In the Garden with Jesus
So as I was doing my daily reading in Luke today, I was asking the Holy Spirit to show me what I needed to learn from the specific passage I was reading. Now for today’s reading, I was looking over the passage about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and while I was reading I felt I gained some important insights as I was meditating on the Word. So I want to share that with you guys today. Let’s get started.
And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him.
Luke 22:39 NASB1995
So the story of Jesus in the Garden begins with Jesus leaving the Passover meal and heading to the Mount of Olives where the Garden of Gethsemane is located. And from what we can tell, this was one of the places that Jesus went often to be with the Lord. It is what we would probably consider today to be His ‘prayer closet’. So Jesus goes to the His special place with the Lord right before He is to be taken away to the cross.
When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Luke 22:40-42 NASB1995
So when they got to the Garden, Jesus went off to pray alone. But before He went, He let His disciples know that they should be praying that they do not enter into temptation. Jesus of course knew His time was short, and wanted to make sure that the disciples would not be weak for what they were about to endure. And Jesus probably also was about to pray for that very thing as well. So when He does pray, we see that Jesus doesn’t desire to drink the cup of the crucifixtion. Even though He knows that through this death He will receive the name above all names and the honor of King of all that is God’s, in the moment He sill feels that fear. Now I think this can show us a couple of things. That just because Jesus was the Son of God, it doesn’t mean He didn’t have fear. Just because He was the Son of God it doesn’t mean it was easy for Him to do the things He did and suffer as He did. It was a real and meaningful sacrifice. He asked that the cup would be taken away, but quickly said that the Father’s will would be done, and not His. Jesus, the Son of God, gave preferance to the Father’s will over His own. And willingly drank that cup that the Father had for Him. Now we also in our lives can face pain and suffering for doing the will of the Father. And we too will have to drink a cup of suffering of our own. And in that moment we need to remember that Jesus also was there, just as we are now. He drank that cup of suffering before anyone else did. And now we enter into that same crucifixtion and we drink that same cup because we love Him.
Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, and said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Luke 22:43-46 NASB1995
Now after He said this prayer to the Father, an angel was sent from Heaven to strengthen Him. And we know that as we are about to enter into the suffering that is for us, we can call upon the Father and receive strength from Heaven as well. After the angel was sent and had strengthed Jesus, He still was suffering under the weight of His mission, to the point where He was in agony and was sweating so hard that the drops of sweat became like blood. Jesus went through more than we can imagine. But He gets up from His prayer in His hardest moment to look for His disciples. And how does He find them? He sees them sleeping while Jesus is praying for His life. Let us not make the same mistake. When we have people in our lives who are going through trials, let’s stay up with them in the Garden. And when we are going through our own suffering, let’s make sure to remember that we can go to the Garden with Jesus, and face whatever the devil throws at us.
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