Handling Stress the Jesus’ Way . . . (Mark 14:32-41)
I am writing this short blog on Maundy Thursday, the day we remember Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. No one ever had faced the level of stress Jesus was facing that night. Because He is our perfect example, we can learn four valuable lessons from His Garden encounter that will help us as we wrestle with our own heightened stress over the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. He went to a familiar place.
Luke’s Gospel makes it clear that this location was not a random choice but Jesus (‘as usual’ - Luke 22:39) went to the Garden on the Mount of Olives. When all the forces of hell were arrayed against Him, Jesus sought a familiar place, a quiet place, a safe zone.
Everything we have considered stable has been ripped from us over the last three weeks. Like Jesus, we need to have a personal place of retreat, quiet, away from the storm where we can connect with the heart of Father God. If Jesus needed this, how much more do we?
The hymn-writer talks about a ‘place of quiet rest, a place of comfort sweet, a place of full retreat near to the heart of God.’
2. He did not go alone.
Jesus was only one week past basking in the accolades of the masses when they cried “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” But now they have turned against Him. When Jesus had to face His agonizing hours before the Cross, He didn’t depend on the ‘social-media masses.’ He turned to His friends.
It appears that all the disciples except Judas went to the Garden with Him. However, into the inner place, the special place, the secret place of personal battle, He took only His three closest associates, Peter, James, and John.
One of the main tactics that the devil uses against us is isolation from human connection in our hour of greatest need.
It is true that His friends didn’t do much to alleviate His situation. In fact, while He agonized, they slept. However, He wasn’t looking for their help, He was looking for their company. He needed them there.
What trusted friends can you bring into the orbit of your current pain, or confusion or crisis? They may not have answers, but it is not their answers you need. It is their connection, their relational support. The most foolish thing we can do, playing right into the hands of Satan is to try to face this current crisis apart from our friends. If Jesus needed this, how much more do we?
3. He was completely vulnerable with his friends.
Jesus did not try to put on a brave front for his friends. He shared exactly what He was feeling: “My soul is sorrowful unto death!” That rending of His soul was apparent to the disciples. He told it exactly as it was. He vented His true feelings. He had no human desire to follow through on the horror of the Cross. He wanted out.
Are you honest about your own feelings during this crisis, or do you feel the pressure to pretend that you’ve got everything under control? There are times when leaders feel internal pressure to act the role and reject their own human frailty in the process.
Are you being honest with yourself? Are you being honest with your close, trusted friends? Are you being honest with God?
Jesus, in His humanness needed to be able to honestly, without pretense, pour out his ‘human’ feelings. If Jesus needed this, how much more do we?
4. Jesus surrendered it all to the Will of the Father.
After He had sweat drops of blood in his excruciating agony, after He had cried out the preferences of His own heart, He placed Himself and all that would come at the disposal of the Father’s will. “If it’s possible, let this cup pass from Me, but nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.” In that one word, ‘nevertheless,’ the human race was rescue from eternal ruin.
None of us chooses the time in which we are born or how we live out our days. None of us willingly chooses to confront Goliaths like the one we are currently facing. Each of us has preferences as to how our lives will progress and prosper.
Calamities like COVID-19 cause us to realize that there is a greater purpose, a God-purpose that we are here to achieve, a will that is greater and nobler than ours. Jesus realized that and yielded Himself completely to it. If Jesus needed this, how much more do we?
It is a calm, serene Jesus who leaves the Garden under Roman arrest. It is a resolute Jesus who travels the Via Delarosa to the Cross. It is a confident Jesus, who cries from the Cross, “It is finished.” It is an all-conquering Jesus who steps from the tomb. He has given us an example that we should follow. If we choose to follow it, it will bring us to the same place of personal calmness, serenity, resolution, confidence and resurrection victory that He experienced.
Further Reading on Spirituality and Stress
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Al is an experienced pastor and counselor who works out of our ABNWT District Resource Centre in Edmonton as the Pastoral Care Coordinator. A pastor to the pastors, Al is a friend, mentor, and confidante to all.