Him for wanting to find this other way.
Yet, it is the second half of Jesus’ prayer which shows us His divinity. In love for and in total submission to His Father, Jesus prays the prayer which He also taught us to pray: “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Here, Jesus offers up Himself totally to everything that it means for Him to become the Savior of the world, willingly taking the cup of suffering that is being given to Him, pledging to drink it all down to its most bitter dregs. In His willingness to undergo this Passion, Jesus shows us the great love that He shares with the Father, moved by that shared love of the whole Holy Trinity to bring us who believe in Him the salvation and life that God has promised to give through the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son.
As we sang this evening, as we “go to dark Gethsemane” we come here to “learn from Jesus Christ to pray.” This prayer of Jesus helps to shape our own praying. It teaches us to pray submitting our wills to that of our Heavenly Father; not submitting our “demands” to Him, but rather seeking out what He wills to give. We also learn that even though we may not receive what we want, or even be relieved from a suffering that we would rather not undergo, Jesus’ prayer teaches us that we are not left alone by our God, but that He sends us His comfort, either by His holy angels, or by those whom He places into our lives to accompany us, all so that we might know that we are strengthened and supported by God Himself as we journey on this way of life that we have been given leading us finally safely to our eternal home with Him.
It is following this time of prayer that Jesus now enters into His Passion, handed over to undergo the trials which awaited Him in “the hour of the powers of darkness.” The act of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus always seems to bring almost a sense of revulsion, causing us to wonder why and how Judas could have brought himself to do this to his Master; and especially in the way he carried it out, using the kiss of peace and friendship to mark Jesus out as the man whom the guards were to seize.
In many ways, Judas’ act, and his own attempt to reverse it, makes him into a rather tragic figure. When one thinks about it, what Judas did in betraying Jesus was not so much his own idea, but rather all done, “so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled”. One might then even think that Judas really had no choice in this matter, or if he did, then we might have spent the centuries heaping scorn on the other unfortunate fellow who would have ended up betraying Jesus instead.
Yet it was Judas who did carry out this act of betrayal, following his own thoughts and will, as well as the tempting promptings of the devil. And for it, Judas’ name is forever attached to this terrible action, even when he is remembered for being one of the Twelve whom Jesus had chosen to follow Him. Because Judas made the conscious choice to follow through with this act, there is no reason for us to say, “Poor Judas”, although we may have some degree of sympathy for where his actions finally led him.
And perhaps the reason for our sympathy for Judas lies in the fact that we may just see a little bit of Judas in ourselves. Now, we would probably be saying, “I would have never done what Judas did”, and that is most likely a very true statement. Yet, while we may not hand Jesus over into the hands of His enemies like Judas did, we do sometimes have to see how we betray our Lord as the other disciples did on that night in the garden—running away, fleeing to save ourselves, and leaving Jesus alone in his moment of need.
All of us, at some point in our lives, have sought to have the relative safety of keeping our relationship to Christ “under wraps”, preferring to keep our faith to ourselves, not being too overt about it, lest we offend someone, or even be accused of being “one of those ‘religious types’”. In this we seek to protect ourselves, but at Christ’s expense, kissing Him, not as our Friend and Savior, but trying to say, “I don’t know Him, and I am not a part of Him”.
Yet, even for our moments of betrayal and denial, Christ has also died for us. And this, His Passion, points us to the forgiveness that He has won for us, and calls on us to believe more firmly in Him, and to be renewed and strengthened in our faith so that we no longer deny Him, but stand with Him, faithfully believing and confessing Him as both our Life and the One who has come to bring and give His life to and for the whole world, calling on others who do not yet believe to come and receive Christ’s life as their own.
As we stand in this place of prayer and betrayal once more, let us pray for strength that comes from the One who gave Himself for us, that we may stand with Him, knowing the life He has won for us, and sharing the Good News of His life that has been given for the life of the world. And so, we pray:
Here I will stand beside Thee,
From Thee I will not part;
O Savior, do not chide me!
When breaks Thy loving heart,
When soul and body languish
In death’s cold, cruel grasp,
Then, in Thy deepest anguish,
Thee in my arms I’ll clasp.
Amen!
(TLH # 172:6)
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