Reflections by Rev. Joanne Anquist

This article is published on Maundy Thursday.  This is the day when Holy Week begins in earnest.  Today we commemorate the last supper – the meal Jesus shared with his disciples that is the foundation for our communion services.  After the meal, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, along with Peter, James & John.  Like most people who have had a big meal and too much wine, the three disciples have a hard time staying awake even though Jesus is in the midst of a crisis.  To me, this may be the most important event of this Holy Week (apart from Easter, of course!)

Remember Jesus has been walking around Galilee and Judea (with some sojourns to Samaria) for three years.  Over this time, he has been teaching and healing.  He has embraced his mission but until the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) he was kind of in the closet – reluctant to let it be known that he was God’s Messenger come to bring a new way of living in God’s Kindom.  But on that day, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt, and the people waved branches and laid their cloaks before him, he finally came out.  He could no longer hide.  That is when he truly became a threat to the Roman government and the religious establishment.

But here, in the garden, Jesus comes to himself, and he realizes that he is a marked man and this will not end well.  He beings to pray with all his being, “Abba, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by.”  Jesus has come to himself.  These three years of creating the Kindom of God on earth have all come down to him.  He will be the one sacrificed in the name of Rome’s peace and religious stability. He will endure the pain.  He will be abandoned.  He will go this last road alone.  And so, like any human, Jesus is looking for a way out.  He is negotiating with God – maybe there’s a different way?  Maybe I could apologize and they’ll let me go?  Maybe I can promise to influence my followers to support these powerful agendas.  Maybe there’s another way.

This tension is evident in the song “Gethsemane” from Jesus Christ Super Star.  Here is a link if you’d like to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndZ6B1EaJEs. 

Most of us have never faced a future like Jesus.  We’re not wanted for sedition, we will never be tried before a kangaroo court, or punished with such severity.  But there are times in all our lives when we have to face ourselves and our choices, and figure out how to navigate difficult and painful times.  My tendency is to choose the path of least resistance!  Avoid pain at all costs.  Do a cost-benefit analysis to see if the gain will be worth the pain!  If I were Jesus, I may have deferred to the “live to fight another day” scenario.  Gather more friends, create an environment where my message will be accepted.  Rome was not built in a day!

There is a book and film, The Last Temptation of Christ, where Jesus imagines what would happen if he did not die on the cross.  He sees himself married with children, a carpenter in a village, enjoying the fruits of his labour and the love of his family.  What a beautiful image of everyday life, free from pain and conflict.  But later, he meets Paul, who is preaching a message about him that he does not recognize, that he can’t endorse.  And he realizes that he must die or God’s plan for humanity will be erased.  He chooses the cross because there is no other way.

Jesus, in the garden, looking for a way out, releases his own desires and follows the future that has been put in motion.  “But not what I want—what you want” is his prayer to God.  To me, Jesus is saying  I release into your hands the outcome, and I will remain true to myself, my mission and your purposes, no matter what the cost.

And then, the soldiers come, and Jesus is taken away.  Worse, all the disciples flee and he is left completely alone.

I pray that in our times of personal trial, when we’re trying to discern the path forward when there are no good options, that we will have the courage to choose the unfolding according to God’s purposes.  I pray that we have the fortitude to choose the better path, rather than the easier one.  I pray that we will not be alone, but that we will stay awake and carry each other through these times until Resurrection greets us and new life begins!

Here is poem by Mary Oliver about Gethsemane:

The grass never sleeps.
Or the roses.
Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.

The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,
and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,
and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.

Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did,
maybe the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn’t move, maybe
the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement,
lay still and waited, wild awake.

Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be a part of the story.