In our communities and around our world, there are scores of women and children who live with the fear or the reality of violence at home. On a given Sunday morning, tens of thousands of women gather for religious services to return home to an environment that cannot guarantee their mental or physical health. They are betrayed by the ones they love.
So was Jesus.
For the Christian believer, the experience of the Garden of Gethsemane offers us some important insights into the link between God and human suffering. It is fitting therefore to ponder for a moment some of the images that Christians might glean from the familiar scene set in the Garden: Jesus’ prayer to God for strength, the sleeping disciples unaware of the support they may offer, the “kiss” of betrayal, the soldiers, the exchange of coins, the arrest.
Because these images are so familiar, and so powerful, they offer us a context for understanding some of the complexities and contradictions in the relationship between faith and violence, or love and betrayal.
There are long term consequences to abuse: violation of a person extracts an enormous cost. Gethsemane reminds us of the link between God and human suffering.
While the words mean olive press, the name Gethsemane refers to a garden across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem, close to the Mount of Olives. Jesus and his small band of disciples went there often—it was a safe place, a place of refuge: a place to rest and receive spiritual strength and renewal. But you and I know it best as a place of betrayal.
The disciple Judas knew where to take the soldiers, guards whose mandate it was to arrest Jesus of Nazareth. Judas knew the spot where Jesus sought respite, for they had gone there together on many occasions. The garden that offered shade in the heat, refuge from the crowds, sustenance for the human spirit and privacy to communicate with God was the place where Jesus was betrayed, wounded by someone who was loved and trusted.
The story reminds us that where we feel the greatest refuge from the strains and pressures of contemporary life, we can be most vulnerable. The Garden of Gethsemane serves as a warning for us all—but especially for women and children—that we can be wounded and betrayed by those to whom we are closest and those whom we trust.
But Gethsemane represents more than just pain and human anguish. It also signals hope, renewal and strength to combat even the greatest challenges that betrayal can bring. It reminds us that there are resources both within and beyond the human person that can transform a woman or man, girl or boy, from vulnerability to strength, from fear to calm and from desperation to hope.
So what hope does Gethsemane offer?
To respond with the mind of Christ to a victim of violence is to support that individual in finding the inner strength to leave the garden—and to work through the pain and betrayal to find wholeness. Such a response offers hope while never diminishing the reality of the pain; it provides the basis for growth and independent without denying the fear of the unknown.
Betrayal and hope—themes of the Garden of Gethsemane—help us to understand in part the journey from victim to survivor. Almost one in three women in the western world—the culture in which we live—has been the victim of some form of sexual or physical abuse at the hands of someone they knew and trusted.
As a spiritual shepherd, are you prepared to respond to their suffering?
Read, Reflect, Respond Series: Themes from the Garden of Gethsemane
Scripture Reference: Matthew 26: 36-56
Written by: Nancy Nason-Clark