Matthew 26:36-46 | Psalm 88 | Gospels in Lent Track: Matthew 7-9
This might be a story in which you can kind of feel for everyone in it. Can you identify with Jesus who just wanted some solidarity with those closest to him? Can you identify with the disciples who are just so tired they can’t keep their eyes open?
Jesus knows what is coming and wants to face it having prayed through. He doesn’t hold back in transparency with the disciples - with great sadness and anxiety, “as if I’m dying.” Their inattention will soon go beyond sleeping through prayer time as their inability to stick with him will burst from fatigue to all out abandonment.
In reflecting on Jesus in Gethsemane, read Psalm 88 and consider if it might have been something he resonated with that night.
Matthew 26:36-46
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. He said to the disciples, “Stay here while I go and pray over there.” When he took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, he began to feel sad and anxious. Then he said to them, “I’m very sad. It’s as if I’m dying. Stay here and keep alert with me.” Then he went a short distance farther and fell on his face and prayed, “My Father, if it’s possible, take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.”
He came back to the disciples and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you stay alert one hour with me? Stay alert and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.” A second time he went away and prayed, “My Father, if it’s not possible that this cup be taken away unless I drink it, then let it be what you want.”
Again he came and found them sleeping. Their eyes were heavy with sleep. But he left them and again went and prayed the same words for the third time. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, “Will you sleep and rest all night? Look, the time has come for the Human One to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let’s go. Look, here comes my betrayer.”
Psalm 88
Lord, God of my salvation,
by day I cry out,
even at night, before you—
let my prayer reach you!
Turn your ear to my outcry
because my whole being is filled with distress;
my life is at the very brink of hell.
I am considered as one of those plummeting into the pit.
I am like those who are beyond help,
drifting among the dead,
lying in the grave, like dead bodies—
those you don’t remember anymore,
those who are cut off from your power.
You placed me down in the deepest pit,
in places dark and deep.
Your anger smothers me;
you subdue me with it, wave after wave. Selah
You’ve made my friends distant.
You’ve made me disgusting to them.
I can’t escape. I’m trapped!
My eyes are tired of looking at my suffering.
I’ve been calling out to you every day, Lord—
I’ve had my hands outstretched to you!
Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do ghosts rise up and give you thanks? Selah
Is your faithful love proclaimed in the grave,
your faithfulness in the underworld?
Are your wonders known in the land of darkness,
your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
But I cry out to you, Lord!
My prayer meets you first thing in the morning!
Why do you reject my very being, Lord?
Why do you hide your face from me?
Since I was young I’ve been afflicted, I’ve been dying.
I’ve endured your terrors. I’m lifeless.
Your fiery anger has overwhelmed me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
They surround me all day long like water;
they engulf me completely.
You’ve made my loved ones and companions distant.
My only friend is darkness.
Prayer
God -
Thank you for the Jesus of Gethsemane. I feel much closer to him because of his prayer in that garden. We both know what it is to feel alone, to feel anxious, to feel like the world is full of death and betrayal all around. But we also know what it is to hold on to whatever sliver of hope we have left, to cry out to you for change.
Thank you for answering his prayer. Certainly not that you did immediately, but in the end, you delivered him indeed. You had him. You held him. You remembered him. You raised him.
Lord, remember me. Lift me up this day to new life. Help me to live even now during Lent, with the crucified and resurrected Christ.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.