Reading: Matt 26: 26-30, 36-44
Introduction
People’s stories are often very different to what we would have expected. Allow me to illustrate from my own life. Here are four things about my story. Three of the four are entirely true, and one of them is mainly false. Can you guess which one?
Four Things…
- When Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44nd President of the USA in January 2009, the very first engagement he and his wife Michelle had in their public diary was to have breakfast with me and my wife Sheena.
- When I was 16, one Monday morning around 9.30am, the Police came for me at my school and informed me that I was to immediately pack my bags and leave with them. I then spent the next number of months in a Witness Protection programme living on an isolated farm and under constant supervision.
- When I was 18 I caused a category one emergency at Belfast International Airport and involved all the police and fire crews within a ten mile radius of the airport. It impacted every flight that was to take off or land, and was followed by a very unhappy police investigation.
- When I was in my mid-twenties, I lived in Kingston, Jamaica, where I was working in a Presbyterian Church. Whilst there, I became the first Irish person to ever play on a one-day international Cricket team for the West Indies.
And the false one is…. ??
Almost all of our stories are different to what people around us would expect. BUT if our stories are surprising, surely this unexpectedness is nothing to that in the story of Jesus.
From the fall in Eden, and right throughout the Old Testament, Israel had been promised a Messiah – and what that Messiah was going to be like had been considered and discussed for centuries. For almost all, it was understood that the one who would come in the line of David would, like his forefather, be a great and powerful King. He would be a mighty warrior, an anointed leader who would deliver Israel from all its foes and lead it into a time of great blessing and prosperity.
BUT, instead of a powerful King, Jesus came as a helpless child; instead of an all-conquering Lord, Jesus came as a humble and suffering servant.
BEGINNING with the END in MIND….
Tomorrow we will be visiting the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane – one of the most poignant scenes in the whole of scripture. So, as we prepare to travel there, I’d like to begin our reflections on Jesus’ story by pointing you to some of what we learn there.
It is Thursday, the night before his crucifixion. Jesus has been in Jerusalem teaching the disciples. He has washed their feet. He has announced the new Covenant and led them in the new Covenant meal. But very significantly, as we read in John 13:30, he has also watched his friend, and disciple, Judas depart.
Now the remaining eleven have gone with him, outside of Jerusalem’s walls, down into the shallow Kidron valley and up the other side to this place called Gethsemane.
LET’S PRAY
Colin Urquhart, in one of the first Christian books I ever read, makes the point that the truth about us is most often seen, not in our best moments, but in our worst. When we squeeze a tube of toothpaste, he points out, the pressure we apply doesn’t create what comes out of it. It simply reveals what is inside. And so it is with us.
Gethsemane, in Aramaic, means ‘oil press’, and how amazingly appropriate that is for what we read about here in Matthew 26. Jesus has come to the great decision point of his life. He is now staring fully into the face of what his calling on earth has been leading to. Such is his pressure, so intense are his emotions and struggles, Luke tells us, in Luke 22:44, his sweat was like drops of blood falling on the ground.
And what does all that pressure reveal?
1. The True Nature of Jesus.
Well, the first thing we see in Gethsemane is Jesus’ true nature.
For example, We see Jesus’ intimacy with his Father.
Joachim Jeremias, the famous German New Testament scholar, once researched all the existant documents and prayers of the ancient Israelite people. He tells us that there is not a single example anywhere in Jewish literature, including the Old Testament, the Talmud, the Targums, or any of its other religious documents – until the tenth century A.D. – where a Jewish person addresses God directly as “Father.” There are a few examples where people speak of the fatherhood of God over the entire Jewish nation, but no one, not a single person, not even in a single prayer, ever addresses God directly as, ‘Father.’ It simply wasn’t done.
Moreover, for the vaste majority of people in our world today, such intimacy with the creator continues to be unthinkable. For Sikhs and Hindus there are a vaste array of deities (over 300 million infact). For Buddhists, God is not personal and thus there is no one to have a personal relationship with. Muslims have dozens of names for Allah and none of them is ‘Father.’ Indeed, to call God ‘Father’ is regarded as blasphemous and they are repeatedly warned against using this phrase within the pages of the Koran.
Reflect on this for just a moment. There are around 7.6 billion people in the world and 2.2 billion who claim to be Christian. That means that 5.4 billion of those in our world, today, have no idea that God would want them to call him Father. The Gospel is amazing news! And it all began with Jesus.
The word ‘Father’ appears on Jesus’ lips 65 times in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and over a hundred times in John. In every one of his prayers that we have recorded, save one, Jesus addresses God using this term.
‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” Matt 11:25
‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me.’ John 11:41-42
“Father forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)
And here, in surely the most difficult moment of his life thus far, Jesus again begins his prayer with ‘Father’, vs39. Gethsemane reveals to us the deep intimacy Jesus knew with his heavenly Father.
We see Jesus’ courage.
Vs 39, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”
Jesus is no fanatic or stoic in the face of his suffering and death. He does not stride off to the cross delighted with himself and without a single flutter in his heart. Gethsemane shows us that Jesus would very much have liked there to be another way. “My Father,”, he says, ” if it is possible, may let this cup be taken from me.” Jesus faces his brutal death as any of us would. He goes to the cross not because of extremism or some crazy death wish. He goes because he faces his fear, and because there is no other way, courageously chooses to do so.
We see Jesus’ trust.
Vs 39, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Despite his absolutely natural reactions, echoing Isaac’s trust in Abraham as he lay down on that make-shift altar so long before, Jesus trusts his Father’s love for him. And so, even in the shadow of Calvary, he submits himself to his Father’s will.
Intimacy, courage and trust. We see so much about Jesus in what comes out in Gethsemane. AND we also clearly see, therefore, the nature of the relationship God desires to have with us.
I became a Christian, or at least I knew that I had become a Christian, at the beginning of June 1981 when I was just turning 16. Three weeks after that, I discovered that my Dad had late stage cancer and would almost certainly be dead in a matter of months. My mum had left home when I was 4. My siblings had all grown and left home too. (Well, actually, my brother was being housed by her majesty’s government, so I don’t know if that quite counts!) And so, when my Dad died, there would be no one left either at home, or even around, for me to live with. My future suddenly looked pretty uncertain.
As it turned out, my Dad died 7 months later, on a Saturday afternoon, I recall. And after the nurses confirmed that he was gone, I suddenly had a great urge to get out and get away from the hospital – just to clear my head before having to face whatever would now be coming. I told those in thee room what I wanted to do, headed out of the hospital and walked down a country road that led up to the hills around that particular side of town. As I went, I was silent for a while. Then I cried for while. Then, I just starting to talk with God about it all. “Well,” I said. “My mum’s already gone. My Dad’s now dead. Looks like I am now an orphan.” And, just as clearly as I have ever heard God’s voice speaking to me in my whole life, his instant reply was: “You are no orphan! I am your Father, you are my child, and you will yet know many Fathers and Mothers, and brothers and sisters.” It was quite a moment in my young Christian life! And these words have been true! In the years since, amidst the fellowship of God’s people, and in his church, I have come to have many parents and siblings in the Lord – some of whom have even managed to be a good influence on me! But most of all, and always still, I have had my`Father who is in heaven.
In the press of Gethsemane, what we see revealed is that Jesus loved his Dad; he was courageous for that love, and, no matter what, he was determined to trust the path he had set for him.
Tomorrow, as you walk through this ancient olive grove, ponder afresh these things that were true of him, and ponder, too, that this same intimacy, courage and trust is what your heavenly Father desires for you as well,
2. The True Necessity of the Cross
The second thing we see in Gethsemane, is the true necessity of the Cross.
Isaiah 53:5: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
I Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.”
It’s interesting isn’t it, that Jesus prayed three times. As we have learned, this is the number of times olives are pressed when they are harvested. Their first pressing produces virgin oil. Their second, under greater pressure, oil that is good for food and medicine. Then, under the heaviest pressure, the final harvest – oil that can be used for lamps and for soap. The leftover pulp is then used to make firelighters. (There’s definitely a good club talk in there somewhere!)
Three pressings. Three struggles in prayer. And in these moments, not only do we see the truth about Jesus’ nature, we also see the terrible requirement of the cross.
Notice, in particular, the shift in Jesus’ prayer between v39 and vs 42.
vs 39, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
vs 42, ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.’
Jesus moves from request to acceptance. In vs39 he asks “If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” But now vs 42, he knows it is not possible and so he submits himself in this ultimate obedience.
And in vs 44, we read the third time “he prayed the same thing.”
Pressure building, but faithfulness held until the end. What a moment in human history that took place in this Garden we are going to visit!
Some of the trees in Gethsemane are dated to be around 900 years old and some of them could well have grown from the roots of the trees that were present at the time of Jesus. That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? But even more so, is this: In the Garden of Eden the first Adam failed in his faith and calling. But here, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Eden is undone as the second Adam chooses, instead, to trust, to obey, whatever the cost.
In Hebrews 5:7-9, we read: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
How can this but lead us to wonder and to worship? How he was willing! How he was willing to trust! How he was willing to suffer – so that the world could be free!
Are we? Are we willing to be so pressed for the saving of others? Are we willing to bear whatever cup God may need us to drink in order to reach lost kids in the place he has called us? Are we willing to pray, and to pray again, “Father, not my will but yours be done?”
The true nature of Jesus. The true necessity of the Cross…
3. The True Context of our Ministry
Theses questions lead us nicely to the final thing, I’d like to suggest, we find in this unforgettable scene. Gethsemane is the true context for all our ministries.
Gethsemane is our story.
So often these days, I find people wanting to describe Christianity as if it is our ticket back to life in the idyllic Garden of Eden (Gen 2+3) or our pass to fly forward into the redeemed Garden of Revelation (Rev 21&22). (The Garden of Revelation, of course, we know will be in Ireland since scripture very clearly says that the Sun will not shine on it! :))
BUT if there is a garden in which our calling is to be found, if there is a context in which our ministry in this life can best be understood to take place, I suggest to you that it is here. Not in the Garden of Eden, nor in the Garden of Revelation but here in the Garden of Gethsemane.
In Luke 9:23 Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Gethsemane is our struggle, too.
Everyday, we face the choice of whose will will be done in our lives. Every day we face the decision as to whether or not we will be bearers of the cross. To journey with faith like Jesus is the daily, and heroic, challenge of every believer.
Conclusion
I’d like to finish this evening by playing for you Steve Chapman’s wonderful song about another whose life was changed through encounter with Jesus. It’s beautiful lyrics are, I think, a blessing and a guide to us all:
Video: This is how Love Wins
Dying thieves, fishermen tending their nets, Samaritan Women at wells, blind men begging on streets, Tax collectors atop trees, Pharisees en route to persecution, 16 yr old orphans in Ireland, kids who come to YL clubs, and their YL leaders who come to Israel – Jesus can change all of our stories – and the more we understand of his, the more we will understand of our own!
AMEN
