The Passion According to St. Matthew Part IV

The Garden of Gethsemane

Read: Matthew 26:31-56

This passage is often read on Maundy Thursday, after the liturgy has been celebrated, the altar stripped, and the barren sanctuary lies in darkness.  After the words "Get up, let us be going. See my betrayer is at hand", the church sits in silence.  The congregation begins to disperse, disappear, just as Jesus' disciples dispersed and disappeared as the Passion began to unfold.  Some will keep watch and hold vigil. Others will simply slip away.  In some places a watch will be kept through the night while in others the church will sit empty in darkness. 

When Jesus prophesied at the last supper that one of the disciples would betray him, the resounding response from all of them was "surely not I, Lord?!"  And while it is true that there was a single one who betrayed him, who handed him over to his death, each of the disciples betrayed him in their own way.  As we continue with the story today we begin with Jesus telling the disciples that all will become deserters this night, "I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered".  Peter, of course, ever "the rock", exclaims that he alone will never desert his master, to which Jesus counters, "Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times". Peter again protests, as do all the other disciples, but then we come to the garden in which none of them can stay awake.

This is the last moment they will be with their Lord and while they say they treasure him with their words, do they truly treasure him in their hearts?  When he asks one simple thing of them, to stay awake and pray with him, to comfort him in his moment of grief and his moment of temptation, are they able to be there for him? No. Sleep overtakes them, not once, but several times.  When Judas the betrayer arrives with a crowd with swords and clubs and betrays Jesus with a kiss, one of the disciples jumps into action and cuts off the ear of the slave of the high priest. This is not the kind of obedience that Jesus requires, though.  He did not seek a show of force, but solidarity and prayer and comfort in his grief.  Even at this late stage in the story, the disciples do not fully understand what Jesus asks of them.

This is a good question for us. What does Jesus ask of us? Is it to be warriors for the gospel, or is to pray, comfort, and serve the afflicted? What Jesus asks does not seem difficult until we are called to do it: stay awake and pray.  It is easier to draw the sword and fight. It is easier to proclaim our faithfulness with words rather than by sitting silently and faithfully in his presence.  It is easier to write our own story than take part in a larger story over which we have limited control. There is a sense in which all of this is inevitable.  Jesus' final words to them before he was led away and the disciples fled was "all this had taken place so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled."

Do we live in a deterministic world?  Do we not have control over our actions? Or, are these even the right questions to ask?  Perhaps what Jesus meant was that God could see only too well what we are capable of at our worst, or even how we get it wrong when we try to get it right.  He sees and understands the Judases, the Peters, the Jameses and Johns, the disciple who draws the sword, and he makes provision for each of them in Christ.  This is his providence.   

We are presently in a time in which we have lost control over many things.  We have spent a lot of time telling ourselves that we can do anything, are capable of anything, that we can overcome anything, and yet here we are.  There is uncertainty about the future.  There is anxiety about our health, our families, our social systems, our economy.  We say "there must be something I can do!" Yet, we are asked to sit still and do nothing. We want to draw the metaphorical sword and slash away at something in the hope that we can make it all better through taking control. Instead, Jesus says, "watch and pray".  How much more difficult it is to watch and pray than to draw the sword! I am having trouble with it.  Are you having trouble with it?  But this is our calling, in this moment, at this time.  It is important to at least try, for the hour will be at hand before we know it.  We have this moment to live in, to rest in, to pray in. This will not last forever.  We might feel like scattered sheep, but in truth we have been gathered together in silence in Gethsemane to watch and pray.  It may be difficult to stay awake, but there is more story to come, and even when our eyelids close and our faith falls into sleep, our Lord watches, prays, and is faithful unto death.