Maundy Thursday: Divine Solidarity in the Garden

Maundy Thursday represents the pinnacle of the Christian story.

Jesus goes into the garden to pray. His closest companions fall asleep and leave him alone. Jesus knows that the authorities are coming for him. His mission of caring for the most vulnerable, challenging the military occupation, and calling out the powerful collaborators is about to lead his lynching.

Jesus knows a dear friend is about to betray him.

Jesus agonizes over this fate and wishes that the mission could pass him by. And that the cup of poison will be taken from him. Yet, Jesus stays committed and decides that even torture and execution is not enough to deter him from the cause of justice.

God took human form to show us that God will be with us even then. God will not wimp out and leave us flat. God will go with us. Everything else, the arrest, the execution, and the ressurection would be impossible without the moment in the Garden.

Now that we are in an age where disappearances are a common occurrence in the United States. Brown people are denied any due process before being sent to unthinkable brutalities in foreign prisons. The state is denying the judges who demand that these people come home. This is the time to remember that God has not forgotten and forsaken our migrant and Brown siblings.

We can't forget them either. We must commit as Jesus committed, even if that means drinking a cup of poison and facing the persecution of the state.

In collective liberation, in solidarity, in the movement, we find the resurrection of easter.

An olive tree in the Garden of Gethsemane above the word Peace written in stone