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Imagine you are one of the disciples, and you’ve just finished dinner…

Imagine you are one of the disciples, and you’ve just finished dinner…

Think for a moment what it must have been like that night . . . unsettling, to say the least. Certainly the disciples felt the urgency in the Upper Room, and know Judas is somewhere putting his plot into motion. But just what is Judas going to do?

Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet and now with dinner finished, he leaves the Upper Room . . . and begins the quiet march toward his arrest. On this night, with his disciples in tow, Jesus returns again to the Mount of Olives, and stops in the garden that we hold so dear, the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Messiah turns and looks at the men, and asks them to 'watch and pray--to wait for him'. Walking a little way off, Jesus prays the most desperate prayer of his lifetime. He knows that he will suffer alone. O, how he loves the disciples, but they just do not understand. In fact, as Jesus looks over his shoulder, he sees that they are asleep. [You and I cannot be too hard on the disciples. Remember, they have just had the Passover meal, including four cups of wine; it is late, and it has already been a very long day.]

Imagine you are there, as Jesus prays to his Father about the agony that is soon coming. Luke 22.39-46: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2022:39-46&ver... "Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." It is not just the horror of the crucifixion that awaits Jesus, but the moment when God the Father would turn his back on him as all of our sins are upon him--it was the total separation from God. So, "being in agony, he was praying very fervently; and his sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." (Luke 22.44)

Luke, a physician, was the only gospel writer who wrote of this condition; the clinical term is “hematohidrosis.“ Around the sweat glands, there are multiple blood vessels in a net-like form. Under the pressure of great stress, the vessels constrict. Then as the anxiety passes, “the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture. The blood goes into the sweat glands.” As the sweat glands are producing a lot of sweat, it pushes the blood to the surface - coming out as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.

Now today . . . what are we to take from that Garden, where our Lord prayed, crying out to the Father? Every time God’s Word describes his children 'crying out to God', he hears their prayers, and comes and answers. As children of God, when we cry out to God in prayer, he hears us too.

He is a good Father and he is moved by the plight of his children.
The Garden is still there in Jerusalem at the foot of the Mt. of Olives, right next to the Church of All Nations. There are a few olive trees within a fenced area that date back more than 2000 years, which serve as silent witnesses to that night so long ago. Oh, if only those trees could speak!

Some thoughts of application to ponder: We know from the gospel narratives, that Jesus regularly retreated to pray, and be alone with his Father; so, on this the night of his greatest trial, it was natural that Jesus would pray. While Jesus has not asked you and me to watch and pray in the Garden with him, he has set before us a course to take. We can do what he has asked us to do—we can be ready to respond to his leading, and with his help, we can remain faithful. “…let us lay aside every weight, and sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…” Hebrews 12:1-2

Make time to get alone with your Father this week, set aside time in your day—even if it is just 20 minutes-- to enter a garden or a quiet spot in a park, maybe on the beach, and pray. Consider Jesus’ desperate prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, and all that was to soon come upon him. Sit in his presence, and bask in his love. Thank him for his sacrifice for you.

Imagine you are one of the disciples, and you’ve just finished dinner…

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