What A Friend We Have

Just after Jesus and his disciples finished their last meal together, Jesus took the disciples, these friends, to accompany him to the Garden of Gethsemane. The mood was somber. Although Jesus had told them what would unfold, they cannot fully grasp what He is about to endure. These friends had traveled, eaten, laughed, and cried together. They had disagreements. They were a tight group all following this man, who was more than a human. Jesus taught them how to live, how to respond, how to treat others. He showed them a radically new way to live. Jesus told these close friends that that very night, they would leave him, scatter like sheep. They were astonished and taken aback at the thought. Surely not! Jesus then asked his inner circle of friends, Peter, James, and John, to go with him a little further into the Garden. When these friends are away from the larger group, Jesus poured out his heart before them. He expressed his anguish, his dread. He exposed all he is feeling. He says his soul is grieved, to the point of death. The Message says it this way: “This sorrow is crushing my life out.” This man, who has performed miracles now appeared undone. He displayed raw honesty before them. He asked them to keep watch while he removed himself to be alone with his Father, the Sovereign God, to pray. As he leaves his close friends, he asks them to “keep watch.”

In these late hours of night, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is fully aware of the road before him. The humiliation, the false accusations, the conviction, the torture. He, being both fully God and fully man, knows that the weight he will bear is so much more that what will be on display to humans. He will be the final sacrifice for all mankind. The final reconciliation of man to the Sovereign Holy God. He knows that he will physically experience not only the excruciating physical pain inflicted in this moment, but contemporaneously, but he will be condemned for every evil act, injustice, poor decision, intolerance, rudeness, illness, and affliction. And, worst of all, for a moment, He will experience God’s wrath for all this sin, our sin. Jesus knows God will turn his face away in the hour of his most severe agony. He will be, momentarily, abandoned by His Father.  Is there any greater rejection?

Painfully aware of all that was about to take place, Jesus did what he had done all his Earthly life: he modeled the way we should make our way through our journey. He prepares his disciples. Even when he tells them they will scatter from him, he shows grace, and they accompany him to the Garden in his darkest hours. He doesn’t discard them.

Jesus shows us that we should share our pain with our closest friends, bearing our souls to them, being real with them, revealing what grieves our souls. And when he leaves these three friends to pray, He shows us that there are just some places in our pain that can be accompanied only by the Father. There are times when no one, no matter how much they love us or how devoted they are to us, can go with us and understand our hearts. He shows us that even in these moments alone, we need our friends to stay vigilant. Keep watch.

In the Garden, Jesus throws his body to the ground in anguish. He asks his Father if there is any other way. Asks Him to take this burden from him. Pleads with Him. And then whispers, “Not my will, Lord, but yours.” Jesus returns to his friends only to find them sleeping. I can almost hear the hurt in his voice when he asks if they could just stay awake for him. He removes himself again and again pleads with his Father, and again, after pleading, he says he wants to do the will of his Father. He walks back to his friends who are asleep, again. The second time his disappointment and sadness are palpable when he sees them sleeping, he doesn’t even wake them. He is alone. He retreats again to be with the Lord, and then, after his last plea to his Father, He fully submits to God’s will to endure all that is coming. Resolved, he returns to his dear friends finding them asleep, yet again. He wakes them, again. He is dismayed that they could sleep knowing what is about to unfold. His dearest friends– no sleep lost. Yet, he does not discard them. They cannot fully grasp his torment, the road He is about to travel. Jesus is arrested shortly thereafter in the Garden. And, as he foretold, his friends scattered.

There is more to this story! As I reflected during this Holy Week, I was solemn. I was moved to tears as I read and re-read this beautiful passage in Matthew 26. I am overcome with his kindness. The story does not end in abandonment, suffering, and death. The day between his crucifixion and his rising, the Lord was silent, and all hope seemed gone. But his death was not the end. It was the beginning. He rose again! He came back to Earth and appeared to a few to give them hope, to charge them with sharing this Good News. When he ascended to be with his Father to reign forevermore as King, he left us with an advocate, the Holy Spirit, so that we would never be alone. Because he took the blame for all our shortcomings, we can have a relationship with the Lord God Almighty. We can receive the love of a Father who will never abandon us. We have a true friend, one who will not let us down, one who knows us intimately, one we can trust to share our most private fears, shame, shattered dreams. One who fights for us, who never gives up on us. One who restores us, comforts us. One we can trust, even when sorrow is crushing the life out of us. Oh, dear friends, Jesus conquered death!   He lives!

Have a beautiful Easter and rejoice in the Good News on Resurrection Sunday!

Until next time, I am living Between the Scans.