Gethsemane
Matt. 26: 38 Then Jesus said to them, “My soul is
overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
The original meanings of what is translated as “sorrow
to the point of death” are fear, terror, horror, sorrow, grief, distress,
anguish, troubled and disturbed.
We know many fears, troubles and distress: Financial,
social scandal, terminal illness, violence and crime, war and terrorism, abuse
or to be the object of aggression.
But the Bible knows a feeling of horror, anguish and
fear that is more distressing than any of these: It is the anguish of being
a lost sinner, a lifelong enemy of God, standing before the throne of judgment,
realising the consequences of not accepting the Lords invitation to receive his
grace, mercy and redemption.
This is the sorrow, the fear and the distress that
Jesus experienced in the garden of Gethsemane on our place. He knew that soon
the judgment of God for all the sins of the world would be upon Him! – Not
because he ever sinned, or disobeyed or transgressed – but because God loves
us.
a) In the blood-sweat in Gethsemane – we discover who
we really are. Who we are without the grace of God, without the redeeming work
of Jesus, without the cross and the salvation and the forgiveness of God.
b) In this narrative about Gethsemane we also discover
the depth of the love and the mercy of Christ for sinners, for me and for you.
We discover, yes we see, how much he really loves us and what it took for him
to be our Saviour and to be our salvation.
It is not without reason that the Bible records that
he asked his closest friends – Peter, James and John – to keep watch with him
while he prayed. His inner circle of friends has a responsibility in this
world, towards the Lord who loves them so much!
On earth we remain the struggling church, caught in a
struggle of life and death against the enemies of God, the persecutors of
Christ, the hatred of the truth, the trap of false religion, the danger of
pride and resistance of Christ’s love and salvation.
We are the friends of Jesus, called to keep watch with
him and pray as he continues to minister to a lost world.
As we in Gethsemane see the love of Christ for us, can
we rest and can we sleep until everyone heard the good news of salvation and
came to the safety found within his flock?
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