There is no Easter, without Good Friday and there is no Good Friday without the Garden-Part 1

Holy Thursday.  A night filled with great highs and bottomless lows.  It was on this night that Christ established the Lord's Supper.  It is what we partake in each time we celebrate communion and reflect upon the breaking of His body and the spilling of His blood, which established our covenant with God and allows us to enter into our Father's holy presence. 

It was during this meal that Christ got up and washed the disciples feet.  His action was one of the greatest lessons in humility and would set forth the principle of selfless service.  Here, the Lamb of God, perfect and faultless, greater than anyone sitting at the Passover table, gets up and does the most menial task that could have been done that evening.  It was only a foreshadowing of the greatest selfless act in history, which would take place the next day, Good Friday. 

After the meal, Jesus goes with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane and takes Peter, James and John to pray.  He shares that his "soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."  He asks them to "Stay here and keep watch with me."  They fall asleep and leave Christ to pray alone.

Later the authorities come, being led by Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 disciples.  The night's first betrayal, in a long night filled with betrayals, lies and denials.  Jesus knew all of this would come, including Good Friday, yet he chose to bear your sins and die on your cross.  Know that whatever may be going on in your life today, whether filled with great highs or bottomless lows, that our Savior loves you more than His own life and chose you that evening in the garden.
 
Will you come to the edge of the garden and "watch and pray" with the One who loves you more than His own life?  You see, there is no Good Friday without prayer and the choice made in the garden.