Gethsemane: Prayer and Arrest
by Donald Senior, C.P.
Now the setting shifts from the upper room to Gethsemane, an olive grove on
the outskirts of the city, and here in two major scenes the pace of the
passion story quickens.
The specter of violent death hovers over Jesus and torments him. As he had
done several times in the gospel Jesus gathers his strength in prayer. It
is not a polite or heroic prayer but one that echoes the raw expressions of
faith found in the psalms: "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.
Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will."
(14:36). So much of the spirit of Jesus is here: his tenacious and intimate
devotion to God, his "Abba," the fierce struggles with the power of evil
and death that marked his ministry in Galilee (see, for example, 5:1-20).
Mark informs his readers early in the Gospel that Jesus is the Son of God,
one in whom the Spirit abides and one whose name God's speaks at the Jordan
(1:9-11) and on the mount of Transfiguration (9:7). But Jesus is also
genuinely human, wary of death and crushed by the thought that his mission
was running aground. So Mark dares to present us with this scene, one that
would be fixed in Christian memory forever: a wrenching prayer of faith and
fear from the lips of Jesus.
Mark continues his method of presenting the disciples in stark
counterpoint with Jesus. Three times he comes to find support in their
presence, only to find them sleeping. The Gospel had already made clear
that this "sleep" is not mere fatigue at the end of a long celebration.
This brand of sleep could be deadly, it was the spiritual torpor of those
who do not recognize the moment of crisis in history and do not prepare
themselves to face it. Jesus had warned the disciples about this type of
"sleep": "Watch, therefore, you do not know when the lord of the house is
coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the
morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to
you, I say to all: 'Watch!' " (13:35-37).
That moment of crisis comes swiftly. Judas and an armed crowd break into
the stillness of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, the apostate disciple
identifying Jesus with a treacherous kiss. Mayhem breaks out: they seize
Jesus and arrest him, meanwhile a "bystander" (one of the crowd? one of
Jesus' followers?) lashes out with a sword and wounds a servant of the High
Priest.
Jesus faces that wall of violence and condemns it: ''Have you come out as
against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me? Day after day I was
with you teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me; but that
the scriptures may be fulfilled... (14:49). How often has this scene been
repeated in the centuries since Mark wrote: a nighttime arrest; the forces
of violence seeking to destroy the voice of justice; violence breeding more
violence; the lone heroic stance of the martyr who refuses to betray the
spirit of God.
Again Mark contrasts the response of the disciples with that of Jesus. The
crisis has come and they cannot endure it. All of them flee, abandoning
Jesus, one of them so panic stricken that he tears away from the grip of
his captor and flees naked. The disciples have left behind their dignity,
their calling, and the one who gave them life.
Email questions or comments about this page to Fr. Victor Hoagland, C.P. Copyright 1997, Passionist Publications, Union City, NJ USA. Passionist Publications reserves all rights to text, illustrations, and HTML.