It has often been said that character,
or integrity, is what you do when no one is watching. I would add that it also consists of what you
do in life’s most difficult moments.
During the most pivotal moments of Jesus’ life, we see him in
prayer. In the midst of such adversity, Jesus
includes those who thought they could
handle it. Peter, James, and John are
brought with Jesus. Peter because he has
just boasted, and James and John because they said they were able to drink the
cup that Jesus would drink (Mark 10:38-40).
We learn something valuable here.
Rather than reproach them, or list all the ways that they are unready
for what lies ahead, Jesus allows experience to both teach and inform them as
to their short-comings. It’s
trial-by-fire at one of humanity’s most crucial junctures. Their failure to stay awake, even for an
hour, reveals their inability and unpreparedness to deal with what Jesus is
facing. As at the Transfiguration the
three are left speechless, something we can rarely say of Peter, who is always putting
his foot in his mouth. Jesus’ closest
disciples are the ones who fail him. The
one praying is ready, while the ones who choose to sleep are found unprepared.
It is the praying one, the one who is
prepared, that serves as our constant example.
Even in the midst of his agony, even with the disappointment of being let
down by those closest to him, Jesus’ concern is for others. With everything else going on, Jesus comes
three times to check on his disciples. I
have seen this same Christ-like spirit manifested in the various Christian
communities of which I have been a part.
I have seen those confined to hospital beds ask about the family who just
lost a loved one. I have seen the woman
who just lost her husband go visit the chronically-ill man whose time is coming
to an end. I’ve seen the grieving visit
the suffering and the suffering pray for the grieving, each in a unique way
demonstrating the attitude of Christ, who always showed more concern for
others, than he showed for himself. We
even see it in life and death moments in the early church, as Stephen prays for
those stoning him, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” (Acts 7:60)
It sounds eerily similar to Jesus’ prayer on the cross, because it is
from the heart of Christ that we learn to pray for others, even as we ourselves
are in the midst of great suffering. It
is this selflessness that allows us to, like Christ, face our fate
resolutely. This resolution is expressed
in this scene with the phrase, “get up.
Let us go to meet them.” Jesus
doesn’t run. He doesn’t lay low hoping
they can’t find them. He goes to meet them. He understands that in a powerful way, his
misfortune will serve to enrich others.
The emphasis is made subtly in the original Greek when we read the
phrase “see, my betrayer is at hand”. The
word for “at hand” is the same word Jesus uses to describe the in-breaking of
the kingdom of God (1:15). Judas is at
hand, but he brings with him not betrayal and death, but the kingdom of
God. In the ultimate reversal of
fortune, God is in the process of using death itself to bring about abundant,
eternal life.
Just as rebellion in one garden led to
the victory of sin and death, faithfulness in another shall lead to redemption
and eternal life.
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