Gethsemane

The scene is Gethsemane. In the Gospels, it is a rather quick scene. However, it is also an important scene that tells us a great deal about the human Jesus and the divine Jesus. In other words, it tells us much about God. Much can be learned about sorrow, loneliness, perseverance, obedience, faith, and understanding God’s will. As one writer wrote: “It was here in Gethsemane that Our Lord allowed all the horrors of the next 15 hours to penetrate his mind, soul and spirit. He would carefully weigh the full price of Redemption here and say ‘Yes’ out across the whole universe for all time, for all souls. Gethsemane is the reference point for commitment. This was Jesus’ moment of truth. It was here that the plan of salvation hung in the balance…the plan laid out before the foundation of the world.” [1] All four gospel tell this story. Luke’s account has additional information (Luke 43-44). For reasons unknown I decided to use Matthew’s but will incorporate Luke’s addition later.

Matthew 26:36-46

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!

One never knows exactly when trials and tribulations will strike. One moment you are going through life happy and content, the next moment tragedy strikes. Then everything seems to collapse on you. You can’t function, don’t know if you’ll find the strength to make it through another day. You can’t eat. Can’t sleep. All you want is your “life” back, and feeling that that is impossible, your tears stream down even harder. C.S. Lewis once said, “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning… I keep on swallowing…” We’ve all experienced this at different times and on different levels; some tragedies small, some large. Thankfully, most people eventually recover. Sadly, some do not. I believe Jesus felt this grief (sorrow) in the hours preceding his death. Jesus’ actions in the Garden provide a great example in trusting God and understanding the plan He has for us. We learn the value of submitting to God’s will.

In Gethsemane, Jesus knew exactly what lay ahead for him. I can only imagine the emotions passing through him. The physical abuse he was about to endure had to bring a sense of fear. He knew what he was sent to do, knew this had to happen, and he was so afraid. In verse 38, Jesus says to his disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” This shows me that even the “strongest” person can succumb to fear and sorrow. In the Bible, we read how Jesus has faced a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, totally composed and unruffled. He has faced demonic opposition, satanic temptation, and the grilling of Jerusalem’s religious leaders, with total composure. But here in the Garden, the disciples must have been greatly distressed by what (little) they saw. Here, Jesus cast Himself to the ground, agonizing in prayer. Something terrible was going to happen. Jesus knew it, and the disciples were beginning to comprehend it as well.[2] How many of us have experienced an “overwhelming sorrow to the point of death?” I know when I am in deep despair I turn to trusted friends to help me through. I take their advice, pray with them, or sometimes we just remain quiet. I am comforted knowing they are just there. Jesus brought along some friends to his usual place of prayer when he wanted to be away from the crowds for just that purpose. For Jesus, in this last visit to the Garden, it was a comfort knowing they were there “keeping watch”, which to me means providing quiet comfort as well as looking out for his accusers, and remaining prayful. However, as we will see, the disciples failed to do what Jesus asked.

Jesus goes off to pray alone. He lies face down on the ground and prays. I am moved by Jesus’ words here: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” While some may find a “weakness” in Jesus here – a possible request for God to change his mind – I think that despite his sorrow and fear, Jesus knows and understands that God’s will must be done. Through prayer, Jesus was hearing (from God) that the most important point in His plan of salvation is at hand and that He need to remain obedient. I found an interesting piece on this from one writer who states, “Let me point out first of all that it was not Jesus who was in danger of changing His mind. Jesus was seeking to learn from the Father what His will was. Jesus was, all along, committed to do the Father’s will… Jesus has not changed His mind about obeying the Father; He is asking the Father if He has changed His mind, as it were.”[3]

Although any suffering and hardships that I have undergone may not have the intensity and experience of Jesus’, I have found myself in that same position of prayer and spoke similar words. Thinking back on it, I don’t believe I consciously did it as replicating Jesus’ act. I just did it: propelled to that action, perhaps, by the Holy Spirit. I have felt in my anguish at one with God. It is funny that I should truly feel that when I am at my lowest. It is not that God is close to us only in times of trouble: He is always there. It is just that when we are at our greatest despair you can really feel the embrace of God when in prayer. I mentioned goose bumps earlier. Early on in my “walk”, when faced with struggles, I prayed for the burden to pass from me. I knew there was something I had to do which would get me through the struggle, and it wasn’t going to be an easy task. Rather than “carry my cross” I was hard-headed and asked for God to release it from me. Those prayers then differed from Jesus’ request to “let this cup pass from me.” I didn’t know (fully) that God was at work in me, preparing me to find the strength to overcome or let go of it. Now, when I’m faced with hard times I may ask the same thing but I quickly follow it up with, “if it is your will, Lord”

The scene of Jesus lying prone in the Garden reveals to me the awesomeness of God. In knowing that Jesus is God in human form, I find here that God, the Creator of all things, who is all powerful, loves me so much and longs to be with me for eternity that He would make Himself human and undergo pain and torture, be mocked, nailed to a cross, mocked again, then die. I know that by trusting in the Lord, remaining obedient and praying confidently, He will ease my troubled mind, and then I will find new strength because I remembered God has suffered for me first. It is here that I truly understand the love of God. And though Jesus has made the ultimate sacrifice, I try to make sacrifices for others in any way I can; time with a friend when he/she is in need; monetary when the situation calls for it; gifts, emotional and moral support – whatever I can to bring a spark of hope in their lives.

Matt. 40-41: Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Three times Jesus asks of this (in the intervening moments he goes to check on Peter, James, and John to find them asleep; even his dear friends seem to have abandoned him). At a time when he was filled with such dread and sorrow he returns from prayer to find that he really is alone in all this. The disciples couldn’t remain awake for even an hour. I’m sure they truly loved Jesus, but what they were witnessing was frightening for them. If they remained in prayer, as Jesus suggested, they may have avoided the temptation to a wandering mind: analyzing the scene of Jesus in tearful prayer, making assumptions of what was about to happen and probably wondering if they were going to face death as well. Another reason might be that Jesus wanted them to avoid the temptation to drift off to sleep when they should have been praying. Prayer keeps you sharp, talking and listening to God who has the power to comfort, reveal things, teach, etc. will keep you from temptation. The disciples seemed to have things besides Jesus on their mind and, in a sense, left him alone at his greatest time of need. Their “spirit was willing, but their body was weak.” How often have we been in that situation?

It has been said also that Jesus was tempted in the Garden of Gethsemane similar to the temptation of the “First Adam” in Eden, which also contributed to his being “sorrow to the point of death.” Adam was tempted there, and as a sinless, righteous, fallible man, he said, “Not thy will but mine be done.” When he chose to do his own will rather than God’s, Adam became a sinner, dying spiritually and physically. Because of Adam’s sin, we all die. Adam’s sin was imputed to us. The Bible says “The wages of sin is death,” and ours is the cup of God’s wrath. We merit eternal separation from God. The cup of God’s just wrath against sin is both physical and spiritual death. It is eternal death, eternal separation from the blessing of God’s presence. The Father was offering Jesus the cup and Satan was tempting him. Would he drink the cup of death, the cup of God’s wrath that was against us? Would he be made sin and curse? Would he love the church and choose to be forsaken of God? So, as Satan tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden, now he tempted Jesus in Gethsemane. And in this garden of Gethsemane, the garden of the oil press, we see the height of temptation. All of Satan’s temptation has one purpose–to turn the tempted one, Jesus Christ, away from God and make him untrue to God.[4]

I have read and understood Jesus to be the “Last Adam” and the above quote helps me to understand the Gethsemane story with a little more clarity. Many times while in prayer, my mind wandered to thoughts of the day, of tomorrow, of things I forgot to do and things I still needed to do. Then before I knew it, I was waking up to a new day, realizing I had never finished my time with God. If I had “kept watch,” that is, stayed in communication with God, Satan would not have been able to tempt me with wandering thoughts. My mind would have been focused on God and there would have been no room for thoughts outside of Him. Satan is like a fiery flame that seeks out oxygen so it may consume it and grow. As he tempts us, he tries to consume our “oxygen” and take over our thoughts, turning them away from God. Praying to God is the only barrier that keeps the Satanic “flame” out, shielding us from his influence.

Jesus was able to “crush Satan” in the Garden because he prayed, and through prayer he found the strength to overcome Satan yet again and obediently submit to God’s will. As a continuation of the article I found states, “Through watching and praying, he resolved to receive the cup of God’s wrath from the hand of his Father. As the Son of God, he submitted to and obeyed his Father. He resolved to resist temptation and be faithful to his Father. He resolved to please his Father as the beloved Son with whom the Father was well pleased. He realized that the very purpose of his incarnation was to do God’s will, as we read in Psalm 40:7-8: “Here I am, I have come–it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”[5] I know when I have been tempted and had the strength to resist it, what a triumphant feeling it was! I envision myself “crushing the snake” and then the Holy Spirit surrounding me (or had He already surrounded me before I was tempted?), and hearing a voice saying, “this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”

Staying along the same train of thought as the above paragraph, I turn to Luke 22:43-44. 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 ground. The other gospel accounts do not have these verses but that is not to say that these versed were pulled out of thin air. Perhaps this was Luke reinterpreting things, perhaps not. I’m inclined to agree with the author whose paper I’ve been quoting who states, “Verses 43 and 44 pose a problem for some. First, these verses are not found in a very few of the “older” manuscripts. Since “older” is not necessarily “better,” and since only a few manuscripts omit these verses, I find it easy to assume that the verses are original. The very fact that these verses are difficult to understand and that they are not found in the parallel accounts is strong evidence for their originality, in my opinion… The physical strengthening was, no doubt, intended to carry our Lord on through all of the physical and emotional demands of His arrest, trials, and crucifixion, but it was also given to Him to sustain Him through His night of prayer. Thus, after He was strengthened, Jesus returned to His prayer in the garden, praying, as Luke tells us, even “more earnestly” (22:44).” At any rate, I know I feel strengthened when I have struggled in prayer then resisted temptation. Be it by an angel of God or the Holy Spirit Himself, the fact remains that the strengthening comes from God.

So it is in Gethsemane that I learn that it was a place of suffering where Jesus experience great distress. He was likely troubled for He knew that His hour had come – cf. Jn 12:27: He knew what was imminent, for He had told His disciples three times – Mt 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19. There was not only physical pain to endure, but also the burden of our sins and separation from His Father as He bore our sins on the cross! – cf. Isa 53:6; Mt 27:46. Gethsemane was also a place where Jesus endured great sorrow. He described Himself as “exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” – Mt 26:38. The writer of Hebrews refers to His “vehement cries and tears” – He 5:7. Again, His grief and sorrow was partly due to the fact that He was taking upon Himself our own griefs and sorrows! – cf. Isa 53:4-5. Also, it was in the Garden where Jesus encountered solemn loneliness… He wanted His closest disciples to watch with Him – Mt 26:37-38. Those who had been with Him from the beginning – Mt 4:18-22. Those who were privy to one of His greatest miracles – Mk 5:37-43. Those who saw Him transfigured on the mountain – Mt 17:1-2. Including the disciple “whom He loved” – Jn 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7,20,24. Yet after each episode of praying, He found them sleeping – Mt 26:40-41,43,45. When He desired fellowship for comfort, there was none to be found.

The Garden was also a place of strength. When Jesus expressed agonizing prayer, the agony in his prayer is seen by his posture, “He… fell on his face” – Mt 26:39, and then heard by his words: “Oh my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” – Mt 26:39, 42, 44. It was a “godly fear” Jesus expressed, and for such his prayer was heard – He 5:7, not that the cup (of suffering) was removed but that he would be able to drink it. Jesus resigned to be obedient as evidenced by his words, “Not as I will, but as you will – Mt 26:39, and “if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done” – Mt 26:42. When man first said, “My will, not Thine be done…” it opened the flood gate of sin. It turned man out of the Paradise of God. But when Jesus said “Not as I will, but as you will…” Victory over sin and access to the Tree of Life became possible for it prepared Jesus to go to the cross to make it possible.

We also find that Jesus enjoyed special comfort in the Garden when he received an answer to his prayer – cf. Lk 22:43 – not the answer he requested (“let this cup pass from me”), but strength from an angel. Like the apostle Paul would pray later – cf. 2 Co 12:7-10, asking the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh Receiving an answer different than requested, but more than sufficient to meet the need. Here in Gethsemane, Jesus demonstrated renewed resolve. Strengthened, Jesus was ready to face the hour at hand – Mt 26:45. He was ready to meet His betrayer and those with him – Mt 26:46-47.[6]

In times of struggle, sorrow, or tribulation, I would always turn to the book of Job to help release me from the burden. After studying the event at Gethsemane I have more confidence in taking on suffering in the future (with always the hope of not being faced with tragedy, of course). I believe God wants us to be joyful Christians, not burdened with the difficulties (tragedies) life will throw at us from time to time. God wants us to be joyful even when we are at our lowest, because, as the scene at Gethsemane has shown us, He will always pull us through. And we will always come through stronger and wiser. No greater love have I seen as the love God has for us. What an awesome God He is!

[1] http://www.cybertime.net/~ajgood/garden.html
[2] http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1138
[3] http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1138
[4] http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/Gethsemane.html
[5] http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/Gethsemane.html
[6] http://www.ccel.org/contrib/exec_outlines/matt/mt26_36.htm

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