garden-talk

JEsus decided one night to go to a garden, right before he knew he was going to die... he chose to go to a garden and pray to His father... this had to be the hardest time in His life... Luke actually says that His sweat "was like drops of blood falling to the ground"... its an interesting phenomenon, this "sweat and blood" thing. it has been shown in medical journals i have looked up and in individual cases of people going through times of excruciatingly-high levels of stress to have the pressure of Blood-Gasses and bloodpressure rise so high that it over-powers the small capillaries around the face, and you will actually start to "sweat blood", meaning small amounts of blood, mixed with sweat, will come out of your pores... this only happens under times of Extreme Mental Stress... jesus was wiggin...

I dont know about you, but when i get mad or frustrated, i tend not to want to share it with people... i bottle it up inside, i mull it over in my mind and in my stomache, and i start to feel like i have to throw up and i start to sweat terribly and get almost catatonic... people will talk to me and i have no idea what they are saying, people are touching me and i dont register it... i bottle things up so much when i get mad or frustrated... i dont like to talk about it... and i think this is what jesus was doing... just mulling it over and over and over in his mind, the pain he was going ot have to recieve and the torture it was going to be... and he realised that the only way he was going to get through it is if he completely relied on God the Father to hold him up... and in the end, i guess it did... held him up to a cross...

but the thing that i am concerned about is not the garden or the prayer, its who he brought with him... Jesus always, it seemed, had these three guys around him... Peter, James and John. James and John were brothers and PEter was a lowly sinner and ignorant fisherman, completely un-worthy and actually shunned away from any type of religious scholarship. Peter was a screwup, his buddy's were fisherman too, they were skrewups too... but for somereaosn, JEsus always had these three guys around him... and you know that they were important to him, that they meant the World to Him, because he takes them with him off by themselves almost, it seems, just for comfort and for possibly one last conversation between these four good friends... but peter, James and john do what they are good at... they skrew up. Jesus asks them to sit over here and pray (im guessing they werent exactly sure what to pray for, but nevertheless, to pray) and jesus went, as luke says, "about a stones throw"... so about maybe 35, 40 feet away and prays himself. but see... it was late, they just had a big dinner, and these three boys are getting kind tired and they soon, in the middle of praying kinda lose their thought and fall asleep.

Now, i cant prove this, but i think im right... i can just imagine Jesus comes back from praying the first time to talk with his friends about whats on His mind... and as he walks up, he finds them all asleep... and like i said, i cant prove this, but ill bet he got this sinking feeling in his stomache, because the people whom he counted closest to him had let him down again.

He goes on to wake them up and kinda confront them a little bit and thees more prayer and more confronting and wake-up and such... and the story goes on... but i am really interested in that little exchange.


I am a firm believer that life is not meant to be lived by yourself... i think that just about every social aspect of life was designed to be lived in community with everyone around us... you can stone me if you want to or point fingers and tell me that i am wrong and a heathen if you want, but nothing i have seen in this life points otherwise. i am a firm believer that we are better together. that God has wired each and every one of us to be communal people. (i have a secret... im not the only one who feels this way... look at the work of Shain Claiborne and Rick Warren and that other guy... Jesus i think his name was...=P) All through the bible you get these stories of people being relational, of worshipping and having an intimate relationship with God as well as people. WE read verses like Ecclesiastes 4:7-9 and Proverbs 27:17, which talk about people sharpening people and living life together in ralationship with God... and i dont think there is any way to get away from that.

Now, this is not to discount the hugely-important idea of spending alone time with yourself and with God, dont get me wrong. that is extremely important, but i think that if you look at the way we think and live and the creator that made us, we have tno other choice but to be relational people. Look at Genesis 1, "we will make man in OUR own image, to be LIKE US". God, in his very nature, is relational. we, in our nature, are relational.

i am really interested in what wold happen if we started to try and live our lives this way. WE, in america, are taught that there is no greater virtue then to be completely independant, that to not rely on anyone... that is real freedom. and we want to be free! Right? well... first of all... there is something amazingly different about the gospel of the United states and the GOspel of Jesus... in the Gospel of america, independance is key... in the Godpel of JEsus, INTER-dependance, or Co-dependance, is key... we are not saved by our independant faith an ability ot rely on ourself, we are saved by our faith and assurance in Jesus and god, taking our independance out of the equation, and all throughout the bible we see stories and wisdom words that almost scream out "DON'T YOU GET IT? LIVE YOUR LIVE'S TOGETHER! HELP EACHOTHER! Build one-another up and help sharpen eachother to be who God made you to be!"

Just as Jesus had his small- close-knit group around him, what would it look like if we did that? if we brought and built up a small close-knit group of friends that we could all encourage and strengthen eachother and walk through life, not as individuals trying to find our way, but as a small group of the Church of Christ that is coming at the trials and joys of the world together, saying "Our God is King, and His Kingdom Reigns!"?

what would that look like?

or, i guess the better question is... why isn't it happening already?

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Ecc. 4:9-12

-Josh