Life

Holy Week reflection: Gethsemane

The crises we face in our personal Gethsemanes often challenge our trust in God, says Rev David Turtle, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland

marble slab with the words of the prayer of Jesus Christ before his arrest, Gospel of Matthew, Gethsemane, East Jerusalem
A marble slab in the Garden of Gethsemane, in modern east Jerusalem, bearing the words of Jesus' prayer before his arrest (irisphoto2/Getty Images)
By Rev David Turtle

THURSDAY is the day during Holy Week when we remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

For him, it is a time of lonely prayer before his crucifixion where he surrenders his life to God praying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

From the point of his arrest which immediately follows this prayer, Jesus’ great gift to us is his passivity, his ‘passion’. From here, each of the Gospel writers apply passive verbs to Jesus’ journey.

He is no longer doing; he is allowing to be done. He is no longer acting; he is being acted upon. His action is to trust the will of his Father.

We all have Gethsemane moments. The crises of life we face in our personal Gethsemanes are often things which challenge our trust in God.

Jesus’ active surrender in prayer reveals that encounters with fear and struggle can be transformed to lead us to rest assuredly in the God who can bring life from death.

Rev David Turtle,
President of the Methodist Church in Ireland
Rev David Turtle, Methodist President
Rev David Turtle, Methodist President (Kelvin Boyes/Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye)