The Weight of the World

March 25

Felted eggs!

Let's look at the words expressing how Jesus felt in the Garden of Gethsemane.

"Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, 'Stay here while I go over there and pray.' Taking along Peter and two of the sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow.  Then he said, 'This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me.' Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, 'My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?

When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep.  He said to Peter,  'Can't you stick it out with me a single hour?  Stay alert; be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there's another part that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.'"

Two components of this passage stand out to me.  One is the Peter encounter..."Can't you stick it out with me a single hour?"  Who has called on us to pray and we haven't even invested ten minutes lifting up those requests?

The second is the reflection on a couple life experiences I've had which come  minutely close to the exchange being expressed between Jesus and God.  One was natural childbirth. I'm sure I said, "God, if there's a pain free way to have this baby, please provide it."  The other would be having watched people I love die and pleading to God...  "God please don't let them suffer." Neither of those come close to the weight of the world Christ endured on the cross.