Lent 26: Sacred Struggle - The Struggle With Sorrow (Revd David J. Kleinhans)

Sacred Struggle with Sorrow Matthew 26:34–46As we begin our Lenten journey, we step into the garden of Gethsemane and sit with Jesus in his sorrow. In Gospel of Matthew 26, we encounter a Christ who is “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” In a culture that has discipled us into comfort, convenience, and constant distraction, Lent invites us to slow down and resist the instinct to avoid what hurts. Yet in the garden, Jesus shows us another way: to feel our grief honestly, to bring trusted companions close, and to wrestle with God without masks or clichés.Alongside Jesus’ anguish, we reflect on Psalm 88, the dark psalm that refuses to tidy up its pain with easy hope. Together, these texts give us permission to lament, to pray when God feels distant, and to admit that sometimes we are not okay.This sermon explores the spiritual cost of numbing our sorrow and the healing that can begin when we confront it. We consider what faithful presence looks like in community, why fewer words and longer hugs often matter most, and how prayer becomes not a way to fix our pain but a space to be honest within it.Your garden moments will come. The question is not whether we will face sorrow, but how. In Christ, we discover that the garden is not the place where God abandons us — it is often where he meets us most tenderly.May this Lent become your sacred struggle: a courageous wrestling with self, with grief, and with God, and, in that honesty, a deeper communion with the One who is not ashamed to sit with us in our sorrow.