Jesus Was Stuck: A Sermon on Matthew 26:36-48
“I don’t want this pandemic. I don’t want to be stuck inside my home. I don’t want to be locked out of my favorite coffee shop. I don’t want to wonder if I’m going to catch the coronavirus. I don’t want this.” When I said those words, it wasn’t the first time I’d said them. There were other times in my life when I felt stuck.
When I was a student in Mr. Rohrbaugh’s sixth grade class, I felt stuck. Mr. Rohrbaugh was a large man and reminded me of the giant ogre in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. He’d stand over my desk, and when he asked me a question, I had to look straight up at him as he towered over me. He also spewed out bits of saliva when he talked. Worst of all, no matter what excuse I came up with for not doing my homework, Mr. Rohrbaugh never accepted them. Ever.
“Mr. Toney,” Mr. Rohrbaugh would say to me even though I was only twelve-years old. “Mr. Toney, I don’t accept your excuse for not having your homework done because I know your home was not attacked by Martians from outer space or it would have been on the news.” As a twelve-year old, I felt stuck in Mr. Rohrbaugh’s class. Ever felt stuck?
When I was a supervisory Army chaplain at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, there were times when I felt stuck. I’d leave my home at 6:00 a.m. When I got to the headquarters building where I worked, I’d do physical training and be at my cubicle by 8:00 a.m. I’d sit in the cubicle for the next twelve hours staring at the computer, making phone calls, and trying to solve problems. And then when I left at night, I carried a cell phone because I was on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I couldn’t escape. If a soldier died in combat, I’d be called, and I was frequently tasked to be the chaplain to make the death notification to the family. Afterward, it was my job to provide pastoral care to the grieving family and keep doing my job in the headquarters building and serve as a Protestant chaplain to the chapel where I was assigned. In many ways it was a wonderful job, but sometimes I felt stuck. Ever felt stuck?
On July 14, 2017, USA Today reported the following story. A woman approached a police officer and told him an ATM was acting strange. When the officer asked how the machine was acting strange, the woman told him the machine was not handing out money when you inserted your ATM card, but little pieces of paper. The police officer went to the ATM to investigate. He found the machine was spitting out little pieces of paper. On each sheet of paper was scrawled two words: “Help me.” Then the officer heard a faint noise from inside the machine that sounded like someone yelling. The officer summoned someone from the bank to open the ATM. When the ATM was opened, they found a man standing inside the machine. The man was a bank employee who serviced its ATM machines. While he was working at the ATM the machine door accidentally closed, and he became trapped inside. The man was stuck because he had left the keys to open the machine and his cell phone in his service van. The man was trapped.[1] Ever felt stuck?
In the Garden of Gethsemane,[2] Jesus felt stuck. God was asking Jesus to do something He didn’t want to do. Just five days before Jesus had entered Jerusalem and been hailed as a king. Think about it. We all want people to like us. We all want people to want us. We all want to be popular. In this reading, Jesus was hailed as a king. Imagine the headlines in the local newspaper: “Jesus Welcomed By Huge Crowds;” “The People Love Jesus;” “Jesus’ Approval Ratings Go Through the Roof.” Jesus had everything anyone could want, security, popularity, fame, and yet, He wan not happy in this reading. He felt stuck.
A few days earlier, after He had been proclaimed as king, Jesus went to the Temple. Do you remember what happened when Jesus went to the Temple?
- There was a huge political rally at the Temple where Jesus was heralded as the king…uh no.
- There was a national worship service where Jesus thanked God for choosing Him to be king…uh no.
- There was a grand reception for Jesus that included punch, hors d’oeuvres, and cake…uh no.
The first thing Jesus did when he got to the Temple was to throw tables over like a wild man.[3] The tables he tossed belonged to vendors selling things in the Temple. In police terms, Jesus was disturbing the peace. He was destroying people’s property. He was not happy. He was on edge.
Jesus was upset, and we can feel it in our reading. Verse 37 says Jesus felt “grief and anguish” come over Him. In the Greek language, the words “grief” and “anguish” are words that refer to stress. Twice this verse says Jesus was distressed. If I go to Starbucks, order an espresso, and ask the person at the counter to add another shot, what will I get? A double shot. Matthew wants us to know Jesus had a double shot of stress.
Jesus asked His friends to be there for Him. He didn’t hide his feelings or pretend like everything was okay. Jesus told his buddies the heaviness was crushing him, “This sorrow is crushing my life out.”[4] We all want friends who can be there for us. We may not know what to say and may not be able to fix their problem, but we can be there.
Jesus knew he was going to suffer and die. In a few hours, He would be arrested, beaten, tortured, and killed. He felt trapped.
We have a French Poodle. Her name is Mia. If you try to hold Mia’s front two paws, she’ll start twisting and jerking. She will not let you hold her front paws. Her animal instincts tell her “don’t let anything hold your paws or … you could be trapped.”
Jesus felt trapped. What do you do when you feel trapped?
Here’s what Jesus did when He felt trapped: He talked to His father. “My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this.”[5] Jesus spoke to His dad. My father’s first name was Omer. His mother know him as Omer. In the Navy, he was known by his rank. As a high school teacher, he was known as Mr. Toney. To his three sons, he was Dad. Jesus turned to His dad.
I serve in the psychology department at a Virginia Department of Corrections Facility. One of the things I’ve learned from several of the men is they had poor relationships with their dads. There are many reasons why they had poor relationships with their fathers, but as children it wasn’t due to anything they did. They didn’t have a dad and grew up wondering if their dad loved them or cared for them. Not knowing they mattered to their father caused them serious emotional issues.
Jesus mattered to His dad, and so He talked to His dad. How do you manage stress? You call out to your dad. I Peter 5:7 tells us our heavenly dad cares for us. It says, God “cares for you.”[6]
When I was five years old my dad was stationed at the Navy Base in Florida. He took me fishing along a canal where the water was black as ink. You couldn’t see anything in the water. The sides of the canal went straight down too. There wasn’t a gradual descent into the water like a beach. It went straight down. Like most five-year-old children, I got bored and started playing along the bank. As I played, I moved further and further away from my dad. I was about 100 feet away from him when I slipped and fell into the canal. As I slipped, I managed to grab a piece of grass, but the grass couldn’t hold me, and I slowly slide into the canal. Frantic for help, I turned to where my dad was fishing. He was reeling in a fish. Even though I knew didn’t want to lose the fish, I yelled anyway. I needed help. When my dad saw me, he threw his pole down, ran down the bank to where I was and pulled me out of the water. I was dripping wet, but it didn’t matter because he hugged me. He wasn’t upset with me because I caused him to lose his fish. He loved me, and when I called, he answered.
Feeling stuck? Stressed? One way to manage those feelings is to call out to your heavenly Father. And according to recent research, “Prayer is significantly related to reduced anxiety and greater psychological well-being.”[7] Calling out to God works. So, call out to your heavenly Father.
[1] Rodriguez, Alexandria, “Texas man stuck in ATM slips ‘help me’ note through receipt slot” USA Today, July 14, 2017. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2017/07/14/texas-man-stuck-atm-slips-help-me-note-through-receipt-slot/478452001/ (Accessed November 11, 2020).
[2] Matt. 26:36-48
[3] Matt. 21:5, (The Message)
[4] Matt. 26:36-38 (The Message)
[5] Matt. 26:39 (The Message).
[6] 1 Peter 3:5, (Easy to Read Version).
[7] Steven Pirutinsky, David H. Rosmarin, and Lee A. Kirkpatrick, “Is Attachment to God a Unique Predictor of Mental Health? Test in a Jewish Sample,” International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, no. 3, (2019): 161-171.
