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The Way of Gethsemane - Maundy Thursday

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Today is Maundy Thursday – a famous day in the history of the Church celebrating the night Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and instituted the Lord’s Supper. As it was written in the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood:
Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today, there is a different aspect of this day in history that I want to bring our attention to: Jesus’ time in the garden of Gethsemane.

It is common in the evangelical world to speak of “The Way of the Cross” that refers to the daily endeavor in which we seek to model our lives after the work of Jesus on the cross: self-denial, authentic love, and sacrificial suffering on the behalf of others. The saying goes like this: just as Jesus embraced the way of the cross on our behalf, so we also must embrace the way of the cross on behalf of others. Jesus himself calls us to this life in Luke 9:23 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” So, how do we actually do this? By what means do we take up our cross? From where does the power come?

What empowered Jesus to be obedient to death was his time in the garden of Gethsemane.  In Mathew 6:10 Jesus teaches his disciples to pray “your will be done” and, many Christians pray that every day. However, it is later in Matthew 26, when Jesus is in the Gethsemane, that Jesus prays this prayer three times. I have never met a person who does not know the “Lord’s Prayer” at least in part and I have met many people who pray the Lord’s prayer believing it to their core, but I have met few people who have prayed the prayer with the intensity that Jesus prayed it in the garden.

Jesus’ “soul was sorrowful” (verse 38) such that he “fell on his face and prayed” (verse 39). He knew what he needed to do, but, he really didn’t want to! “If it be possible,” he prays, “let this cup pass from me” (verse 39). Jesus knew the pain that was coming before him and he knew what he had been sent to the world to do: he needed to embrace the way of the cross. So what does he do? He prays “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (verse 39). Then, a little while later, after waking up his sleeping disciples, he prays again, “if this cannot pass without me drinking it, your will be done” (verse 42). Then, after the disciples had fallen asleep yet again, Jesus wakes them up and prays “the same a third time” (verse 44).

Hebrews 5:7-8 also speaks of this time in the garden: “Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears…he learned obedience through what he suffered.” It was during this agonizing time of prayer the Jesus learned obedience! Jesus himself had to “learn obedience” through prayer that was so weighty it was described as ‘suffering’. After this time of prayer he was ready. Jesus comes down from the mountain and boldly states “The hour is at hand”(verse 45). There have been many paintings that sought to capture this deeply emotional moment that have shared similar titles such as “Agony in the Garden”.

Before we are ready to embrace the way of the cross we must first embrace the way of the Gethsemane: prayer. In your difficult times of temptation, in the moments what you know you are called to do but you don’t want to, and when the yearning of your heart is to do anything but God’s will – you must “go to your Gethsemane” and pray, “thy will be done” foras long as it takes. If Jesus himself had to wrestle in this way with his calling to die to himself, you will have to also. Are we willing to pray the way Jesus prayed?

**Looking for a place to celebrate Holy Week? Join us for our Good Friday Service at 7pm or any one of our Easter services at 9:30am, 11:00am, and 5:30pm.**

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