Agony At Gethsemane

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TRIAL, CRUCIFIXION & RESURRECTION SERIES: AGONY AT GETHSEMANE

Pastor Mike here.

I want to talk to you about the Agony At Gethsemane today.

This is the second in a series on the Trial, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

THE AGONY AT GETHSEMANE TEXT IN THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

The Agony At Gethsemane is found in the Gospel of Luke chapter 22, verse 39 through 53, where it reads…

39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.

40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,

42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,

46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

47 While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him,

48 but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

49 And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?”

50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.

51 But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.

52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs?

53 When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

THIS WAS ALL DONE FOR US

And so we have the Agony At Gethsemane in the Gospel of Luke.

And before we dive in to the text, let me just remind you of the main point of the entirety of this series on the Trial, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This was all done FOR US.

Jesus was put on trial, sentenced for execution, nailed to a cross of wood, suffered, bled and died there, was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day so that we could be saved of our sins and have eternal life.

This was all done FOR US.

VERSE 39

Which brings us to the text.

Directly following the Last Supper and Christ’s institution of the giving of His body and blood in the bread and wine of The Lord’s Supper, Jesus comes out and goes, v. 39 says, “as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.”

The Lutheran Study Bible notes…

The emphasis in [Luke] deals with the disciples as a whole (does not single out Peter, James, and John), and the focus is on Jesus’ agony. (TLSB 1765)

In just a moment that agony will include hematohidrosis – the sweating of drops of blood due to the stress of the knowledge of what was coming on the cross and the suffering surrounding it.

VERSE 40

Continuing in v. 40 Jesus has now come to the place to which he was going, that is, Gethsemane, a garden area on the Mount of Olives “where olives were pressed for oil.” (TLSB 1642)

This is interesting as Jesus Himself is to be pressed/pressured under the weight of the extremity of the suffering that lay before Him.

While in the garden Christ then says to the disciples, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

This is in accord with petition six of the Lord’s prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” that we are to pray daily.

Temptations to sin abound and all the more in times of pressure.

Christ has already spoken to Peter at the end of the Last Supper meal that Satan had demanded to “sift [him] like wheat” and predicted his betrayal. (Luke 22:31, 34)

If there was any hope for the disciples to withstand what was coming, they must certainly pray.

We must, too.

VERSE 41-42

Continuing now in v. 41, Jesus withdraws from the disciples “about a stone’s throw” and He kneels down and prays.

We have the content of Christ’s prayer in v. 42, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

This hearkens back to the third petition of the Lord’s prayer, “Thy will be done.”

Which it’s really the entire content of Christ’s prayer in v. 42.

The cup that Christ is referring to is the cup of the suffering of the crucifixion and the bearing of the weight of the sins of every man, woman and child in His body on the tree and, ultimately, of the turning of His back of God the Father on His only Son due to Him becoming the sin sacrifice for all of humankind.

This is the cup that Christ prays to have removed.

But only if it is in accord with God the Father’s will.

This isn’t Jesus trying to get out of going to the cross, as the Study Bible says…

In His true humanity, He experienced dread at the thought of His impending suffering. …Jesus would gladly be spared, should it be the Father’s will. Yet, He accepted God’s will unconditionally.

VERSE 43

Continuing now in v. 43, an angel appears to the Lord to strengthen Him.

Which is amazing!

The lower created being ministering to the Creator and God of all?!

The Study Bible says…

An angel came to strengthen [Christ], that He might complete His mission in accord with His Father’s will [(Cross reference with the angels ministering to Jesus immediately following His temptation in the wilderness in Mark chapter 1, verse 13)].

VERSE 44-47

In v. 44 the pressure and stress of this moment at Gethsemane reaches its climax in Christ’s “sweat [becoming] like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

And it closes in v. 45 and 46 with our Lord rising from prayer, finding the disciples asleep and saying to them as He had said at the beginning, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

The arrestors of Jesus arrive shortly after with Judas in the lead. (v. 47)

DR. PAUL KRETZMANN ON THE AGONY AT GETHSEMANE

In his commentary on the entire Bible including the Gospel of Luke, Dr. Paul Kretzmann adds this regarding the Agony At Gethsemane…

Jesus had the habit of going over to Mount Olivet often, to a certain garden called Gethsemane, the place of the oil-press, and on this fine moonlit night, when only the depths of the Kidron Valley were in shadow, He could very profitably spend a few hours in prayer. His disciples, therefore, saw nothing strange in His action, but followed Him as usual. It is probable that they did not even think it strange when He chose three of their number as His companions for a walk into the farther recesses of the garden, for that also had happened before. But Jesus did all this with full understanding of all that was going to happen. To His closest friends He said, in the interior of the garden, that they should pray in order not to enter into temptation.

Dr. Kretzmann goes on…

Satan was even then gathering his forces, marshaling all the forces of darkness to make one last attempt against the work of atonement. The fear of death had fallen upon the Lord, of temporal, spiritual, and eternal death. His terror became greater with every moment. He withdrew, He tore Himself away from His three disciples in the intensity of His soul’s suffering, to a distance of about a stone’s throw; He threw Himself down upon His knees in an imploring attitude; He begged and pleaded with His heavenly Father: If Thou wilt, take away this cup, let it pass away on one side of Me. That bitter cup which was now held out to Him, the prospect of the cruel tortures on the cross and of the death for the sins of the whole world, that seemed too much for Him at this time. Jesus was a true, natural man, and human nature resists and struggles against death, for death is unnatural; it destroys the life which God has given, it tears apart the band between body and soul. The humiliation of Jesus is so great that He thinks it possible to find another way to work the redemption of the world. The very counsel of God which drove Him down from His throne of glory into this vale of tears was darkened before His eyes in this hour. What a depth of humiliation!

Dr. Kretzmann concludes…

And yet, there was not the slightest murmuring against the decree of God. Always the will of God was to be carried out first. He sacrificed His will to that of His heavenly Father. In suffering He learned obedience, and He practiced submission, becoming obedient unto death, Heb_5:8; Php_2:8. At this climax of His suffering an angel from heaven appeared to Him and offered Him strength, probably by reminding Him of the eternal plan of God and of the final result of His way of suffering. So unutterably deep was the humiliation of the Son of God that He, the great Creator of the universe, accepted assistance and encouragement from one of His own creatures. He was then at the height of His great fear; the words of His prayer poured forth with great vehemence. Of this battle that of the patriarch Jacob at Jabbok had been but a faint type.

Finally His sweat became like large drops of blood, which ran down His holy face and fell to the ground. It was the misery and fervor of His soul, glowing in the unbearable heat of this tribulation, that caused this phenomenon. But gradually His strength prevailed, gradually the attacks of death and the devil lost in intensity. And finally He had overcome all His weakness: He was ready to take the cup out of the hand of His heavenly Father and to drain it to the last dregs. He arose from His long battle of prayer; but when He came to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow. Mere flesh and blood had not been able even to witness the scene of such harrowing agony. He awakened them from their sleep, with some degree of sadness over Peter’s inability to watch with Him for even one hour. He told them that this was no time to sleep. They should rather arise and pray, lest they enter into temptation. In the hours of great and bitter misfortune above all it is necessary to be ever on the alert, to practice all vigilance, to ask God for strength and submission to His will, in order that no temptation prove too strong or rob us of our faith. The spirit of the Christians may be willing enough, for that is born out of God, but the flesh, the inherited depravity and sinfulness, is too weak and helpless. Only persistent, importunate prayer will receive from the Spirit of God the strength to overcome and obtain the victory.

CHRIST DOESN’T SHRINK BACK

And so we have the Agony At Gethsemane in the Gospel of Luke.

Christ doesn’t shrink back from the horror that awaited Him for our sake even as His humanity despised it.

In the words of Hebrews, so “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1d-2)