Universally, we know the pressure of waiting for the 'hammer to fall' at challenging times in life, but for some, every day feels dreadful. It is easy to get caught in a negative mindset, always living in expectation of something sad or painful, dreading the next bill, phone call, text, email, or social media posting. We long for release from the suffering that comes with fear, to escape the continual weight of anxiety, and take a deep breath of ease. In today's lesson, we will learn a better way of understanding our worry related suffering and how we can be free from it.
“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Matthew 26:36-46 NIV
The night before His crucifixion, Jesus shepherded His disciples, and, in particular, Peter, James, and John, to His usual place of prayer in a garden at the Mount of Olives called Gethsemane (the word Gethsemane means 'olive press'). On this sacred ground of prayerful tears and groanings (Romans 8:26), Jesus faced the worst trials of fearful anticipation that any person could experience. Jesus, who would love us first at Calvary before we loved Him (1 John 4:19), waited to be captured and crucified as the bearer of our sin and recipient of God's wrath for sin (1 John 2:2).
We who suffer from ongoing dread and terror can find much rest in our hearts if we will stand watch with Jesus and learn from His suffering with fear at Gethsemane in our stead.
Fear and suffering are intimately connected. It is not surprising then that the same Greek word translated as tribulation and distress, 'thlipsis', is used when speaking of various types of suffering in the Bible. It is not only used to reference the afflictions Christ endured (Colossians 1:24) but also the pains of childbirth (John 16:21), times of dire need (2 Corinthians 8:13-14) and the concern that the apostle Paul felt when he wrote to the people of Corinth “through many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:4). It is a crushing pressure of being in a small place, hemmed in, and trying to cope with the internal weight of distress.
Have you also experienced circumstances of dread looming so darkly that heavy clamps of fear seem to press you down, confine and define you, causing misery to you and those around you?
Jesus knew this type of deep mourning and dread.
“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Matthew 26:38 NIV
“An intense feeling of great horror plunged his soul into deep sorrow and agony… “My heart is overwhelmed with anguish and crushed with grief” Mark 14:33-34 TPT
In Mark's account of Gethsemane, Jesus cried out to His Abba Father in prayer as He warred in His soul between the desires of His flesh and the will of His Father. However, Jesus trusted in and submitted to the Father's will:
“Abba, Father,” he said. “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14:36
Later, finding His disciples sleeping instead of keeping vigil with Him, this Son, fully man and fully God (John 1:14), continued to pray alone as a solitary figure for a second and third time. Strengthened by an angel sent from heaven (Luke 22:43), His heart fully surrendered to the perfect will of His Father to walk the path of travail to Calvary to save and rescue all those who were lost (Matthew 18:11).
“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42)
Jesus' bitter cup contained the fear and pain of death by crucifixion, which other people in history also drank, but it also held so much more. It was a cup handed by His Father for only Jesus to drink down to the last single drop (Mark 10:38). It was "a cup of staggering," "a cup of trembling," "a cup of God's fury" (Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15-16), filled with the poison of the holy wrath of God against sin.
We cannot even begin to comprehend the depths of the dread that consumed Jesus as He was prostrated on the ground in prayer.
An eternity of God’s wrath for the sin and guilt of the world pressed down on Jesus at the cross.
A heavenly tornado of deadly arrows of punishment for our lawlessness was redirected away from us and aimed with pinpoint and perfect accuracy at Jesus.
The sword of God’s justice was thrust in anger at Jesus Christ, our sin substitute.
We can see a divine millstone being rolled over Jesus, extracting the purest oil of love and perfect obedience to His Father God. He was bowed with His face to the ground (Matthew 26:39), tasting dirt mixed in with His tears and blood-soaked sweat. Satan jumped in cruel torment on His back, pounding Him down with temptation after temptation to sin. Yet, we see that Jesus remained sinless and went more fervently into prayer (1 Peter 2:2):
“He prayed even more passionately, like one being sacrificed, until he was in such intense agony of spirit that his sweat became drops of blood, dripping onto the ground” Luke 22:44 TPT
These drops of blood would soon flow in a redeeming stream from His body at His place of execution - Golgotha. The Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3-5), was battered with words of mockery, slapped and kicked, beaten with whips, and nailed through with our sin to give us blessed rest and forgiveness.
The cross drew God’s wrath to Jesus, but for us, it brought God’s unfailing love to our hearts. At the cross, our fearful hearts died with Jesus, and when He rose, we were rose with a new heart of holiness and purity. A heart that does not shrink back in dread but steps forward confident and secure in Jesus.
He was bruised by the fear-monger Satan so that we could stand in Christ, crushing the head of the serpent of evil apprehension. Jesus shuts the lying mouth of the evil one and triumphs with His commanding voice of Truth!
Jesus became sin and suffered a terrifying temporary separation from His Father to make us righteous, without blemish, safe in the Father’s love, and covered in His everlasting acceptance. Fearful dread and the knowledge of full acceptance in Christ cannot coexist.