"The Road to Easter goes through the Garden"

The disciples have been sitting at a happy table having a meal with their master, now they will descend to a familiar place of quiet retreat from all that was weighing heavy on his heart and mind.

The Greek word Gethsēmani is a transliteration of the Hebrew/Aramaic expression gat šemaney (‘oil press’), evidently the name of an olive orchard which had an oil press on the Mount of Olives. According to Luke 22:39, Jesus went regularly to Gethsemane, and John 18:2 says that Judas Iscariot knew that this was where Jesus would be. Gethsemane would have been inside the boundaries of ‘greater Jerusalem’ which were extended for the Passover festival. Since it was the night before the regular Passover celebration, Jesus’ movements were not restricted: he could have returned to Bethany (the previous night.)

The last supper has just given us a clear picture of the suffering and death that Jesus would soon be undergoing for the redemption of all mankind. The relinquishing of Jesus body at Calvary takes place not on a hill outside Jerusalem but in a valley beneath it. According to Mark the decision to submit to the Father’s will causes jesus greater internal suffering than the physical crucifixion on the cross. The cross is a matter of the heart before it is a matter of the hand, a matter of the will before it is a physical reality.

Jesus sudden change to a kind of grief and agony to almost to the point of death. I do not believe that this great grief is in response to a fear of death and suffering. It was the very fact that he was to bear the full weight of the cross on his shoulders alone.

QUOTE BY CHARLES SPURGEON

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. LVI Christ in Gethsemane (No. 3,190)

You remember that Peter also writes, in the same verse, “by whose stripes ye were healed.” Those stripes did not fall upon Jesus when he was upon the cross, it was in Pilate’s judgment-hall that he was so cruelly scourged. I believe that he was bearing our sins all his life, but that the terrible weight of them began to crush him with sevenfold force when he came to the olive-press, and that the entire mass rested upon him with infinite intensity when he was nailed to the cross, and so forced from him the agonizing cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Sometimes people don’t appreciate a rescuer’s efforts on their behalf. In Spider-Man (directed by Sam Raimi [Columbia Pictures, 2002]),

editor J. Jonah Jameson is constantly campaigning against Spider-Man in the newspaper, even though the superhero is actually doing a lot of good in the city. Spider-Man persists in trying to do good even when the mood of the city is against him. In a much grander way, Jesus is the Savior we need even if the world doesn’t want what he has to offer.

BIG IDEA: “Depending solely on God is what we all dread the most”

And of course this just goes to show how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on other things. 

But trouble goes much further back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to him as long as he leaves us anything else to turn to.  I suppose all one can say is that it was bound to come this.  In the hour of death and the day of judgment, what else should we have?  Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel a greater joy and satisfaction when we have been forced (however unwittingly) to begin practicing it here on earth. And this is the model Jesus gives us in the garden.

3 important things to remember when it comes to our Dependence on God as pictured in the garden.

1. A failure to depend on God leads to a failure to understand the purpose of our discipleship.

Jesus time and time again framed true discipleship in terms of loosing our life to find it. The problem occurs when we fail to have the complete mission in focus as a disciples of Christ.

Mark 8:35 ESV

35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

The invitation here is for us to share in Christ’s suffering. Why did Jesus choose Peter, James, and John to go deeper into the garden with him.

Most theologians have thought that these were the three disciples who had exhibited a willingness to embrace the full responsibility of a disciple, however, now they cannot even stay awake 1 hour to prayer with Jesus.

We lose sight of our dependence on God when we lose sight of our own Fallibility

Despite their protest of constant rock solid faith like that of Peter Jesus already know what is coming when all of his followers will be scattered like dust in the wind.

Despite their epic failures the disciples will soon be Ransomed, Healed, Restored, and Forgiven.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

This is a statement of our human nature at it’s core.

The statement spirit (pneuma) is the very breath of human life, the inward person. The God given capacity for right decision making, right thinking, and right living.

The word flesh or (sarx) this is the general weakness of human beings, their vulnerability, their self-absorption, the human propensity to rebel against the will of God.

Note: we are all currently in a weakened state because of the flesh.

There are many people who are eager to do what God requires of them, but few are able to follow through because the spirit has the want to and desire but the flesh gets in the way every time from the spirit fulfilling it’s purpose and desire.

Flesh is Weak:

Our weakness extends to our limitations or inability to consistently remain joyful and sacrificially doing the will of God.

NOTE: Jesus exhorts the disciples to keep watch and pray so that the flesh will not control their actions; so that they can do the will of God, which in the context of Gethsemane means that they remain loyal to Jesus when the hour of testing comes and when the temptation to run to safety is overpowering.

We lose sight of our dependence on God when we forget the posture of our prayer.

Jesus assumes the humblest of states, prostrate on the ground before the Father.

Cultural Note: How many of us lack a true posture of prayer as a disciple of Christ. Jesus shows us how our posture should be before our the one who we cry Abba Father.

2. A failure to depend on God leads to a faith that is more bluster than belief?

NOTE: all three of the disciples had crowed about their mettle before Jesus at one time or another.

What happens when our faith is put to the test?

Humans are the only part of creation that struggle with identity. A tomato vine doesn’t assume it is a pine tree or struggle with representing other than by growing tomatoes, hosting caterpillars on its branches, and leaving aromas of summer on the gardener’s arms. Humans think and wonder.

“Body and soul contain thousands of possibilities out of which you can build many identities. But in only one of these will you find your true self that has been hidden in Christ from all eternity”

We forget that being faithful to the end is Costly.

Note: Jesus gives clear instructions for his disciples to follow. The First time he told them simply to “watch,” the second time he told them to “watch and pray.”

At this point Jesus is completely emotionally spent. He simply tells them to stay close by and be vigilant to watch.

Diana and her horse magic Bonny blue. Now, Bonny loved to run, Diana was running barrels at the rodeo in Stanford. She made her wait, kept holding her back, then finally when it was ready for her to go, then when it was time to go she was almost moving in slow motion around the barrels.

So when the trials come, and you are asked to watch and wait, wait well with your hope fully anchored in the one whose character never fails.

“Watch”

To become or be fully awake after being asleep, to be or become fully awake.

“Watch:”

The term watch is often associated with the Lords return. Look at Mark 13:32-37. Jesus is talking about the hour of his return instructing his disciples to stay awake and be on guard because you do not know the day or hour of his return. The warning here is that the Lord would find you asleep when He returns.

“Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees”

Picture of the Shepherd watching over His sheep!

1 Corinthians 16:13 ESV

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Mark: An Introduction and Commentary ii. The Agony in the Garden (14:32–42)

Watch. The verb used here, grēgoreite, may have reminded his disciples of the parable of the doorkeeper, told them just before (13:34–37), for the task of the doorkeeper was to watch, and Jesus has rounded off the parable by giving this as a general injunction to all his disciples. Minear reminds us that the Passover was to be ‘a night of watching’ (Exod. 12:42): this cannot have been far from their thoughts at this season of the Jewish liturgical year.

“Watch that you do not fall into sin”

NOTE: Jesus goes a little bit further into the garden then falls prostrate on the ground before God. the typical posture of prayer during this time was standing with arms lifted upward toward the heavens.

At this point Jesus is feeling the full weight of the costliness of the sacrifice that must be made for the sins of the world.

All this is particularly poignant in a Gospel which commands discipleship in terms of losing life to find it (8:35), and which invites followers of Jesus to share in his sufferings.

Sadly the Twelve consistently fail to comprehend what this means. At a time when they need to demonstrate their faith they are unable to watch and pray even for one hour (v. 37).

Note: You have the contrast with Jesus praying three times and returning to find the disciples asleep three times with the foreshadowing of Peter denying Christ three times.

Mark 10:17–31 ESV

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

NOTE: The next sentence ends the whole prayer and sleeping scene with “enough” or “it is enough,” perhaps this is Jesus last bit of exasperation with the disciples meaning, “You have been sleeping enough,” it’s time to wake up, the hour has now come.”

Here is the paradox, the one who forgives sins is the one who is now given over to sinners.

“All things are possible with God.”

What does Jesus mean by all things are possible with God?

NOTE: This means that all things are within God’s grasp.

Hebrews 1:3 ESV

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

NOTE: While there is absolutely nothing beyond the possibility for god to accomplish it may not be in God’s supernatural will or plan for that thing to take place.

I could want to be faster than a car, leap tall buildings in a single bound. It is perfectly within God’s power to make those things happen, but there is nothing in scripture that would indicate that it is withing God desire and plan to make those things happen for me.

NOTE: When Jesus is praying to the Father to let the cup pass from Him if it is in the Father will for that to happen, however, Jesus then points out that all things are possible for God but not probable. Jesus knows that it is in the divine and perfect will of the Father for him to suffer at the hands of the Romans and eventually but nailed to a cross. This does not mean that Jesus is having second thoughts about going to the cross. It means that in his humanity He is painfully aware of what lies ahead of him on the other side of the garden.

This is where doubt ends and true belief and faith begin.

The point where we know that God has the power to do all things but, we trust Him even if He chooses to let us suffer for a time.

3. A failure to depend on God leads to a faulty view of our own failures.

NOTE: consider the mental and emotional state of Jesus at this point. He is deeply distressed and troubled.

So now you have a Lord and Savior who is deeply emotionally spent in every way and He has one request of you that you cannot fulfill. Wait, watch, and pray.

“Jesus began to become greatly depressed. and troubled”

ekthambeo

to be or become excessively affected by emotions used by both negative reaction and positive reaction.

Troubled

ademoneo

“To be or become subject to extreme mental or spiritual anguish and distress; sometimes to the point of loosing ones composure.

When we open the Bible we are given a deep dose of reality, failure is on literally every page. When we talk about failures and disappointments we will not get many likes or Facebook or retweets on twitter. Failure is coming up short of a performance standard that we have set for ourselves.

Look at Peter for example he was the one who just knew in His heart of hearts that he would not fail Jesus or leave His side and he is the first one to verbally deny Christ in a public setting. How do we explain and reconcile this in our own minds.

Do you see your failure as preparing you for future success?

Note: I think one of the best things we can do for our Children is allow them to fail. I know right that sounds like a crazy idea right. Failure seems counter intuitive to success. Ask anyone who has now experienced great success in their life and they will point out to you all of the ways they failed first.

Samson, David, and Solomon were great proofs in the O.T. of great failure followed by great success.

Peter comes back in a big way in Acts 2 when he preaches the first sermons after the resurrection, and literally thousands came to know Christ.

Do you see your failure as being repeated.

Failure is the best teacher, so learn to fail forward. People do learn from their failures and many make forward progress. For Example: Abraham continued to fail to trust God with Sarah as he continued to try and pass her off as his sister. You would have thought Jacob would have learned his lesson about favoritism, but he did the very same thing again with Joseph.

Even Jesus own disciples, though they had him to lead and guide them they continually failed to grasp who Christ was and what he came to do.

Do you see your failure as something that can be forgiven?

Failures are not just lessons to be learned but sins to be confessed.

Note: Here is where the problem comes for us. Most people do not take or understand the seriousness of their sinfulness. We see sin as just another bad decision, or bad path that we have been on in life. We do not see it as a wretched offense against the very nature of a Holy God.

We live in a flippant age where very few people are ready to take responsibility for or truly mourn over their sinful state.

Johnathan Edwards

1771

Jonathan Edwards’s purpose in delivering the sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is to warn his congregation in particular, and presumably, by extension, his nation as a whole, that they must repent of their sinful ways and turn to God for forgiveness before it is too late - so that they can escape death by hell fire.

In essence, Jonathan Edward's is saying that the opportunity is now to embrace and accept Jesus Christ,  his message, his teachings, and his sacrifice as atonement for sins. The choice must be made by those God is calling, through Jesus Christ, to either accept the call to repentance and a new life, or reject it.

2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

NOTE: Instead of denying, or minimizing, or marginalizing our sin. Forgiveness free’s us from guilt, and shame, and assures us of pardon and acceptance.

1 John 1:9 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

No matter what has happened in our past or what will happen in our future, when God looks at us as Judge, He sees not failure but success, not imperfection but perfection, not unrighteousness but righteousness, not reason for condemnation but reason for celebration (8:1). By faith in Christ, our failures are exchanged for His achievements.

Do you understand that your failure does not define you but brings you closer to heaven.

Notice how long and extensive the saints of the Old Testament failures are and how the writer of Hebrew in Hebrews 11 describes them.

He does not describe them as a hall of failure but a hall of faith.

NOTE: Failure is still a part of our identity but it is no longer a major part. The more we draw near to Christ he will draw near to us.

James 4:8 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

While the disciples are being reprimanded for their failure to stay awake and obey the one simple command that Jesus had asked, Jesus knows the outcome will be Victory for the disciples where in the years to come they will literally be the staging ground for the Gospel to go world wide.

Hebrews 12:3–5 ESV

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

Remember, that who you are in Christ, that is what Christ see’s first when He looks at your life.

NOTE: As long as you are in the world you are going to fail. This keeps us humble and completely dependent on Him. But, above all it keeps us looking towards heaven.

Revelation 1:5–6 ESV

5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

“There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans.” – Corrie ten Boom

Even when we are caught by surprise, the Lord never is and knows exactly how things shall come to pass.

CLOSING

There is a finality in Jesus final words to his disciples, “Are you still sleeping,” to which there is no reply.

There failure has been completed, the crisis is over, however, the suffering for Jesus is just beginning. When Jesus say’s “the hour has come,” he not only means God’s time has come, but the matter over which he had agonized and prayed has been settled.

The path through the garden of Gethsemane is an intimate look at the prayer life of the eternal Son of God to his Father. Jesus’s willingness to serve indicates the depth of love he has for the Father and the depth of love the Father has for us. Without Jesus’s death, we could not be set in a right relationship with God. Jesus knew this when he went to the cross and took the full force of our sin and betrayal so that the Father would be glorified and we might become sons and daughters of the living God.

Many years ago I made a trip deep into the Andes mountains in Bolivia. The Quechua Indian people I met there lived amidst the most mind-numbing squalor. The disease and disfigured bodies were heartbreaking. The bugs and stench were everywhere. People were living in a hole in the ground and calling it a house. They were feeding on rotten food and prizing garbage as possessions. But they didn't know it. Why? Because everyone lived that way.

They had never been given a picture of what it means to be a genuinely healthy human being. They did not know what an abundant life truly looked like.

That is our problem, too. It's the reason we think of ourselves as largely innocent people—people who have little to do with bringing about the Cross of Christ. We don't get how sick and undeveloped we are spiritually.

In Psalm 14, David says that the one fully-healthy Being in the universe views the human race as we might view those villagers in Bolivia—only the gap between his life and that of our village is so much larger. "The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. But all have turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one." In other words, we are condemned, and we don't even know it.

Long before you knew you needed grace, your Father had already covered your account of sin. He made an ample deposit in your account. Before you knew you needed a Savior, you had one. And when you ask him for mercy, he answers, "Dear child. I've already given it."

*What are you currently depending on other than God in your life?

*How would your life look different if you learned to solely depend on God?