Gethsemane, the Garden of Tears

Thursday

Matthew 26:38- 39 NLT,  Luke 22:42-45 NLT

Gethsemane by Carl Bloch

After His last supper with His disciples, Jesus went with them to an olive grove called the Garden of Gethsemane. He told His disciples  

"'My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.' He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, praying, 'My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me.'" 

Matthew 26:38- 39 NLT  

"'Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine.'" Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. He prayed more fervently, and He was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. At last He stood up and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief." 

Luke 22:42-45 NLT
 

What began in a garden must be restored in a garden. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit that brought evil into this world. Human beings were made to live forever with God. Deep inside we sense this and long for it. However, when sin and evil came into this world; for humanity to continue to live forever would bring an increase of evil that would be unbearable. Just look at how much evil has been in the world since; even with a limited life span. So in grief, Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden and separated from the God who walked with them in the cool of the day and loved them deeply.

It was in the Garden of Gethsemane, that Jesus in great sorrow had to make a choice. Would He allow the full force of evil to be thrust upon Him? Would He be a ransom for all people? Would He through sacrifice and suffering, pay for the sin of every human being since Adam and Eve ever to live? Only as a sinless human could He be the perfect sacrificial lamb that would once and for all, pay for all sin. Only then could people be reconciled to their Creator once again. Would He leave the disciples He loved? Would He suffer as a human, the incredible pain of the beatings and then the excruciating pain on the  cross? Would He bear all the evil every committed and be so vile at that moment that His own Father turned away? Could He bear separation from the Father?

It was in this garden His choice was made. And His body would soon be in a garden tomb. It was there that His body would lay still and lifeless.

"My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 

Matthew 26: 42 NLT

He chose us! He chose us to be reconciled to God once again!

 

"..He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him." Ephesians 1:4 ESV

"For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault." Colossians 1:19-22 NLT

"Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends.

You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." 

John 15:13

 

* I have seen this painting above in real life. It is very large, life size. So poignant. 

 

There were chairs in front of the painting for people to sit quietly and consider His sorrow that night, knowing that He would leave His disciples and that He would soon suffer horrible cruelty and severe pain. 

He endured this for us. For you, for me.

 I sat there in awe and gratitude.

 

 

This is likely Carl Bloch's initial sketch to lay out his composition.