LS-42-The Meaning of Gethsemane

The Meaning of Gethsemane

And, being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground.--Luke 22:44.

How are we to account for it--this agony of prayer, and distress of body and mind? What is the explanation of the amazement and terror, the sorrow and grief, which the Saviour experienced in Gethsemane? That surely is not the kind of spirit we are wont to admire in men, when they meet great crises, and face the horrors of a cruel and untimely death. We are conscious enough of our own frailties; we may know that under the stress of a great trial our own strength might give way, and we might present very unheroic pictures to those who witnessed our testing, but we like to think it might be otherwise, and that we should face any experience of terror or pain with resolution and courage. Certainly we like to read of men who met the realities of torture and death with calmness, serenity and strength. How, then, are we to explain this paroxysm of grief, this distress of mind, this bloody sweat, this pathetic prayer in Gethsemane?

We love to speak of the manhood of the Master. His life was characterised by acts of noble endurance and sublime courage. No fear of man, no dread of suffering, could turn Him from His God-appointed task. He has been, through all the ages, the source of strength to myriads who have been called upon to suffer for His sake. The noble army of Christian martyrs drew all their resolution and courage from Him. The brave succession of heralds of the cross have been inspired by the noble example of Him who hung upon that cross. Did He Himself fail in this crucial test?

We do not read this story aright if we see in it only a natural human shrinking from the prospect of suffering and death, even though that death was to be the horrible Roman method of crucifixion. Our Lord came to the cross as the bearer of sin. "For our sakes He (God) made Him to be sin, who Himself knew nothing of sin." Guilty of no transgression Himself, the load of human guilt was laid on Him. He was "made a curse for us." It was this dread experience that the New Testament writers tried to describe for us, from which the pure soul of the Saviour of men shrank. It was the spiritual horror of separation from God because of sin-our sin laid upon Him-rather than the natural human fear of a dreadful physical ordeal, which was responsible for the Master’s woe in Gethsemane.

"For me it was in the garden,
He prayed, ’Not My will, but Thine;’
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat-drops of blood for mine."