Then Jesus went out and made his way, as he customarily did, to a place called Gethsemane, across the Kidron Valley. There was an orchard there, and he and his disciples went into it. When he came to the place, he said to them, “Sit here and pray that you will not fall into temptation while I go over there and pray.”
He took with him Peter, James, and John, the two sons of Zebedee, and became anguished and distressed. Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”
Going a little farther, about a stone’s throw, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour would pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. If you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.”
Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And in his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, exhausted (sleeping like they were dead) from grief.
He said to Peter, “Simon, why are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake with me for one hour? Get up, stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He went away a second time and prayed the same thing, “My Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will must be done.” When he came again he found them sleeping; they could not keep their eyes open. And they did not know what to tell him.
So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough of that! Look, the hour is approaching and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us go. Look! My betrayer is approaching!”
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We are going to talk a bit today about grief.
The disciples were exhausted from grief so much so they could not stay awake after multiple requests. They “didn’t know what to tell him.” He had told them not to be troubled (John 14:1), and recognized that “sorrow has filled your hearts”. (John 16:6) What Jesus has been telling them has so profoundly saddened them that they are exhausted from their grief.
Jesus was “anguished and distressed…’My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death.’” His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
“God’s beloved Son, leaving the echoes of His cries upon the mountains and the traces of His weary feet upon the streets, shedding His tears over the tombs and His blood upon Golgotha, associating His life with our homes, and His corpse with our sepulchres, shows us how we, too, may be… sure of sympathy in heaven amid the deepest wrongs and sorrows of earth.” - Edward Thomson.
LITURGY OF LAMENT
Jesus entered a world that was broken, suffering, and full of pain. He grieved the loss of his friends; he wept for his people. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He entered into a lonesome, weary world in desperate need of the light of hope and peace to bring the promise of God's everlasting presence and love.
God has given us reason to celebrate, but we often find the days cold and our hearts hard. As we await our resurrection into the new life in the world to come, it’s sometimes hard for us to lift up our hearts. Jesus reminds us that God understands the grief of this world.
READER: “He was despised and forsaken by men, this man of suffering, grief’s patientfriend… Yet it was our suffering he carried, our pain and distress, our sickness-to-the-soul. We just figured that God had rejected him, that God was the reason he hurt so badly.
But he was hurt because of us; he suffered so. Our wrongdoing wounded and crushed him. He endured the breaking that made us whole. The injuries he suffered became our healing. (Isaiah 53:3-5)
Pastor: Jesus knows the feelings of abandonment, anger, and loneliness we sometimes feel. Jesus knows the depths of our broken hearts, and He alone has the power to bring beauty from the ashes in our lives. We long for the day when His work will be completed in us and in a world that groans as it awaits redemption. Meanwhile, we weep with those who weep, and we mourn with those who mourn.
READER: The Psalmist wrote in the 88th psalm: O Eternal One! O True God my Savior! I cry out to You all the time, under the sun and the moon. Let my voice reach You! Please listen to my prayers! My soul is deeply troubled, and my heart can’t bear the weight of this sorrow. I feel so close to death…
Are You the miracle-worker for the dead? Will they rise from the dark shadows to worship You again? Will your great love be proclaimed in the grave or Your faithfulness be remembered in whispers like mists throughout the place of ruin? Are Your wonders known in the dominion of darkness? Is Your righteousness recognized in a land where all is forgotten? But I am calling out to You, Eternal One. My prayers rise before You with every new sun!
PASTOR: Even when we are tempted to give up, even when we have lost that which brings ‘life’ to our life, even when we feel like we are living in places of ruin, we lift prayers with every new sun to a God who does not abandon us.
READER: “At different times and in various ways, God’s voice came to our ancestors through the Hebrew prophets. But in these last days, God’s voice has come to us through His Son, the One who has been given dominion over all things and through whom all worlds were made.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
Pastor: God of light and life, you speak even when we do not hear. You are present even when we do not sense you are near. In the midst of darkness and silence, we listen for your voice and long to feel your comforting grace. Open our eyes so we can see you; open our ears so we can hear.
READER: The prophet Jeremiah wrote: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick… For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there…? O, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night…” (Jeremiah 8:18,21-9:1)
Pastor: We join with the prophets in freely admitting our pain, our loss, our fear, our sorrow, our anxiety. Because the light of God’s mercy and love illuminates our tears, we mourn without shame. Here, among God’s people, we are welcome even if we're cynical, even if we're angry, even if hope and meaning seem like an unreachable dream. Here we can bare our hearts to those who will help us to bear our burden.
Congregation: Here we, the followers of a weeping Savior, bear one another’s burdens.
Pastor: Here, in the company of those who follow the Prince of Peace, let us be at peace.
Congregation: May we, the church, be a sanctuary of God’s peace for those in need of shelter.
Pastor: We will cast our sorrows upon Christ, for He cares for us.
READER: The Psalmist wrote: “My soul is dry and thirsts for You, True God, as a deer thirsts for water .I long for the True God who lives. When can I stand before Him and feel His comfort?Right now I’m overwhelmed by my sorrow and pain; I can’t stop feasting on my tears.
People crowd around me and say, “Where is your True God whom you claim will save?” With a broken heart, I remember times before When I was with Your people. Those were better days.
I used to lead them happily into the True God’s house, singing with joy, shouting thanksgivings with abandon, joining the congregation in the celebration. Why am I so overwrought? Why am I so disturbed? Why can’t I just hope in God? (Psalm 42:1-6)
PASTOR: As we wait for all that is dead to be reborn, we remember what David wrote in Psalm 42:
READER:“ I will believe and praise the One who saves me and is my life… in the light of day, the Eternal shows me His love. When night settles in and all is dark, He keeps me company—His soothing song, a prayerful melody to the True God of my life.” (Psalm 42:7-8)
Pastor: As we lift our eyes toward the only One who can heal us, we symbolically light life’s darkness with these candles. to help us to remember that though our grief is real, our hope burns brightly with the light of the True God of life.
We light our first candle to acknowledge the pain of loss: the loss of relationships, the loss of jobs, the loss of health. We take the pain of the past, offering it to God from whose nail-scarred hands we may receive the gift of peace.
We light this candle for the light of love to illuminate that which was lost in the darkness of our history.
Congregation: Renew us, God of light and joy.
Pastor: We light the second candle to remember those who have died. We remember their name, their face, their voice, the memory that we carry with us. We remember the times we laughed, argued, loved, hugged, smiled, and wept.
The valley of the shadow of death can seem relentless, so we light this candle to commemorate the memories of a life once shared, and to illuminate with comfort the path of those of us who mourn.
Congregation: May the light of a dying and risen Savior’s eternal love surround us.
Pastor: We light the third candle to our attitudes, our mindset, our hidden, inner times of darkness. We acknowledge the times of disbelief, anger, despair, and frustration, the times we have compromised our integrity and lost our innocence. We bring God’s pure light to the depth of our flawed mortality.
With this light, we also remember the family and friends who have stood with us, and the Savior who is faithful even when we are not.
Congregation: Let us remember that Christ brings the light of life.
Pastor: We light this fourth candle to remember those who feel alone, who feel isolated from loved ones, far from home, far from friends, far from a God they believe is unconcerned with their suffering.
We light this candle to remember that the God who guided His people through a wilderness with fire can illuminate the way of those captive to the darkness of loneliness and disillusionment.
Congregation: May Jesus, who was despised and rejected, comfort the lonely and brokenhearted.
Pastor: We light this fifth candle to remember those who are in the midst of hardships that threaten to overwhelm them. For the poor, the persecuted, the hungry, the homeless, the sick. We lift up those who suffer the pain, indignity, and bewilderment that accompany a broken body, spirit or soul.
We pray that God, who lit up the night to guide wise men to the healing Christ, will light the way today to a Risen Savior.
Congregation: O God, light our path; bring hope to the hopeless; make us new.
Pastor: We light the sixth candle to remember our faith and the gift of hope. We remember that God promises that one day there will be an age to come with no more pain and suffering. We light a candle for courage in this present darkness as we await the renewal of all things. We confront our sorrow, our loss, our confusion.
With God’s Spirit and the presence of his people, we bring the light of comfort to each other, bearing each other’s burdens, and praying for hope in our broken world.
Congregation. Let us remember the One who draws beauty from ashes and offers us hope.
READER: The Apostle Paul wrote: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
Pastor: It is through the suffering of Christ that we find comfort in the midst of our suffering as well. On the night Jesus offered himself up for us he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Congregation: Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we have been delivered from the power of sin and death, and we can endure with hope and faith.
Pastor: It was in His parting sorrow that Jesus asked His disciples to remember Him. May we, the church, be united in the fellowship of his suffering so we can experience the power of his resurrection.
READER: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ (Revelation 21:1-5)
Pastor: In the promise of God’s never-ending love from which nothing can separate us, we claim peace. We long for the day when there shall be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more death. Even when we see only a glimmer, we know the light of your love is overcoming all darkness. Christ himself is with us.
He is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. This is the good news: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. One day, Christ who died and rose again will wipe all tears from our eyes. He will make all things new.
As we wait for Resurrection, we lift up our broken hearts. May the God of Comfort be with us.
Congregation: May the God of Resurrection be with us all.