Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
–Luke 22.39-46 (NIV)
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
–2 Peter 1.3-4 (NIV)
In today’s passages we learn from the Master himself how to handle the darkest times of our lives. The prospect of bearing the sins of the whole world so our exile and alienation from God can finally come to an end was so great for Jesus that he literally began to sweat blood! But we miss the dynamics of the story if we focus on this phenomenon.
Notice carefully that Jesus went to God in prayer for strength to bear his upcoming ordeal, an ordeal none of us could possibly bear. Yes, he asked God to take away the cup of his wrath but ultimately did what he had come to earth to do. And notice that Jesus also exhorted his disciples to do likewise. He told them to wake up, to pray, so that they would not be overcome by temptation. Jesus is essentially telling the disciples (and us) that in prayer we have all we need to help us cope with our dark hours. We have the very power of God in prayer.
Yet they did not listen. All of his disciples deserted Christ in his great hour of need. Peter went on to deny his Lord, the same man for whom he had vowed to die hours earlier in a moment of faux bravado when circumstances did not demand that he put his money where his mouth was. And we often do not listen to our Lord’s advice to go to God in prayer during our darkest hours. Why is that?
Peter tells us in today’s passage that we have been given everything we need to live lives that are pleasing to God. Yet we often go through life as if we are powerless. Why is that? I suspect one reason is that this is an affront to our human pride. We still like to kid ourselves that we are strong enough and able enough to meet every challenge in our lives. I suspect another reason is that many of us simply do not know God well enough to trust him to be good to his word. These are formidable obstacles indeed. But neither is too formidable for God to break down when we ask him to help us do so in prayer!
Prayer did not make Jesus immune from agonizing over having to bear the sins of the world on the cross, but it did keep him from giving into the temptation of not finishing his life-saving mission. It kept him faithful to the Father’s will to the very end. Neither will prayer make us immune from life’s dark hours or our agonizing over them. What prayer will do, however, is tap us into God’s power to meet life’s dark moments with grace and dignity and even joy. We no longer have to walk around with a stiff upper lip, pretending that we are immune to sorrow and hurt and suffering. No, there will be sorrow and hurt and suffering in our lives. But we can meet it all with the very power of God, the same power Jesus tapped when he faced his darkest hour, when we go to him with a humble heart in prayer and ask him to help us because we know we are helpless without him.
What about you? Are you humble enough to want to tap the very power of God in prayer to help you live your life with meaning and purpose, with grace and power sufficient for every circumstance of life, or are you still trying to play the farcical game of self-help? Scripture makes it very clear that God wants us to come to him in humility and faith so that he can help us. After all, when God came into this world as the man, Jesus, he reminded us that despite our willful alienation from him, he would rather call us back to him than accuse us. Jesus’ incarnation reminds us that God would rather love us than judge us. Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!
