Toward the end of the Gospel of Mark, we hear a story of Jesus going to a garden to pray. He asks Peter, James, and John—his friends—to keep watch with him while he prays. It seems that he is scared, that he is in need of comfort and encouragement. He even tells them: “My soul is overwhelmed, even to the point of death!”
And yet the disciples don’t seem to get just how upset Jesus is. He moves a little ways off to pray… and they fall asleep.
Now, in their defense, they had just finished the Passover feast. I’m sure that, like many of us after Thanksgiving, they were feeling full, and feeling tired. It was dark, the ground in the garden was probably very soft. The situation just lends itself so well to a nap.
But Jesus needed them to stay awake. He needed them to provide him the support that he so desperately craved.
Does this seem a little backward to you? Jesus needing someone else? Throughout the entire Gospel, it is everyone else that needs Jesus. The blind need restoration of their sight. The deaf need their ears opened, that they may hear. The paralyzed need their limbs to be healed. The demon-possessed need their spirits cleansed. Everybody needs Jesus. And Jesus gives and gives and gives. Now, though, we encounter the one time in the Gospel when Jesus needs the help of another. He knows what is coming. He knows the suffering he is about to endure for all humanity. He knows death is waiting just around the corner. And he needs to know that his beloved friends are with him.
And what do they do? They fall asleep.
Really?
Can you imagine it? How dense must they have been!
But we do that too, sometimes, don’t we? We get so wrapped up in what’s going on in our own lives that we often miss the needs and sufferings of others, sometimes even the needs and sufferings of God. Eleven days ago, Jess and I took a plane from Philly to Dallas-Fort Worth. As we took our seats and prepared for take-off, a horde of high school students boarded the plane behind us. It must have been Spring Break for them, for they were all excited and were all talking about the fun they would have.
They easily took up a third of the plane. Almost all of them were in the back third of the seats, all grouped together. Except for one guy, who for some unlucky reason was separated from his group and was seated right next to me. He was the only one of his group who did not have a smile on his face. In fact, he spent the majority of the flight crying. He would not talk to me and he ignored the flight attendants when they came around with drinks. All he wanted to do was stare out the window while he cried.
I felt horrible for this guy. I didn’t know what to do to help, and I could not believe that his classmates, seated right behind us and throughout the rest of the plane, were completely ignoring him. It didn’t seem right. Couldn’t they tell that he was suffering? Couldn’t they tell that he needed them?
Now, I don’t know this guy from Adam. I don’t know his story, and I don’t know why he was so sad on our flight to Texas. But I know what it’s like to need encouragement and comfort from my friends and know that they don’t even seem to get that something is wrong. I’m sure that if you think about it, you can easily remember a similar time in your life. We know that pain, don’t we?
But we also have probably all been in the opposite situation, haven’t we? I know looking back on my life, I can easily name a number of times when I didn’t realize until much, much later that a loved one needed me. I look back on those times when I should have been there for my friends, and it breaks my heart that I was completely oblivious to their needs. We’ve been there, too. We know the role of the disciples because it is the role that we have played all too often.
Jesus wakes them up three different times while he is praying! You’d think after the first or second time that they would have gotten he hint! Three times they go to sleep on him, and three times he wakes them up! And by then, it’s too late. The time for quiet prayer and comfort has passed, and now it is time for Jesus to be given up into the hands of those who would see him put down for good.
Can you imagine the grief that the disciples must feel, knowing that they couldn’t even stay awake during their master’s darkest moment in life? Can you imagine the shame of that moment?
There is a lesson to learn here, my friends. There is a lesson to learn from the disciples’ inability to keep watch. You see, the Gospel witnesses to this event to help us stay on our guard for when we are in similar positions. The Gospel witnesses to the disciples’ shameful napping so that we might open our eyes to the times when we tend to be oblivious to the needs of Christ in our lives.
You see, we encounter Christ every day of our lives, and have the chance to bless Christ every day of our lives. In the famous parable, Jesus reminds us that anything we do for even the least of God’s creation, we do for Christ himself. Any time we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned—any good we do to selflessly meet the needs of others—we do for Christ himself. Because of this, we will and have already encountered Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane throughout our lives. Every time we see a friend or loved one struggling to do the right thing even though it might lead to suffering, we see Jesus in the Garden. Every time we see a stranger standing up for the good of another even in the face of her own oppression, we see Jesus in the Garden. Any time we see someone burdened down by the weight of this broken world, we see Jesus in the Garden.
And like the Peter, James, and John, we have a choice: we can either do everything we can to meet the needs of this suffering Jesus, doing all in our power to comfort and encourage the master, or we can give into the temptation of the easy way out, be it turning away from the one suffering, blatantly ignoring the reality before us, or just taking a welcoming nap. We have the choice to make.
There is a lesson here, but there is also hope and grace. You see, luckily for us, this isn’t the final word of the Gospel story. The disciples messed up; they were not there for Jesus the one time he really needed them to be. But Christ redeemed these three in his resurrection, and he used them as front-runners and leaders in the Church. These three apostles go on to help change the world, spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ with everyone they meet and strengthening the church everywhere they go. They were not bound nor stifled by their shame; instead, through Christ, they were able to rise above it and learn from it.
So may we learn the lesson and accept the grace that is present in the Garden of Gethsemane. May we strive to always be seeking ways in which we can meet the need of the suffering Savior. May our ignorance be replaced by diligence, our obliviousness with awareness. And may we always remember that the shameful experiences of our past are there not to weigh us down but to spur us ahead, so that we might thrive in the grace of our God Most High. Amen.
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