Tuesday: Jesus in Gethsemane
“And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch” (Mark 14:34).
Whatever Jesus suffered throughout His 33 years here on earth, nothing compared to what He started to face in the last hours before the cross. From the eternal ages (Ephesians 1:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; Titus 1:1-2) the sacrifice of Jesus as the offering for the world’s sin was planned, and now it was all coming to pass.
What do the following verses tell us about Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane? Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:33-36, Luke 22:41-44.
Image © Lars Justinen at Goodsalt.com
“He went a little distance from them — not so far but that they could both see and hear Him — and fell prostrate upon the ground. He felt that by sin He was being separated from His Father. The gulf was so broad, so black, so deep, that His spirit shuddered before it. This agony He must not exert His divine power to escape. As man He must suffer the consequences of man’s sin. As man He must endure the wrath of God against transgression.
Christ was now standing in a different attitude from that in which He had ever stood before. His suffering can best be described in the words of the prophet, ’Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.’ Zechariah 13:7. As the substitute and surety for sinful man, Christ was suffering under divine justice. He saw what justice meant. Hitherto He had been as an intercessor for others; now He longed to have an intercessor for Himself.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 686.
| Dwell upon what was happening to Jesus in Gethsemane. Already the sins of the world were starting to fall upon Him. Try to imagine what that must have been like. No human being has ever been called to go through anything like this before or since. What does this tell us about God’s love for us? What hope can you draw from this for yourself? |
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I don't think we could ever feel the way Jesus did just before His crucifixion. The only thing we can do is really to conceptualize that moment, and be thankful because He did it for us! He surrendered all for us, for you and me! He gave up His comfort, His throne, everything, for creatures who denied Him, for the very ones who killed Him physically and for those who killed His Spirit. There is so much pain from betrayal, and this is exactly what Jesus felt from us! While we were created to be perfect, we decided to betray our nature, because of self-reliance. The most lucky thing was that we were created by the One called LOVE Himself! Thus, glory, might, and our lives may be all dedicated to Him because He truly deserves to be KING of all Universe!
Amen
The end time message of the three angels we are called to share is the bad news of the judgement and the good news of the pardon the LORD offers through Jesus Christ's sacrifice.
"“He went a little distance from them — not so far but that they could both see and hear Him ..."
How could they hear him and record his prayer if they were asleep?
Did Jesus' prayer only consist of the one sentence the disciples heard before they fell asleep?
I believe it was much longer and more earnest
Luk 22:42-45 MKJV saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done. (43) And an angel appeared to Him from Heaven, strengthening Him. (44) And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (45) And when He rose up from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping because of sorrow.
Yes, I agree with you, Ms. Shirley; Jesus' prayers must have been a lot longer.
He saw that what lied before Him, and "He prayed more earnestly". He saw that He would truly have to lay down His life as a sacrificial lamb for not just sinful people, but for a people that were supposed to have been waiting for Him, their promised Messiah. But now, they were demonstrating that they hated and despised Him so much that they plotted several times to kill him. Now, they were making it known with their final plot, that they are totally "rejecting" Him as their Messiah and King. (Not all of the Jews of that time rejected Him.)
I can't even began to imagine how Jesus must have felt in that hour, that "My people, who are called by My name", are rejecting Me and handing Me over to be killed. Jesus is/was the promised Messiah, the lamb of God; He Himself made a promise to Adam and Eve that He would come, to redeem and restore them back to His Father. Now that He had come, God's people did not even recognize Him as their Messiah and plotted to get rid of Him. In my opinion, that is why He was sweating "drops of blood", because He came that His people, and all mankind, should not perish, or die the second death, but that they would be restored back to His Father, and given eternal life.
This is also why "the veil" in the temple was supernatural split open, because the Lamb of God had been slain. The Lamb of God had paid the sin debt, the sin offering, for all of His people, for "the so-called righteous "and for all sinners. But they, God's chosen people, continued to offer sacrifices in the temple until 70AD, when the Romans finally destroyed the temple completely.
This make me wonder, we, the people of God today, are we guilty of the same attitudes that they had back then at Jesus crucifixion and resurrection? Guilty of wanting, but not seeing Jesus; guilty of doing the same (but in a different way) as the "so-called" people of God did when He didn't come the way they expected Him to?
We talk as a good game, that we love and obey Jesus; but let me ask you this: "What have you done for Jesus lately?"
The people of God didn't understand why God had allowed them to be captured and taken into Exile, in Babylon. But many of the prophet, such as Amos, tried to tell them why, long before they were given over to the Babylonian, that God was very displeased with how they treated the poor, the widow and fatherless, and the strangers that were in need.
I'm not perfect either, but I do want to do God's will, I want to help finish His work, and help and/or provide for the poor and the needy. It's not going to kill me to help them more, or to just give a little more of my resources to the poor and needy in my communities. Let's walk as we talk. If a man comes up to you and tell you that He is thirsty, don't tell him that there's a water fountain in the nearby grocery store. You go and buy him some water. Sometimes, God send us those kinds of people just to see what we will do.
God bless you all!
William's post, "Agape in the Crucible," is a great commentary on today's and tomorrow's lesson. Be sure to read it.
I agree with JC Zielak's suggestion (above) that we really cannot comprehend what Jesus experienced before the crucifixion. His suffering was as much greater than we can suffer as His connection to the Father was closer and His love and empathy was greater and deeper than ours.
We cannot comprehend His experience any more than a one-year-old child can comprehend the suffering of a mother who grieves the loss of another child. The capacity just isn't there.
That said, I highly recommend re-reading the Gethsemane chapter in The Desire of Ages. It moves me every time I read it. I just noticed this time, that the weight of the sins of humanity descended on Jesus in full force when He was on His way to the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper - before He withdrew apart to pray. In fact, the burden was so great that He staggered under it as under a literal weight, and the disciples had to hold him up several times so He would not fall!
I have much of the chapter highlighted in several paper copies and currently in a Kindle copy. Here is just a tiny selection of highlights:
We really need to read the context to "get" just a little of it. You will find it very worthwhile. You can read the whole chapter online.