“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” – Matthew 26:38
In this station, we have the cup of death juxtaposed against the serpent of temptation. Jesus found himself in a garden, desperately praying about what lay ahead of him… the road to death. The road we will walk as we go through these stations, just like countless others have contemplated for two thousand years.
I’ve never had a future in front of me where I knew if I kept going I’d suffer horrible torture at the hands of imperial powers and I would slowly die on one of the worst execution devices ever created by human beings.
That said. I get tempted.
Not in the vein of shoplifting and hating annoying people on public transport.
I’m talking about Incarnation.
I get tempted all the time to not be HERE in the life that is right in front of me. The present that IS instead of what I imagined it would be. The relational commitments I’ve made to family and a partner. The psychological commitments I’ve made to perspective and choice. The faith commitments that I’ve made to the Ground of Being. The incarnation commitments I’ve made to just get up and be alive to what this day has to offer.
Jesus partook in the difficulty of saying yes to what’s happening.
The road ahead of me is not an execution device. Thank God. But constantly on all our roads is a DEATH that comes from denying our particular incarnation. Your body. Your family. Your capabilities. Your limitations. Your time. Your situation. Your place. Your short breath of life in this absurd and beautiful universe.
To say YES to your life is to say no to all the other incarnational possibilities. Which, in a world filled with doorways to fantasy (the very phone you’re holding right now)… this is so very hard to do.
The cocktail we want to drink is the inebriation of numb distraction.
The beverage we are offered is the reality of our glorious and dynamic fragility.
“Father, take this cup from me. But not my will, but yours be done.”
1 / What scenarios in your life have led you to desperate prayer?
2 / When is your most honest prayer?
3 / When was a time you called others to pray with you?
© Image & words by Scott Erickson
