The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on March 27, 1983. The title is, Watch With Me, and the scripture reference is Matthew, chapter 26, verses 36 through 46. 

I want to come back to the beginning of that story. Jesus took his friends with him into a garden called Gethsemane. And he asked them a very simple thing.

He said, watch with me. That's all. Just watch with me.

In between two terribly conflicting crowd events, the Palm Sunday multitude hailing him King of the Jews and the Good Friday crowd five days later screaming for his life in between those two a moment of absolute solitude agonizing solitude for just a moment in the midst of the wildly swirling drama of that holy week Jesus feels so completely alone that he asks his three closest friends Peter, James and John to come and watch with him and of course they fall asleep it's a curious thing isn't it the way that most folks have a built-in need for others to take notice of them. Have you observed that? Maybe you've experienced it yourself.

I took Jessica over to Van Dyke Park a couple of weeks ago, just the two of us, and she went down that circular slide about 78 times as far as I could count. And every single time, what did she say? that's right daddy watch me right you've watched 68 69 70 71 a couple of years ago I insisted that Jonathan learn to swim we had put it off long enough and he was very reluctant about that I think the neighbors were convinced I was slaying him for breakfast but you know the minute that he finally got the hang of it daddy watch me I mean we've only been working on this for two months I've been saying Jonathan here's how you do it now he says daddy watch me but it isn't only kids that need that is it psychologists would tell us that one of the seven basic needs of every human being is the need for recognition.

We need that. We need for folks to watch us. Did you ever hear of anybody ever breaking a track record without a crowd watching?

It just plain doesn't happen. Do you know why? Because the cheering crowd stimulates the adrenaline and helps the guy to run faster.

You need that recognition. it's a proven fact that most people are far more concerned that they get a raise at the end of the year because that says you're doing a good job than because it necessarily increases their buying power we need recognition and strangely it's not just that we need people's applause in our moments of high achievement but somehow we also need them to be there in our moments of loneliness and anguish and even our moments of crushing defeat. Not necessarily a whole lot of people.

Just one or two. Every pastor has gotten calls in the middle of the night. A loved one has died.

You've got to come. You've got to come right now. it's not that he has all this great wisdom or that he can pray any better than they can they just need somebody to be there as a matter of fact usually if he tries to say very much of anything he gets it wrong anyway just be there shut up and be there to me the strangest thing is that even the condemned man who is about to face a firing squad or an electric chair wants people to be there.

It's not that the state imposes people in some kind of morbid fascination. It's that the state allows him to have witnesses and invariably he wants some. That surprises me every time.

You would think that in such a moment he'd be too ashamed. He wouldn't want anybody to see it. but one or two or three need to be there.

Watch with me, is what he's saying. Watch me. And so I wonder if you hear the pathos in Jesus' voice as he makes the same request.

I said this is our human need. This is a basic need of all human beings. Here is Jesus in the midst of His naked humanness.

And He's saying, I need you. I need you. Watch with me.

What an incredible scene. Three times in a row He says to the Father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. And three times in a row He's denied.

and so three times in a row he asks his friends would you please be with me and three times in a row they fall asleep a lot of people completely misunderstand what's happening in the garden of Gethsemane they say that just proves Jesus doubted he lost his confidence in the father he wanted to get out from under what he thought was God's will for him suggests to you that exactly the opposite is the case. It's not that Jesus tried to avoid the will of the Father. In fact, three times He explicitly says, not my will, but yours.

Three times in a row He purposed to embrace that will. And mind you, it wasn't that He was afraid of the cross, obviously. That's a horror, but that's not what He's praying.

He knew all about that cross. He predicted it when nobody else could even imagine it. He said, that's what I've come to do.

I've come to go to Jerusalem to suffer many things at the hands of the chief priests and Pharisees, and I will be crucified. And Peter and all the others said, God forbid, Lord. He knew what it was all about.

And Scripture says he set his face toward Jerusalem, steadfastly moved toward that destiny and never once wavered from it. And beyond all that, he said, nobody takes my life. I lay it down willingly.

I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. So you say, what is it that he's praying here? Let this cup pass from me.

It's almost impossible to put this into words, but I'll try. He was saying, I want to avoid, if it's possible, I want to avoid the self-contradiction of being in the absolute center of God's will and alienated from Him. Can you imagine what I've just said?

You've never been there. Neither have I. Jesus was in the absolute center of God's will and already beginning to enter into God-forsakenness. And he's God.

Luther called him the God-forsaken God. It doesn't make any sense. The God-forsaken God.

This is the one who from before the foundation of the world never knew a moment of separation from the Father. And while he was here among us, not for the space of a heartbeat, was there disharmony between himself and his heavenly Father and now perfectly yielded, perfectly obedient, he's nonetheless slipping into God-forsakenness for you and for me. It's a self-contradiction.

And in essence, what he's saying is, Father, anything, anything you ask, I'm willing to do anything, but not that. If it be possible, don't ask me to be separated from you. But even that.

Last week, Francis McNutt quoted to us from 2 Corinthians where it says, He who knew no sin became sin. Doesn't make any sense. The Puritans had a fascinating question.

they used to ask, are you willing to be condemned to hell for the glory of God? And that doesn't make any sense either. Except that in Jesus' case, that's exactly what happened.

He went to hell for the glory of God and for your salvation and mine. And already he's anticipating, he's beginning to feel what it feels like to be God-forsaken. And so he exposes this terrible human vulnerability, this need for somebody, I mean even Peter, to be there.

Watch with me. Only this loneliness has to be complete. Peter falls asleep.

Did you ever happen to hear what the word Gethsemane means? It means an oil press. An oil press.

Gethsemane was an olive grove. It's still there. A little bit of it is still there.

You can go to Jerusalem today and you can visit what's left of the Garden of Gethsemane. And there are a few trees there that they say are over 2,000 years old. They were there when he was there.

And at the time, it was rich with olive trees. It was just a tremendous garden. And obviously in the midst of the garden, they had an oil press.

They would take the olives and they would crush them and release oil. Do you see what's happening? You take a lemon and you squeeze it and you get lemon juice.

You squeeze an orange and you get orange juice. You squeeze a pineapple and you get pineapple juice. You squeeze Jesus.

And you get the oil of the Holy Spirit flowing out to anoint you in May. Because He went to hell so that we wouldn't need to. It amazes me that Jesus made Himself vulnerable in this way, and yet, you know, he goes on making himself vulnerable in exactly the same way.

Do you realize that? He said the Father is seeking for people who would worship Him in spirit and in truth. He's seeking for people who would want to worship Him, who would make that the priority, who would want to come and spend time with Him, Who would watch with Him?

That's His heart desire. God wants your company and mine. I can't imagine why.

But He wants us. And He makes Himself vulnerable to us. Do you know that He has an appointment with us every single day?

To come and spend time in His Word, to spend time in prayer, and He's going to be there. You and I might miss it. But He will never miss it.

He'll be there. He's saying, spend time with Me. Will you notice the things that are important to Me?

Will you fill your mind and heart with the things that are important to Me? Will you let your heart break with what breaks my heart? Will you set as your top priority spending time with me?

Or will you fall asleep? How many battles have been lost? Because Christians just plain fell asleep at the switch.

Just didn't notice what was important. Didn't have their priorities right. Didn't spend time with God.

Jesus said, I love you enough to go to a cross. Will you watch with me? Let's bow our heads together.

Lord, we say that Judas betrayed You with a kiss. And we do that. And Peter betrayed You by saying, I don't even know the man.

And there are lots of times when we feel that we don't know You very well either. The truth of the matter is, they all betrayed You just by falling asleep. Lord, we would be those who watch with You for Your great name's sake.

Amen.