HAVE YOU HAD A GETHSEMANE

HAVE YOU HAD A GETHSEMANE

Mat 26:36-46 Records Jesus prayer in Gethsemane. A time he was so burdened that he took his twelve disciples with him to pray.

I was reading on the internet recently and was captivated by a short post. It doesn’t always take a multitude of words to express a poignant thought. I never met the individual. I only read his request. He was in need of prayer. He could have done what so many of us do and just say, “Please pray for me today, it is going to be a rough one?” Or something of that nature. But his was more than that. He was in a foreign country (foreign to me though it could have been his home). He had a menial job but obviously a job that was critical to his continuance. And things had gone rather badly that day.

His request for prayer struck me not because of any profound situation or discovery. It struck me because of its simplicity and heartfelt urgency. In his deepest need his mind went to those he felt were prayer warriors, those accustomed to reaching the hem of God’s garment. He knew he had to get into the presence of God and he called on his friends to help. It was in this scene, a man in deep need calling on a few Godly friends to help shoulder the burden, that I was reminded of Gethsemane.

Did you ever look closely at the path to Gethsemane? I don’t mean the actual physical path, I have never seen that either. No, I mean the path that Jesus took with his disciples that night, the journey into the garden, the emotional trek that brought Jesus there that evening. You see, Jesus went there with his disciples with a heavy burden on his heart. He brought the disciples as spiritual reinforcement. However, in verse 36 we are told that he left 9 of them in the garden entrance. Did you ever wonder why? I can only imagine Jesus already knew they would not be able to bear his Gethsemane burden.

In verse 37 we discover that he does take three of his disciples with him. Peter, James and John were hand selected by the Master to come to his aid in what might have been his darkest hour. Oh what a blessing. Imagine being one who Jesus would go to when he needed help to shoulder a burden. The end of verse 37 says Jesus was all but overcome with sorrow as it weighed heavy upon him. One might imagine he would be alright now because he had his most spiritual friends by his side. And we should be able to make that assumption. Surely, Peter, James and John will pray with their Lord throughout the evening. I have no doubt they wanted to but then we come to verses 38-46 and see them overcome with sleep.

Three times Jesus goes into the heart of the garden to pray and three times he comes back to find his disciples asleep. Isn’t that like us? When the young man I mentioned earlier needed help he asked his friends, hand chosen friends, to pray for him because he was in serious need. And I had to ask myself, if I were one of the men he had asked to pray for him where would I be? Would I be one left at the entrance as one whose prayer is known to be ineffective? Or, would I walk on for a time with him only to fall asleep when it was most critical?

I want to be one who stays awake, prays earnestly for friends and family all through the night without slumber. I want to be the one they call on when a prayer simply must get through. But I believe before we can be men and women of prayer like Peter, James and John were called to be we must first have our own Gethsemane. We must be the one in need of prayer. We must be the one so burdened that the stress and heaviness of the burden forces the blood to seep from our pores.  We must be the ones who seek the aid of others to help shoulder our burdens.

I am convinced that we cannot shoulder the burden of others until our shoulders have been weighed down by the sorrows of Gethsemane, until we have prayed all the night through in our own distress. The disciples will later become great men of prayer. But right now as we see them with Christ and hear his words, “Peter, what, could ye not watch with me one hour?” we are prone to wonder if they will ever mature, ever grow in their own faith. They do. They learned what it means to pray the night through.

Have you prayed the night through? If your friend needed prayer would you be left at the gate, asleep in the garden, or weighed down in prayer until the morning light?

Have you had a Gethsemane?