Stay Awake to Christ

He said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” …He came and found them sleeping; …“Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

~Mark 14:34, 37-38 

  
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are about to enter into the Lenten Season, that time of the church year when we very intentionally try to “stay awake” to the passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Traditionally, we do this in any of a number of ways: giving up something we enjoy as an act of self-denial so that we might be reminded of all Christ sacrificed for us; taking on an additional spiritual discipline with the hope of our growing deeper in our discipleship and identity with Christ; serving others in a new way; and so on. But I find the verses from Mark’s Gospel above intriguing and inviting. In them, Jesus doesn’t ask His disciples to do any of these sorts of things. He asks them simply to stay awake and journey with Him in His anxiety and suffering.


I would like to put Jesus’ challenge to us this season: Stay awake to the passion of Christ over the next 40-plus days of Lent. Any of us who have spent a night awake watching for something know how difficult this can be. We fill the time with activity, so we don’t fall asleep. Recently, I had the chance to serve at the Warming Center on a cold night, keeping vigil from 1 AM to 7 AM, so that those without shelter could have a warm place to sleep. I brought in a 16 ounce can of Amp, my energy drink for the night, a bag of snacks, and my ever-faithful workhorse companion (no, not Kim, my laptop!) and set about filling that time with busy-ness so I would not nod off at the table. Sure, I was aware of the gift of respite I was giving the others at the Center that night, but I was asleep to the mystery and holiness of the time, distracted as I was by what I had brought along with me to fill the time.


Our Lenten observances can be like that. We can be quite diligent in observing our disciplines but be quite asleep to the mystery and holiness of the time Jesus calls us to spend with Him, experiencing the struggle He experienced as He faced the reality of absorbing the sin of the world, neutralizing the power structure’s hatred, and living into the will of God to be His saving love in the world and for the world.


Whatever else we may do to mark the journey of Lent this season, let’s commit together to staying awake with Him and with each other, being caught up in the mystery and the holiness of the Son of God giving His life for the life of the world. As Jesus said, “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”


Holding vigil with you around the fire of Christ,


~Pastor Steve