“What Jesus invites us to imitate is his own desire, the spirit that directs him toward the goal on which his intention is fixed: to resemble God the Father as much as possible.”
Rene Girard, I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightening
Standing on the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, I was struck by the historical reliability and faithful tradition that this is the place where Jesus withdrew in preparation for the coming darkness on the night he was betrayed and handed over to the mob.
He prayed, he didn’t panic.
Prayer and panic are postures. They are responsive attitudes, often to crisis and pandemonium. They are embodied actions of your spirit.
Jesus often walked up to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to rest, reflect, and pray. It was a safe place to recover from the hardships of his life and mission, as well as a way to prepare for heading back out into the crowds.
2,000 year old olive tree 
Prayer is not a replacement for planning and preparation. Like prudence, it is a virtuous element we employ in our habits and daily rhythms to be at least partially ready for the chaos that will always emerge in our world.
What’s the alternative to paranoia and panic?
When pandemics roil up over us, when pandemonium gets whipped up by gossip, fear-mongering, and ignorance, what can you do in the midst of it? How do you resist the magnetic pull of the crowds to absorb the anxiety of infection and death?
Prayer is not magic incantations. Prayer has no real power within itself. For imitators of Christ, we believe that it is God the Father who embodies the real energy to hold all things together.
When we pray instead of panic, we put forth energy to align our spirit, mind and body to the faithful presence of our Lord.
When our OnPrinciple team was in Jerusalem, we spent time in the Church of All Nations near the rocky ground where Jesus knelt and prayed.
Church of All Nations 
aka: Basilica of the Agony 
altar by “stony ground”
From there we traversed up to the Lion’s Gate in the Old City, pausing to reflect where the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was stoned with chunks of rocks by a mob whipped up into a frenzied panic by the Pharisee Saul.
OnPrinciple team 
Lion’s Gate 
Bethesda pool ruins
What did Stephen do when surrounded by the crowd? He knelt on the stony street and prayed, looking up to the heavens, profoundly sensing the real presence of Christ.
It reminded me that it takes preparation to resist the urge to panic in the face of the fear-laced crowds.
From there we walked to the ancient ruins of the Bethesda pool, where Jesus met a man who had been crippled for over three decades. It was humbling to pause by the pool and reflect on the healing power that flowed from the Lord.
It’s interesting to note that the man wanted to be healed. C.S. Lewis observes in his book Mere Christianity, that there are people who don’t want to get well, they’ve gotten so used to their situation and circumstances.
To extend the analogy, there are those who want to panic, who want to be swept away by the pandemonium.
Our OnPrinciple team spent time at the Mount and Pool as part of a longer journey towards engaging in adaptive leadership practices. Each generation inherits and also adds to the complexity of their life, often adding sorrow to sorrow.
For adaptive leaders who want to bring healing to these complex and uncharted situations, to bring peace to the pandemonium, wisdom to the panic, let us can learn from our Lord and his season in Jerusalem.
Christians are called to take responsibility for the welfare of their community. When pandemics spread across the globe, followers of Christ have a duty to imitate the Lord, of leading, praying, preparing, and putting into practice actions that heal, protect, and care in a responsible way.
In the remarkable book by an Indiana Mennonite Christian theologian Alan Krieder, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, he chronicles actions and beliefs of Christ followers in the first three centuries, particularly in how they cared for the sick and poor amidst plagues and pandemics.
In seeking to imitate Christ our Lord, in reflecting upon his choices there in the Garden that evening, he chose to pray, not panic. May we prepare for chaos like him, in imitation of our Father in heaven.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives…knelt down and prayed: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the stony ground.
the Gospel according to Luke the physician, 22.39-44 [NIV]
