Do You Have a Gethsemane Faith?

April 1, 2023 John Beeson

Little kids love re-watching movies. The movie might play in the background as a sort of interactive wallpaper, as their attention is locked on playing with the nearest doll or a truck. Then they’ll freeze, attention rapt on the screen, “This is my favorite part!” The movie is no longer the wallpaper; it is a focal point.

Many of us have faith that latches onto specific parts of the Easter story. But the gospel includes every part of the story. Is there an aspect of the Easter story that you focus on? Over the next two weeks, we will consider five parts of the Easter story and reflect on how each component can enrich our faith.

Today we begin with the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:39-46)

As we watch our Savior suffer in the Garden, we may wonder:

1) Is our faith in a Savior who is fully human?

2) Is our faith in a Savior who has known emotional anguish?

3) Is our faith in a Savior who chooses to die for us despite the trauma he endured?

4) Does our faith comprehend the weight of what it means for the cup of wrath to be poured out on Christ?

Is our faith in a Savior who is fully human?

At the Garden of Gethsemane we meet Jesus, fully God and fully man. Jesus is no stoic, no fleshless man who winks at pain. Jesus wrestled with his fear and dread of the physical, emotional, and spiritual torment that awaited him in the next twenty-four hours. His prayers were so fervent that he dripped sweat. His prayers were so tortured that his capillaries burst and his sweat turned into drops of blood, a very rare condition known as hematidrosis. At the Garden of Gethsemane, we meet Jesus, fully human.

Is our faith in a Savior who has known emotional anguish?

Are your anguished prayers shaped by the fact that you pray to a God who has stepped into the depths of suffering and torment? When you cry out to God, does he feel cold and distant, unfeeling and uncaring? Or when you’re in a pit, do you feel him sitting next to you as a fellow sufferer?

Is our faith in a Savior who chooses to die for us despite the trauma?

Jesus chooses to submit to the agony to come because he loves us. A mom decides to undergo the pain of childbirth because she loves her child. Jesus undergoes physical, emotional, and spiritual anguish not because he can’t extricate himself from it, not because he is a pawn in a spiritual game, but because he willingly chooses the wrath that ought to be poured out on us poured out over himself instead.

When Jesus references the “cup,” he is referencing the cup of God’s wrath. In Jeremiah 25, for instance, God rebukes Israel and the nations as those who have turned from his covenants and his grace, who have rejected him and ignored his voice. Their punishment is that they will drink the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs. We too deserve to drink this cup of wrath along with the nations. We have all sinned. We have all rejected our Maker. We have presumed upon his grace. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Roms. 5:8).

Step into Gethsemane with Christ and see your human Savior, who knows your pain and chooses to drink the cup of wrath in your stead because of his deep love for you.