In the Garden: Jesus Endures So We're Not Alone

And I think the main point of this story is that in the garden, Jesus endures darkness, abandonment, and betrayal alone so that we will never be alone in our darkest moments. That's the great reversal of the garden, that Jesus endures everything darkness has to throw at him. He endures abandonment. He endures betrayal all by himself. He is abandoned and rejected. He's alone, but he does it alone so that the promise is you will never be alone or forsaken no matter your darkest moment.

And I'm gonna ask you one of the most disruptive questions I've ever been asked. How do you imagine Jesus's face as he looks at Peter in that moment? What do you see? What do you see in your mind's eye when you imagine Jesus looking at Peter in that moment? One thing I realized about myself as I've sat with that question for years at this point is I don't actually think that much about Peter in that moment. I actually put myself in that moment. And I think about my moments of greatest shame. And I think, how is Jesus looking at me right now?

Jesus loves Peter, the Peter who denied him, three times so stinking much that he wants to reach deep into that wound and sew it up and heal it so that it's just a scar. That Peter might always have the reminder, but it doesn't have to hurt anymore. And in this moment, Jesus is beginning to plant a seed of compassion and grace and love and forgiveness in Peter's heart for the day, he'll sit with him at a fire and say, hey, can we tend to that shame now? Hey, Pete, will you let me get down deep and do that healing now?

And it says that after he prayed that that an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him. That's a sentence that we can easily miss. But we noticed that in Jesus greatest moment of anguish in the garden, God has not abandoned him. And I think that the angel coming to strengthen Jesus is a reminder. No. No. No. In Jesus moment of darkness and struggle and pain, God is very aware of what is going on even if Jesus can't see him or feel him right now because he sends an angel from heaven to strengthen him. God has not abandoned Jesus in this rough moment in the garden.

Humanity's first big fail happened in a garden when we said, God, we don't need you. We're good. And we've been messing it up ever since. Jesus here reverses what happened in that garden. Where we were faithless in a garden, Jesus is faithful. God, I don't wanna do this, but not my will but yours be done. Guys, you're letting me down and abandoning me right now but I'm not gonna leave you. There are many times in our life where it feels like we let Jesus down, places where we are faithless. But our faith is not built on our faithlessness. Our hope is built on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

There's this interesting scripture in the book of John where it says there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for their friends. And we believe that this is most evident, most extravagant, most impactfully done in the life of Jesus. But it begs the question, how? How does Jesus show us this great and profound love? And as we look at this particular account in the life of Jesus to see how he demonstrates his love for us, we need to talk about gardening. Might be the elephant in the room. You might have killed more plants. You you might be a serial plant murderer.

By everything that we see Jesus experiencing here, he is in a full down mental, physical, emotional, spiritual breakdown. He's having a panic attack up in this garden, and he's under such stress, such duress that it says that his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. Now that could mean that he was sweating like crazy. It could also mean that he was sled sweating blood. We don't know for sure, but there is this medical condition where when the body is placed under enough stress that the capillaries begin bursting and blood begins infusing into the sweat glands, and you can actually sweat blood. But the point either way is that Jesus is absolutely at the end of his rope.

There is this moment where it seems like darkness has won And Jesus even names in this moment, this is your moment darkness. Some things are gonna happen and this is the moment where it seems like darkness is gonna win out. It's episode five of the Star Wars saga. Episode four is great. It's a new hope. Right? Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star. It's gonna be great. The universe is gonna be saved. What happens in episode five? It's been out for fifty years, so I'd like to if I spoil it, I'm sorry, but you had your time. Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite right after Leia says he loves him. Luke's hand gets cut off. He found out that Darth Vader's his dad.

I think the invitation wherever you find yourself is that we would learn the practice of turning our face to a savior who's already facing you. I think that's a really cool thing about the story. Peter turns, and Jesus is already looking at him. And I believe that that is a face of love and grace and compassion. You know how I know that? Because when you look at all the interactions Jesus has after he raises from the dead, he says things like, peace be with you. He says things like, hey, can we take care of that shame? He says things like, spend some time with me.

You know, something that I love to do with that, it's really, really simple, but I one of my favorite prayers is just Jesus, help. And I'll just sit down and I'll just maybe not even set a timer. I'll just say it as many times as I need to. Jesus, help. Jesus, help. Jesus, help. You know, there's nothing magical. It's not like you say it three times and it happens. You know? That's not how that works. But there's something about how each time I say it, I'm tuning myself in a little bit more to the presence of God. It's like those old AM radios. It's like when I'm saying that, I'm I'm thinking about God.

And this is one reason why I think Jesus is worth believing. Anybody worth their salt who wants to write about a hero does not make them look like this. If you wanna make a hero who leads a movement, who changes the world, you don't show them having a panic attack in the garden. I think that that actually speaks to the validity of Jesus being who he said he was. How in the world are we still talking about a man who had a panic attack in a garden two thousand years ago? I think it's because he said is exactly who he said he was.

We come to this moment where we see Jesus in a garden, the the the Garden Of Gethsemane on the Mount Of Olives. That word Gethsemane literally means wine press or oil press. It was a place where they harvested these olives, and they would, you know, take the olives and they would squish them. They would apply extreme pressure to get out all of the beautiful ingredients to use for olive oil that they would have used in a lot of different things in the first century. So Jesus goes up, it says, as usual to this garden to pray.

Well, know, one of the things I love about church is that this is not just a show that we do. It's not just a building that we come to. That we believe that Jesus talks about the church through his word. And one of the ways he talks about it is the family of God. And what I think is super awesome about that and super fun about that is it's a lot like actually being a part of a family. If you've ever been a part of like a Thanksgiving moment or whatever, you know that things don't always go as planned.