Real Hope: The Passion - Week 1Sýnishorn

Jesus In The Garden

One of life’s most difficult realities is the experience of loss. Whether opportunity, time, a relationship, or a life, there’s a specific grief in feeling the absence of something you once had.

Jesus Himself felt this leading up to His crucifixion as He confronted the distinction between what had been in His life so far and what was to come. Matthew tells us Jesus was ‘sorrowful and troubled’ and overwhelmed with those feelings ‘to the point of death.’ That’s not little pain; that’s immense anguish. For Jesus to be ‘sorrowful’ means that He was so disappointed He’d become deeply distressed.

What scripture describes here is someone teetering on the edge of life and death in the throes of emotional turmoil. It’s hard to imagine Jesus in that way, but it’s right there, laid out in scripture. And while there’s comfort in knowing Jesus identifies with the burden of loss, the greater hope is how Jesus shows us to deal with it.

Jesus knew He needed to pray. He needed to take what He was feeling to God. In that exchange, He could air His concerns and ground Himself again in God’s ultimate purpose. Jesus admitted His desire for the ‘cup to pass’ but settled in trusting God’s will to be done. Jesus also didn’t address His sorrow alone or seek God in isolation. He went personally to God AND asked others to ‘keep watch and pray.’ And I wonder when He does, if that wasn’t just in case His captors came, but for His ‘overwhelmed soul’ too.

If you’re carrying a sorrow that feels too great to bear, take it to God, but don’t carry it to Him alone.

Written by LAURA BENNETT