Gethsemane

2022-03-09

The Old Testament calls Jesus “a man of sorrows”:

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)

When Jesus was in Gethsemane, He said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). But His companions could not watch.

He cried out to the Father if He could avoid the wrath of God coming to Him. “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt... O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done” (Matthew 26:39, 42). He “fell on the ground” (Mark 14:35), “being in an agony” with His “sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

The stress the Lord experienced is not anything like we would ever know. This was not only the physical torture of the scourge and the cross He would experience. This “cup” He would experience was the wrath of the Father that humanity deserved. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). “...the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

After years of being either rejected or used by multitudes, His lowest sorrow was experienced in His final hours which began here in Gethsemane. This was the cost He bore to secure our peace with God.