Behold the Hidden Glory of the Cross -- It is Hidden in the Savior’s Sighs

Lent 2

Luke 22:39-46

39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. 40 When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." 41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. 46 Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."

In Lent, we follow Jesus to the cross. Lent is special. It's filled with glory. But the glory is hidden on the cross. Those who don’t take it seriously will never see it, never enjoy it. Tonight that glory is hidden under the sighs of the Savior. And there’s nothing trivial about that. The sighs that end on the cross are at the beginning --- and the middle. They are the heart and core of what God has to say to us about ourselves and about Himself. We follow Jesus this evening to a dark place, the Garden of Gethsemane. There we see how seriously Jesus took Lent.

He bids the disciples to watch and pray as He prepares for the great struggle that is ahead. May we never think that the struggle was easy for Jesus! Just look at Him in the garden. He throws Himself facedown on to the ground. As the writer of the epistle of Hebrews tells us, "He prays with loud cries and groans." He sees all that is about to take place. Even as He prays, His dear friend Judas is in the process of selling Him out for just a few pieces of silver. The soldiers are on the way. Jesus sees it all, soon the trial, soon the spitting in His face, soon the beating, soon the flogging, soon the crushing weight of the cross. Soon the nails will pierce His hands and feet. Soon He will hang on the cross, naked, in shame, the object of ridicule and mockery. Soon death!

That's not even the half of it. Abandoned by all, comforted by none, , all of the sin, all of the vices, all the evil of the whole world, for all times, the present, times past, times to come, all sin will be dumped on Him. And every bit of God’s righteous rage will be placed upon Him.

Oh, yes, Jesus took Lent seriously. What love He had for his Father! Who can grasp or fathom it? For all this He does out of love for the Father. Seeing all that He is about to endure, He cries out with groans and sighs to the Father. “If there is another way, Father, dear Father… but Thy will be done.” Three dines Jesus cries out. Even an angel comes to comfort, or strengthen, His human nature in the face of such agony. But does the angel ease his pain, His agony? Not at all! Rather, the angel somehow gives strength to His human nature to bear and endure even more. He prays, He cries, He groans all the more at the dread prospect of his Father's wrath and the torment ahead for His innocent body and soul covered with the sin of the world. It was certainly painful enough to endure the shame and the abuse of man. It was certainly painful enough to be abandoned by those He had helped and those He loved, abandoned by family and friends. But to be punished and then aban­doned by His Father - we can't even begin to comprehend that agony? And so He cries to his Father for relief. But only the angel comes. But then the angel leaves. The torment decreed for the sins of the world will not be taken away, nor will it be lessened.

What love for us! As we peer into the garden at the disciples. What are they doing? Surely, they hear Jesus' cries. Surely they must see the blood and sweat that pours from His anguished brow. Surely they wrestle with God in prayer and smite their breasts during this great struggle taking place only an hour before the greatest struggle begins. Surely they take Lent and the cross seriously. After all that Jesus is going through, all this out of love not only for His Father but love for them, for us!

But no! Look, look into the garden! The disciples are sleeping. They don’t watch with Jesus. They don’t join Him in prayer. They don’t even struggle to stay awake. Saint Luke tells us that they sleep because of sorrow. The whole thing is just too much for them. A child cannot sleep on Christmas Eve because of the excitement of the com­ing Christmas Day. But the disciples, on the night before the suffering that wins salva­tion for them and for all, they sleep!

Oh, how such actions offend us. We know far too well the sleep of the disciples. "With them we are experts when it comes to not taking Lent seriously. After all I've read the end of the Book, He rises.  We know how to say to Jesus, "Well, Lord, I know what you want me to do, but frankly it's just too much effort. Besides, I’m sure you understand. I'm sure you will forgive me. So, Jesus, just excuse me while I go my own way, take a nap, a break from following after you. I certainly wouldn't want to stuffer any lack or much inconvenience under the cross. I really don't want to look at the price you had to pay for me.  I don't want suffering, glory is what I want, glory that I call touch and taste and see. I'd much rather You give me time and treasure, friends and family, work and play, all that my heart desires so that I can do with them as I please, enjoy them for myself and those I love. You know, Lord Jesus, how it is."

Oh, yes, He knows, He saw it in the disciples in the garden. He sees it in us. And what does He say in answer? "Father, dear Father, with cries and groans and sweat like blood, I come before you and ask - ask that Your will be done." While they sleep in indifference and carelessness, I beg of you, let Me redeem them. And if this is the only way, then I will obey, so long as their debt is paid in full and their ransom completed and secured!" That’s glory! That's the glory of the cross hidden in the Savior^'s Sighs, the glory that redeems us for all eternity from sin, death and the grave, from hell and eternal sighs of anguish and despair. Because of His great love for his Father and because of His great love for us, Lent and the cross absorb His entire being, every particle of his strength in his mind and body and soul.

May we too take Lent and the cross seriously as we follow Jesus there in the Gar­den! But how do we do that? How can we take it seriously? Jesus told the disciples, and He tells us too: ^"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation,^" into the devil^'s share and trap.

We need to pay close attention to Jesus^' words here. He doesn’t tell the disciples to watch and pray so that they can help Him bear the cross for the sins of the world. No, never that! He must bear the cross for our redemption alone. He tells them to watch and pray because of the great danger and the great struggle that lies ahead. They too will bear a cross. They too will endure a great battle. The devil is waiting for them, eager to catch them in his trap. If they don’t listen to the words of Jesus, they will have no armor of defense. If they don’t watch, that is, fill the eyes of their hearts and souls with Him and what He is doing for them, then they will fall into the trap of the devil. Without Jesus and His Word in their minds and hearts and souls, they will not cry out for help and none will come. Yes, without his Word and aid in answer to their prayers, they will suffer far more than they need to suffer in the coming hours and days.

For suffer the disciples must. The day will come when they will be despised because of Jesus. Yes, the day will come when they too will bear a cross and their glory as children of God and heirs of eternal life will be hidden in sighs of pain and groans of sorrow. For all of them will be persecuted because of Him. What Groans and sighs await them even in the coming hours when they see Jesus arrested? Temptations come, the devil attacks. At Jesus' arrest, they all fail and fall. They will run away and hide. How loyal, how loving! At the first whiff of trouble, they’re gone. Peter, the strongest arid boldest, denies Jesus with loud oaths and curses. The rest, except for John, just disappear into the woodwork. If they had only listened! If they had only watched with Jesus and prayed as He told them to do. They still would have suffered. But they would have suffered in hope, strengthened by His word, and supported every step of the way by His answer to their prayers for strength and help through that word. But because they didn't listen to Him, they didn^'t fill their hearts and souls with Him. They didn^'t cry out for help, they ended up spending those next days with nothing to drink but tears and nothing to eat but despair.

For we know what it is like not to watch and pray. We know what it is like to follow that example of the disciples and to fall asleep and push Jesus and His Word aside. Our souls, after all, are like a vacuum. If it’s not filled with the sight of Jesus and His grace, then very soon it will be filled with something else. Yes, very soon comes the tempter comes into that vacuum to engulf and fill the void with doubt, fear, lust, pride, and a whole host of sins that we know so well. Think of the times in your life when you were afraid that perhaps God had finally left you, had finally gotten sick of your excuses and now was going to let you stew in your own juices for awhile. You got sick; you lost a job, a loved one died or maybe just some past shame. The future held fear. But Jesus says: watch and pray! Listen to my Word and promise. Follow Me to the cross; yes, clear your mind of everything else and consider it all as nothing, so that you may join Me under the cross.

If we do that, we will still suffer. But we will suffer with Jesus. We will suffer in the confidence of the resurrection and the victory that He has won for us by His cross. We will suffer without despair. We will, experience the glory hidden with Christ in sighs under the cross.

Take Lent seriously. Take His cross seriously. May the unsurpassed love of Jesus in Lent inspire you to follow Him up to the cross. For that is where He wants to find you and meet you and be with you: under the cross. We go to receive from Him all the grace and benefit that He so yearned to win for us. We go to drown in the flood of His mercy. We live for Him as He has died for us. Yes, we go to share in His heaven, since He has already endured hell in our place. He took it all so seriously, that we might know how serious it is, that is, His love for us. In Jesus name, Amen!