Jesus then came with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there to pray.’ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Distress and anguish overwhelmed him, and he said to them, ‘My heart is ready to break with grief. Stop here, and stay awake with me.’ Then he went on a little farther, threw himself down, and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Yet not my will but yours.’
He came back to the disciples and found them asleep; and he said to Peter, ‘What! Could none of you stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake, and pray that you may be spared the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’
He went away a second time and prayed: ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to pass me by without my drinking it, your will be done.’ He came again and found them asleep, for their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away again and prayed a third time, using the same words as before.
Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Still asleep? Still resting? The hour has come! The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Up, let us go! The traitor is upon us.’
He was still speaking when Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared, and with him a great crowd armed with swords and cudgels, sent by the chief priests and the elders of the nation. The traitor had given them this sign: ‘The one I kiss is your man; seize him.’ Going straight up to Jesus, he said, ‘Hail, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. Jesus replied, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came forward, seized Jesus, and held him fast.
At that moment one of those with Jesus reached for his sword and drew it, and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear. But Jesus said to him, ‘Put up your sword. All who take the sword die by the sword. Do you suppose that I cannot appeal for help to my Father, and at once be sent more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say that this must happen?’
Then Jesus spoke to the crowd: ‘Do you take me for a bandit, that you have come out with swords and cudgels to arrest me? Day after day I sat teaching in the temple, and you did not lay hands on me. But this has all happened to fulfil what the prophets wrote.’ Then the disciples all deserted him and ran away.
Jesus was led away under arrest to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and elders were assembled. Peter followed him at a distance till he came to the high priest’s courtyard; he went in and sat down among the attendants, to see how it would all end.
The chief priests and the whole Council tried to find some allegation against Jesus that would warrant a death sentence; but they failed to find one, though many came forward with false evidence. Finally two men alleged that he had said, ‘I can pull down the temple of God, and rebuild it in three days.’ At this the high priest rose and said to him, ‘Have you no answer to the accusations that these witnesses bring against you?’ But Jesus remained silent. The high priest then said, ‘By the living God I charge you to tell us: are you the Messiah, the Son of God?’
Jesus replied, ‘The words are yours. But I tell you this: from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ At these words the high priest tore his robes and exclaimed, ‘This is blasphemy! Do we need further witnesses? You have just heard the blasphemy. What is your verdict?’ ‘He is guilty,’ they answered; ‘he should die.’
Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists; some said, as they beat him, ‘Now, Messiah, if you are a prophet, tell us who hit you.’
~~~~’’’~~~~
The story deepens, and the tension mounts. We see the humanity of Jesus as he prays in the garden, as distressed and full of grief as any man would be, who knew himself to be on the verge of death. The disciples sleep. They are tired, and they don’t know what the night will bring. But Jesus does. He has known since before he mounted the donkey on which he rode into the city, just what would happen to him in Jerusalem. He would rather be anywhere else; none of us, no creature, wants to die. But Jesus, through the agony of his praying, is nonetheless able to say, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
And then, suddenly, the hour has come. Jesus is betrayed by the kiss of Judas, and is able to say to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” And those words must have burned inside Judas’ heart, once he realised what had really happened, what he had really done.
Perhaps Judas had wanted to force Jesus to fight. One of his disciples did draw a sword, but Jesus told him to put it away. What must they all have thought? The disciples, and for that matter the mob sent out to take Jesus . . . all of them must have expected something other than this, that he simply let himself be taken. Somehow, amidst all the confusion, Jesus remains serene. This isn’t everything going wrong; this is how it is supposed to be.
The disciples all deserted him, except that Peter didn’t, not quite. He followed along to see what would happen, maybe even with the crazy thought of somehow getting his Lord out of there. The mob sent to capture him took Jesus to the house of the high priest, Caiaphas. He couldn’t just be killed, this had to be done legally. There had a be a reason, a justification, for putting this man to death - not least because they couldn’t risk (especially at Passover) doing anything that did not have the approval of the Romans.
But none of the charges seem to stick. The rushed show trial is beginning to falter. So it falls to Caiaphas himself to save the day: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?” In his reply, having till this point remained silent, Jesus effectively pronounces a judgement on his accusers - that one day they will know the truth, they will know what they have done. They will see the glory of God, and know it condemns them. But on this night his words are enough to ensure that all those gathered there will agree that he should die.
Pray for all in our world who suffer unjustly, for all places where the law is used to silence dissent and to further the interests of the powerful. And pray for all who stand firm against injustice, and who are ready to support the cause of those who are beaten down by others.
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,
because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world”
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