Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 26:36-38)
“Garden”, as an adjective, has a domestic, or somewhat pleasant tone. Like, “I want a garden salad, please.” Or, “Your room is not on the seaside, sir, but it’s garden side. It’s quite nice. I think you’ll like it.”
When used of the prayer experience that Jesus had in Gethsemane, ‘garden’ is anything but pleasant. It’s a place of brutal, honest, gut-wrenching pouring out of heart and mind to His Father as He faces the worst transition anyone has ever faced. A transition from itinerant teacher to crucified Savior (Matthew 26:36-46).
As part of his prayer support team, he took along the three amigos who appear with him in key moments, Peter, James, and John. He wanted them with him in the darkest moments a human has ever known. What kind of support were they?
They went to sleep.
Jesus was on his own.
From the depths of his spirit he told his Father he would be much obliged if there was some way to accomplish the mission other than going through what he knew was ahead. But the bottom line of the prayer time was, “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” That is, “I’m a man, freely expressing my human desire to not transition to this extended period of suffering, brutality, and disgrace. But I’m not here for me, nor did I come for my pleasure; I came for You, and for those who belong to you.”
I can even hear the echo of his mother’s words after Gabriel announced his coming birth: “I am the Lord’s servant.”
Dr. Luke’s account says he was in such agony during this prayer time that his sweat appeared to be dripping off him like blood drops. Take a moment and try to wrap your brain around that kind of intensity. (I’ve tried. I can’t do it.)
And, we interrupt this prayer time to bring you repeated teaching moments to the three who seem to appear as leaders of the rest of the followers: “Keep watch and pray. Do that so you will not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!”
They didn’t get it. Instead, at the end of class time, with their heads still down on their desks, he simply said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look, the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
The transition is imminent. He signaled the next movement with: “Up, let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is at hand.”
The garden prayer time gave him opportunity to collect his thoughts, express his heart, and reaffirm his purpose and mission, one that he stated clearly even as a boy in the Temple a couple of decades before: “Don’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?” In that brief exchange, he asserted his position that he would make individual decisions as necessary to fulfill his Father’s plans set before Him.
His experience in the place traditionally called the Garden of Gethsemane was a continuing life example of the same commitment.
“Father, thank you for the resolve that Jesus showed, when he set aside his own human desires and embraced your sacrificial path for him.”
Freddy Boswell 