Readings for today: Matthew 26:36-75, Mark 14:32-72, Luke 22:39-71, John 18:1-27
It’s important not to rush through these readings. As familiar as these stories may be, it’s important to read slowly. Savor each word. Let your heart connect to the deep emotions being expressed in the text. Jesus’ grief and anxiety over what’s to come. His heartfelt request to His Father to let the cup pass. His humble submission to the Father’s will. The temptation He faces to call down legions of angels in His defense. His disappointment with His disciples. Jesus is experiencing the full range of human emotion as He approaches the final hours of His life here on earth.
I will say it helps having been there. I’ve walked in the Garden of Gethsemane. I’ve seen the olive trees whose lineage may trace back to the first century. I’ve walked the road up to Caiaphas’ house where Jesus was taken after being arrested. I’ve stood in the courtyard where Peter denied Him. I’ve read Psalms of lament in the storage room where Jesus probably spent His final night. It’s a powerful experience. All of the events of the final hours of Jesus happen within a very small geographic area. The close proximity of Gethsemane to Caiaphas’ home to the Antonio Fortress to Golgotha and the empty tomb is striking. You can literally walk to all these places in the same day. You can touch the same stones. Breathe the same air. Taste the same dust.
Many theologians - myself among them - believe the agony Jesus began to feel in the Garden of Gethsemane was due to the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit. For the first time in His life, He was beginning to feel alone. The full weight of humanity’s sin was now being placed upon His back. He would bear this final burden to the cross alone. Bereft of His Father’s presence. Bereft of the Spirit’s power. Jesus now walked this final leg of the journey in existential isolation and this caused Him unimaginable suffering that far outstripped any physical pain He would endure. It’s impossible to get our minds around. It’s a mystery beyond our understanding. Somehow the Trinity experiences a rupture without being ruptured. A separation without every separating. Isolation without ever losing communion. And all this takes place so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled and the Triune God’s plan of salvation come to pass.
Jesus did all this for me. That’s perhaps the biggest reason to slow down and let these words sink in. Jesus wept in the Garden over what it would cost Him to save me. Jesus prayed in the Garden for another way to save me. Jesus submitted in the Garden to unimaginable suffering so that He might save me. My sin created these conditions. My crimes against God deserved His full wrath and judgment. My rebellion is what Jesus came to put down. Not with violence but with love. Can I not pray with Him one hour? Can I not walk with Him without rushing through the reading? Can I not sit with Him and let the magnitude of what He’s done sink in?
Readings for tomorrow: Matthew 27:1-31, Mark 15:1-20, Luke 23:1-25, John 18:28-40, 19:1-16