Couageous Love

     Jesus took Peter, John and James with him. “Stay here while I pray,” he told them. Walking a little further, about a stone’s throw away, he fell to his knees surrendering to the heavy weight of sorrow. With his face toward the ground, he breathed a prayer in an overwhelmingly distressed voice: “Father, everything is possible for you. If you are willing, may this cup be taken from me.” Eventually, Jesus stood up and walked back to the three men who had fallen asleep. Waking them, he pleaded, “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour? I tell you, be alert so that you will not fall into temptation. Certainly the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” With that, Jesus returned to pray once more. The severe pain and writhing agony within Jesus swelled, causing him to sweat beads of blood. Acceding his Father‘s desire, Jesus whispered, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.” Soon, an angel appeared and strengthened him. Jesus, rising up, walked back to Peter, John and James. “It is time,” he said resolutely. “Here comes my betrayer.” (see Matt. 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46).
       Jesus' heroic behavior in Gethsemane captured a moment of mythic courage. Making a self-sacrificing decision in that moment of crisis is about nothing other than love. Only a potent, altruistic love could lead Jesus to override the human impulse for personal survival. Seen from the intellect, his decision to face crucifixion was arguably irrational; seen from the heart, however, it was the only choice to make.
“The kind of love which led Christ to a cross…amid the angry torrents of persecution is not soft, anemic, and sentimental. Such love confronts evil without flinching and shows…an infinite capacity ‘to take it.’ Such love overcomes the world even from a rough-hewn cross against the skyline.”                                                                                                                  - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.