Maundy Thursday
Gethsemane
‘He
said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay
here, keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the
ground and prayed, ‘My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from
me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’ Then he returned to his disciples and
found them sleeping. ‘Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked
Peter. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is
willing, but the body is weak.’
Matthew
26.36-41
‘Lead
us not into temptation’ we pray as part of the Lord’s prayer. In a modern form
this is ‘Don’t let us be brought into the time of deepest testing’. Jesus was
at the time of deepest testing when he looked into the cup that had been place
before him and saw all the evilness, hatred and malice in the
darkest corners of the world staring back at him. It is little wonder that he
called on God to take the cup from him. Except that, always obedient to the
end, he seeks not his own way but God’s way. It was a spiritual battle that he fought
and one that he needed to win if he was to fulfil his Father’s design to free
us all from slavery to a sinful world.
It was a shocking lesson for the disciples to know that, even in their
weakness, they needed to watch and pray with Jesus to keep them from that testing
time; one that each of them would meet eventually in their own way.
As we are all too well aware right now, at any given moment, someone,
somewhere is facing the darkest time of their lives. At times of life’s great tragedies,
we are called to Gethsemane to watch and pray with those who suffer, to the
uttermost of our ability. In the end, we too will feel the ground taken from
beneath our feet. Gethsemane is waiting and there we will find that Jesus has
been before us.
When
my love for Christ grows weak,
when for deeper faith I seek,
then in thought I go to thee,
Garden of Gethsemane.
when for deeper faith I seek,
then in thought I go to thee,
Garden of Gethsemane.
There
I walk amid the shades,
while the lingering twilight fades,
see that suffering, friendless One,
weeping, praying there alone.
while the lingering twilight fades,
see that suffering, friendless One,
weeping, praying there alone.
And I
praise with firmer faith
Christ who vanquished pain and death;
and to Christ enthroned above
raise my song of selfless love.
Christ who vanquished pain and death;
and to Christ enthroned above
raise my song of selfless love.
John Reynell Wreford (1800–1881)
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