“Jesus modeled a life of prayer for us to follow. Facing death and desertion by those He loved, Jesus desperately turned to prayer. Along with His disciples, He made His way to a peaceful grove of olive trees called Gethsemane, away from the distracting noise of the crowd. Even the location of His prayer was deliberate, Gethsemane means olive press. As the huge stone crushed and bruised the olives, the olive oil flowed from the press. It was in the garden that Jesus humbled himself and submitted to the plan of God. His human will was submitted to the oil press. They slept. He prayed. At one point Jesus came to His intimate circle and encourage them to pray. Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Your flesh is weak. You live in this world, and as long as you are here there will be temptation. Yes, develop self-control as a fruit, but never go it alone. Release God’s power into your life to develop your spiritual muscles. Prayer, all kinds of prayer, releases God’s power into your life: The prayer of faith; the prayer of agreement; the prayer of petition; the prayer of repentance; and praying with tongues.”
In Luke 22:44 the Bible gives us a glimpse of the anguish of Christ. “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” The power word anguish only scratches the surface to describe the agony, torment, the suffering and the distress that Jesus suffered in that quiet, cool garden that night. It is obvious He knew He was on the way to the cross. I am so thankful for this brief insight that Luke gives us in this verse. Jesus being in anguish…prayed. He responded with prayer and not just more prayer, more intense prayer. He was in anguish, so He prayed until He sweats blood. This is a graphic picture of intensity and anguish.
Honestly, I cannot imagine what that must have felt like. Yet, Fox’s Book of Martyrs has numerous triumphant stories of people that surrendered their lives because of their faith. There is something even more painful than death at the heart of Christ’s tremendous agony at this moment. He would be betrayed by a man He had mentored and loved. While tragic and painful, it could not have produced this kind of torment. I believe there is an additional factor, not so obvious, that made this crushing of His will so painful.
Sin would separate Him from God. That reality brought Him tremendous anguish! He loved His Father and He understood, beyond our ability to understand, how horrible that separation from God would be. His separation would be brief. He understood that, yet, separation from God brought tremendous agony. Sin, the sin of the entire world, was about to be put on Him, even though He had never sinned; not a single sin, in thought or deed. Yet, He would pay that penalty of sin. That is the anguish of this moment was taking sin.
We don’t seem to understand that sin is death. Death is not the transition from this life to the next if you know Christ as Savior and Lord. Sin is death that goes beyond the grave, to separate us from the giver of abundant life for all eternity. Sin is a deadly disease with only one cure-Jesus.
In the garden of Gethsemane, which means oil press, Jesus’ will was pressed to conform to God’s perfect will. He submitted to God’s plan, and love flowed out of the press. God sent angels to strengthen Him, so He could bench press the sins of the entire world. He didn’t come to depress the world with condemnation. He didn’t come to impress the world with nice words and gestures. He came to express God’s love on the cross so that through Him all men could be saved.
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