We read the passage about Jesus praying in place called Gethsemane. This prayer seems quite different from his prayer yesterday. This prayer is full of sorrow and dread. It is quite distressing to read Jesus being so stressed.
Also quite surprising is that he doesn’t hide his agony. He brings his closest disciples to pray together. He is openly admits to them that he is overwhelmed with anguish. He wants them to pray with him. He is desperate.
It is shocking for the boys to read this, because they think Jesus dying on the cross is not that big of a deal. Jesus is God, and he is going to rise again in a few days! In their minds, this is like a prick to his hand. They know that Jesus is fully God, so he is invincible. But reading this makes us realize that this dying on the cross IS a big deal. Otherwise why is Jesus so sorrowful? Why does Jesus keep asking God to remove this cup from him? He asks over and over again. Even though Jesus has been saying throughout his ministry (and this has been prophesied throughout the whole Bible) that this was his mission, in front of the door of death he is dreading it with all his being. Why is this?
We can get an answer from yesterday’s prayer. Jesus and God are one. The Son knows the Father and the Father knows the Son. Before the beginning of time, they were together and loved each other. Now for the first time, Jesus is going to be separated from God and will bare the wrath of God. As knowing God is eternal life, being separated from God is eternal hell. The pain of being rejected by someone so close, so loved is unbearable for us. The closer you are, the more it hurts. How infinite would Jesus’s pain would be, since they are one and their love is infinite?
And now the journey to the cross begins with the arrest. There is a large crowd armed with weapons and when they seize Jesus, his disciples try to fight back by cutting off an ear of a person in the crowd. Jesus stops this immediately, and says he is going willingly to fulfill the Scriptures. Jesus is obeying and being faithful to his mission. Even though his heart is full of sorrow, he is still going to the cross, and he is going willingly.
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