SERMON AT ST JOHN'S CATHEDRAL OBAN
Murdoch MacKenzie
Good Friday 2010
Keep Watch Mark 14:32-41
We probably know the story of the little girl who was completely absorbed with paper and crayon drawing something. ‘What are you drawing today?’ her mother asked. ‘God’ was the short reply. ‘But you cannot draw God, darling’ her mother said, ‘Nobody knows what he looks like.’ ‘They soon will.’ said the little girl and went on with her drawing. I wonder what she drew. What would you draw if you were asked to draw a picture of God? For two thousand years, artists, sculptors, music-makers, have gathered round, have poured out their devotion, their art, their genius. They have painted a picture of the Crucifixion. A picture of suffering, a picture of love, of love that wilt not let me go.
And this afternoon we are being asked to KEEP WATCH as we follow the love of God from the Garden of Gethsemene to the Cross of Calvary. Gethsemene which means in Hebrew, an oil-press. St John calls it ‘a garden’ , traditionally situated on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, on the eastern side of the Kidron valley, dominated on the west by the temple mount which towers above it.
It is here that Jesus, as on the Mount of Transfiguration, takes Peter, James and John and asks them to KEEP WATCH while he prays. All three had boasted their ability to share his suffering, James and John proclaiming that they were able to drink the cup that he would drink (Mark 10:39) and Peter saying: “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” (Mark 14:29) But Jesus’ suffering was no ordinary suffering. The Greek words for ‘distressed’ and ‘agitated’ depict the greatest possible degree of infinite horror and suffering. His first words: “My heart is overwhelmed with grief’ echo the lament which forms the refrain of Psalms 42 and 43 “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” and “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?” as also in Hebrews 5:7 which speaks of his “prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears”.
KEEP WATCH He had told them, as recorded at the end of chapter 13, “Watch therefore – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning – lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.” Yet here they were, asleep! ‘Simon’, note he didn’t say: ‘Peter’ – ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?’ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak’. 3 times he came and asked them the same question, just as later on, as recorded in St John’s Gospel (John 21:15-17) he asked Peter 3 times: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ after Peter had denied him 3 times.
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN as told by Mark in all its stark simplicity, is as moving as anything else in human literature. Just as had happened in the wilderness three years earlier, Jesus is tested again, and the word used in Greek is the same as it was then (Mark1:13) – the word peirasmos – which means ‘trial’ or ‘testing’ . It is also used in the Lord’s Prayer as recorded in Matthew 6:13 –
‘ lead us not into temptation’ - or ‘save us in the time of trial’. Thus Jesus says to the Father in the old familiar words: ‘Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.’ Or in the modern text: ‘Nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want.’
And what do we want, those of us here this morning? Have we come to see God? Do we want to know what God looks like? Can we KEEP WATCH be on the qui vive for 3 hours? Until he breathes his last and, with the centurion standing at the foot of the cross, will we be able to say: ‘Truly, this man was the Son of God’ ?
You see, the little girl’s mother was wrong. We DO know what God looks like.
Amen.
Murdoch MacKenzie
We probably know the story of the little girl who was completely absorbed with paper and crayon drawing something. ‘What are you drawing today?’ her mother asked. ‘God’ was the short reply. ‘But you cannot draw God, darling’ her mother said, ‘Nobody knows what he looks like.’ ‘They soon will.’ said the little girl and went on with her drawing. I wonder what she drew. What would you draw if you were asked to draw a picture of God? For two thousand years, artists, sculptors, music-makers, have gathered round, have poured out their devotion, their art, their genius. They have painted a picture of the Crucifixion. A picture of suffering, a picture of love, of love that wilt not let me go.
And this afternoon we are being asked to KEEP WATCH as we follow the love of God from the Garden of Gethsemene to the Cross of Calvary. Gethsemene which means in Hebrew, an oil-press. St John calls it ‘a garden’ , traditionally situated on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, on the eastern side of the Kidron valley, dominated on the west by the temple mount which towers above it.
It is here that Jesus, as on the Mount of Transfiguration, takes Peter, James and John and asks them to KEEP WATCH while he prays. All three had boasted their ability to share his suffering, James and John proclaiming that they were able to drink the cup that he would drink (Mark 10:39) and Peter saying: “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” (Mark 14:29) But Jesus’ suffering was no ordinary suffering. The Greek words for ‘distressed’ and ‘agitated’ depict the greatest possible degree of infinite horror and suffering. His first words: “My heart is overwhelmed with grief’ echo the lament which forms the refrain of Psalms 42 and 43 “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” and “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?” as also in Hebrews 5:7 which speaks of his “prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears”.
KEEP WATCH He had told them, as recorded at the end of chapter 13, “Watch therefore – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning – lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.” Yet here they were, asleep! ‘Simon’, note he didn’t say: ‘Peter’ – ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour?’ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak’. 3 times he came and asked them the same question, just as later on, as recorded in St John’s Gospel (John 21:15-17) he asked Peter 3 times: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ after Peter had denied him 3 times.
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN as told by Mark in all its stark simplicity, is as moving as anything else in human literature. Just as had happened in the wilderness three years earlier, Jesus is tested again, and the word used in Greek is the same as it was then (Mark1:13) – the word peirasmos – which means ‘trial’ or ‘testing’ . It is also used in the Lord’s Prayer as recorded in Matthew 6:13 –
‘ lead us not into temptation’ - or ‘save us in the time of trial’. Thus Jesus says to the Father in the old familiar words: ‘Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.’ Or in the modern text: ‘Nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want.’
And what do we want, those of us here this morning? Have we come to see God? Do we want to know what God looks like? Can we KEEP WATCH be on the qui vive for 3 hours? Until he breathes his last and, with the centurion standing at the foot of the cross, will we be able to say: ‘Truly, this man was the Son of God’ ?
You see, the little girl’s mother was wrong. We DO know what God looks like.
Amen.
Murdoch MacKenzie