There is both humor and horror in the Bible that is rarely, if ever, appreciated or experienced. I think the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is one of them. It is a horrible account of what it can be like going it alone to God.

I recall teaching an interpretation theory course at the graduate school of theology in Addis. Those part-time students were university graduates, several of them medical professionals, lawyers, business owners and the like, critical thinkers all of them. Unfortunately any ability to see humor or horror in the Bible had long been sucked out of them through religious upbringing and academic training. We looked at the story of the fortune-telling slave girl in the book of Acts. The story goes that this woman was following Paul day after day yelling out “These men are the slaves of the most high God who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” Paul, the story continues, becoming very “annoyed,” turned and said to the spirit in her, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” This is funny. Paul, the preacher of God's salvation in Jesus Christ silences this fortune-telling slave who is only advancing the truth of God's salvation in Jesus Christ.  Why? Because Paul was getting “annoyed.” The students didn't see the humor.

Do you know the Old Testament story of the boys that ran after the prophet Elijah yelling, “Baldhead! Baldhead!” Elijah, the story goes, turned around, cursed them in the name of the Lord and then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys: 2 Kings, chapter 2. Doesn't this shock us just a bit: Elijah, one of God's greatest, the one who appeared with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration is so ruffled by a bunch of name-calling kids he calls down heaven against them, and heaven, it seems, complies accordingly.

There are so many stories of scandal in the Bible, most of them starring all the big names. My point: the Bible has been so domesticated, so sterilized, so spiritualized, neutered, I believe, that we no longer laugh at its funny parts, cry at its sad parts, or shudder at its horrible parts. Gethsemane is not funny. It does sadden. But more than this it should disturb us deeply.

This story is not centrally about the sleeping disciples but, rather, about a silent God. Yes, Jesus returns three times to find the disciples sleeping. But Jesus is, as well, turning and returning to God three times asking that God find another way than the cross: “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup. Remove this cup. Remove this cup." For hundreds of years of interpretation our attention has been given to the failure of the disciples to stay awake. This scene, I believe, invites us to consider the failure of God to exercise divine power and grant the Son's request: remove the cup of suffering, remove the cross. God doesn't. Jesus is killed on a cross. That disturbs me. God is able to remove the cup. But God is unwilling.

Jesus adds, “Yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Here we have to be really careful. Jesus is not giving up his will to the Father's. No. Jesus' will accompanies the will of the Father all the way to Calvary . Too often we have thought that Jesus gives up his will for the sake of the Father's will. This is not so. Jesus' will does not dissolve into the Father's will. Both wills remain: that of Jesus and that of God. They do not become one will. This is the only way to make sense of the death of Jesus on the cross as recorded in Mark: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The Bible is clear. The Judeo-Christian God is a God who speaks and who acts, and whose speech and action is governed by “hesed”: steadfast love. This is God at God's best, according to Christian Scripture. So, when God chooses silence rather than speech and death rather than life, we ought to be deeply disturbed. This is what happened in Gethsemane . Yet, we remain largely undisturbed.

How terrible it can be to go it alone to God. Jesus was alone with God's silence that night in Gethsemane. He had left the disciples and gone “a little further” so the story goes. Sometimes I think Jesus would have been better off to pray in the company of his disciples, not alone. We so often sing of the comfort and assurance given through prayer to God. This is often the case. It is not always the case. This is why Gethsemane should shake us a bit. It was as if God was also asleep, the One whom Scripture says neither slumbers nor sleeps. But we know that God has been silent and inactive before, and God's people have protested. Their protesting prayers, now our sacred Scripture: Psalm 44: “Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep O Lord? Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.” Amen

-Rev. Dr. Philip Johnson

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