Ascension Lutheran Church

Calgary, AB

Palm/Passion Sunday

April 5, 2020

Matthew 26:14—27:66

In the midst of our current circumstances, it’s easy to get caught up in focusing on what we can’t do.

For example, my family can attest to the amount of angst and frustration I’ve had at times this past week over what Holy Week and Easter services will be like, given the restrictions of physical distancing, plus my own post-surgery limitations.

I’m sure each one of us has a list of similar exasperations and disappointments about life these past weeks as regular routines have had to be revised and special plans altered or completely scrapped.

As we look at today’s gospel from St. Matthew, we find the disciples are also in the grasp of circumstances beyond their control, carried along by a current of events they don’t fully understand, trying their best to come to grips with each new unimaginable thing that was unfolding before their eyes without becoming overwhelmed.

Yet in the midst of everything they couldn’t do, Jesus asks the disciples to do something for him and with him. In the Garden of Gethsemane he asks them to keep watch and pray.

Jesus knows they will abandon him when the armed party comes to arrest him in a few hours. He knows Peter will deny him three times. He is aware of their weakness, frailty and limitations. They won’ save him from the authorities who were intent on putting him to death, nor will they accompany him to Calvary and the cross.

But what Jesus does ask of them is fairly simple and straightforward, and perhaps seems from some perspective even trivial and inconsequential in the face of everything going on—to keep watch with him and pray. But it isn’t trivial or inconsequential because it is Jesus who asked. Jesus who knows and loves his disciples best, Jesus who knows and understands significance of the situation and seemingly random events even though it strikes the disciples as chaos. If Jesus asks it be done it is for the benefit and blessing of all.

As we enter this Holy Week of 2020, Jesus is asking something similar of us—to watch and pray with him. We can’t have our regular Holy Week services, nor will we be gathering for our usual Easter breakfast and service next Sunday. Personally, our daily routines, to say nothing of our Easter plans are all changed. The trips to places we’d usually go and visits with people we’d normally see are all on hold. And it is fair and reasonable to grieve these unwanted and unexpected upheavals.

But in the midst of everything we don’t like and don’t understand, Jesus has asked us to watch and pray with him—we’ve been given something to do. Something of value and importance, of benefit and blessing for us and those around us near and far. It requires no special services, no technological marvels, no travelling, no careful plans.

Just the intentional decision to accept Jesus’ request to take some of this time and spend it with him.

Waiting and watching wasn’t what the disciples had in mind in the garden but it was what Jesus asked of them. Waiting and watching isn’t necessarily what we had in mind for this Holy Week, but it is what Jesus has invited us to do—which when you think about it more of a gift than a duty. That in the midst of all the tumult and turmoil Christ has invited us to be with him.

Read again the gospel lessons for today or other Scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to point out to you what it is you need to hear. Be quiet, be present in the moment—let go of the regrets of the past or anxieties for the future; the stories, statistics and speculations from the news; the reports and rumours from others—and just be with Christ in prayer. It doesn’t have to be an hour, but even a few intentional, deliberate minutes away with him throughout this week, to bring your requests to him and also to hear from him again of his love for you and presence with you.