Lent is a distinctive season of the Church year. In Lent, we follow Jesus to Jerusalem and to the cross. Lent is also a glorious season of the Church year, but its glory is hidden in the cross. Those who don’t take Lent seriously will never see God’s glory.
This evening, we examine how God’s glory is hidden under the Savior’s sighs. The sighs that end on the cross are the heart and core of what God has to say to us. This evening, we follow Jesus to the dark Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. There we see how seriously Jesus took Lent.
Jesus tells His disciples, and us with them, to watch and pray as He prepares for the momentous struggle that is about to begin. Just look at how difficult this struggle was for Jesus. Look at Him in the garden. He throws Himself facedown on the ground. He sees all that is about to take place. Even as He prays, His dear friend Judas is selling Him out for a few pieces of silver.
Soon comes the trial. Soon comes the insults and the spitting. Soon comes the beatings and the whipping. Soon comes the crushing weight of the cross. Then comes the nails in his hands and feet. Then comes hanging on the cross naked, in shame, the object of ridicule and mockery. And then death.
But that isn’t even half of it. Abandoned by all and comforted by none, all the evil, all the sin, and all the vice of the whole world will be dumped on Jesus.
Oh, what love Jesus shows for us! In our mind’s eye, we are in the garden with the disciples. And what are they doing? Don’t they hear Jesus cry? Don’t they see the blood and sweat pouring off His anguished forehead? Don’t they wrestle with God in prayer before the supreme struggle of the universe begins? Don’t the disciples take Lent and the cross seriously? After all, Jesus is enduring this out of love for them, for all of us.
But no! Look! The disciples are sleeping. They aren’t watching with Jesus. They do not join Him in prayer. They do not struggle even to stay awake. Isn’t that appalling? Luke tells us that they were sleeping, “exhausted from sorrow” (v. 45). The whole day was just too much for them.
It’s surprising that Jesus doesn’t simply give up in disgust and say, “If that’s all you care about Lent and about what I am going through for you, then forget it! I’ll go back to the praises of the angels that I enjoyed before the world began. You disciples aren’t worth the effort!”
Oh, how those words would sting our ears. For we know all too well the sleep of the disciples. We’re experts when it comes to thinking little of Lent. It’s easier to stay home than to keep the Lenten vigil. Besides, we already know about Jesus’ suffering and death. We won’t be missing much. Oh, the shame of our apathy!
Jesus knows our excuses. He sees our indifference toward Him and His cross! He saw it in His disciples. He sees it in us. And what does Jesus say in answer?
Jesus answered our excuses and indifference with this prayer in the garden, “not my will, but Yours be done” (v. 42). Jesus carried out His Father’s will to earn forgiveness, even for our indifference, carelessness, and the times we’ve “fallen asleep” on Jesus. That is His true glory. That is the glory of the cross hidden in the Savior’s sighs. That’s the glory that redeems us for all eternity from death and the grave, from hell and eternal sighs of anguish and despair. Because of His deep love for us, Jesus took Lent and the cross seriously with every particle of His strength.
May we, too, take Lent and the cross seriously as we follow Jesus. And how do we do that? How do we take Lent seriously? Jesus told the disciples, and He tells us: “Watch and pray, so you will not fall into temptation” (v. 40; Matthew 26:41). “Watch and pray, so you will not fall” into the devil’s trap and snare.
Again, we have to pay close attention to Jesus’ words. Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples to watch and pray, so they can help Him bear the cross for the sins of the world. No, Jesus must bear the cross for our salvation alone!
Jesus tells the disciples to watch and pray because of the deep danger and the strong struggle that lies before them. They too must bear a cross. They too must endure a formidable battle. And the devil is waiting for them, eager to snare them in his trap. If they do not listen to Jesus, they will have no armor of defense. If they do not “watch” by filling the eyes of their hearts and souls with Jesus, then they will fall into the trap of the devil. Yes, without Jesus, all would be lost.
For the disciples still must suffer because of Jesus. The day would come when others would despise and persecute them because of Jesus. The day would come when they, too, would bear a cross and their glory would also be hidden in sighs of pain and groans of sorrow. Suffering would even come to them that night in the garden. Temptation would also come.
When Jesus was arrested, the devil attacked. And they all failed. They ran away and hid! How loving of them! How loyal! At the first whiff of trouble, they are gone. Peter, the strongest and boldest, denies Jesus with loud oaths and curses. The rest, except for John, just disappear into the woodwork.
If they had only listened! If they had only watched with Jesus and prayed as He told them to do. Oh, they still would have suffered. But they would have suffered in hope. The Word of Jesus would have strengthened them. Jesus would have supported them every step of the way by His answer to their prayers for strength and help.
But the disciples didn’t listen. They didn’t fill the eyes of their hearts and souls with Jesus. Because they didn’t cry out for help, they spent those next days filled with tears, fear, and despair.
So in whose footprints will you put your feet? Jesus bids us to “watch and pray,” as well. The disciples took their feet out of the footpath to the cross and turned aside to sleep. If we flee when our time comes to carry a cross, we will carry it with much greater sorrow than needed. Worse yet, we may be so filled with sorrow at the cross God asks us to bear that we may cast it aside. We could fall and fail. We could deny Him and chase after the sin of the moment instead of suffering with Him while we wait for the glory of the resurrection.
Perhaps, you already know this from painful experience. Think of the times in your life when temptation was strong and you stumbled and fell. Why was that? It wasn’t the will of God that you should fall. It was because you didn’t “fix your eyes on Jesus, the founder and finisher of your faith.” You did not pray as you should have.
Remember the prayer that Jesus bids us to pray with the disciples in the garden. It is the prayer that we will not fall into temptation. It is the prayer that we watch with Him so He and His grace would fill our eyes, hearts, and minds. It is the prayer that He would always be first in our lives. It is the prayer that when trouble and cross afflict us, we may grasp on to Jesus all the more and watch with Him.
We already know what it is like not to watch and pray. We already know what it is like to fall asleep and push Jesus aside. The soul, after all, is like a vacuum. If it is not filled with Jesus, then soon it will be filled with something else. The tempter, the devil, is always ready to swoop into the vacuum and fill the void with doubt, fear, lust, pride, and with a whole multitude of sins that we know so well.
Think of the times in your life when you feared that God had left you. Perhaps, it was when you were sick. Perhaps, it was when you lost a job. Perhaps, it was when a loved one died. Your past made you flush red with shame. You feared the future. At those times, the devil was filling that “void.”
But Jesus says, “Watch and pray!” Listen to my Word and promises! Follow me to the cross. Clear your mind of everything else and consider it all as nothing, so you may join me under the cross.
If we do that, we will still suffer. But we will suffer with Jesus. Paul reminds us in Romans, “We are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ– provided we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that our present sufferings are nothing compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us” (Romans 8:17-18). We will suffer in the confidence of the resurrection and the victory that Jesus has won for us by His cross. We will suffer–but we will also experience the glory hidden with Christ in His sighs under the cross!
Take Lent seriously. Take the cross of Jesus seriously. May the incomparable love of Jesus inspire you to take up your cross and follow Him. For that is where He wants to find you, meet you, and be with you: under the cross. There, we go to drown in the flood of His mercy. There, we go to live for Him as He lived and died for us.
May we follow in His footsteps, not only now, but even all the way through the doorway of death and into the eternity Jesus won for us in Lent! Amen.
