The garden of Gethsemane looms large in the Jesus story. We talk about it every year before Easter because of its role in Jesus’ painful prayer of anguish to God about the crucifixion, the drama of sleepy disciples, and, of course, his betrayal by Judas. But apart from its historical significance I imagine that few of us have considered why those events happened there. The monumental role that Gethsemane played in leading up to the cross was directly connected to the formative role it had in Jesus’ own personal spirituality. Take a look:
18 When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. ~ John 18:1-2
39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. ~ Luke 22:39
37 Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, ~ Luke 21:37
It wasn’t by accident that Judas was able to locate Jesus in this place. This was where Jesus had church. He knew that Jesus would go there often to pray, to be refreshed, to seek guidance, to find peace and to experience fellowship. Gethsemane was where Jesus seems to best encounter God. What is your Gethsemane? Where do you experience those things best?
Is it the outdoors, like Jesus – in a garden or forests? Or is your Gethsemane a sanctuary filled with expressive music? When you are in need of spiritual comfort do you demand silence and simplicity or do you need all five senses activated? Is it found while caring for someone or perhaps, standing up for someone, or when your mind is actively engaged? Gethsemane, more than a particular place, becomes as metaphor for your natural pathway to experiencing God.
The Bible and Christian history are filled with people with different spiritual temperaments and who, because of those temperaments, worship and experience God in different ways. Paul was an intellectual. Ezekiel encountered God in creative and dramatic visions encompassing all five senses. St. Francis found God in nature and through a simple life. Mother Theresa in caring for others. What’s your Gethsemane? Basically we can describe 9 spirituality temperaments and most of us resonate with more than one:
Ø Naturalists - love God outdoors: Naturalists learn to seek God by surrounding themselves with all that he has made and believe that nature clearly proclaims who God is. When they are out of doors, their heart soars to worship God.
Ø Contemplatives - love God through adoration: They focus on the experience of God within themselves – the presence and activity of God as the source of their being - silently, without the need for externalities.
Ø Ascetics - love God in solitude/simplicity: They want nothing more than to be left alone in prayer without distractions - no pictures, no loud music and enjoy disciplines which carefully shape their bodily experiences of food, drink, money, etc.
Ø Sensates - love God with the senses: They want to be lost in the awe, beauty, and splendor of God. They are often drawn particularly to expansive and majestic worship services. When these Christians worship, they want to be filled with sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelm them. The five senses are God’s most effective inroad to their hearts.
Ø Enthusiasts - love God through emotions and celebration: Connecting with their emotions in worship is the spiritual lifeblood. If their hearts aren’t moved, if they don’t experience God’s power, something is missing. They don’t want to just know concepts, but to experience, them, to feel them, and to be moved by them.
Ø Activists - love God through confrontation: They serve a God of justice and define worship as standing against evil and calling people to repentance. These Christians often view worship services as a place to recharge their batteries so they can go back into the world to make a difference.
Ø Caregivers – love God by loving others: They often claim to see Jesus in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by helping other people.
Ø Intellectuals - love God with the mind: They enjoy studying and arguing about the truths of Scripture, theological ideas, and doctrine. These Christians live in the world of concepts. Their motto is Fides quaerens intellectum or “faith seeking understanding.” They often feel closest to God when they first understand something new about him through careful reading or thoughtful sermons.
Ø Traditionalists - love God through ritual and symbol: They are fed by what are often termed the historic dimensions of faith: rituals, symbols, sacraments, and sacrifice. They would prefer communion every Sunday and appreciate a structured liturgy.
Regardless of which ones you gravitate toward, I would like to offer three invitations or encouragements:
Worship
wisely. The great
Reforming theologian John Calvin wrote: “Without
knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God. Our wisdom, insofar as it
ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two
parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. Acknowledging
your preferred or natural way to experience and worship God is not a
selfish premise but a simple confession that we are all unique creations of a God
who loves all of us in our diversity and created each of us individually. If
you want to experience God in a way that feels natural and helpful then you
need to be aware of the pathway you resonate with. Take the test, discover, and
cultivate your particular pathways. You can download the test here https://chialpha.com/resources/sacred-pathways-how-do-you-connect-with-god/ OR you can buy the book by Gary Thomas, Sacred Pathways: Discover Your Soul's Path to God.
Don’t moralize. Gethsemane is not a moral issue. Jesus’ prayer wouldn’t have been diminished if it had been in a house or if Judas had betrayed him at the temple. We often tend to frame pathways that we don’t like in terms of right and wrong. Our author’s daughter who was struggling with a math problem once lamented, “This is too hard. It’s not fair! In fact, I think it’s unbiblical. Of course there’s nothing unbiblical about math but this same approach is often adopted when we question experiences that others Christians have or worship that other Christians like. We tend to want to make doctrinal issues out of what is truly about issues of culture, familiarity, and preference.
Work at it. The meaning behind the word “liturgy” is “work for the people.” If you want to grow, you will need to explore pathways that stretch you. You are going to have to work at it. As a climber I have sweet spot - a style of climbing that I’m good at. But I quickly learned that if I only stayed with what I’m good at I wasn’t able to climb some of the things I wanted to do because climbing, like life, is complex, complicated and diverse. So I had to develop and work on areas that don’t come so naturally. Worshiping God isn’t much different. The area that is least like us offers the greatest possibility for expansion of who God is and how we can grow in our faith.
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