Gethsemane

Today we celebrate Christ’s resurrection. We rejoice because our Lord is alive! Most of us use holy week for rest, relaxation & vacation. However, in our rejoicing, we often forget that He died first – and suffered first. All the four gospels devote nearly a third of their length to the climactic last week of Jesus’ life. This must mean that His death is something we should pay attention to. When the Son of God died on planet earth, nature itself trembled – the grounds shook, rocks cracked open & the sky went black.

The movie “The Passion of Christ,” depicted His physical suffering in violent, gory, bloody details. But the gospels (Matt 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46; John 18:1) showed another side of His agony that happened in a garden of olive trees called Gethsemane.

After the Last Supper, Jesus and His disciples proceeded to Gethsemane. It was probably cool & peaceful under the moon and stars, the disciples felt sleepy. But Jesus took Peter, James & John and requested them to keep Him company while He prayed. Why? Matthew said He was “sorrowful & troubled.” Mark said He was “deeply distressed.” (NIV) Now, this request was something out of the ordinary because Jesus had often gone off by Himself to pray. He would even send the disciples away in a boat so that He could spend the night alone with the Father. When His disciples failed Him, He did not conceal the hurt: “Could you not keep watch for one hour?” Three times during this night Jesus prayed & pleaded, “Take this cup from me…” He was in anguish – His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Jesus’ struggle was probably about fear of pain & death. In His humanity, that was to be expected. But since He knew that He was going to be restored after the third day, the pain & death was probably not the main issue. Philip Yancey in his book “The Jesus I Never Knew” wrote that there was more at work - Jesus was looking at a new experience: God-forsakenness. From this night up to the resurrection, God would turn away from Him.

After several hours of torturous prayer, Jesus came to a resolution “Not what I will, but what You will.” Jesus experienced sorrow, fear, abandonment, maybe even desperation. Still, He obeyed and endured because He knew that at the center of the universe lived His Father, a God of love He could trust regardless of how things appeared at that time. This love sustained Him as He carried His cross, as He felt the lashes of the whips, the crunch of fists against his body, the piercing of the crown of thorns on His head and the nails into His hands & feet, the slash of the knife against his flesh.

Think about it. Jesus is not powerless. If He had insisted on His will and not the Father’s, He could have called down legions of angels to fight the Holy War on His behalf. He can merely say the word and skip His personal sacrifice. But He did not. What happened in the garden of Gethsemane - showed our God was willing to relinquish power for the sake of Love – His awesome Love for us.

“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV