A MIRACLE IN THE GARDEN

A SERMON FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY IN LENT

We’re all fully aware, I think, of the reason why our blessed Lord allowed himself to be transfigured before the three Apostles Peter, James and John.  These were the three who would be with him in Gethsemane that dreadful night before Good Friday, when our Lord’s soul was sorrowful unto death, and his humanity descended into the lowest possible state of suffering.  How could they have handled such weakness in the one they regarded as the Son of God, unless they had first witnessed the power and glory of his divinity at the Transfiguration?

This vision of glory as our Lord was transfigured before the three men in today’s Gospel was, however, not the last sign of his power.  There was more to come, a very brief but powerful display of our Lord’s divinity.  Even after his most terrible Agony in the Garden of Olives, there was given to these three Apostles one last and most powerful indication that this man was indeed the Son of God.  In the 18^th chapter of St. John’s Gospel, we read about the betrayal of Judas and how he led the soldiers to where he knew they would find Christ and would be able to arrest him quietly: “Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.  Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?  They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he.”  We then read this most remarkable verse: “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.”

Something truly extraordinary just occurred, something which, in the reading of St. John’s long Passion on Good Friday is easily glossed over among all the other terrible events of that day.  But what just happened?  Why did they fall to the ground?

There have been many psychological theories as to why these hardened soldiers showed such apparent weakness and were unable to arrest Jesus right away when he identified himself as the one they were seeking.  But truth be told, something supernatural lies within this scene of fear and submission as they fall backwards to the ground together.

Whom seek ye?  our Lord had asked the soldiers.  Their reply—“Jesus of Nazareth”.  You may remember what we said about this Holy Name of Jesus back on January 2, the feast of the Holy Name, and how the Name of Jesus or Yeshua, came from two separate Hebrew words, Ya, which is short for Yahweh, the name for God which the Jews to this day do not dare pronounce, and hoshea, which means “salvation.  The name Jesus, therefore, means “God the Saviour”.  Whom seek ye?  God the Saviour.  I am he.

Christ here is saying, “I am God the Saviour.” And the very wording he uses confirms that he is indeed God the Saviour.  Compare our Lord’s answer “I am he” to the voice of God speaking to Moses from the burning bush, “I am that I am,” words that revealed the quintessential nature of God as pure Being.  Compare our Lord’s answer also with a conversation he had with the Jews earlier in his apostolate.  He said “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.  Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” Listen to his answer to that, “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.  This admission of his own divinity caused the Jews to pick up stones to hurl at him, as they knew that his words were a claim to be God himself. 

Now in Gethsemane, he replies simply “I am he.”  And the soldiers fell to the ground, just as the Apostles Peter, James and John in today’s Gospel “fell on their face and were sore afraid” when they heard the voice of God booming out of the cloud.

What was going through the minds of these men as they cowered before the man they were about to arrest and so cruelly mistreat?  We’ll never know for sure, but it must have been something very powerful to strike all of them at once and cause them to fall backwards to the ground.  Perhaps it was the sudden yet fleeting realization that this was indeed the Son of God and Saviour, the one who would sit in judgment on them as their eternal fate hangs in the balance.  Or did they perhaps have a brief but powerful vision of the divinity of this man, similar to the transfigured Christ we witness in today’s Gospel?  Whatever it was, this vivid scene of hardened soldiers collapsing before the blood-stained and suffering Redeemer is one that transfixes our minds and puts us in awe of the power and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, God and Saviour.  There was no need for our Lord to call upon his Father to send twelve legions of angels to protect him.  His very presence would have been enough, if he had so willed it.  And for this split second, he did so will it, so that we could behold him, even at this dark moment, transfigured not with the bloody sweat of his Agony, but with the glory of his divinity.  “Behold my Son in whom I am well pleased.”

In these days of trial and tribulation, when darkness seems once again to cover the earth and the enemies of God lead their cohorts into our own Gethsemane to persecute and destroy, we must keep forever in our minds those words of our Lord, that “wherever two or more are gathered together in my Name,” that Holy Name which means God and Saviour, “there am I in the midst of them.”  He is here with us, whatever the future brings, and we do not need the twelve Legions of Angels to defend us, comforting though they might be.  He, and he alone, is sufficient.  Prepare to follow him.