We are remembering the last week in Jesus’ life. Sunday, he entered Jerusalem as the crowds shouted “Hosanna” and declared their belief that he would be the one to bring salvation.  Monday, he “trashed the temple.” Tuesday and Wednesday, he returned to the temple where he engaged the temple leaders in conversations and arguments and where he taught the lessons that finally led to his crucifixion. On Wednesday, Judas went to the temple leaders and cut a deal in which he would notify them of the time and place where they could safely arrest Jesus. Judas’ betrayal was set in motion.

And now it is Thursday.  We first hear of Jesus and the disciples preparing for the Passover Meal.  It is no accident that Jesus’ was crucified during the Passover celebration. I believe that it was God’s intention to link Jesus’ ministry with the great Exodus. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are the flowers that grew out of the Exodus roots.

Jesus has already made preparations. The disciples are to go into town, find a man carrying a water jug and follow him to the place where they would celebrate the Passover. They do so and are led to a house and up the stairs to a large second story room. As they gather, preparations have already been made.  

Jesus is preparing for more than a meal. He is preparing himself and his disciples for the events that are to follow. They share the Passover Meal. They remember that in another time and place, God had heard the cries of God’s people.  They remember that God had confronted Moses at the Burning Bush and called him lead his people into a new future. They remembered that God had acted in powerful ways to persuade the Pharaoh to let the people go.  More than anything, they remember that God has promised to be faithful.

Something else is happening at the meal. It always happens when people take time to eat together. Their sense of “family,” their sense of being “bonded together,” their sense of love for one another is being gently but definitely intensified.  And I am convinced that Jesus is drawing strength from this time together.

For Jesus, this is one form of “personal time.” This is a place where he feeds his own soul as he feeds the souls of those with him. That is the way it works when we eat together and share time together and talk and listen together – when we have no other agenda than to be together as friends and neighbors, sisters and brothers in Christ.

It was here that he institutes that great ceremony that we call “The Lord’s Supper.”  Listen to the words. Jesus really knew how to use words to create new realities. He gave thanks for the bread and then he said, “This is my body, broken for you. Eat all if it in memory of me.”  And then he took the cup and said, “This is my blood.”  “My body…my blood.”  Eat it, drink it. 

The image is clear. Every time we eat the bread together and drink the wine together, we are celebrating and remembering that his spirit is already among us and already as real within us as the bread and the wine. The bond can never be broken!  The friendship is forever!  We are forever “family.” 

At the end of the meal, “they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.”(14:26)  The Mount of Olives is just outside the city walls of Jerusalem and would have provided a very comfortable place for conversation and prayer in the mild temperatures of Jerusalem at Passover time. 

It is here that we see betrayal in several forms.  First Jesus makes a prediction, “You will all fall away,” he said (14:27).  Peter made a promise, “Even if all fall away, I will not.” (14:29) And Jesus said, “Peter, before this night is finished, you will deny me three times. But Peter and all the rest said, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

They all said it, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”  It’s easy to say in the night time quiet in the olive grove when nobody else is around.

They went to the place called Gethsemane, that place at the bottom of the hill where the olives were gathered and pressed for oil. Jesus asked them to spend some time in prayer.  He took Peter and John with him and walked a little farther away.  And then he said to his two leaders, Peter and John, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death….Stay here and keep watch.”

“Overwhelmed with sorrow:” What a profound grief, what a deep and painful sense of loss he is anticipating!  He is about to lose his friends. He is about to lose his ministry. Everything that for which he has worked is about to change and his relationship with everybody that he has loved is about to be dramatically transformed.

Did he believe that he was going to heaven? I think so. Did he believe that he was about to be reunited with his heavenly Father?  I believe so. Then why did he experience such an intense sorrow?

Listen to this. It was true of Jesus and it is true of every human being who has been blessed with loving relationships in this life. It is possible to be both joyful about the promises of heaven and deeply sorrowful about the loss of life in this world and both emotions can be experienced at the same time!   And Jesus’ own example makes it clear that we do not have to pretend to be happy about those things that make us sad.

Here, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is offering his sorrow up, both to God and to his disciples without apology or regret. “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death.”  It is a clear confession, a clear description of the condition of his own soul.

He takes his sorrow and he walks a little farther away to pray. Way back in my college days, there was a popular song that said something like this; “You’ve got to walk that lonesome valley. You’ve got to walk it by yourself.  Nobody else can walk it for you. You’ve got to walk it by yourself.”

Jesus went off by himself to pray.  And there he bared his soul to God.  “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (14:36). 

This is obviously a summary of his prayer. He spent some time alone, some time in prayer, and then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping!  Jesus was in the midst of the most intense spiritual battle of his life and not one of the disciples noticed. Each one, one by one, fell asleep.

This happened, not once, not twice, but three times. Jesus went off to pray. He spent some time alone with God. Then he returned to find his disciples sleeping – oblivious to the struggle that was going on in the heart and soul of their beloved friend and teacher.

Now, let me ask the question. Is this kind of oblivion, a kind of betrayal?  They did not take any positive action against him.  The eleven men who were with him did not turn him in to the police or help Judas notify the authorities. All they did was fall asleep.  Does that represent a kind of betrayal?

Let me repeat a little mantra that I repeated when I taught our high school students. Over and over again, I said, “You do not have the right to be ignorant of the basics of our faith. You do not have a right to be ignorant of the basic facts of Jesus’ life. You do not have a right to be ignorant of the moral and ethical issues that are around us. When those around you need your attention, you do not have a right before God to go to sleep. You do not have a right to sleep when Jesus is doing his work in our world.

When the disciples fell asleep, did they betray Jesus in some way? My answer is, sadly, yes.

It was after the third sleep that Judas arrived. Mark says “With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.”(14:43) Mark doesn’t call them soldiers or policemen. He infers that they were just an armed mob!

Judas arrived and he kissed Jesus to mark him as the target of their search.  With this universal sign of love, affection and respect, Judas betrayed his friend and teacher. This would be the second betrayal of the night. While his friends were sleeping, Judas arranged for his apprehension and crucifixion.

As Jesus was being led away, we read this, “Then everyone deserted him and fled.” (14:50) Another betrayal!  I’m not sure that I have earned the right to blame them or condemn them. My courage has never been tested in the same way. But they did run away. When the danger was real and the threat imminent, they did desert him.

Late at night, when most of the city was sleeping, he was taken before the Sanhedrin and tried. They knew that he was coming. They had arranged for this moment, a moment that was illegal in every way. Jewish law had no provision for this kind of an emergency secret trial.  Their only justification was self-preservation. They knew that it would never stand the scrutiny of a public procedure so they created a secret court and proceeded with a secret trial.  They brought in witnesses who lied about him and everybody knew it was lies.  Finally, the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus answered “I am….” And they condemned him for his blasphemy! 

Some spat on him and others hit him with their fists. The soldiers took him away and beat him.

There is a site in today’s Jerusalem called Caiphas’ house.  It is purported to be the house of this high priest. In this house, the archeologists have uncovered a deep pit used to jail prisoners. The only way in and out of this pit is to be lowered and raised by ropes. Soldier and prisoner alike, the only way in and out was to have a rope attached to the person and then to be lowered and raised by people at the top.

The assumption is that Jesus was kept in this pit for the rest of the night. In this pit, there are rings set into the wall where the prisoner could be manacled and beaten. On each side of this beating site, there are places for oil and vinegar to be used to clean the wounds of the prisoner who was being beaten. When the author tells us that Jesus was beaten by the guards, it is likely that it happened in just this place.

In the meantime, Peter is with the crowd that has gathered at Caiphas’ house.  Three times he is asked if he knows Jesus and three times he answers, “No.”  He is given three chances to declare his love for Jesus and three times he says, “No.”  Three times he could have shared his story, three times he could have professed his concern, three times he could have declared his faith and three times he said, “No.” And with the third “No” the rooster crowed just as Jesus had predicted. 

It’s Thursday night for Jesus on the Road to Resurrection. Today he spent time with his disciples and today he prayed alone. Today, he was betrayed by those he loved the most. This, for Jesus, was a lonely day.

If we did not know the end of the story, we would hardly be able to talk about Thursday, so frightening it is. Loneliness, terror, abandonment, betrayal, who can stand it?  Jesus. Jesus can stand up to it and with Jesus, so can we. With Jesus, we look at the terror in our own lives in the eye and we pray, “Let this cup pass from me.” And with Jesus we continue to walk our own road to resurrection.

The Road to Resurrection is sometimes a difficult one, but by the grace of God, it is the Road to Resurrection. And unlike Jesus, we never have to walk it alone.