Holy Week Reflections, Day 4

“The Gethsemane Hour”

He asked them

To watch with Him and pray.

Instead

Their eyes grew heavy with sleep.

 

Anguished, He fell to His face,

Sweat drops of blood pearling up,

A broken cry from His lips –

“Not my will, but Thine be done.”

 

Midnight darkness cloaked the garden.

The minutes stretched long,

The spiritual battle grew fierce,

And still the Messiah prayed.

 

And still the disciples slept,

Their spirits willing,

But their flesh weak,

And their eyes drooping.

 

How quickly our own eyes

Droop in spiritual slumber,

Though we claim

To be oh so vigilant.

 

We cry out to God,

“This is too hard!”

As we wrestle with

Temptations and trials.

 

And yet,

We have no idea

The true depths of battle

That the Gethsemane Hour

Took the Savior.

 

In our flesh,

We give up long before

The battle gets that intense

And the hour grows darkest.

 

But He did not.

 

He stood firm in that hour,

And because of that,

He claimed the victory

That we never could.

 

And because of that,

His victory becomes

Our own when we trust

His sacrifice on our behalf.

 

And because of that,

He stands with us

In our Gethsemane Hours,

Fighting our every battle with us.

 

Photo by Stacey Franco on Unsplash. The Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, Israel.