"And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, 'So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?'" (Matthew 26:40)
As part of my daily alone time with God in the mornings, I will often incorporate the classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. My earliest memory of enjoying this book goes back to early 80's, and my copy is literally falling apart! Yesterday's entry, Sept 5, started off with the phrase “Watch with Me,” but then went off in Oswald Chamber's direction.
This took me into my own contemplation of what occurred at the Garden of Gethsemane and leading straight to the cross and crucifixion.
Jesus was alone.
How poignant a scene it is, that as Jesus asks His closest friends and companions for help at this excruciatingly painful time – the time that had finally “come” - they simply can’t muster it up. I know there were many forces at work here – certainly, satanic opposition at its highest level yet, since Satan was all too keenly aware that Jesus completing his mission would trigger his ultimate destruction – but here, in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the “aloneness of the cross” for Jesus Christ begin.
First, His disciples; His closest companions.
Next, God the Father Himself, as necessary to accomplish the propitiation for our sins.
Jesus is alone. And, in the context of the trinity, God Himself is left alone. Alone to suffer an agony unlike any agony that has been or ever will be.
We know the absence of God the Father in the death of the Son was imperative for the sacrifice to work; we know the raw and brutal fact that in order to satisfy justice and righteousness the Father had to turn His back on His Son so that His sinless Son could pay the debt for all sin, but that even Jesus’ closest followers with Him in the garden were unable to be there for Him – in this moment when He was in such distress that He was sweating great drops of blood - is appallingly disgraceful.
It does represent, however, the fickleness and folly of sinful man. As I shake my head over the behavior of the disciples on that darkest of nights, I understand that I am cut from the same cloth and am quite sure I would have done no differently.
This is unspeakable and unthinkable, and yet it is. To consider that our Creator, the God of the universe, the God of eternity, the King of kings and LORD of lords, the Prince of peace, should not be loved so fervently and loyally as His exquisite Person commands; and yet, it is the story of His life since the time of the fall in that first garden, the Garden of Eden.
We are not trusted friends and companions. We disappoint. We don’t fully see Him in His splendor and, so, fall pitifully short of demonstrating the steadfastness of solidarity with Him that should characterize those of us who call Him our LORD and Savior.
Dear LORD, I pray I may be a more trustworthy companion, friend, disciple, and child to You as You go about the monumental task of being God. May I not disappoint in love and loyalty, and when I do, may I not be overly discouraged with myself but, like Peter, embrace not only Your precious, abundant forgiveness but your loving, overflowing, selfless encouragement to me!
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