Today we talk about Jesus, the disciples, and the Garden of Gesthemene in Mt 26.36-56; Mk 14.32-52; Lk 22.40-53; Jn 18.1-12.
After the supper, Jesus goes to a garden. He asks his disciples to watch with him. They fall asleep. Three times.
This week Alan and Mary sit with the Agony in the Garden and the arrest, one of the few sequences that appears in all four gospels, and when all four gospels agree on something, that is worth paying close attention to. Each account tells the same story through a genuinely different lens, and the differences turn out to matter as much as the agreement.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke show you a Jesus in real anguish, asking if the cup can pass, returning again and again to a prayer he has to work through. John shows you something else entirely: a Jesus who arrives at the garden already resolved, who steps forward to meet the soldiers, says "I am," and watches them fall to the ground.
We also talk about what happens when the swords come out, and what Jesus says and does about it. One disciple swings at a servant and takes off his ear. Only Luke tells you Jesus healed it, right there in the middle of his own arrest. And then Alan addresses something that sits just underneath this whole passage: scripture is sometimes used to justify armed conflict, and Jesus's own words and actions in this garden push back on that directly. War may sometimes be necessary. It is never of God, and it is never for God.
This episode releases on the feast day of Toyohiko Kagawa, a Japanese Christian social reformer and pacifist from the early twentieth century. A link to learn more about him is in the show notes.
Readings for next week: Mt 26.57-27.14;Mk 14.53-15.5; Lk 22.54-23.12; Jn 18.13-38
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Toyohiko Kagawa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohiko_Kagawa)
- Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner's Guide to Holy Week (https://a.co/d/89u4GX8)
- Christ Chronological Bible (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143364603X)
- Check us out on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@biblelovepodcast)
