Maundy Thursday
Gethsemane Prayer
Gethsemane Prayer
A Plea to Bring
a Greater Redemption
Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives to pray, taking along the apostles Peter, James, and John. The Gospel says He prayed so intensely He sweated blood. He asked God to “let this cup pass from me,” indicating He didn’t want to die. Why?
Some Bible analysts suggest Jesus was just showing His “human” side, briefly burdened by self-doubt and fear of death. They say His human weakness caused Him to momentarily waver from His course of death on the cross that had been supposedly preordained since the founding of the world.
But such an interpretation is truly an affront to Jesus, who was in perfect harmony with the will of God, utterly free of self-doubt and fear. Throughout history, so many people of lesser stature and lesser relationship with God have faced death with coolness and steely resolve. Take the ancient Greek soldiers at Thermopylae, or Nathan Hale, he of “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country” fame. Jesus was surely no less heroic than these.
The real deal about why Jesus didn’t want to die is that He wanted to find a way to continue living and carry on His mission of helping God build His Kingdom of Heaven on earth, a world of universal love and harmony where God would dwell with humanity everywhere and His laws would be written naturally on every human heart (Jeremiah 31:33). So Jesus, in His Gethsemane prayer, argued with God to try to find a way out of the necessity to give in to a sacrificial death that, while providentially valuable, would be only partly redemptive.
Remember, Jesus, on a mission from God Himself, aimed to build a world of universal peace and love in which God would dwell in every human heart and in which God’s will and love would be embodied in every human law, regulation, and relationship. The world after Jesus’ death, which has continued till today, is one in which those who embrace Jesus’ way of selflessness even unto death can come very close to God. But it’s a world in which even those believers are sin-filled and torn by evil impulses. It’s a world filled with war, poverty, horrible crimes, vast callousness, and breathtaking selfishness. A far cry from a fully redeemed world—or even fully redeemed believers.
So Jesus contended with God in His prayer, trying to find a way to continue His mission. But He and God could find none, because all avenues of support for Jesus’ mission had been shut down. No chance for a successful Plan A remained. The only way to achieve some measure of success was through bloody sacrifice on the cross. That’s why Jesus said, “Yet not my will, but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42).
How This Helps Us Have a Real Relationship With the Real Jesus
When we realize how anguished Jesus was over facing the crucifixion, not in weakness for his own welfare but out of cosmic agony over the centuries of sin and suffering his death would be consigning humanity to, we resonate with the tormenting dilemma Jesus and God both faced.
We come to appreciate the true magnitude of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross: sacrificing His mission’s larger success, the full salvation of all His brothers and sisters throughout the world, those alive at that time and the billions in future generations. Not to mention that He sacrificed wedding a wife, having children, and leaving a lineage and a true-family example for all people subsequently.
Spiritual Exercises
● Sit in a quiet place and ponder the huge potential for eventual world peace that was lost due to Jesus’ untimely demise. Consider the monstrousness of the evil and suffering that has consumed the world for the last two thousand years that could have been throttled down to a trickle if Jesus had come to hold sway over the world, in accordance with biblical prophecy.
● Comfort God and Jesus in prayer for all of the unnecessary horrors of the last two millennia. And then pray for the grace to participate in bringing about a world that reflects Jesus’ vision.