When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that
you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s
throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are
willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Now an
angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very
fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the
ground.
(Luke 22:40-44, NASB)
The Garden located on the side hill of Mount of Olives
called Gethsemane derives its name from the Hebrew word for “Olive Press.” How remarkable that this garden so named was
the place Jesus favored in His coming to His Father for times of prayer and fellowship.
The Son continually sought blessing, direction and relationship
with His Heavenly Father in all matters assuring that He might be in constant
and complete unity with His Father’s will. On all the occasions up until this
point, the Son had never had any difficulty with the Father’s will but now
massive amounts of untold heaviness were pressing in and on the body and spirit of the
Son. It was a time of extreme and unbearable crushing in this place of “The Pressing.”
The Son staggers under the weight of the judgment about to
come upon Him. Although He never wavers in His submission to His Father … He
does plead for a possible release from the course of destiny now before Him. Some people explain the hesitation on the part
of the Son as coming from the tremendous pain, torture and suffering that was
about to come upon the Savior because of our sin and the sin of the world. Others suggest the hesitation comes from
Jesus being fully human and alive alongside His being fully God.
These are significant
pressures but the massive heartache and agony that would crush the Savior, came
from carrying of the weight of the sin of the world and the knowledge of the intentional and
required abandonment that was to happen when the Father would turn His face
away from the Son on the cross. This had never happened,
not for even the tiniest of moment in the unfathomable everlasting to
everlasting unity that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had dwelt in without
beginning or end.
The severing of this love between the Father and the Son was required
for the redeeming of all people for all time.
It a great and indescribable love the Father has for us that even while we
are hopelessly lost in our sins, He loves us (Romans 5:8). It was an incredible love that demanded our
Heavenly Father to turn away from His beloved Son and allow the crushing weight
of that redeeming abandonment to save a world of sinners. It was an incredible love our Savior had for us to lay down His life and to submit to this unfathomable crushing for our sins. We cannot imagine or comprehend
the crushing that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane to our blessed Savior
but we can be ever so thankful for the forgiveness and freedom it gives
us. What was pressed out in the place of
“The Crushing” was the amazing gift of our salvation. Thanks, be to God!
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed
for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his
wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, NIV)
Suggested Reading … Luke 22; Isaiah 53
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