In The Garden

Matthew 26:36-46

St. Matthew 26:36-46.  [36] Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” [37] And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. [38] Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” [39] He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” [40] Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? [41] Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” [42] Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” [43] And he came and found them sleeping again, for their eyes were heavy. [44] So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. [45] Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. [46] Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The image of our Lord praying in the garden is pretty familiar to all of us.  We see it in stained glass windows and paintings in a lot of different churches and in various pieces of Christian artwork.  Jesus is kneeling by a large stone.  His hands are folded and His eyes are looking up into heaven, having a serious yet placid look on His face as beams of heavenly light shine down upon Him.  That image gives us a nice feeling, doesn’t it?

But that comfortable, romanticized image doesn’t quite square with the image presented in the Gospels.  In the Gospels’ depiction of the Garden scene, we observe a Jesus who is not comfortable, a Jesus who is not praying in peace.  Instead, we see a Jesus who is in despair; we see a Jesus who is suffering extreme anguish; we see a Jesus who is depressed beyond or ability to comprehend.  We see a Jesus who is not so easy or pleasing or comfortable to look at.

St. Matthew reports our Lord’s words to the disciples: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.”  How could Jesus, who is divine, suffer so in spirit?  How could Jesus, who as a man knew no sin, be in such a state of despair?  When we allow ourselves to think about how He must have felt as He pondered the impending torture and death that He would shortly undergo, we can more easily understand that bodily fear had to have been part of our dear Lord’s anguish.

And yet, Jesus had spoken of His impending death many times to the disciples.  And when He did, there wasn’t so much a sense of despair; instead there was determination, there was confident resolve.  It is clear that there is much more to it than a fear of suffering.  Our Lord’s distress was over the cup that was placed before Him.

Three times Jesus prays concerning the cup.  First, He asked that the cup pass from Him.  Then He prayed that the Father’s will be done, even if it meant drinking from that cup.

In Psalm 75:8 we read these words: “For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down.”  The cup the psalmist speaks about is the fullness of God’s wrath upon sinners.  Jesus is not so much afraid of death itself; He is, however, more concerned about taking on the load of mankind’s sin and bearing the full wrath of His heavenly Father.  He is so disturbed over this taking on of sin that He is sorrowful even to death, for death would be a relief under this great weight of human guilt that He was now feeling so intently.  The guilt was not His own, of course; but it does cause Him intense misery, for He would bear all of it.

Our Lord Jesus hates sin.  And yet He loves us in such a way that He takes that sin – your sin, my sin – on Himself.  If we who are born in sin and do sin regularly feel the weight of its guilt sometimes, just imagine what it must have felt like to Him who, as St. Paul says, “knew no sin…and became sin for us.”  (2 Cor 5:21)  And it was not just one man’s sin that He was feeling, but the culmination of all men’s sin for all time.

The status and popularity of this treatment therapy is constantly http://djpaulkom.tv/video-the-killjoy-clubs-surprize-video-off-of-reindeer-games/ purchase cialis growing over this specific medicament. Submit payment detailsYou will proceed to make payments online from purchase generic cialis home. Also canadian discount cialis the disorder is faced by a man only when he is under a lot of stress. It teaches them that violence solves problems when it comes to http://djpaulkom.tv/dj-paul-to-perform-at-the-2014-famous-stars-and-straps-sxsw-showcase/ viagra usa pharmacy matters of sexual arousal and interest. Martin Luther says of this: “Since He became a substitute for us all and took upon Himself our sins, that He might bear God’s terrible wrath against sin and [pay for] our guilt, He necessarily felt the sin of the whole world along with the entire wrath of God, and afterwards the agony of death on account of this sin.  This is the point that makes it evident that we can neither adequately speak of such sufferings or anguish, nor even meditate upon them.  While each of us has merely his own sins upon him, Christ alone bears the sins of all the world and must atone for them with His death.  How very insignificant, therefore, the agony of all other men!”

And it is here we begin to see the weight of our sins, and it is important that we do.  For we who are sinful by nature fall into committing sins so very easily.  The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh present to us all sorts of temptations that seem, at least on the surface, to promise pleasure and ease.  And we desire them, whether they be ill-gotten gains, bodily pleasures, triumphs over a neighbor, or whatever else it may be.

And when we consent to such sins, we do not usually consider the cost, do we?  And if, perchance, we do recognized the cost and danger of our sins, perhaps we would not be so quick to enter into them.  But even then, sometimes we do not allow ourselves to consider the cost.

Sometimes our conscience torments us for a while when we have sinned.  Good!  If sin does not bother us, then we must ultimately question our faith and salvation.  But here we see the real burden of guilt displayed in the anguish laid upon Christ’s soul.  Seeing this crushing burden that drives even the Son of God into despair should move us to penitence and fear of God’s wrath, which we see Him beginning to bear.

Let this depiction of our Lord’s anguish be a curb to us to keep us from sinning.  But let it also be a comfort to us.  For since Christ has borne the guilt and the wrath of our sins, then we know we will not be made to bear it.  Our souls need not be in anguish over them any longer, so long as we are clinging to Christ by God-given faith.  That bloody sweat need not burst from our pores.  Jesus has trembled and bled for us.

The weight of sin would surely crush us if we fully knew it; it would drive us to despair and probably even into the ground.  And so, One who is stronger than we are bears it in our place.  And having reconciled Himself to the Father’s will, seeing that He must indeed drink the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs, He says to His disciples: “Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going.”  Which is to say, “I, Jesus, must bear this heavy burden, and I must do it alone, or else all mankind will be doomed to face the wrath of God, which they cannot bear”

And s0, Jesus goes forth to trial, to torture, to mockery, and ultimately to that horrid death on the cross.  He bears our guilt.  He bears our sins.  He dies for them.  But in so doing He also conquers those things for us, and then rises again the third day.  The crushing weight of our sins and guilt that most certainly would have destroyed us does not destroy Him, for He is the very Son of God and has kept the Father’s will perfectly.  And in Him we have victory over sin and death.

And here is the blessing and comfort and strength of all of what Christ has done: Let the devil try to burden you with guilt.  You then need only to point to Christ, and that old serpent has nothing more to say.  Let even death itself come, for it can do you no ultimate harm, for in Christ you will rise!  Cling by faith to Christ Jesus and pray also that your life be conformed to the will of the Father, that even in this life the power of sin begins to fail against you.

For He has shown His love for you in taking your burden away and putting it on Christ.  He has made the cup pass from your lips to Christ’s.  And now in Christ He gives you a new cup – the cup of salvation.

Take up that cup in faith and confidently call upon the name of the Lord, that as you have witnessed the suffering of your Lord for you, you also most certainly will witness first-hand the fruits of His triumph in heaven.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.