Today we will return to the Garden of Gethsemane. In the first post in my Lessons in the Garden series, I shared how Jesus experienced grief in the garden while praying. Before Jesus went off alone to pray, in Matthew 26:36-38 it says,
“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here, while I go over there and pray.’ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.’”
The word “then,” at the start of verse 36, signals something happened prior. Prior to Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane, He told His disciples, for instance, how He will be betrayed by one of them, how they all would scatter from Him, and the Lord’s supper was introduced.
With what is to come in mind, Jesus heads to the garden to pray, which we read in verse 36, and verse 37 reveals an important lesson, as Christ followers, we should follow in our own lives. Jesus takes only three of the original twelve disciples with Him; they are Peter, and the two sons of Zebedee—James and John (Mark 14:33). This is not the first time Jesus chose these three disciples to witness something the others did not. For example, Peter, James, and John were present when Jesus healed Jairus’s deceased daughter (Luke 8:40-42, 49-56).
The Lord is intentional in all He does, so what are these three disciples supposed to see in these precious moments in the garden with Jesus? Jesus let them see His sorrow and how troubled He is, and He communicates it to them in verses 37-38. It is easy to share with the people we say we are close to the wonderful, joyous moments, but are there people you trust to see and share your pain with? Pain such as the long-awaited desire for marriage you have been waiting on the Lord to fulfill is still not fulfilled years and years after you hoped it would be.
In my own life, being vulnerable with others in general is not easy. A big part of why is due to trust. I do not trust others easily with what is going on in me. My tendency is to share little details and wait and see what the person does with it. Do they share it with others when I wanted them to keep it between us, for example? The Holy Spirit reminded me recently during a moment where He needed me to be vulnerable with my pain, not filter it, and share this with a dear, trusted sister-in-Christ. The Lord does not want us to trust everyone with our pain, He does want us to have a few we do.
Reader, do you know who those few are in your life? First, ask the Lord to give you wisdom on who those people are. In addition, here are a few ways to discern who those few might be in your life.
- These few always point you to Christ in the highs, the lows, and everything in between of life.
- These few are trustworthy.
- These few fight for you in prayer.
Maybe, you know you do not have those few in your life. Ask the Lord to provide them and trust He will. How He reveals them is in His timing. Regardless, of whether you know or do not know who the few are you can be vulnerable in sharing your pain with, know sometimes, how He reveals and reminds you of who they are is through taking the step to be vulnerable.
All Bible verses are from Holy Bible: English Standard Version