Places of the Passion: Gethsemane -
A Place of Strength

Sunday, March 10, 2004

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

He lies in bed at night tossing and turning. He's struggling with a decision he has to make. He knows he has to make the decision soon, and he probably even knows what that decision should be. But yet he keeps looking for answers. He keeps searching for something that maybe he missed. Maybe there's another avenue he could go down. Maybe there is something different he could do. Possibly, if he restructured his scheduled or maybe if his brother could come over from the neighboring town and help out, but yet. . . That was the problem. There was always that yet.

His father has been failing in health for two years now. The past twelve months have not been good. Nine months ago, he fell in the middle of the night. He couldn't get up. Someone didn't find him until noon the next day. There are times when he doesn't remember where he is. He loses his place in conversation. There was one time when he couldn't even remember his own son's name, so he struggles. He knows he cannot stay alone any longer. It's not safe. Something worse than a fall is going to happen and yet. . . Always the yet.

He knew that one day he would be faced with this decision, but he never knew it would be so tough. He never knew it would be so gut wrenching, so he tosses and he turns and he prays and he prays and he prays. And he's just in anguish as the words stumble out of his mouth, asking for God for direction, seeking some strength from his Father in heaven.

It's not all that different from a scene in a garden down at the bottom of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives, Luke tells us, is a place that Jesus and His disciples have visited before. Luke tells us that Jesus and His disciples went out to the garden there, as was their custom. It was Jesus' custom often to pray to His Father, to stay in contact with Him but tonight was different. Tonight was not like any other night that He went out to pray. It was unlike any other time that He went off by Himself, that He would reach out to His Father in heaven. Tonight, He was in anguish. Tonight, you could see it physically on Him, the stress in His face and the strain about Him as He walked out to the garden with the disciples in tow. The pain was real, and the anguish was there. He knew what was coming, and He had questions. He probably knew the answers. In fact, He did know the answers and yet He had to ask. So in this garden, with Jesus kneeling next to the rock, disciples a stone's throw away, you find a place of anguish, turmoil. And yet, at the same time, we find a place of great strength.

Tonight of all nights we should see Jesus as the human being. We cannot forget tonight that Jesus was completely and fully a human being just as you and I. He was a man. And as a man, He came out here to pray to His Father in heaven, to pray to His God. But He was also the Son of God, and He knew things. He knew the mission His Father had sent Him on. He knew what was ahead of Him. And so as He comes out to the garden, He has two conflicting things going on. As a God, He knows the soldiers are coming. He knows the pain they will inflict upon Him with their flogging. He knows what it's going to feel like to have the nails pierce through Him as He's nailed to a cross but, as a man, He seeks out His Father in heaven and says, "Isn't there another way? Isn't there another road we can go down? Can you take this cup from me?" As God, He knows. He knows that mankind's sin cannot be paid for by them, that the only way to pay that price, the only way to redeem all of mankind is for that weight to be placed upon His shoulders. He knows, as God, that He must pay the price for us. As a man, thinking about taking on the weight of humanity's sin, thinking of going through hell, He cries out to His Father. "Can you take this cup from me? Is there a different way?" You cannot miss tonight the humanity of Jesus as He kneels down in anguish and pain, such anguish that His sweat becomes like blood dripping from Him. We have here a man who is so deeply shaken that He's drenched in sweat although the evening is cool, a man who is usually confident now shaking from the tenseness and the stress and the burden He's under. We have in the garden anguish, the anguish of Jesus.

And a stone's throw away over here, we have the disciples. Jesus had asked the disciples to keep watch with Him. He asked the disciples to pray with Him. And how do we find the disciples? Asleep. That would seem pretty normal for me that we could get down on the disciples for sleeping. We could look back in time and say, "What was wrong with them? You mean to tell me they couldn't stay awake for an hour? Their Savior was a stone's throw away. He's obviously in anguish. He's obviously in pain. Do you mean these men couldn't stay awake for one hour with Him?" But did you pick up in Luke's gospel? Why does Luke say they were asleep? He says they were asleep because they were exhausted from sorrow. Think of what the disciples have been through. On Sunday, they come in with pomp and circumstance. They have a hero's welcome for Jesus ushering into the town, and then everything falls apart after that. Each day brings a new mystery to them because they're not understanding what Jesus is teaching to them. He keeps talking about being arrested. He keeps talking about being betrayed. He's talking about being killed. And then that night at supper, He says one of them is going to betray Him. And so they argue among themselves, "Who is it?" as they look at each other suspiciously. And then Judas gets up and leaves. What's this all about? Jesus talks again about His death. They can see in Jesus the pain and anguish. They see Him stressed out as He walks out to the garden and He kneels down and He prays to His Father. These men were filled with sorrow, so much to the point that the gospel of John says that Jesus tries to comfort them and tells them not to be sorrowful. But here they are knelt down and, as they begin to pray, they are emotionally spent. Physically, emotionally, and mentally drained. And as they reach out to the Father, in exhaustion, they fall asleep.

Before we get down on the disciples, have you never fallen asleep praying to God? Have you never had a moment of anguish when you were lying in bed, crying out to God, looking for answers, seeking His direction, needing His strength, being emotionally spent, physically exhausted? Mentally, you have nothing left. Have you never fallen asleep as you muttered the last words to your Savior? Maybe you weren't in a garden. Maybe you were sitting on your living room sofa staring out the window wondering where your child is. They weren't supposed to leave. It's way past their curfew, and you don't know where they are. They haven't called. They won't answer their cell phone. In one moment, you're angry. In the next moment, you're so hurt and you're so fearful. You don't know if they're all right. You don't know if they're safe. And so you sit there in the middle of the night and you cry out to God asking for protection, asking for answers, asking that they would come back soon. In exhaustion, you fall asleep.

Or maybe it's a tear-stained pillow as you lie there calling out to God. And you wonder what's happening with your marriage. Where is the relationship and what happened? And you ask God for answers, and you seek His help for strength. And you fall asleep praying.

Or maybe it's at the kitchen table, and you're surrounded by bills and a checkbook and you know the two will never meet because it just doesn't match up. And several times that night, you put your hands together in prayer only to bring them down in a fist of anger and frustration until finally you realize there's nothing you can do, and you call out to God and you seek His help and His strength.

Have you been in those places of anguish, those places of despair? When you get to the point where you throw up your hands and you've used every option available and there are no more options until finally you call out to God and turn it over to Him. It is in that moment of anguish that God's strength comes through more powerfully than any other.

In this what could be Jesus' weakest moment is actually His strongest hour. Jesus is in anguish in the garden calling out to the Father, "Isn't there another way, Father? Can't you take the cup from me?" And yet, how does He end that prayer? He says, "Not my will, Father, your will." At that moment, on that evening, in the midst of His anguish, just when it looks like He's going to buckle under the pressure, God's will overcomes the humanity. The Son of God, who is wrapped in human flesh, overcomes the temptation, overcomes the weakness. At that moment, the Father dispatches the angels and the angels come and they minister to Jesus and they give Him strength. At that moment of anguish, that's when God's strength comes through the strongest.

It is in our moments of deepest anguish that God's power comes through the strongest. When we reach that point when we don't know what else to do and finally we turn it over to God, that's when God comes rushing in like never before.

Tonight I would suspect that some of you may have had plans to go home tonight and to cry out to God in anguish. No one else here knows it, but inside there's something that's struggling, something you're having to work through, a pain that touches your very soul. Isn't it comforting to know that your God knows that anguish, that your God endured that anguish and He can relate to exactly how you're feeling? Isn't it comforting to know that your God was able to overcome that anguish, that your God was strong enough to stand up in that garden and to say, "I will fulfill the Father's will. I will complete the mission." Isn't it comforting to know that God would not let His humanity stop Him from going to the cross? He would not let His humanity stop Him from paying the price of our salvation. Isn't it comforting to know that you have a God who listens to you when you cry out to Him, that even when you can't express it in words, His spirit intercedes for us with sighs and groans that words cannot express so God understands what we're going through? Isn't it comforting to know we have a God who answers our prayers, a God who comes through at just the right moment in just the right way and gives us the direction, the answers, and strength? Isn't comforting to know that, even if it's not tonight, you cry out to God, maybe it's six months from now, a year from now, or two years from now, you have a place you can go to, you can come back to this place, this place of anguish and know that Jesus understands but also to come back to this place and see it as a place of strength and to know your God is there, ready and willing to dispatch His angels to strengthen you, ready and willing and able to answer your prayers and to give you that strength? It's comforting to know that this place of strength is always open to you. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church