Luke 22: 39 – 51
It seems like an odd time of the church
year (Pentecost) to be reading this story, which takes place just before the
Crucifixion. Three themes: temptation,
prayer and integrity, however, are important all year.
The first scene is that of Jesus praying in
Gethsemane, praying that God will not require him to sacrifice his body and his
life to torture and death. Here we see
Jesus’s prayer as hard work, wringing sweat like blood from him. I am reminded of Jacob wrestling with the
angel – another case of hard work, resulting in hip displacement! Another “over the top” prayer is that of the
Pharisee who goes on at length about his “successful” efforts to keep all of
God’s laws and thus deserve God’s favour, in contrast to that of the tax
collector, the “sinner”. (Luke 18:9 – 14)
Why is Jesus’s extreme prayer a model to follow and the Pharisee’s one
to avoid? Perhaps it is the integrity of
the prayer and pray-er. Jesus’s prayer
was the honest cry of the soul, laying all of his pain and fear before God,
whom he trusts literally with his life.
The prayer recognizes both Jesus’s human desire and fear and also his
choice to obey God, even at great personal cost. The Pharisee’s prayer is essentially
dishonest, “proving” to God that God must
honour him (the Pharisee): no trust here, but rather a business
arrangement: I kept my side of the bargain by being so good! (And of course, as John says, If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8)
The second theme I notice is that of
temptation and the way we should pray about it.
Jesus calls the disciples to pray that they not give in to
temptation. He does not say to ask that
no temptations come, nor does he, in the language of the older translation of
the Lord’s prayer, suggest that God might in fact lead us into temptation
(unless we specifically ask him not to!)
The modern version of the Lord’s prayer, with its “Save us from the time
of trial” echoes better, for me, the request that I be strengthened by God to
be able to stand firm, not give in, when temptations come, as they undoubtedly
will. Integrity, and honesty, are
involved here too – the integrity of God who loves us, and so will not try to
make us fail; and the integrity of us in recognizing that we have a
responsibility in being prepared, through prayer, to remain true to our
professed choice of following Jesus; we are not seeking a way to either avoid
the realities of life, nor to give ourselves a convenient way out by blaming
God for having led us into temptation in the first place!
The second scene, that of Judas betraying
Jesus with a kiss involves all three themes: Judas was obviously tempted,
either by money, or by the thought that he could force Jesus’s hand, or by the
devil “entering him”, into turning against one whom he had left everything to
follow (as had all the disciples). That in itself is an act that shows loss of
integrity – his actions do not fit with what he had previously said he was
choosing. The kiss, which should be a
sign of love and loyalty, becomes the opposite: the kiss lacks integrity. What of prayer? Could Judas have faced his temptation better
by wrestling with God, by begging confidently for the strength to make a right
choice and follow through? We cannot
know what Judas did before the kiss. But
we know what he did after – he wept bitterly and hanged himself. Would Jesus, would God, have forgiven him if
he had asked. I’m sure the answer is
Yes. But Judas, like the Pharisee,
obviously did not really know or trust Jesus, who really was his friend, or God
himself, to love him even in his sin.
Such costly love is hard – Jesus knew that – but he was a man of full
integrity – his whole being, mind body and soul, was unified in his desire to
trust and obey his father.
Such integrity is at the heart of our
baptismal covenant. There will indeed be
temptations to not keep the covenant, and we cannot keep it all the time in our
own strength. Here is the place for
prayer. Then, our response to being
asked each time “Will you?” is rightly, “I will with God’s help”.
Blessings
Ann Kelland
No comments:
Post a Comment