Steve Woods - The Garden Sunday 6:4:25

It's been one of those weeks, I think,

and I I'm honestly I'm a bit

um feel like I'm a bit all over the

place. So, is it okay if we just pray

for a second? Is that all right?

Father, even like even using the word

father is really

interesting. I've

um I've come to think over the last few

years that I've leared to pray

differently.

I mean, I I' I grew up in a faith

community and I I've always prayed with

people and by myself,

but but since I met

Jesus, like my prayer life is is

different. In fact, so much is different

since I met him.

I I I remember the day like it was

yesterday. It was so

clear. There I was with my brother and

we were just on the beach and we we just

finished work for the day and

um I mean I'd heard about Jesus and I'd

heard some of his teaching and I was

intrigued by it but

he he just came walking

up. He was with he was with he was with

Andrew and Peter. They were friends of

ours. They they used to um fish just

next to us and we we done a lot of stuff

together for years,

but he'd

been wandering around our village a

bit and and Andrew and and Peter

Simon as he was called

then came up and said that they're

they're leaving everything and just

going with him.

I I I looked at my brother John and we

we sort of felt the same. There was like

this invitation and Jesus looked at us

and he said, "Well well come on, come

with me. I'll teach you how to fish for

men." And I thought that's

weird. Like that doesn't make sense. But

I've been watching him over the last few

years and it's like it's exactly what he

does. He he like casts this net out and

he gathers people in and he he drags

them in and there's these crowds that

come and and and then it seems like he

switches and just

when just when there's a big crowd he'll

say something controversial or he'll say

something difficult and and and lots of

people will just leave and stop hanging

around. It's I don't understand what

he's doing most of the

time. There there was a time where where

the crowd was huge and and people were

everywhere and it seemed like something

was something was going to change in our

whole nation. And and then he he says to

them, "Well, you know, um you can't

really follow me unless you're willing

to eat my body, eat my flesh, and drink

my blood." And it's just

strange. And a whole heap of people just

left, and it was sort of back to us

again.

and he he looked at us and he was he was

I don't know I can't can't even work out

what that look on his face was but he

looked at us and said what about you

guys? Are you are you going to leave me

too?

And Simon, like Simon's got a big mouth

and he he he jumps in all the time and

he's always the first to speak, but he

says what most of us are thinking and he

said he said, "Oh, we we'll never leave

you, but there's nowhere else for us to

go. Like you you have the words of

eternal life." And and we all sort of

said, "Yeah, yeah, that's what we were

thinking, too."

And it's

just I can't even believe we're in this

place.

can't believe that all of us are

together. Like, it's been it's been just

a wild ride. We've seen miracles and

we've seen we've

seen all sorts of conflict and we've

seen amazing things and we've seen scary

things, but the last little while has

just been

worse. Don't even know how to describe

it. It all started um like a little

while ago. We were we're down on the

coast at Cesaria Philippi and and and

Jesus had us just by ourselves for a

while and we were we were just standing

there standing around talking and he he

he said, "Who do people say that I

am?" And we Yeah. We let Simon go first

again because like he always says what

we want to say. And he he he just said,

"Well, some people say that like you're

Elijah, and some people say you're like

one of the prophets and and some people

say that you're John the

Baptist." And Jesus sort of looked us in

the eye and it was just this silence and

he said, "Who who do you say that I

am?" And and Simon says,

"Well, you're the Christ. you're the

anointed one. You're the Messiah. You're

the you're the one. We are invested in

you. And something changed in him. And

he he had a smile on his face. And he he

praised Simon for saying that

like he had this twinkle in his eye. He

said, "Um, I'm giving you a new

nickname,

Simon. From now on, I'm calling you

Rocky.

I mean it's a it's a Greek word and it

mean Peter. Some people call him Peter,

but we call him

Rocky. And and from that moment,

something shifted in in Jesus. And he

became determined. And he said, "Like,

we're now going towards Jerusalem and

we're going to head into something

that's going to change everything, but I

to do it, I'm I'm going to have to die."

And like Rocky jumped straight in says,

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. that's not

going to

happen. And he went from being like the

favorite to the least favorite. In a

second, Jesus just told him off and

said, "You don't know what you're

talking

about." And from that moment, we've been

sort of heading here. We've been heading

towards Jerusalem. And and it's been

like this determination in Jesus' eyes,

is stealing us now. Like he he's in

charge of something. I don't even know

what he's in charge of, but he's he's

making things happen now. And where

where we've been on this road and like a

week ago we came into the city and he's

riding on a donkey and people are

throwing clothes down and throwing palm

leaves down and this celebration and

people are reading out some of the

prophets and it feels like something's

about to happen. And we go from there

and we go into the temple and he gets

really really angry and he he makes

whips and he turns over tables and he

casts people out of the temple and he

it's like he wants a

fight and then we withdraw and then he's

weeping over the city

and like his mood's all over the place.

He's he's up and he's down. I don't know

what's going on with

him. And like even even tonight like

we've

just we just had Passover together and

that was the same but different. We've

never seen it like that before. Normally

the host would would wash our feet but

Jesus washed our feet and he did it in a

way that was so

tender, so gentle.

One by one, he

just sat at our feet and just talked to

each of us, told us some things about us

and then moved on and and we had this

meal and he broke the bread and you

know, we we celebrate the Passover

because it's this this celebration of of

what God had done for our people in the

past, how he'd saved us, how he'd set us

free from the oppression of the

Egyptians

And but Jesus seemed to make this meal

about him tonight. He was changing the

language. He was changing the words. And

no one changes the words of this thing,

but Jesus

has. And he tore the bread. And as he

tore it, he said, "This is what my body

is going to

do." And we we sort of ate the meal

together. I was looking around at the

group. And I can't believe that we're

all together. Like there's such a we

wouldn't hang out together normally. We

wouldn't be friends if it wasn't for

him. You know, John and I, like, you

know, we're we're a bit feisty and we we

like we like a we like a good fight

every now and then really. And like we

have a few of those amongst ourselves

and Andrew and

Rocky, Matthew, a tax

collector. Unbelievable Matthew. Like we

used we know him. and we've known him

for a long time. He used to collect our

taxes and I don't know if you know how

the tax system works here, but but he's

just basically bought a franchise

business and he just pays the Romans

what they want. He can collect whatever

he wants. He doesn't matter how much he

charges. So, we had to pay tax on every

fish that we caught. We had to pay tax

to walk past his booth on that part of

the road. And he he was making a lot of

money out of that. And and one day Jesus

saw him and we knew Jesus this was going

to be it. like Jesus was going to

confront him about how he was oppressing

his people and Jesus said why don't you

come and follow me and we all said

what and he did and he left all that and

he came and he joined us and like he

shouldn't be with us he he's a sellout

to the Romans and he's with us

and I don't even know why I like

him I don't even know why Judas likes

him. Judas, like like if you want the

opposite of a tax collector, there's

Judas. Judas is a

zealot. Judas wants to fight. He's a

revolutionary. One of his mates,

Barabus, is in jail right now. They're

going to kill him in a few days time

because that's how the Romans like make

a point of everything. The peace of the

Roman Empire. Sure it is. They just hang

people on crosses to remind you what

they do to you if you rock the boat.

And one of one of Judas's mates, he's

going to cop that this

week. Judas wants a fight. He's been

egging Jesus on for a fight for even his

language in the last little while like,

"We need to take our country back. We

need to get rid of the Romans. These

taxes are oppressing us. The it's just

unfair everything that's happening to

us. This is not how God wants us to be."

He started whispering this phrase. I

don't like it. But he's been doing it

like let's let's make Israel great

again. And he's picking for a fight and

he's pushing Jesus into a

fight. And we're all sitting around the

table. How are we hanging out? There's

there's Mary, Jesus mom. She's with us.

And and Mary from Magdala, she's with

us. And Joanna and Susanna. And all that

this is strange bunch of people that

were all somehow connected because of

him.

And as the Passover meal went

on, like it felt like the mood just got

heavier and heavier and like there's

this weight descending on Jesus on all

of us. We all were feeling

it. And then Jesus says like, "Yeah, one

of you is going to betray me

tonight." And Rocky, he did his normal

thing. He says, "So, it's not going to

be me, is it?" And and we all went,

"Well, if he's doing that, we'll do it,

too." So, no, it's not going to be me,

is it? And we all went around the room.

Oh, it's not me. Oh, it's not me. It's

not me. And Judas says, "It's not me."

And the room just went quiet. And Jesus

just looked at him and

said, "It's

you. Whatever you got to do tonight,

just go and do it quickly."

And I don't know, somewhere in the next

while we looked around and Judas was

gone. I don't even know where he is, but

he's not with us

anymore. Don't know what he's

doing. We we finish up and we Jesus says

it's time to go and and pray. And we

know what that means. He wants us to

come here. This is the place he always

comes to. This is his favorite spot.

We've been here often before. It's it's

this olive grove

and it's called Gethsemane. means in our

language it means the place of of

pressing olives, the wine, the grape

press, the oil

press. And we we we've been here before

like we all just go and there's a cave

with all the olive press in it and we

just go and hang out in there and we

sleep and Jesus prays all night. So we

all started piling into the cave and he

said to me and to John and to Rocky like

come

let's come with me and he just looked

like the whole weight of the world is on

his

shoulders. And so we we left the others

and walked a bit further into the into

the olive trees

and he said, "Look, would you just, you

know, sit down here and

just be with me?" And I've never seen

him look so

distressed. He's It's like he's car I

can't even describe it. It's

like it's like all the all the bad

things of the world have just been

lumped on him. It's like he's carrying

all the things that are wrong with the

world and he's he's trying to hold it on

his own shoulders and he's weighed down

by it and he he's he he left us and he

went just a few paces more and he sort

of fell to the ground and he just

started praying and we could hear him.

father like father's that word again aba

it's not it's not like a distant god it

means like my dad my my my closest

intimate father he's teaching us to pray

in such a different way when we when we

asked him to teach us how do we pray

like you he said start like this

aba daddy god who is

near and I can hear him sighing and he

was weeping

and called out, "God, you need to help

me. I can't do

this." And then there's

this figure just

appears. I think it was an

angel, someone from heaven come to

minister to

him. It's not unusual. We've seen that

before. There was a time that me and

John and Rocky went with him up on

another mountain and and he was praying

and Elijah and Moses

appeared like it was

incredible. He's just so close to

heaven. He has to be the one. He has to

be the one that God is sending. But it

just doesn't make sense right now. We've

invested so much in him. We've given up

everything to follow him.

And I'm watching him crumpled in a

heap, asking God for it to stop and for

him to get out of it. And then he he

just sort of

whispers, "Not my will, but

yours." This

surrender, whatever's going to happen is

going to happen. And while it felt like

everything was happening to him, it also

felt like he was in control of

it. And the heaviness was just there.

And

I I could feel my eyes closing. And the

next thing I know, he's shaking us,

waking us up. And he's he's talking to

Rocky. And he does that when he wants to

talk to all of us, too. Like, you know,

he's he says, "Can't you even stay awake

for an hour? I'm in great distress, and

I need you, and all you're going to do

is fall asleep. Can't you just stay

awake and watch with me?"

and and we promised that we would and we

sat up and we watched him just go off

again and the same thing falling to the

ground and he's just his

face like

it's he's been weeping and there's tears

and dirt and it's made mud all over his

face and it even looks like looks like

his sweats blood like he's I've never

seen him look like

that sweat and blood and tears and mud

all mixed together. He doesn't look like

he normally

looks and his weight is just getting

heavier and we can feel

it. And he starts crying out again,

"Abra,

father, I don't want to drink this

cup. It's too hard. It's too painful. I

can't do

it."

Yet, not my will, but

yours. How do you even say that?

It's really scary because I know what's

going to happen. If if this really is

something the end of it, then then we're

all in

trouble. I know what

happens. And then he's waking us up

again.

How do we even fall asleep like that?

How

how especially us Rocky and and John and

I like we are we are like his best

friends. Like he's not he's not our

teacher. He's like our brother. We've

done so much together. We've been so

through so much together. He He's

accepted us and he's changed our lives

and we can't even stay awake for an hour

and pray with him when he's just so

distressed. He just a minute or two ago,

he shakes us awake and he's got this

look in his eye now. It's

like, "Look out. You're going to have to

watch yourselves now because you're

going to fall into temptation. You're

going to fall away from me. You're the

one and and he said it. We're going to

betray him. We're going to leave him.

And I don't want to leave him, but I'm

scared. If something happens to him, it

happens to

us. And then he just sort of stood

up almost like he shook all of that off.

The weight's still there, but he was

different. And there was this dignity

about him and he he just said, "Get up

now. My betrayer is

coming." I don't know even what he means

by that,

but looks like

there's some people coming on the

road. Some

torches. She looks like a mob.

Looks like the looks like some of the

priests, the temple

guards. How do they even find us? I

mean, we come here all the time. Anyone

that knows Jesus would know where we'd

be tonight. If he wanted to pray, this

is where we would be.

that

Judas. What's Judas doing with the

temple priests and the

guards? He's bringing them

here. This is getting really real now.

Like if they arrest him, they're going

to arrest us.

Whatever happens to him is going to

happen to us. And I I I want like I I

said I wasn't going to leave him, but

I'm really scared

now. I don't know what to

do. Is he the Messiah? Is he the one? Is

he Is he really who he says he is?

Everything seems to point that way.

But maybe this is just Judas's trick. I

know he wants Jesus in a fight. Maybe he

thinks if he if he if he can provoke

Jesus and Jesus will start the fight and

the war will happen and and we'll kick

the Romans out. Maybe that's what he's

doing. Maybe he's just trying to stir

Jesus into doing

something. We might need to get our

swords ready. This could be it.

This could be the start of the

war. I don't

know. I'm just so confused and

scared. Father, what do I

do? I've got to go. They're here.