Who can stay awake in this night of God? Who will not be as if paralyzed by it? Jesus' friends were protected from its terrors by a profound sleep. Luke, the doctor, and other witnesses speak of a "bloody sweat" which fell on the ground from the wakeful, imploring...
Jesus experienced the silence of God in the company and companionship of his closest friends. Did they fail him? Yes, perhaps here more than anytime earlier in his ministry, but they did not fail him completely, at least not yet. They were with him--awake or asleep,...
When the ground crumbled beneath him, when the desperation screamed inside him, when the darkness blanketed around him Jesus stumbled with tortured sound. Laborious sweat dripped off his brow. Blinding tears streaked from his eyes. The weight of his fate shuddered him...
With the lingering taste of bread and wine, broken bread and empty cup, Jesus stared into the depths of the cup before him, the cup filled to the brim with suffering and death, even more, dereliction and abandonment. Agony filled Gethsemane. from A Scandalous...
It helps me to remember that Jesus prayed for a miracle on the night before He died. “For you all things are possible,” he prayed to his Abba. “Remove this cup from me.” Only when he opened his eyes the cup was still there. Did he lack faith? I do not think so. The...