Suffering, Submission, Sufficiency

Matthew 26:36-46

When you read of events in the Bible, have you ever payed attention to where these things take place? Two places that you may not unsee after today are Mountains and gardens. Gardens such as the one where where our first parents failed the test and ate of the forbidden tree.

Then we have many significant moments happen on mountains. The garden of Eden, Ezekiel says, was on a mountain. Isaac was almost sacrificed on a mountain. God gave the law on a mountain. Jesus was physically transformed or transfigured before Peter James and John on a mountain. And some say that perhaps the place surrounding where Jesus was crucified was a mountain—Golgotha.

Here, yet again, at a pivotal moment in the gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus on both a mountain and in a garden. And it is in this very location that Matthew brings us to the edge of our seats to reveal Jesus’ suffering under and submission to the will of His Father, all the while being forsaken by His closest friends.

On this mountain, one of the most significant moments happen, the fulfillment of much of what we see on the other mountains and in the other gardens—The passing of the ultimate test and trial! The Second Adam submits to the will of God.

Main Point: The suffering & submission of the Son of Man points to His sufficiency to heal & sustain our souls.

3 words to meditate on today. These three words summarize the experience and character of our Savior-King.

Let’s start with what He experienced in the garden:

Suffering- vv 36-38

The next scene in Matthew’s gospel here takes place in a garden called Gethsemane—In greek, meaning oil press.

How fitting. Truly there is a crushing and a pressing taking place in this garden. The pressure is turned up on the Savior and It serves as the final test of the second Adam—Perhaps Matthew’s storytelling is supposed to build anticipation. Will this man, Jesus Christ, fail the test in the garden like Adam failed his test in a garden? Let’s see.

First, note the suffering of Christ in his soul (Read vs 37)

Jesus leaves behind 8 of the disciples (Judas already being gone) and takes with him three as he finds a place to pray. We’ll get into why Jesus feels the need to pray at all, but for now, recognize the circumstances.

He has 3 disciples who end up becoming pillars in the early church. He was, in his human nature, depending on them for their watchfulness and perseverance with Him in His final hours.

Get the scene in your head—The cross is in view. It’s closer than it’s ever been in our narrative. Jesus is about to face unparalleled physical, emotional, and, most significantly, spiritual suffering.

Our Lord was subject to all the sufferings we as humans face. In Christian theology, we know this as Christ’s active and passive obedience. The passive obedience side of the coin is the suffering he faced the whole time he was on earth while obeying His heavenly Father.

We know Jesus suffered temptation at the beginning of the book of Matthew, He experienced much hatred and rejection, but up to this point in His earthly ministry, he has not experienced the suffering like we see here in this final test and trial.

And In this verse, Jesus points to His soul—He’s sorrowful and troubled.

We’re speaking of deep grief and sadness coupled with anxiety. He is in utter mental turmoil.

Then in the next verse he even says it explicitly: His soul is overwhelmed with sorrow that he could die. So he urges the disciples to watch with him.

You know when you’re in a deep pit in life and you just want someone to stay with you? You desire their presence? Jesus is requesting that of His disciples.

It may be intuitive to think about Jesus being troubled in his Soul, but there’s a bit of a conundrum here theologically that maybe we have not thought about.

God cannot suffer. That’s one of his attributes. The technical term is that God is impassible. Because He is unchanging, that means He cannot be subject to emotional shifts or suffering like humans. He is creator, and He is distinct from His creatures. But Jesus here is suffering in His soul.

This get’s at the heart of many of the errors people have made regarding the incarnation. Some like to think of Jesus as God and only having an appearance of being a man. Or maybe, like the Hulk, who was the hulk on the outside and Bruce Banner on the inside, Jesus was man on the outside and God on the inside—He had a human body, kind of like a fleshly shell that held His Godness on the inside. In other words, some have taught throughout history that Jesus did not have a truly human soul.

Thankfully, this was condemned as a heresy in the early centuries of the church. This is false teaching. We like to say Jesus is fully man and fully God, but we don’t actually mean that if we don’t believe that Jesus had a human soul just like us.

And this text right here demonstrates that reality. He endured emotional pain to the end and thus we have a Savior who, when in deep sorrow didn’t fold under the pressure and leave His task unfinished.

Second, we must note the suffering in his body

Of course, he’ll experience an excruciatingly painful and torturous death soon after this, but even still we see his body giving way under the emotional pressure.

You know how our mental state and depression can greatly affect the body?

Luke, in his gospel account, gives some insight into Jesus’ physical frame. He tells us that while Jesus was praying that He began to sweat great drops of blood. This is a medical phenomenon, very rare, and sort of a mystery, but it can be due to such high blood pressure or bleeding disorders. What happens is the tiny blood vessels in the skin break open causing blood to ooz out through the sweat glands.

Christ in this moment, facing the cross, had such extreme stress that his body reacted in strange ways. His physical strength is already starting to deteriorate.

Third, the suffering that was caused by sleepy servants.

In the text you’ll notice this deep tension Jesus is facing. There’s a back n forth happening where Jesus is fighting his own temptation and trial and wrestling with all the implications of being delivered into the hands of sinners, then he wrestles with the disciples who just can’t stay awake.

In vs 40, 43, and 45, we see Jesus draw attention to and rebuke the disciples for not staying awake. (Read vs 40-41)

This happens three times and Jesus goes back and forth from his agonizing prayers to agonizing with His disciples. Maybe he desired for them to stay watchful both physically and spiritually because, as we went over a few weeks ago, watchfulness guards against entering into a place where they are tempted.

But the disciples cannot hold on in this late hour. We saw last week the weakness of the human condition and even in us Christians with our remaining corruption. Already we see Jesus being abandoned in a small way by His dear friends.

That’s the first observation—the suffering of Jesus in the garden. Closely related to this is His submission:

Submission- vv 39; 42; 44-46

Take note of the fact that Jesus begins to pray at all. This again, is Christ acting according to His true human nature as the second person of the Trinity. He, being empowered by the Spirit had deep communion and fellowship with His father at all times.

But why now?

Perhaps it was to model or display for us the importance of prayer in crucial moments. It was modeling for us the dependence He had upon His father in times of deep distress.

But more than that, I believe it once again demonstrated the humanity of Jesus, dependiing upon His father, wrestling with Him in prayer. And in doing this, He acted as our great substitute, standing in the place of the guilty.

Like Jacob wrestling with the will of God in Genesis 32, do you remember? He holds onto God while wrestling and was humbled by having his hip taken out of socket. He held on, begging God to bless him. He was then asked by God, “What is your name?” and Jacob resonded, to which God replied, “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel.” Instead of being blessed by having a change of circumstances like Jacob wanted, instead he received a new identity. He was forever different having submitted to His God and prevailed.

Here, Jesus while wrestling in prayer is once again manifesting His identity as messiah and Savior of the world upon wrestling with His father in prayer and He will prevail, not by getting his own human will done, but by submitting to His Father’s divine will (Read vs 39)

Jesus prays to His father to let the cup pass from him. What does this mean? Clearly It’s a significant request.

Most scholars believe that in referencing a cup, he’s alluding to Isaiah 51 which speaks of God removing the cup and bowl of His wrath away from His people. This cup, no doubt is speaking of the cup of the punishment and wrath of God against sin.

Because sin is not just a sickness, but a treason against our cosmic king, God, being horribly just, must punish sin. God’s wrath is the expression of his goodness and justice in eradicating sin and evil. And in light of that, Jesus prays this same prayer 3 different times in this moment. (Read vs 42; and read vs 44).

The disciples fell asleep on him 3 times, and 3 times he prayed that the cup of God’s wrath would pass from Him. Maybe it’s still not clear. What is He praying? It’s as if He’s saying, “if there’s any other way for the world to be saved, if there’s any other way for redemption to be accomplished other than me drinking the cup of your wrath, let it be.”

But here’s where the submission comes in, what does He say? “Nevertheless not as I will but as you will.”

Jesus never once gave into selfishness. Never once allowed his human weakness to morph into the sin of turning away from his father’s will.

And this, friends, for more reasons than one, points us to the diety of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus was truly human as we are, but inseparably joined to His human nature was His eternal divine nature. He was truly God. He being truly God did not sin against His father and fail the test.

He was not like Adam who, when tempted in the garden, yield to the serpent. No, Jesus is the second Adam who is fully divine and who, when tempted in this garden, never yielded and never sinned. Those on the edge of their seat reading Matthew’s account may have fell back in their seats. He didn’t do what Adam did. He passed the test. And it’s only because Jesus submitted to the will of the Father, that we can now be saved when we trust the Savior.

(Read vs 45-46) Jesus once again points out the title “Son of Man” Note, that’s not only a title that points to His humanity. An ancient Jew would have thought of Daniel 7 where a King is spoken of, at the right hand of God, and ruling over all things. It’s a divine, royal title. And Now Jesus, resolute in His mission, faces his betrayer and the soldiers head on.

This all leads us to view this whole text one way…

Conclusion: Sufficiency vv 36-46

Because Christ suffered in the garden, and because He submitted and said “Not my will but yours be done,” This proves that He is sufficient. Meaning, He is enough. He provides for sinners everything they could ever need and satisfies every longing in their soul. He does this, because we cannot provide for ourselves. Main Point: The suffering & submission of the Son of Man points to His sufficiency to heal & sustain our souls. Why is He sufficient and how does this text prove that?

Because He’s truly human

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things we confess and teach as Christians is that there are two natures, one human and one divine united together in the One person of God the Son. Here’s why this matters: Christ had to be truly human in every way we were if every aspect of our being would be redeemed. One theologian from the early church put it this way: Whatever is not assumed is not healed. In other words, if Jesus did not take to Himself a human nature in every sense and take on every weakness the human nature experiences, then He is not qualified to heal us and save us in every sense.

You, friend, needed a Savior who is truly human because only a human can represent other humans and atone for human sin. Matthew is drawing out for us the true humanity of the person of the Son of God. The impassible God, took to Himself a truly human nature that was passible. Here, He acts according to that nature as one with weaknesses and human emotions that were affected by the circumstances around him. Christ knows what it is to suffer like us, but Christ suffered something far worse than we can imagine.

Think about the agony of Christ and His emotional state. It was the cup of God’s wrath He was drinking, and He drank it to the dregs—He spared not one drop. Do you really think it was merely the physical torture that killed Christ? That’s certainly part of it. Or was it the weight of infinite wrath that killed Him? I love how Dane Ortland summarizes this,

It’s speculation, but for myself I cannot believe it was physical extremity that killed Christ. What is physical torture compared to the full weight of centuries of cumulative wrath absorption? That mountain of piled-up horrors? How did Jesus even retain sanity psychologically in absorbing the sum-total penalty of every lustful thought and deed coming from the hearts of God’s people—and that is one sin among many? Perhaps it was sheer despair that broke him down into death. If he was sweating blood at the thought of God’s abandonment,

what was it like to go through with it? Would it not have been the withdrawal of God’s love from his heart, not the withdrawal of oxygen from his lungs, that killed him? Who could hold up mental stability when drinking down what God’s people deserved? “In the presence of this mental anguish,” wrote Warfield, “the physical tortures of the crucifixion retire into the background, and we may well believe that our Lord, though he died on the cross, yet died not of the cross, but, as we commonly say, of a broken heart.” It was the suffering of Christ’s heart that overwhelmed what his physical frame could handle.

Believer, I’ve said all of this theological language to say this: Jesus loves you. He loves you more than you know. He’ll love you to the end, and through eternity. His heart for the glory of His Father and His heart for you, motivated Him to suffer this way. (John 3:16)

For you who don’t believe, look at the suffering of Christ see His undying love for sinners in the face of death, and believe. Acknowledge your sin Receive His love today in your seat. Receive Him and so receive His forgiveness. His assurance. His transforming power. Not only will you never die, you’ll never be the same walking hand-in-hand with Him.

Because He’s truly God

We also needed a Savior who was truly God. Jesus Christ is the eternal God and thus, He can actually take upon Himself the full weight of the sin of the world. No mere human can actually accomplish this. Though that weight overwhelmed the human nature of Christ, it was His divine nature which caused Him to endure the full weight of God’s wrath and rise again from the dead to defeat man’s sin. We get a glimpse of this in this dark garden.

Remember vs 46 You can almost see the Kingly battle cry in that phrase: “We must be going, my betrayer is at hand.” Remember Matthew’s purpose behind His particular account of Jesus’ life—He desires to point to Jesus as the Dravidic promised King who possesses all authority. Here’s the irony of our King, instead of taking these evil sinners and destroying them, Like Jacob, Jesus prevails in wrestling with the Father and wins victory in battle by submitting to their hands, to be humiliated and killed on behalf of those who are far from God. By winning this spiritual battle, He set up a spiritual Kingdom not of this world and those who believe are brought into union with the king.

Additionally, His victory is true and sufficient for you right now because He was not only a substitute in our place, but, being God, He was a sinless substitute. God’s wrath was not poured out on someone who was a sinner like us, it was poured out on the only innocent man who ever walked the earth. This, again, shows Jesus as qualified to be our savior forever and actually provide forgiveness and eternal life.

To sum it all up, the only kind of Savior qualified to redeem you from your sin and all its eternal consequences is one who is both truly God and truly man.

Because Your union with Him empowers you to live a life that says, “Not my will.”

We struggle, even as Christians, to be in control. We say “I surrender all” and then allow selfishness to reign. Christ is sufficient even for this. Because Christ is first your substitute who surrendered all for you, because He has granted you His righteousness, and His Holy Spirit’s power, you can look to His example here and say to God, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

This, by the Spirit can Characterize your life. You don’t have to live captive to your own will, but the will of God which brings true freedom.

Are you a wife and mom? because Christ submitted on your behalf, you can wake up tomorrow with the task of being a wife and say “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Are you a husband? You can seek to love your wife by first saying “not my will but yours be done.”

Are you a child? Seeking to obey mom and dad and walk through school and be a good friend? You can strive for all of that, but first, cry out to God “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Are you an engineer, a teacher, a construction worker or retired? face each day, acknowledging Christ for you, and begin with the words, “Not my will but yours be done.”

Conclusion

This is a life that reflects Christ, and though saying that statement may lead to a cross in your life, an intense suffering you can’t explain, you bring much glory to your savior and enjoy the privilege of suffering with Him until He makes all things new.

The life of pure ease and control does not produce spiritually strong disciples who can see the gospel turn the world upside down. And the life with no cost does not speak to a life in union with Christ. It’s the life that says, not my will but yours be done.

Therefore, there are three words for you to meditate on today: Suffering, Submission, and Sufficiency.

The Christ who is Sufficient is the Christ who suffered for us by submitting to the will of the Father on our behalf.

So look to Him—See His suffering, see His submission, and see that He is sufficient to save you from every one of your sins, and produce in you a passion to say “not my will, but yours be done.”