Mark 14:32-42
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
When Jesus and His disciples sang their psalms and made their way into the night on that Passover Thursday, it would have been dark; and once they found their way into the garden known as Gethsemane, as they traveled through the olive trees and the shadows they cast, the darkness would have been more intense. But Gethsemane was familiar to them, and the light from the stars and maybe from the moon would have been sufficient for them to find their way. But the lack of sunlight was not the only form of darkness to descend on the garden that night. It was a dark night, full of dark characters and dark deeds. Gethsemane was shrouded in a heavy pall of darkness.
The disciples were bewildered. This was nothing new. As we heard last week, the disciples often completely missed the point of what Jesus was saying and what was going on around them. Even in the light of day, when Jesus was standing right in front of them, spelling out what He wanted them to know, the disciples seemed to linger in the dark. They have their moments, but for the most part, they thoroughly miss the point. In Gethsemane, the darkness was extreme. They didn’t grasp the scope of the events going on around them—the impending betrayal by their brother, the arrest, the agony that was taking hold of Jesus. Oblivious, they yielded to the darkness of the night, to their full bellies, to their wine-dimmed thoughts. They fell asleep, entirely too comfortable in the dark.
The darkness surrounding Jesus was much worse. Of course the betrayal by Judas would be a blow, as would be the desertion of the other disciples as they fled for their lives. But the heaviest darkness around Him was the weight of sin. Jesus was about to enter the great Passion. He was about to fulfill what St. Paul described to the Corinthians: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us…” Jesus was about to come face-to-face with the reality of that sin. He would be mocked. He would face false accusations. He would suffer the death of the cross. But more than the physical suffering, He would be separated from the Father; He would be forsaken by His Father for the sake of the people He had come to save. He would be condemned by the Father, bearing all of the wrath of the righteous God against the sin of the world. It was not only the agony of the humanity of Jesus that was on display; the full deity of Jesus made His agony all the greater. This was the real trial, far beyond anything He faced before the Sanhedrin or Herod or Pilate. He pleaded with His Father for some other way. This was the night of great darkness; after He prayed to His Father, everything else was settled. He would go to the cross. He would die as the Sin-bearer. He would rest in the tomb. He would descend into Hell. He would obey the Father’s will.
The disciples understood none of this. They saw Jesus praying, but they didn’t see with understanding. Instead of looking on with faith, the disciples—even the inner three—were still trying to put Jesus into the box of their expectations of who the Messiah would be and what He would do. These expectations blinded them to what God revealed through the darkness of Gethsemane. They could not see the weight of sin bearing down on their Teacher and Lord. Jesus, submitting Himself to the will of the Father, was triumphant in His obedience. But the disciples would face trials, and they would fail miserably. Blinded by what they wanted to see, they could not see the truth God was placing before them.
We have the same sort of mistaken expectations of Jesus. We don’t trust the ideals of Judaism or their false messianic dreams. But we rely on human ingenuity, technology, and reasoning. We desire empirically verifiable scientific truth. We seek justice by our own definitions. These things have their place. But when we trust them to help us comprehend the reality of the world around us, they blind us to the truth God places before us. They keep us from seeing the spiritual truths that can only be seen with the eyes of faith. They keep us from seeing the dangers of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. Seeing with the eyes of faith sheds true light on all these things. Because we still bear the Old Adam which loves darkness better than light, we will not see perfectly. But as we allow ourselves to be guided by God’s Word, we will see more than we do when we rely on human wisdom and understanding.
The disciples missed the full importance of Gethsemane. Hiding in fear, they missed Good Friday as well. Only after the resurrection and ascension would they see with the eyes of faith. You don’t have to wait. The Holy Spirit is here, now, with His gifts. You can see the reality of our Lord’s agony and rejoice to know what He endured in obedience to His Father out of love for you. You can see His sacrifice and the life it brings. You can see how the light of God’s Word shines on every aspect of life. God’s Word impacts us all. Don’t miss it. Don’t let your reason blind you to what God reveals to you. Trust what He shows you, even if you don’t see it with full clarity just yet. You will see what you need to see, not what the Old Adam wants you to see. You will see your Savior, your Sin-bearer, your Jesus. In the name of the Father and of the (†) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment