Agony Is Not Defeat Series

Jesus must have also contended with the growing feeling of being more and more alone on this journey. Judas had already betrayed him. The other 11 would do the same in the next few hours. The dark hours of the night filled with an almost deadening silence must have only contributed to the pain of that loneliness. Jesus must also have struggled with the thought and perhaps even knowledge of that perhaps even after his crucifixion and death, there would still be some who resist the call of God on their lives and fail to believe. Would his crucifixion and death be for nothing if every one of God’s children didn’t believe and return to living for God? Because Jesus didn’t die just for those who believed, he died so that all of God’s children might know, understand and experience God’s love and then believe.

But as real and overwhelming as all these emotions were, felt fully through the humanity of Jesus, Jesus was deeply grieved to the point of death because of His having to become sin. The thought and anxiety of the pure Holiness of God coming into contact with and actually becoming sin brought more anguish to His soul than we can imagine. Think of it this way: Imagine the most vile, most disgusting, most foul smelling fluids of human waste infected with disease and decayed flesh. Now picture yourself being submerged in it, drinking it, breathing it, tasting it, smelling it and it wouldn’t even come close to what it was like for the Holy Son of God who was sinless anticipating being submerged in the filth and death of sin resulting in separation from God. At the moment He would become sin, He would for the first and only time in all eternity physically, emotionally and spiritually feel the utter forsakeness of and separation from God as He took on the sins of the world. In such a condition, he would experience the excruciating agony on the cross. Why did He suffer so? He suffered because of God’s love for us

It is in this state that Jesus leads Peter, James and John into the Garden of Gethsemane, one last moment of community and support with those in whom he had invested his whole being. One last moment of camaraderie and communion through both physical presence but also the power of prayer and thus shared pain and burden. Jesus asks them to stay awake and pray for him.

Jesus goes further into the olive grove to pray, a man who was emotionally and physically overwrought with grief and pain. Picture of Jesus praying Mark tells us that the weight of sorrow upon Christ was so great he physically collapsed in prayer. He would not be able to go through with this unless he connected with the Father. And so he begins to pray, but I think a better description would be he literally begins to cry out to God. Jesus calls out to God ‘Abba’ which means daddy or pappy. Whereas Jews would use ‘Abinu’ (our Father) when addressing God, at this moment Jesus calls out to God as a child calling to his father lost, afraid, alone and with the lack of strength to accomplish what lies before him. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus prays for the cup, that is the fact that he must die on the cross, to be removed, that some other way be possible for him to save and deliver God’s children. Not once but three times Jesus prays for this, allowing us to see the agony and anguish he was experiencing regarding his impending crucifixion. The Gospel of John 17 give us greater insight into Jesus’ prayers that night. Jesus prays not only prays for himself. He also prays for his disciples for their spiritual protection and safety that they might not fall away or be victimized by the work of Satan. He prays that they might be sanctified or made holy by the truth for the work of God. Jesus also utters those same prayers for us that we may become one with God and one with each other united by our faith and the one Spirit. He prays that the love God has for us will always be with us but also be in us. So there we get a little better look at what Jesus is praying about.