Is the Church on Her Post-Resurrection Watch? Matthew 26:41

The 'watch' principle that crisscrosses the Bible is positioned in a garden, where a praying Christ, hours before His crucifixion, rouses a sleeping church to action.

The text takes place pre-resurrection, but Christ points us here to the power and the purpose of the church’s post-resurrection mission.

Each of the gospel writers give differing narratives of post-resurrection activity.

·         Matthew’s account includes conspiracy, bribery and coverup on the part of secular authorities (Matthew 28:11-15) and doubt and disbelief on the part of the apostles (Matthew 28:17).

·         Mark’s pericope includes mourning, weeping and unbelief and a resulting rebuke by Jesus (Mark 16: 9-13)

·         Luke records the disciples reacting with unbelief when the women reported to them news on the empty tomb (Luke 24:9-12)

·         John notes that several of Christ’s followers failed to understand the Scripture regarding Christ’s resurrection and returned to their homes (John 20:9-10)

So, the post-resurrection mood can be summarized as a combination of grief, fear, coping (the disciples went fishing in Luke’s account) and unbelief which, ultimately, is transformed into purpose, commission, affirmation and mission.

The church in the twenty-first century faces a similar set of circumstances with bribery and corruption in high places; believers falling away from the faith in record numbers; the slaughter of innocents from an illicit and illegal war; justice wearing a rag and rascality a purple robe, while the hopeless are becoming even more hopeless.

This is our post-resurrection reality.

Yet the command from Christ comes pre-resurrection (Matthew 26:41) but points us post-resurrection toward the great commission.

Because Christ, in the garden of Gethsemane – just hours before the cross – gives us instruction on the posture the church must take in a post-resurrection world. If we are to, then, like the early apostles and followers of Christ, move from crisis to community and help others realize the purpose and the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must do three things with urgency.

First, we must stay woke. In the Garden, Christ says to his disciples, “watch and pray”. ‘Watch’ here is a different verb than the one used by Paul in I Timothy 4:16, but its meaning is still rendered ‘be on guard’. In this context, however, it carries a deeper, more urgent connotation: “I am awake!” or “I stay woke”. Its form is present imperative, meaning it demands continuous or repeated action. In other words, the church cannot afford to go to sleep!

The church must stay woke; must always see what’s going on and do not allow itself to be hoodwinked! This can only be achieved when we see through our spiritual eyes.

Second, the church must pray. This word in its original meaning points to “supplication” or a deep earnest attitude of prayer. This type of praying is the sort that heightens one’s awareness of the solicitation of evil (and that you enter not into its temptation) – which is happening all around us! Notably, it’s an extension of the command to “watch” – to be affected with “pray”. Thus, “watch and pray”.  The two are inextricably linked; one cannot do without the other in this season of corruption and crimes in high places. Wake up! Stay up! Pray up!

Third, Christ commands the disciples, at the conclusion of the garden experience, to “rise”. They have been unable to resist the melancholic pull of sleep. The apostles could not fight off the sluggishness or somnolence, so Christ entreats them to “rouse”, “rise “from heavy sleep because now the hour, with the pending arrival of the betrayer, has become even more urgent. The verb thusly moves from “I stay woke” to “I raise up”. I wake up. I get up. What a powerful combination for the church in the post-resurrection era! Why? Because the scene shifts seismically.

“Get up! Let’s get going! My betrayer is here”, Christ says to his sluggish disciples. (Matthew 26:46 MSG) The betrayer – the breaker of the bond, the turncoat of trust, the apostate of allegiance, the fink of friendship – the sellout – is here!

Dare we suggest this same element sleeps among us, walks among us, communes with us as betrayer; helping the enemy to roll back civil rights, to dismantle the Black middle class, to deny our children free breakfast – the betrayer is here! Paul framed it this way: “Watch those dogs!” (Philippians 3:2), those “evildoers” who will stick around, but won’t stick it out.

Rise and meet this urgency! Wake up! Get up! Stay up!

Thus, the church must not only stay woke; the church must not only pray with a heightened awareness, but the church must also rise.

Recall the story of Rip Van Winkle. One day, he goes squirrel hunting in the mountains with his dog, Wolf, to escape his wife's irritation. As evening falls, he hears a voice calling his name and finds a man dressed in old-fashioned Dutch clothing and carrying a keg. Rip helps the man carry his burden to a cleft in the rocks from which thunderous noises are emanating; the source proves to be a group of bearded men wearing similar outfits and playing a game.  Not asking who these men are or how they know his name, Rip joins them in drinking from the keg he has helped carry and soon becomes so drunk that he falls asleep. Rip awakens on a sunny morning, at the spot where he first saw the keg-carrier and finds that many drastic changes have occurred; his beard is a foot long and has turned grey, his musket is badly deteriorated, and his dog, Wolf, is nowhere to be found. He goes back to his village and finds it strangely different, most of the townspeople – including his own family – is gone. Rip Van Winkle has been asleep for twenty years.

Rip Van Winkle has slept through a revolution!

I am mighty afraid that the church – upon getting drunk from the keg of comfort and complicity - is sleeping through a revolution and, upon waking, has seen such a storm of transformation and change that we are unable to keep up with it! A revolution of evil, chicanery, corruption at the highest level, a rolling back of civil rights, and of immense social and political fragmentation in our own community!

We must Wake up! Get up! Stay up! and assume our post-resurrection watch. Only then can we remind the world of the power and the purpose of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we mount the tower, only then may we watch for peace and justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Pastor C. can be reached at info@pastorwericcroomes.com