36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, Sit here, while I go over there and pray. 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me. 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand. Matthew 26:36-46 Lets pray. This afternoon I want to begin talking about our Red Letter Prayer by talking about the significance of the location of this prayer. As we get closer to the holy week ourselves, I want to point out here that our prayer today jumps from where we left off last week, which was, Lord, let your will be done. That will, as we understood yesterday, was to forgive like God forgives so that it looks like heaven here on earththat is as a place of reconciliation and being with God. When we pray, we understand the will of God to bring heaven onto earth, is a powerful prayer because it is asking God to give us the freedom and ability to forgive people so that we can be reconciled to God and to ourselves. Again we see in this passage that Jesus says, let your will be done. But he says in a place which, when put into the backdrop of Jesus prayer, makes the prayer ironic. What I mean by that is this: they were at Gethsemane. Gethsemane in the Greek literally means, oil press. Ironically enough, Jesus was at the base of the mount of olives in Jerusalem and he was literally going to be pressed, as we all know is the Easter story. Let me push this idea a little bit. The significance of the olive oil trade in that time period was crucial. Olive oil, and having it, was the lifeblood of the economy and of home economics. You needed olive oil for pretty much everything. The thing about olive oil was that you would have to kill the olives, literally mashing it to death, in order to produce life giving oil. This was the fate Jesus was about to suffer and he knew this. The irony here is that our red letter prayer, the passion he will live through, starts at the place where they take life away to give life. Like I said last week about powerful prayers: they happen in the earnestly between you and God. In verse 37, we find that Jesus only takes Peter, James and John. Then, in verse 38, we learn that Christ leaves them some distance away before going to a place where he can pray in private. His prayer was a devotion that he took into private. Not because he couldnt have prayed with his disciples, but because prayer was Jesus communion with God. Let me read to you what John Calvin wrote on this matter about why Jesus walks alone further and prayers as opposed to praying with his disciples: It is useful to pray apart; for then the faithful soul develops itself more familiarly, and with greater simplicity pours forth its petitions, groans, cares, fears, hopes and joys, into the bosom of God. Here is todays red letter prayer: My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. There are two things going on here when Jesus prays this within his mind. I say two things because there are at least two things that I can think of that are obviously bouncing around. Im sure a lot of you can think of more things that are going on his head, but I cant. The first thing going on in his mind is that the weight of burden he is carrying, because at this point already, Jesus is the figurative scapegoat according to Old Testament religion; but he is feeling the pressure of that on his soul and in his heart. Let me compare that to something all of us would understand. It is like taking care of somebody who cant take care of themselves, either because theyre too old to do so or theyre too young to do so or because theyre your loved ones and you cant abandon your own, for whatever reason, the burden is on you to help them through. This is that type of burdenthat is unshakeable. The problem is this, and this is what Jesus is feeling. Why do I need to do this? I didnt cause this problem. Why am I holding the ball for it? Isnt this how a lot of us feel in our families and maybe even at work? Except what Jesus is feeling is the evil intentions and negativity and all the wrongdoings, whereas we are just feeling the obligations of filial piety. Different story altogether, well get into it another time. Secondly, what Jesus is feeling when he is saying this is: how can I do this without dying? Lets be honest. Jesus didnt WANT to die. He knew he HAD to die. Heres where Im going to conclude for today. I want us to understand one last thing about this prayer in Gethsemane. Jesus second line is this: My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. So, this red letter prayer is said when there is an obligation to sacrifice. I want you to keep that in mind because it was not Jesus intention to want to die. If there was another way, that other way would have been sought out after. But there was no other way. This is what the Bible is telling us here. The good news is not that Jesus died, per se. What I mean by that before you start calling me a heretic is that the good news of Jesus Christ is that the result of his cruxification and resurrection were that our sins be forgiven and us granted eternal life in Christ. However, the cost of that good news was the life of Gods only Son, Jesus in whom He was well pleased. There was no other way and thats the way it HAD to be done to fulfill the sacrificial law system. We need to understand that. Sometimes in our lives, we have to understand that for Gods good, we need to pay dearly. Because we need to pay dearly, yes it will cost us, we need to pray this prayer of, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. This means that were telling God that were ready to submit to what God has in store for us. What Jesus teaches us about prayer is that, its not only asking God to do His will, it is our conversation and agreement with God to submit to what He wants. Thats my point today. Praying leads to our submission to God. More than that, it gives us the strength for our souls. Psalm 138:3 says it the best, On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased. Its obvious, I know it is. Youve heard this from your parents and your teachers for years. But, but, but, let me tell you that when we dont pray this sincerely, we can fall into a temptation. Im not talking about sin, and that temptations to do bad things because were constantly doing bad things anyways. Im talking about the temptation for us to think that when we pray that we have Gods intention in mind and that our prayers will in some way or form lead to our will being done through Gods hand. This works vice versa too, the temptation is to believe that Gods will for us will not hurt. Gods will can hurt. It can hurt a lot. Its hard to imagine here in America, but in other countries, believing in God and following Gods will hurts, it costs people a lot, if not everything. Even in my own family, when my father chose to convert to Christianity from the traditional Confucian Buddhism, our nuclear family got disowned by the larger family body. We were disowned for nearly 20 years. My grandparents didnt even acknowledge my brother or myself until we were in college. Yeah, true story. The Apostle Paul has a similar story in Acts 21. He is told in prayer that when he goes to Jerusalem, hell be bound like a pig going to roast at a luau and thats how he will die. His famous words, Let the will of the Lord be done.
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