Learning from Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane

Good morning, friends.  So, have you ever experienced a few bad years in life because your life was seemingly falling apart, you were grieving a lost dream, you were facing sickness, loneliness, death, and stress, or God was seemingly asking you to walk into a difficult situation?  In those tough years, what was your relationship with God like?  Did you struggle with him, find comfort in Him, or did the situation actually cause you to part ways with Him?  What was your prayer life like at that time?  And could it be that you are going through this tough time now?

Well, in 1925, a man named Frank Laubach entered into one of those tough seasons of life.  Having served as a missionary educator in the Philippines for over a decade, which involved helping establish Union Seminary in Manila, serving on its board, and also serving as dean at the local university, Frank was presented with an exciting opportunity.  The growing seminary he had helped establish had decided it needed a separate administration, and thus it began looking for its first president. 

Well, Frank was sure that he was just the man for the job, and his connection with the seminary and his educational credentials – with degrees from Princeton, Columbia, and Union Seminary in New York, certainly seemed to point in that direction.  And in fact, Frank almost did become the president.  It all, however, came down to a voting process, and after the tally of votes came in, Frank had lost by just one vote, but here is the fact of the matter.  Out of some kind of chivalry, when he had cast his own vote that day, he had voted for his opponent.  Thus, it was because of his own vote that he lost the position.

Well, as you can imagine this situation was quite the upset for Frank.  In fact, it threw him into a deep depression.  Full of self-recrimination and grief over his lost dream, he actually made himself very ill, becoming a semi-invalid, and his health suffered for nearly two years.

But thankfully, this was not the end of Frank’s story.  As Frank gradually relinquished his life over to God and sought a deeper devotional life with Him, his life turned around. Now, while he didn’t find this deeper life with God at first, he did find his health return to him, and he was eventually able to accept an invitation to missionary work in a remote and dangerous part of Mindanao, and it is because of this work and the work that came out of it that we even know who Frank Laubach is. 

For in the solitude of his experience in Mindanao – for he could not take his wife and child along with him – Frank developed a deep sense of the Lord’s presence, really noticing the Lord in just about every moment of his day.  And as he grew in love for the Lord and learned to hear his voice, he also grew in love for the Muslim people who inhabited the place he had come to live.  He prayed for them and befriended them, and they welcomed him in return.  In fact, at some point, two prominent Muslim leaders went around the province telling everybody how Frank had come to help them know God better. 

And Frank really did want them to know God better, but he also wanted to help them with their present needs, so he created a literacy program to help them read.  This reading program was successful, in fact so successful, that he and others soon duplicated this work all over world.  In the end, Frank Laubach’s work touched 103 countries, involved 313 languages, and helped 60 million people learn to read. 

Now, many years prior, Frank had thought his life was over, and because of this, he fell into a deep depression.  He wrestled with the dead-end of his life.  Yet, when he was finally able to relinquish his life to God and to say “yes” to God’s future invitations – invitations which surely involved sacrifice and unknown challenges, God was able to open up a beautiful path for this contemplative activist, a path which resulted in blessing for millions of people – not only for those who learned to read but also those who found a deeper life with God through reading Frank’s spiritual journals.  Praise God that Frank said “yes” to the Father. 

Friends would you pray with me.   Dear Jesus, we thank you that you are One who empathizes with us in all our weaknesses and sorrows, and you are also One who teaches us to pray.  Jesus, as we ponder today’s Scripture, would you teach us what it looks like to listen to God, to bring our full selves into those prayers, and to respond to God’s voice so that we might do your will.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Well, for those of you who do not know me, I am the Rev. Kristen Yates, the Associate Pastor of Formational Discipleship here at the Mission Cincinnati, and I am delighted today to be able to continue our Lenten sermon series on the Prayers of Jesus, and today we will be looking at Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane.

Now while of all of Jesus’ prayers recorded in the Scripture are meaningful and instructive, I personally find this prayer of Jesus to be especially compelling, for Jesus was at the height of his vulnerability as he prayed this prayer, which revealed both the precariousness of his humanity and also the weight he carried in his divinity. 

Now, having had his final meal with his disciples, Jesus now found himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, a place he had frequented to find refreshment and communion with the Father.  But on this occasion, he was not here for refreshment.  He was here for struggle.  Jesus knew the path that lay ahead of him in the very near future, and he did not approach it with heroism or stoicism.  Nor did he do it alone.  He brought three of his disciples along to keep vigil with him as he prayed to the Father.  For the reality that lay ahead of him entailed deep physical and emotional pain as he would face rejection, abandonment, torture, and a particularly slow and cruel death where he would finally succumb to asphyxiation. 

But above and beyond this, he knew he was about to face an agony of such proportions that we cannot even imagine it, for on the cross, he would be forsaken by the Father and would take on the entire crushing weight of the sin of the whole world, everything that separates humanity from God and leaves us under God’s judgement.  The emotional pain of all this was absolutely devastating, and so, as N.T. Wright has said, in this moment, Jesus was like a man in a waking nightmare.  He was completely in “melt-down” mode because he was able to look ahead into the deep darkness before him and see evil staring back at him, and he didn’t like what he saw, and he wished to avoid it.  And thus, in his deep sorrow and anguish, Jesus begged the Father to let this cup pass, and as he did so, Luke, in his Gospel, tells us that Jesus even sweat big droplets of blood.  This was Jesus completely undone, shaken to the core, wholly dependent on the Father for the road that lay ahead of him.

And so, he wrestled with the Father, three times bringing him an emotional, vulnerable, and completely honest prayer.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it tremendously refreshing and comforting that Jesus, the Son of God, was not above emotional displays or wrestling with the Father.  Jesus did not accept his fate without a struggle. 

That said, it is also interesting to see how Jesus’ prayer changed over time as he wrestled with the Father.  At first, Jesus asked that if it was possible, this cup would pass.  Now, he did follow this request up with a petition for God’s will to be done, but it is clear that Jesus’ desire was that he would not have to walk the way of the cross and that the Father would find another way forward. 

Well, by the time we get to Jesus’ second prayer, we see a slight difference in his prayer.  This time, Jesus asked if this cup could not pass that God’s will would be done. Do you see that slight difference as Jesus moved from asking that this cup would pass to asking if this cup could not pass that God’s will would be done?

Well, it seems then that somewhere between Jesus’ first and second prayer, Jesus had heard from the Father, and the Father’s answer was “no”, this cup could not pass.  And Jesus received this answer and surrendered to it, well sort of that is.  Because a little while later, he came before the Father again and prayed the very same prayer, so, it seems as if Jesus need a little more time to wrestle with the Father before he was able to completely relinquish his future fate into the hands of the Father.

Once, he did so, however, Jesus approached his future path with resolve and resilience.  And for those of us who know this story well, we know that Jesus was indeed arrested that night and later tortured and crucified, but we also know that three days after his death, he was raised from the dead, which opened up a path for forgiveness, restoration of relationship with God, and eternal life for all who would believe.  So simply speaking, Jesus’ “yes” to the Father opened up blessings for billions of people from that point forward.  Praise God that Jesus said “yes” to the Father. 

So, the question we of are course left with now is what does Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane teach us about how we are to pray.  Well, I think there are several take-homes from today’s Scriptures.

First, it teaches us that prayer is a dialogue, a conversation where we both speak to God and hear from him.

Secondly, it teaches us that it is okay and in fact really good for us to bring all our emotions before God.

Third, it teaches us that it is okay for us to wrestle with God, to struggle with him in prayer. 

Finally, it teaches us that God is trustworthy even when we do not get what we want, and so when God asks us to relinquish or surrender something over to him, we can do so with hope.

So, let’s look at each of these aspects of prayer. 

So first, prayer is a dialogue, a conversation.  Now, while we obviously didn’t hear God audibly speak to Jesus in today’s passage, we did see Jesus’ prayer change over time as he talked with the Father.  This is because he heard from the Father, and while this may seem like a super simple point, it is important that we also hear from the Father as we pray.  We are not just to give our laundry list of requests to God and move on; we are to listen for his voice, but learning to recognize God’s voice does take time and training.  In the case of Jesus, he was able to hear and recognize the Father’s voice in Gethsemane because he had  a lifetime of conversations with the Father, with whom he had spent time when he withdrew from the world and entered into quiet spaces.  And we can cultivate this skill, as well.

Over time, as we clear away the noise, learn to regularly meditate on the Scriptures, and converse with God as a friend, we will learn more clearly to recognize when God is speaking to us versus when we are hearing our culture or our inner desires and imaginations speak.  We’ll learn to recognize when “our hearts our burning within us” through a word of the Holy Spirit.  While God’s speaking to us will occasionally be extraordinary, most of the time it will be an ordinary whisper we hear from within or from a companion or from an encounter in God’s creation.  But when we hear it, we will have little doubt that it is a word from God because it will be a whisper that lines up with who we know Jesus has shown himself to be.  Now, while I know this may seem daunting at first, it is something we as followers of Christ can all do.  And if this is something that you are wanting to think more about and get better at, I invite you to join me for a Spring Equip class where I’ll be talking about this very subject. 

So, we are to listen to God, but we are also to bring our whole selves to God, and that brings us to the second aspect of our prayers we learn from Jesus’ prayer today – we are to bring our whole range of emotions to God.  We are not just to pray right-sounding and pious prayers where we seem all put-together, but rather, we are to share our very selves with God, who of course already knows us entirely, but is waiting for us to open ourselves to him.  Intimacy with God as in any close relationship we have requires vulnerability, and when it comes to God, nothing is off limits.  Whether we want to share the most intense joys or the deepest sorrows or our fiercest angers, God wants to hear these things from us.  He wants to celebrate with us in our joys and to mourn with us in our sorrows and to sit with us in our angers.  Now as for mourning with us in our sorrows, if there is any passage in Scripture that show us how much God relates to our sorrows, it is this passage today.  Jesus’ deep distress and sorrow at his impending death shows us that when we pray to God in our own distress and sorrow, he understands perfectly.  As the Book of Hebrews reminds us, we have a great high priest who empathizes with us.   And thus, we are to bring our whole selves before God.  Now, if this is a new idea for you, I recommend you spending time praying through the entire Psalms, where you will see that it is not only okay, but good and right to bring your whole range of emotions before the Lord.

And with that friends, it is not only okay to bring our whole range of emotions before the Lord, but it is okay and again even good to wrestle with the Lord, which is the next aspect of prayer we learn from Jesus.    In fact, we come from a long line of wrestlers in our spiritual family.  Before Jesus ever wrestled in the Garden of Gethsemane, there were others like Moses, Abraham, and Jacob who wrestled with the Lord.  They didn’t just accept their situations without a debate or struggle.  In fact, because they trusted in God’s love and faithfulness and because they were co-laborers with the Lord, they felt compelled at times to wrestle with him because their situation did not seem to fit with God’s character or promises, at least as they understood it.  And so, they entered into a wrestling match with God, and sometimes their wrestling resulted in a change in their situations that matched their desired outcomes.  And sometimes they did not.  As in Jesus’ case, God’s answer was “no”.  Interestingly enough, however, in all these situations, whether God’s answer was “yes” or “no”, these people left the wrestling match as changed people.  For example, though Jacob received his blessing he fought for, he also received a new identity and he walked with a limp from that point forward.  So, friends, wrestling with God is absolutely encouraged, but do not be surprised if you leave that encounter with God as a changed person.

And that brings us to our final aspect of prayer we learn from Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane.  One of the ways we may change in our wrestlings with the Lord is that we may come to surrender our wills to God, to accept his “no’s” to us with a sense of peace and trust, to say “yes” to God – to pray that his will would be done - even if we don’t fully understand God’s will. 

But how can we say “yes” to God?  How can we relinquish our wills, our desires, and our very lives over to God?  Well, if you are participating in our weekly Lenten prayer practice where we have been going through the Lord’s prayer line by line, you will have been praying this week that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.  And, friends, that is easy enough to pray when his will is in line with ours.  Of course, we want justice to be done, reconciliation to happen, and people all around this world to flourish. 

But what happens when God’s will stands in contrast to our own wills?  Then we draw the lines.  And yet, if over the course of our lifetimes, we come to trust more and more in God, to believe deep down in our hearts that God is good, loving, and ultimately for us, and to know that He sees a bigger picture which we just cannot grasp in the moment, then we can relinquish our wills over to God when he asks us to do so, even when it does not make sense or when at times, it will bring us future uncertainty, difficulty, or even pain. 

We can do so for we know that God has a hope and future for us.  We know that whatever lies before us, he can bring forth deep freedom in our souls and blessing to us and others.  He can redeem all our difficulties, and he can even bring resurrection out of death.    When we know this deeply in our mind, hearts, and souls; our relinquishment of our wills to God is not then about passively resigning ourselves to God’s will.  Rather, it is about releasing our will over to God with hope, which then brings us freedom, peace, resolve, and resilience. 

So, friends, as we close our time together this morning, let me ask you the following questions. When you find yourselves having a difficult time in life, either because of the brokenness of this world, your own transgressions, or your limits as a human being, are you able to trust that God has a hope and a future for you?  And when you are discerning various life decisions, both big and small, are you able to trust that God sees the big picture and then relinquish those things God is asking you to release, whether they pertain to the past, present, or future?  And then, in whatever situation you find yourself, can you walk into your future, knowing that God is always at your side and always has your back, regardless of whether your future path goes by streams of still water or through valleys of the shadow of death?

Friends, when Frank Laubach foolishly voted for his opponent and then lost his dream job or when Jesus faced the cross with its unimaginable pain, they took their situations and great anguish into prayer with God.  They did not just put on a happy face and claim faith, while suppressing what was really going on inside of them.  They wrestled deeply with God, shared their emotions and desires with God very honestly and vulnerably, and they opened their hearts to Him.  And as they did so, they heard God’s voice, and trusting in God’s goodness and love, they responded to God’s voice, relinquishing their lives to God and saying“ yes” to what God desired of them  - a future that did entail sacrifice, but also a future that meant blessing for this world. 

Friends, can we also say “yes” to God?  My prayer is that we would be able to do s, - that as we grow in the practice of prayer over the course of our lifetimes, we too will learn more and more to trust in God’s love, to recognize and respond to God’s voice, and to truly pray with our lips and with our lives, “God, not my will, but yours be done”.  May it be so.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.