Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

Luke 22:39-44 Imagine traveling back in time to the Garden of Eden and being able to observe all that happened there.  We see a place of beauty and wonder.  There is Adam and Eve living in peace and plenty.  And everything within in us makes us want to join them. 

But then we see the serpent.  The evil is palpable.  He is talking to Eve, holding out to her the forbidden fruit.  We want to warn her.  “Don’t listen to him!”  “He wants to destroy you!”  “He is lying to you!”  And then Adam walks into the scene.  Surely he will come to her rescue!  Surely he sees the temptation for what it is!  But he doesn’t.  He listens to his wife.  Disobeys God.  Takes the fruit.  And destroys the world.

A terrible scene full of darkness and death.  But there in the darkness there is a sliver of light that grows greater than the darkness.  The LORD is there with a promise:  he will send a Savior to bring life and light back to a dark and dying world.

Imagine traveling forward from that moment to another garden—the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives.  There in the garden there is the One who God promised—the new Adam, bowed down under the burden of our sin—and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance just as it did all those years before. 

The Bible says that:  Jesus went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.  And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

The Garden of Gethsemane was a familiar place to the disciples.  They had come there often with Jesus to pray with him and be taught by him.  It was a place of joy and peace and beauty where they could enjoy fellowship with the One who is God in flesh.  But on this night it would become the place where their faith was tested—where they would come to see just how weak and needy they were.

It’s easy for us to imagine that if it were us rather than Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden or with the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane it might have all gone differently.  Knowing what we know about Satan—knowing what we know about the consequences of our actions—surely we could have made a better choices—surely we could have stood firm—surely we would have chosen the Lord over an apple—chosen the Lord over sleep.

But what is our track record when it comes to temptation?  We love our spouse but that doesn’t stop our eyes from lingering on another.  We are blessed by God with countless material gifts but it doesn’t stop us from always wanting more.  We know how unkind words and thoughtless deeds harm those around us but we still do and say what we shouldn’t.

The fact of the matter is that we are no different than Adam and Eve.  We have desired that which God has forbidden.  We have listened to Satan’s lies instead of God’s truth.  And we have chosen what God forbids.  We are no different than the disciples in that we give in to our weak flesh.  The words of Jesus to his disciples are still spoken to us:  “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

  Jesus spoke those words to his disciples because he knew that this garden of prayer would also be the garden of passion—the place where his suffering for the sins of the world would begin in earnest.  The Bible says that:

Jesus withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

            When Jesus tells his disciples and us to watch and pray so that we do not enter into temptation, he knows that of which he speaks.  He shared in our human flesh.  He knows about temptation. 

He battled the devil in the wilderness and chose obedience to God over his own physical needs.  He rejected Peter’s suggestion that the way of salvation could go around the cross.  He refused to let the timing of his mission be sidetracked by his own mother.  

            He came to speak his Father’s words and do his Father’s will and he would not be deterred  from the way of salvation that led to a rough cross and dark tomb.

As a young boy he reminded Mary and Joseph that he had to be about his Father’s business.  Throughout his ministry his face was set towards Jerusalem.  And now he had come to the garden of passion—this place of temptation and suffering where he came face to face with the horrible realities of what was about to unfold over the next few hours.

What we see in Jesus as he kneels before his Father in prayer is not the weakness of Adam or the frailty of his disciples or the fickleness of our own life of faith but the perfect, holy obedience that yields itself to his Father’s will.  But that doesn’t it mean it was easy.

The cup of which Jesus speaks—the cup that he dreads—is the cup of God’s holy, righteous wrath over man’s sin.  It is the vessel that contains all of God’s hatred over evil.  It is the full, overflowing measure of God’s judgment upon every sin and every sinner—and it is horrible to behold for it leads to his death and abandonment by God.

Jesus sees that clearly.  He is not ignorant of what crucifixion entails.  He surely has seen it before as he traveled to Jerusalem.  The humiliation.  The agonizing pain.  The death that the condemned pray for, beg for, and will not come except slowly.  He knows what lies ahead.  But there is even more.

Jesus knows the Father’s anger over our sin—his wrath over our disobedience—for he shares it.  His Father’s hatred over evil is his own.  And yet, he will have to take it upon himself.  Is it any wonder that he begs his Father for another way?  Remove this cup!

But look at what comes before and what comes after those words:  perfect, holy, humble submission to his Father’s will.  “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”   Here in this moment is the new Adam earning our salvation through his holy obedience and the suffering of his sinless soul.

Adam did his own will and not his heavenly Father’s will and in this set a pattern that all of his children would follow, including us here tonight. 

The difference between Jesus and Adam and the disciples and us is not in temptation—every human being who has ever lived has been tempted including Jesus.  The difference between Jesus and us is his obedience and submission and humility that counts his Father’s will greater than his own. 

Not my will, but yours, be done.  With these words the new Adam restored everything that the old Adam and his children have ruined and God sent his angel to strengthen his Son.  The Bible says that:  there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. We don’t know what this strengthening was—whether it was direct, divine help or a heavenly reminder of the Father’s promise to lead his Son through death to life or something else.  But we do know WHO gave the help:  an angel.

Just imagine what it meant to all the heavenly angels to see Jesus come into the world to restore what one of their own kind had destroyed!  Satan had been one of them and he had rebelled against God and now God’s own Son, the seed of the woman had come to restore their honor. 

We see the angels throughout the Bible doing all within their power to assist God in his plan of salvation by punishing evil—by welcoming Jesus at his birth—by rejoicing as heaven gains new members-- and now in strengthening the Son as he goes to the cross and sheds his life’s blood for our salvation.  The Bible says that Jesus, being in an agony prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

            Before we go with Jesus to the Praetorium and witness his humiliation and beating, before we walk with on the Via Dolorosa, before we hear the hammer upon the nails, already here, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Garden of Passion, we see the cost of our salvation.

The agony of the cross is fully revealed in the agony of his soul and in the bloody sweat that fell from his body to the ground from which we were created. 

After the fall in the Garden of Eden, God promised Adam that his living would come from the sweat of his brow until the day he returned to the ground.  Here in the Garden of Passion the second Adam labors for our salvation and his sweat falls to the ground so that our lives will not have the dust of the earth as their final destination but the glories of heaven.  This is work that only he can do—work that must be done for us.  The Bible says that:

When Jesus rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

            Here was the reason that Jesus is in the garden of passion—here is the reason that Jesus goes to the cross—it is because his disciples do not have the ability to watch and pray even for a moment.  Their commitment to the Lord—their promise never to desert him—would all come crumbling down in the next few moments.

So it is for us.  We cannot the things that God asks of us even for day.  The weakness of our flesh is evident in the evil we do and the good we forgo.  Our promises and commitments always fall short.  Our salvation must come from another.  One who is holy.  One who is humble.  One who is resolute.   One who is faithful.  And so it does in Jesus Christ.