The Road to Easter – Packing the Essentials for the Journey
When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” Luke 22:45-46 NIV
What do you need for your trip to the beach? You have a general idea that you will need swimming suits, shorts, and flip-flops. More than likely, you wouldn’t pack your snow skis, gloves, or heavy jacket. You normally pack for a specific journey, not for all the various possibilities you might encounter. That is, unless you are Lewis and Clark.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to undertake a precarious journey that would eventually take them on an 8,000-mile, two-year trek through the recently acquired Louisiana Purchase. So, what do you pack since Walmart will not be where you are going? Starting out in the spring of 1804, the two intrepid explorers had spent a year accumulating what they thought would be needed. According to original packing lists, over 180 items were purchased, such as coats, weapons, food, and survey instruments. Yet like all good travelers, they still forgot a few things.
We all know the challenge of getting ready for a trip. It takes lots of planning and preparation to get everything together. That is true for a vacation but even more so for a spiritual journey such as the Road to Easter. Jesus had spent years teaching his disciples, sharing what truth looked like, healing and restoring people. Every step along this road we have everything we need because of Jesus’ preparations. One of the most critical pieces we have is prayer.
“Prayer is one of life’s great mysteries. Most people pray at least sometimes; some people, in many very different religious traditions, pray a great deal. At its lowest, prayer is shouting into a void on the off-chance there may be someone out there listening. At its highest, prayer merges into love, as the presence of God becomes so real that we pass beyond words and into a sense of his reality, generosity, delight and grace.” N. T. Wright
Jesus fully knew how desperate we would get and would need to make prayer a central component of our lives. Nestled in the middle of his life-giving, life-changing Sermon on the Mount, he gave us a beautiful framework for praying out of intimacy with God. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-13)
Jesus knew we could get lost if we failed to keep God as the focal point. “Following Jesus is not just a matter of skill and grit; it is made possible through a life of being with God in prayer.” (Rich Villodas) There are lots of religions that focus on the repetition of words, believing that the number of words said over and over is the only way God can hear. Jesus laid the groundwork of praying by saying, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen…And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words…For your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:6-9)
Throughout the four Gospels, we get brief pictures of Jesus’ prayer life. We get little of his dialogue, but enough to show us the importance of prayer. We can see the gift of prayer as Jesus prayed. Each of the Gospel writers invites us into the final days of Jesus’ road to Easter and his intimate encounter with the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
Jesus knew that his earthly ministry was ending. Unlike most leaders who would spend the days strategizing on how to increase the ministry, naming who would fill key positions, and how to ensure a smooth transition, he spent the time in worship and prayer. The road forward would not be conventional but super-natural.
There was a vulnerability in how Jesus prayed when he tells his disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 26:38) Somehow, we think we are not being spiritual if we allow God to see our pain and hear our hurts, but Jesus prayed out of a soulful vulnerability. “By enduring our trials with our eyes fixed on Jesus, we submit our trials to Him. He is with us through our trials, one painful step, one ragged breath at a time.” (Megan Fate Marshman)
There was an openness in how Jesus prayed. “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Jesus prayed honestly and what He desired to be the outcome. We don’t have to play a form of spin-praying, praying words that we think a good Christian should pray. We pray what we desire to the One who hears and wants to hear us. However, if our only desire is to get something out of God, then we miss the beauty and intimacy of being with God.
There was submission in how Jesus prayed. “Yet not as I will, but as you will…My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (Mt.26:39b,42) Submission is never easy when we must give up control or do something we don’t want. Yet Jesus prayed one thing, that His Father’s will be done. “As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. It takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose before a person’s life becomes a holy example of God’s message.” (Oswald Chambers)
God is great!
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