(I want to listen to this sermon)

Reading  Mk.14:32-42

Gethsemane 

·       Jesus goes from Jerusalem to Gethsemane on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives

·       Why oh why isn't Judas there at the gate with the soldiers ready and waiting to arrest Jesus straightaway? Why must the events of Gethsemane take place? Why must we see Jesus reduced to such a sorry state? Will not the sufferings of Calvary be sufficient, must He suffer so tremendously too? Why do we need to look upon such a scene? What can we possibly learn that will help us here? What are we to make of it all?

·       Jesus sits His disciples down near the entrance to the garden. He Himself is intent on praying and beckoning His inner circle apostles, Peter, James and John, He enters further into the garden.

·       We have plenty of indications in the NT that Jesus was a man of prayer but we have never hitherto seen Him turn to prayer in this state. He is in turmoil.

·       Look at how Mark describes Him and then listen to Jesus' own words:

Mk.14:33 "And He… began to be greatly distressed and troubled"

Mk.14:34 "And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”"

The various words used express extremely strong emotions – our Lord is terrified by almost overwhelmed as He contemplates what lies ahead of Him

·       So Jesus leaves His three closest disciples and going a short distance further still, he falls to the ground – the word used signifies prostration and is a sign of desperation. He is about to pour His heart out before His Heavenly Father in prayer such as we have never heard the like before.

·       Jesus appears to be absolutely dreading what is to come and prays earnestly that He might not have to go through it all unless it is absolutely necessary that He do so. Each time He prays He expresses His complete willingness to do His Father's will – just as throughout His entire life He has always done His Father's will - only now that will fills Him with an indescribable horror!

·       Only a matter of days earlier Jesus had prayed over the same issues – we read this in John's Gospel:

Jn.12:27 "“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”"

On that occasion His prayer was answered with an audible voice as His Father responded to Him:

"Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”"

But now as Jesus prays there is silence from heaven and no comforting voice to be heard.

·       Luke does tell us that there was however a response – angelic help was at hand!

Lk.22:43 "And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him."

·       Yet the help brought no alleviation of the sufferings but rather an intensification of the struggle!

Lk.22:44 "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."

·       There is a rare medical condition that may occur when a person is subjected to extreme stress or fear blood vessels around the sweat glands may severely contract then dilate to the point of rupture Blood then enters the sweat glands and is then pushed to the skin surface by the sweat being produced.. The skin would be generally rendered extremely tender and fragile, thus more susceptible to pain!

·       We may legitimately and humbly ask the question as to why Jesus was so evidently moved by what lay ahead of Him. And in so doing we are forced to consider the utter inadequacy of certain understandings of our Lord's sufferings.

·       Surely something really remarkable was taking place there. Is your understanding of Jesus and the mission He came to carry out capable of understanding the horrors of Gethsemane?

·       Do you not realise that if Jesus were no more than a teacher then Gethsemane demonstrates that His teaching is not worth following. He must have been in error in what He taught since He lacked the courage to die for it!

·       Or perhaps you like to see in Jesus a model of resignation to the will of God?  But why esteem Jesus so highly when others faced their sufferings with much greater equanimity?

·       Neither is Jesus an example of finding help from God in distress – He doesn't but is abandoned! He is no example either of a just man who finds peace - He is seized with such horror that we find Him in Gethsemane on what looks like the very brink of despair!

·       No, if we are to understand Gethsemane we must look elsewhere. We must look to our Lord's role as our Saviour acting vicariously, on behalf of sinners!

·       The horror that confronted Christ in Gethsemane was the swift approach of that hour whereby He who knew no sin would be made sin that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God (2Cor.5:21).

·       We are so used to sin that we fail to appreciate the gravity of it. After all we've never met a perfect person, everyone we meet is tainted by sin, that we readily compare ourselves with others and somehow imagine that we're somehow not that bad. But my friend our sin is not to be evaluated by some quick comparison with a fellow failure rather we must realise that our sin concerns God and a Holy God at that!

·       The writer to the Hebrews states it in stark terms:

Heb.10:31 "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

·       Jesus in Gethsemane was in that very process. The full guilt of human rebellion against God was being laid upon Him and shortly He would answer to the penal justice of a righteous God – He will and must die. He will expire physically but He will also swallow up the eternal death that human sin merits. The cup must be drained and He will do so but oh how ghastly, how awful that cup is to the sinless Saviour!

·       Small wonder given the appalling nature of the task ahead that He longs for the support and encouragement of those closest to Him. But they fail Him as He turns to them. They fail even to stay awake! None of them realises what is about to take place – though He has tried again and again to prepare them. Even seeing Him in such an agitated state does not provoke them to pray either for Him or for themselves. And still He loves them, still He loves them! It was for just such as those that He was suffering and would continue to do so – it was for just such as us!

·       You see even before Jesus endured the torture of the cross, He suffered far beyond what most of us will ever suffer. His penetrating awareness of the heinous nature of sin, its destructive and deadly effects, the sorrow and heartache that it inflicts, and the extreme measure necessary to deal with it, make the passion of Christ something that goes way beyond the limits of our comprehension. All we can do is be silent, fall at His feet and worship! He was ready and willing to do that so that I/we might never feel such separation from God, never experience the outpourings of His righteous anger and wrath.

·       The events of Gethsemane have been recorded so that we might catch a glimpse of realities that might otherwise escape us. The anguish our Lord suffered there as He anticipated His work of salvation clearly demonstrates to us the gravity of our predicament and the costliness of the solution. Does not this make us think more highly of Christ? Does it not make us want to love Him all the more?

·       The praying comes to end – it has involved three intensive sessions. It has ended not because God the Father has changed His mind and removed the burden from God the Son but because the Son continues to long to accomplish His Father's will even though to do so will be at immeasurable cost to Himself.

·       The events will move swiftly forward now – the betrayer is at hand and Jesus is ready. He will go on to lay down His life as a willing sacrificial victim. He will pay that others may be set free. Has the life He laid down paid the price of your sin and secured your reconciliation with God? There is nothing lacking in our Saviour – is there lacking a response in your heart?

·       "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" Heb.2:3.

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!