Submission - Gethsemane

They arrived at a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, "Sit down here while I pray." He took with Him Peter, James, and John and began to be deeply distressed and troubled.

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. “Abba Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will but what you will.” Matthew 26:36-39

Jesus had spent hours with His disciples in the Upper Room - celebrating the Passover but also preparing them for the coming days - days of anger, of fear, of pain and abandonment. He then took them to Gethsemane, a place common to them. He chose Peter, James, and John to stay with Him, and He went further into the garden where He prayed for strength.

And the Bible says, the disciples fell asleep.

The circumstance of Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane is not one with which we can easily identify. He knew what was expected of him, knew that it was even greater than the physical agony of the crucifixion. He would carry the guilt of the world—the perfect lamb, now the sacrifice. There would be treachery. There would be betrayal and denial. There would be abandonment. Calvary for Jesus would be more than the physical horror of crucifixion administered by the Romans. He would bear the sin burden of all mankind—the fear, the anguish, the power of darkness. He felt it in Gethsemane. And He prayed, "Father, take this cup from me."

For the cup meant spiritual separation from God. Jesus became sin. He would cry from the cross, “My God, My God. Why have you forsaken me?” But God’s answer was not to remove the cup but to give Jesus the strength to drink from it.

The account of Gethsemane carries so many threads—the weakness of the disciples, the treachery of Judas, the bravado of Peter only to deny Him three times in the courtyard of the high priest. No angels were there to comfort Jesus as there were after His temptations in the wilderness, only two disciples who followed at a distance—one who would try to intervene for Him, one who would deny Him three times. Luke records that His suffering in Gethsemane was so great that “He sweat drops of blood.”

And yet, Gethsemane is a story of victory. There is a "coda." Like the concluding section that brings music to resolution, reinforcing finality, Jesus did not close His prayer with a plea for escape. Instead, He prayed, "Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done." Placing Himself in the will of the Father, He accepted His role in the salvation of mankind.

Think of your own Gethsemane, a time when it seemed there could be no relief, no escape, only the power of darkness. Then pray the prayer of the Savior in the garden. He who was blameless would carry the weight of the sin of the world to a Roman Cross. So pray for strength. Pray for understanding. Pray to be in the will of the Father. And know, as Jesus did, that you are not alone. Our God does not sleep.