St. Matthew 26:36-46
Dearly beloved,
The prayer in Gethsemane is a major part of Christ’s life. It is the
beginning of His passion. It is here that Jesus becomes deeply
distressed and becomes very sorrowful, even to death, says St.
Matthew. It is here that we begin to notice the difficulty that Jesus
perceives.
Jesus did not want to be alone that night. Jesus takes his three
closest friends, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee—James, and John.
He needs companionship in these dark hours which loom overhead in a
garden. Jesus tells them to wait for him where they were standing and
then Jesus walks a little farther, then falls down on His face and
prays. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”
It is in this statement that we see the depth of Christ’s
understanding of his coming suffering. It is this cup of suffering
which looms overhead. Jesus knows this is why He has come. The Old
Testament testifies to it. David sang, “For in the hand of the Lord
there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and He pours out from
it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the
dregs”(Psalm 75:8). Isaiah foretold as well that this cup would pass
from the people, “Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads
the cause of His people: ‘’Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup
of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more”(Isaiah
51:22).
This cup is foaming wine, well mixed or shaken, highlighting violence
and in the cup is the Heavenly Father’s wrath for sin. The cup of
wrath rightly is for mankind to drink of, but it is Jesus who sees the
cup. Jesus understands all too well what the heavenly Father’s wrath
is, for Jesus is God and one with the Father. This leads to our
problem. We don’t understand this wrath well enough. Jesus trembles,
His sweat is like blood. He wants the cup to pass. What did He
understand about the cold emptiness of hell and the burning hunger
that consists of hell?
We are all too willing to set the wrath aside. We are all too
complacent in our sins. We do not have an understanding of the depths
of God’s wrath. It is our own spiritual apathy that wounds Christ.
We see this with the disciples. There lies Peter, James and John
sleeping during Christ’s suffering in the garden. They do not
understand the depth of God’s wrath, either.
Jesus tells them to watch. Then He goes away a second time and then
concedes, “My Father if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will
be done.” What changed His discourse with the Father? This time Jesus
is conceding to it, and accepting the Father’s will. Why? Perhaps it
was what He found in His closest friends just yards away. Peter,
James and John had no idea what the wrath of God felt like. Here we
see just how much Jesus Christ loves His people. Jesus is as Jesus
does: He gives Himself over to suffering for those whom He loves.
One look at the three disciples and He has pity on them even though
He feels the sorrow so deeply. We could not do this. So, Jesus
returns a second time to find them sleeping again and this time He
tells them not only to watch but to pray as well. He concerns Himself
again with their welfare when He is suffering. He tells them that He
doesn’t want them to fall into temptation. Jesus goes off to pray a
third time and returns to find them sleeping yet again.
Jesus lets them sleep. He knows that He must do this alone. In the
hour of His greatest need, Jesus has already been abandoned by the
spiritual apathy of His followers. Only Jesus can drink this cup of
wrath. We are not all that different from the three disciples. It is
our tendency to be spiritually apathetic when we should be watching
and praying. We tell ourselves that we can always pray later, but we
never do. We can read the scriptures later on in the day, but the day
gets away from us.
We should go to the Divine Service to have the Lord’s Supper, but
that can wait until next week. Jesus went forward to drink the cup of
wrath, that foaming, shaken wine of violence. Jesus found peace with
it while He prayed. Our peace comes from Jesus Christ. You don’t
know what Jesus understood about the cup of wrath, but thanks to His
atoning sacrifice for the world, you never have to know what He
understood. You have been freed from that cup, but you have been
given another cup to drink from, the cup of thanksgiving. You drink
from the cup of salvation. This is no mere symbolism, but Christ
Himself poured into the cup. The wrath was drank by Jesus and then He
fills the cup with forgiveness and peace.
All of this gives meaning and thought to the 23rd Psalm. “You
prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; you anoint
my head with oil, my cup overfloweth.” Drinking the cup of blessing
which we bless, as St. Paul says, is the overflowing cup of the Lord’s
Supper. Jesus didn’t institute the Lord’s Supper just on a whim,
because it sounded like the thing to do.
Jesus gave the cup of blessing to the church because He exchanged
cups with us. We feast on the cup of heaven and holiness—we gather at
the eternal banquet which is rightly meant for God. It is this cup of
thanksgiving that is rightly God’s cup, but He made the switch and the
evidence in the garden were three poor, naïve, uninformed, and weak
disciples who represented all of us. “The Spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak.”
For you this night, I proclaim the love of Christ. His love runs so
deep that He sacrifices Himself for you. Your sins and the wrath from
them have been consumed. You have forgiveness, holiness, and the
peace of God coming to you. So, as we ponder His suffering and His
sacred head wounded in so many ways, we are reminded that we share an
inheritance every time we drink from the cup of the Eucharist. So as
we prepare our hearts on this Lenten journey, let us give humble and
repentant thanks to Him who gave up peace and joy in order to give it
to us. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
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