UN/Broken - Day 34

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Matthew 26:45-46

By now Jesus is ready to face what is next, and he confronts Judas and the armed men coming to arrest Jesus. It was a display of hardiness.

Psychologists have studied hardiness and have defined it as being able to adapt to and cope with difficult situations and environments (Eschleman et al. 2010). Multiple things have scientifically been shown to be related to hardiness, such as the personality dispositions of optimism and self-esteem, stress management, and social support. As noted earlier, Jesus did not get any helpful social support in Gethsemane; his personality was set, and God was not taking away the coming stress.

Importantly, hardiness is also associated with active coping (Eschleman et al.). Jesus’s active religious coping strategies detailed earlier seemed to have helped him; for the rest of the narrative Jesus is courageous.

Because of what Jesus did, we have the opportunity to increase our own hardiness. Our Christian theology gives us reasons for optimism and self-esteem. Prayer has been shown to assist in stress management. Church services can help with social support. The active religious coping strategies that Jesus used are available for us, too.

Jesus’s final Gethsemane example is another model to pattern ourselves after.