Buechner: Remembering Maundy Thursday
“‘WHAT YOU ARE GOING to do,’ Jesus says, ‘do quickly.’ … Jesus tells them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death,’ and then asks the disciples to stay and watch for him while he goes off to pray. … His prayer is, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will but what thou wilt,’—this tormented muddle of a prayer which Luke says made [Jesus] sweat until it ‘became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.’ He went back to find some solace in the company of his friends then, but he found them all asleep when he got there. ‘The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,’ he said, and you feel that it was to himself that he was saying it as well as to them.”—Frederick Buechner, “Last Supper” in The Faces of Jesus: A Life Story (Paraclete Paress, 1974).
gethsemane adam abram
We continually struggle with our own humanity. So many spiritual friends I meet, including myself, spend a lifetime seeking perfection. Holy Week is a time to remember Jesus’ struggle with his humanity, as best told in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. On Maundy Thursday in these Gospels, Jesus reveals how complex the human condition is. As he asks for this cup to pass, he sweats “blood.” On Good Friday, he suffers more, cries out in anguish, thirsts, and even asks God, “Where are you?”
A massive painting of Jesus praying at Gethsemane hung at the front of the sanctuary inside the Methodist Church where I grew up in Virginia. The image of Jesus praying in the Garden differs from other references to his praying in the Gospels. There is a thorn bush beside him. The sleeping disciples in the distance are barely discernible. This time, Scripture connects us to the human side of Jesus, which will soon be abandoned. This is an image to keep when we pray through challenging situations and feel alone.
We can talk to and identify with Jesus and others who have had similar experiences. I often see this in grief recovery groups, where people listen to each other because the other person has some idea of the pain they are going through. I see this in twelve-step groups, where alcoholics, addicts, and co-dependents listen to others who walk a similar path. How amazing that our God loves us so deeply that God came to be among us. This week, we especially remember that God has experienced and understands what suffering and being human are like. There is no greater love.
I see each of us praying, sometimes in agony, beside Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Unlike the disciples, we have some idea of the harm before us. I imagine each of us beside Jesus praying in the garden that “this cup will pass.” He is beside us, knowing and experiencing exactly what we are going through. There is no greater love than His presence.
message of Gethsemane St. Mary Magdelne gilbert az
Joanna joannaseibert.com. https://www.joannaseibert.com/