Hi Paul who used to be on this list sent me this, it's good, hope you enjoy
it!
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Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 3:08 PM
Subject: Praying Through Anguish
| A friend of mine preached this sermon yesterday and I thought you would
| be blessed by it, especially in light of Maundy Thursday/Good Friday.
|
| Scripture: Luke 22:39-46
|
|
| There is so much ANGUISH in our world today.
|
| Families struggling with life and death decisions about their loved ones.
|
| Little girls abducted, abused, killed.
|
| Suicide bombers, terrorists, insurgents – killing innocent civilians and
| soldiers alike.
|
| ANGUISH permeates the news of the day, creeps into our conversations,
| dampens our joy.
|
| Certainly there is anguish about the results of natural consequences
| (tsunamis, storms, etc), but most of the pain we experience is a result
| of SIN: either our own, or caused by somebody else’s.
|
| In fact, the ANGUISH Jesus experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane that
| Passover night was also the result of somebody else’s sin: Whose? OURS.
|
| Our text says that Jesus was in anguish as he prayed in the Garden.
| About what, do you think?
|
| About the betrayal by his friends
|
| About his pending trial and crucifixion
|
| About whether his redeeming work could be done in any other way, perhaps
| a less painful way.
|
| He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.” In other
| words,, if there is ANY OTHER WAY your purpose can be accomplished,
| please let it be so.
|
| He was in anguish – literally in AGONY – because of the struggle he was
| going through.
|
| The Greek word: Agonia – agony, anxiety; generally regarding a struggle
| with evil.
|
| The Adversary had left him after the temptations in the desert, but with
| a promise to return. And now he was back.
|
| We don’t have the words of Satan recorded here, but we can imagine what
| they might have been:
|
| “They’re not worth it, the pain you’re going to suffer.”
|
| “You’re going to die for THEM? They don’t even care!”
|
| “It’s not too late to do things MY way.”
|
| And so on.
|
| And Jesus prayed. And fought against these evil darts being hurled at
| him. And prayed. And prayed…
|
| We feel so helpless in our anguish, in our anxiety.
|
| We talk with one another and seek comfort and solace.
|
| We read self-help books and seek purpose.
|
| We scan or even devour the Scriptures seeking answers.
|
| But let’s face it: there are rarely easy answers; and while the comfort
| and solace from friends is not to be minimized, the anguish always seems
| to come back.
|
| Anguish in our world, agony about our world, is our constant companion.
|
| As it was the companion of Jesus throughout his life.
|
| Jesus looked at his disciples (and us) and saw them /sleeping/, instead
| of praying.
|
| Jesus looked at his disciples (and us) and saw the devastating effects
| of /yielding to temptation/, instead of praying.
|
| Lest we be too hard on the disciples sleeping in the Garden, remember
| that they had just finished a sumptuous Passover meal, including four
| glasses of wine! and had walked up a steep hill to get to the Garden.
|
| They were exhausted! The days leading up to Passover had been exciting,
| Jesus had done some marvelous, incredible things, and regardless of what
| Jesus had said about his arrest and death, at this point most of the
| people seemed to be with them.
|
| We don’t know why Jesus is so uptight, anyway. He should just take a nap
| like the rest of us; sleep off the wine and lamb, and all will be well
| tomorrow.
|
| No anguish, no agony, just DENIAL.
|
| We live our lives like that, don’t we? Yeah, we know stuff is going on
| out there that Jesus wants us to be mindful of – but LATER, okay?
|
| The anguish is so powerful, sometimes, that all we really want to do is
| SLEEP through it.
|
| Address the masses of hungry and poor in our world? Let’s take a nap and
| deal with it later.
|
| Get involved in the lives of real sinners to lead them to truth and
| salvation? I’m sleepy; wake me up when it’s over.
|
| And the enemy says to us:
|
| “Don’t worry about it. The poor you will always have with you.”
|
| “Help the homeless, the hungry? It’s their /own/ fault they’re that way!
| Let ‘em get a job!”
|
| “Ministry of reconciliation? Why you liberal so-and-so!”
|
| On the other hand, Jesus says, “/Pray/ that you will not fall into
| temptation…Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray.”
|
| And so we see two different RESPONSES to the very real anguish that is
| in our world: that of Jesus and that of his disciples.
|
| Jesus did what? He PRAYED. He certainly invited his friends to pray with
| him, but he didn’t wait for them. He prayed and fought off the
| temptations of the evil one to do things HIS way instead of God’s.
|
| And what was God’s RESPONSE to Jesus’ praying?
| He sent an angel to strengthen him.
|
| I don’t know what Jesus’ awareness was of that particular angel, but we
| know that as he prayed, God sent a strengthening angel.
|
| How many times have you cried out to God, “Lord, give me strength!”? And
| so he did for Jesus, through the ministering angel he sent.
|
| My favorite part about this story is the intense portrayal of the
| /humanity/ of Jesus, found in the ORDER of events in this passage.
|
| Jesus prays.
| God sends the angel.
| The angel strengthens Jesus.
| Jesus continues to pray.
| THEN he sweats drops of blood.
|
| We would think that the anguish would CEASE upon the strengthening of
| the angel. But the strengthening didn’t stop the anguish, it just gave
| him more strength to /continue/ PRAYING – so hard in fact, that he sweat
| drops of blood.
|
| When we pray through the anguish of our lives, as we walk through the
| Garden with our Lord, THE ANGUISH DOESN’T GO AWAY!
|
| As long as we love God and hate sin; as long as we care about the people
| God cares about and hate the horrible conditions people live in; we will
| have anguish.
|
| But the solution to that anguish is not that demonstrated by the
| disciples, but that of Jesus himself.
|
| The disciples SLEPT in the midst of their circumstances; Jesus prayed.
|
| The disciples succumbed to temptation to deal with their issues later;
| Jesus prayed.
|
| Sure, I’m tempted to turn it all off and sleep – either literally or
| figuratively.
|
| But I have to remind myself that Jesus went through that anguish FOR ME,
| for MY sins, for MY redemption, to enable me to live a different kind of
| life.
|
| He didn’t sleep and turn away from the anguish; he EMBRACED it.
|
| “He took up OUR pain and bore OUR suffering…he was pierced for OUR
| transgressions and crushed for OUR iniquities…By his wounds, WE are
healed.”
|
| Sure the anguish in our world will always be there until Messiah returns.
|
| But I have to wonder what would happen if I prayed for my world as Jesus
| prayed for his; I have to wonder how God could use me if I stayed awake,
| and prayed, and strengthened by his angels, continued to pray for the
| anguish in our world.
|
| I wonder.
|
|
