Sin is a loaded word. For those outside the faith, it’s a funny and dated religious term. For Christians, we repeat it so often that it loses its bite. Scripture reveals that sin is worse than we know. Jesus is so serious about it that he says, “If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.” What is it about sin that’s so fatal it would require Jesus to go to the cross?
This Lent we do a soul examination, studying all the ways God describes the complex of sin. Lawlessness, adultery, rebellion . . . The cancerous nature of sin means that we need to go deeper than surface confession. The problem is worse than we know, which makes our Savior greater than we can imagine.
Invocation
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, who delivers us from all evil.
Invitation Prayer
Lord, you know the evil that comes when we are alone. You prayed in the Garden while your friends were asleep. You faced the agony of death and evil alone. Do not leave or forsake us in our isolation. Draw near in the dark of night when no one else is around. Have mercy, O Lord, Amen.
Word
Matthew 26:43
“And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.”
Meditation: The Whole Night By Anna Jacob
Earlier this year, I was blessed to participate as a background actor in an upcoming feature film. Part of that journey connects to a song that was recently released, a single called ‘The Whole Night’ by Caleb Polaha. This song helped to bring me a sense of calm in those moments when, as the song begins, “I feel so tired but can’t go to sleep.” I noted after hearing it for the first time that the song helped to give me “a little peace and helped me get a little more sleep.”
Filming schedules are no simple thing. The days are long. For the two days I was on set, each one started midday and stretched on into midnight. But the work was exhilarating! A joyous feeling, yet still draining. A major high of energy that you do not necessarily feel the effects of until the following day. And then you do that over and over again, day after day, week after week.
For me, still several days after that first day of filming, this song became a lullaby, an anthem so to speak. A gentle, yet haunting expression. A quiet plea in the darkness, wanting to hold onto the light but finding it hard. Needing something else, someone else to help you. A ballad of weakness and vulnerability that yearns desperately for love.
When I contemplate Jesus and the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, I typically focus on the disciples. I wonder how Peter, James, and John struggled to stay awake even as Jesus specifically asked them to. But this time, I thought more about Jesus and how exhausted he must have been at that moment. Up until this point, he has had quite a busy week. I can only imagine how tired he felt, feeling the literal weight of the world on his shoulders, anticipating the burden of sin which would soon be thrust upon him. The desperate need for his father’s love. Christ’s vulnerability.
These past six weeks, we have spent many days focusing on sin; meditating on our failures, our shortcomings, our desperate need for a Savior.
And here he is. In the garden, exhausted. After days of travel. After a joyous arrival. After many lessons and parables. After healing the sick and the lame. Jesus was there, among his people, day after day, week after week. I will never know, but I can imagine that there may have been a part of him that night in Gethsemane which longed for sleep. To join his disciples in their rest. To have a few more moments of peace.
Yet despite all his trials, Jesus took up his cross. He met his betrayer face to face and was brought to judgment by the very people he was sent to save. They called for his death. And he willingly sacrificed himself, for peace. Our peace.
Dear Lord, my heart can be restless. Help me to find peace in you. Thank you for taking on the weight of my sin and freeing me of its eternal burden. Amen.
Sending
In the face of evil, may God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ fill you with every spiritual blessing. Go in his name, Amen.