Matthew 26:36-46: A Maundy Thursday Reflection

As we read this very moving passage of the Holy Scripture, we can understand it a couple of different ways:

First, we could understand it as if Jesus was simply complying with a script that was written out long ago in the plan of Almighty God. Like a play that God had written out, and Jesus had to fulfill his part. If you read it this way, the actions of human beings are predetermined as well. Whether the human being is Judas, or the chief priests of the soldiers or the disciples or Jesus.

But, there is another way to understand it. And, that is in a dramatic way, as if this account in scripture gives us a picture of the real dynamic relation between the will of human beings and the will of God. As if God and humans have a real relationship and interaction such that God acts towards humans, humans respond to God and God reacts to humans as well. In this view of things everything is not clearly planned out ahead of time. The actions of human beings are not predetermined by a set plan, but represent the true choices and responses of human beings to the actions of God.

The old Calvinists or Presbyterians were prone to read about all things in life as the working out of God’s predetermined plan for human beings. And, to be fair to the old Presbyterians, there is a real emphasis on predestination and predetermination in scripture. You can actually see this emphasis at specific points in the Gospel narratives. Like when the scriptures report that Jesus says: “the Son of man must suffer and die to fulfill the scriptures.” So, there is some real support in scripture as this emphasis on predetermination and predestination of human affairs by God is represented in the Bible.

But, there is another emphasis represented in the Bible as well. It is an emphasis on the remarkable give and take between God and humanity, the dynamic assertion of the Divine will and the response of the human will and the reaction of the Divine will to humans – the back and forth of a real relationship. And, these emphases in scripture, that are really there too were partly picked up on by the Methodists and Baptists who emphasized the real assertion of human will involved, the freedom of human choice and the importance of it in the working out of history, particularly sacred history.

The Baptist and Methodist traditions pick up on one half of the drama – the dynamic role of the human will, but don’t’ pick up any better than Presbyterians the dynamic character of God’s will. And, this emphasis on thehuman will that Methodists and Baptist speakof is really in scripture as well. Surely Jesus’ appeal for humans to repent and believe in the Gospel of God would have been a fairly meaningless appeal if he didn’t expect that humans had the ability to choose or will this repentance and belief. At some level, Jesus felt he could speak and actually get some response from human beings or he wouldn’t have asked for it. But, there are two views represented in scripture itself. To read it otherwise is to simply raise our theology above the Holy Scripture.

But, there is something even deeper in scripture that I don’t think the old Presbyterian and old Methodist traditions emphasize. And, that is the dynamic character of God shown to us in scripture and revealed to us in faith. The dynamic character of the will of God. John Wesley started coming near to this in his older age, when he basically said: “I used to be so sure I understood everything; now I am the opposite. I don’ t feel that I understand anything or am sure about anything but what is revealed to me directly by God.” The old traditions of Protestantism present a static picture of God. The old Presbyterian way presents God as way up there in heaven with his inscrutable plan that will be worked out no matter what and no matter what humans will. God watching his predetermined plan working out. The old Methodist or Baptist way has God with his predetermined plan as well, but leaves it up to humans how they want to accept or reject that plan.

But, we really need to get back to the raw truth of the Bible,thewitness to something real and dynamic that escapes our theological rationalizations. And, an honest reading of the Bible sees the process of theological rationalization already at work. Right there in scripture with the picture ofJesus falling to the ground and asking desperately ofGod: “Father,if it is possible, let this cup pass from me . . . “ Now to act like Jesus just calmly walked towards his destiny and didn’t struggle with it is to ignore this passage. And, it is to ignore and devalue the struggle of Jesus to obey God, a flesh and blood struggle. And, to act as if it was just all planned out way ahead of time, and God was just sitting up in heaven watching it unfold, is very irreverent to the pain and struggle that God went through to come down to humanity,enter into our mess, and work out our salvation.

But, the very heart of the Bible and the heart of faith shows a God who is not static, but who is dynamic, who responds to human willing, a God who seeks humanity and changes his way of approaching as necessary to break through and save human beings. And, if you are still on board with me, and if you read this scripture today with eyes and ears open to the dynamic character of God in responding to human beings, and the dynamic character of the human response as well, the reading of this passage becomes a deeply moving event. Because it reveals a drama, a real drama at the core of this world’s history and reality. The drama of the Living God struggling with remarkable passion and grace to save a humanity that God loves, a humanity that has a will that is prone to reject God’s efforts to save, but a humanity that has something deep down that craves the saving grace of God. And, a humanity who is represented by Jesus, the Christ, who has a dynamic human will in response to God. “He fell on his face and prayed: ‘Father, if it is possible,let this cup pass from me, but not my will but thy will be done.”

Listen to what is going on here at the center. Jesus has come before God in deep sorrow because he senses the end of life, the suffering, the pain and separation of death that is coming to him and his friends. Jesus senses a certain sense of alienation and separation even from his God. Look closely at what is revealed in this scripture without simply taking it in in the traditional way. Jesus comes before God and prays, seeking communion with God. And, the first time Jesus appears to be asking to be spared from this way of suffering. “Father. Let this cup pass from me if it be possible, but not my will, but thy will be done.” There is a lot in that verse. It shows that Jesus has a human will that is separate and independent from God’s will – a real human will. Otherwise it would make no sense for him to speak of the difference in his will and God’s will and of being willing to submit his human will to God’s will. At this time, so near the arrest and crucifixion, it shows that Jesus does not have a completely clear view of what God’s will is. And, I know there is that other emphasis on how Jesus told his disciples that the Son of Man must suffer and die, etc., but I’ve already talked about the two different emphases in scripture. Here is the deepest. Our Lord first asked if this path of suffering and humiliation and pain for him and those who followed him might be avoided. Second, Jesus went and prayed a second time, which indicates that Jesus did not receive a clear answer from God, but the words of his second prayer are a bit different, showing that Jesus was gaining a sense of what God’s will was. The second time he prays: “If it is not possible for this cup to pass from me, let your will be done.” He doesn’t mention his will, only God’s. But, still there is not a clarity of communion that Jesus normally seemed to have with God throughout his life. Because, Jesus goes to pray a third time, being deeply troubled. Again he prays: “If it is not possible for this cup to pass from me, let your will be done.” And, I sense that there is more resolution in this third prayer, as Jesus now seems to see what is to be.

And, I get the sense that Jesus is experiencing a distance from God that he had never experienced. A distance that would become unbearable on the cross causing him to cry out: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” This is a real witness to the real struggle of the one holy human being to have ever lived on this earth, the one human who is also the very Son of God. But, we do not honor this mystery rightly unless we realize the real struggle, the real human struggle that Jesus went through. And, the real struggle that God went through.

There is the withdrawal and even silence of God that we cannot even imagine. We have to stop at that doorway. We cannot enter to imagine the suffering of God who heard the cries and saw the pain of his very Son Jesus, and remained silent. We will never know what it costs God in that completely pure heart of God. God, who though he was master of the universe suffered the death of his own son. It really causes us to break down inside if this truth ever gets through to our souls. God is so holy and so pure of heart and so good and so humble. The human race doesn’t deserve this wonderful a God, or doesn’t seem to. But, then Jesus is a part, the very head of the human race, and look at his goodness and his holiness, being really like God in his heart. And, there are the little children of the human race who show a profound goodness and purity that reminds us of God’s goodness. And, every now and then even you and I show some of that purity of heart and goodness in our lives.

And, maybe God is not so hard to understand afterall. God is love. God is just so good and so pure, we tend to avoid him even though we need him so badly. We also tend to forget the simply goodness inside of ourselves because the world would make us ashamed of that. God loves as one who endures and persists in loving. Some of us have experienced the love of others that has endured even through our sins. Some of us have known the love of our mothers or fathers that has endured our shameful behavior. Some of us have given our own family members pain, so much suffering and pain and then experienced that we couldn’t conquer their love for us. Some of us may have done that for others – loved them when they were loveless until somehow hearts of stone were changed to hearts of flesh. Some of us have experienced and even passed on the love of the Father for the Prodigal Son. God comes to us and through us. In his will to save, in God’s active love that will not give up on human beings, God moves to embrace us – when we are alone, when we are with others, and God moves to embrace others through our perservering love as well.

God doesn’t simply offer his love as some plan of salvation and wait up in heaven to see if we want to accept it or not. That’s the Four Spiritual Laws God, not the God of the Bible and God of our hearts. God will go to any depth to save. That’s what our passage reveals. God will even suffer the humiliation of his beloved Son, Jesus, to reclaim human beings, to break the power of sin in our lives. What Jesus was really asking was: “Father, does it really have to go this far? Is this suffering and pain and humiliation necessary? Are my fellow human beings really in such desperate need to require us to go this far to save? If they are Father, I will do your will, to honor you and to save my race. I love you Father. I will drink the cup that is given me. If I need to go this path for you to enter into and change human hearts, I will do it Lord. O God, have mercy on me. Go with me, O God, remember that I am flesh and blood. Amen.”

And, when God heard that prayer, it must have broken the heart of God a thousand times over. Because God saw again the profound goodness that he had meant for the human race. He saw the beauty that he had intended for all human beings. He saw it in Jesus, the Christ of God. God had continued to believe in a good destiny for human beings. But, now surely God’s heart was fortified. Jesus had given back to God the greatest gift humanity could ever give. And, God being so humble and gracious passed on this gift to all the world. Amen.