I am very aware that I haven’t managed to post my weekly Bible studies in recent months – I am sorry. Hoping to rectify that, as best I can, I decided to post today. There will be some Easter reflections starting on Palm Sunday. For now, I felt that what Jesus shows us about how to handle difficulties in the Garden of Gethsemane is so pertinent for today, when we can be overcome with grief, shock, bewilderment and pain at the state of our world. I will be reflecting on Matthew 26:36–56. For another reflection on the Garden, please click here.

Honesty and wrestling before his Father

Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, keeping his closest friends with him. When he is with just them, he is able to share freely the anguish he is going through (v38). He asks for his friends to simply be there for him while he goes and wrestles with his Father. What a powerful passage this is: we see Jesus’ humanity, but also his absolute determination to follow through with the plan of salvation. But how hard must it have been to carry the weight of that, then look to his closest friends for a bit of support … only to find they have fallen asleep. I wonder, do we ask for help when we need it? And are we faithful friends to others when they ask for help from us?

A model for us all

Jesus provides a really helpful model to us here on how to handle difficulties: pour all the emotion out to God, spend time waiting in prayer, then submit to him afresh. Too often we can try and work out the answers to our problems and difficulties without looking to God for his advice and direction. But, even before that, we need to take the time to be honest about how we are feeling, and process our raw emotions before God. It is too easy to either allow ourselves to be overwhelmed or dictated to by them, or to squash them down and hope they will go away. But God knows that we need time for processing – especially when we face the most excruciating of circumstances. Jesus’ actions in the Garden of Gethsemane provide a powerful guide on how to do that.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for your honesty, and for wrestling so openly with your Father. I take comfort from knowing that you too needed to be vulnerable in that way before God – and your friends. I pray that you will help me to bring before God those things that are troubling me today. Help me also to ask for support where I truly need it. Amen.