Road to EasterSample

The Path through the Garden of Gethsemane

Jesus observed the Passover meal with His disciples. That evening, He predicted His death, a betrayal by one of His disciples, disowning by another, and abandonment by all (Mark 14:18, 24, 27, 30). What grief and sorrow awaited Him! 

He and His disciples sang a hymn, walked toward the Mount of Olives, and then to the Garden of Gethsemane. Can you imagine how that walk must have felt to those who had walked beside Him, through thick and thin, for three long years? They plodded along—pained, perplexed, perturbed. When they reached their destination, Jesus asked them to sit nearby while He prayed. But He asked Peter, James and John to come with Him.

Privately, Jesus told His inner circle that He was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:33–34). He again asked for prayer. Then He went a little farther down the path. He went alone. He fell to the ground, asking God the Father to take the cup of death away from Him. But, the Scriptures affirmed that this was not possible; they predicted that God’s Servant would be despised, rejected, stricken, afflicted, and pierced (Isaiah 53:3–5). Knowing all of this, Jesus sought to do the Father’s will. 

Boris Pasternak, a Russian poet who won the Nobel Prize for his novel, Doctor Zhivago, wrote that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus “renounced / Omnipotence and miracles / As if they had been borrowed things, / And now He was a mortal among mortals.”  

Jesus returned to find His closest friends asleep during His hour of need. This happened not just once, but three times! How weak, how mortal they proved themselves to be. Yet, it was for their sake, and ours, that Jesus chose the cross. 

The path through the garden of Gethsemane is an intimate look at the prayer life of the eternal Son of God. Jesus’ willingness to serve showed the depth of His love for the Father, and the depth of love God has for us. Jesus went to the cross so that our sins might be forgiven. He showed us what it looks like to trust and obey God completely, without reservation. 

Lord, when I face challenges, help me pray like You did: “Abba, Father. . . . Not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36).