Agony in the Garden

In the Gospel of Luke, in chapter 22, we read, And he came out, and went, as he was wont, To the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. Let me pause here, friends, to say that Jesus enjoyed the solitude of the Garden of Gethsemane, and he often retired there for quietness and prayer.

Our text says, And went, as he was wont, meaning he often went there. Gethsemane was a place of comfort to him, and the fragrant garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives was this evening to be a scene of not solitude, but one of turmoil and unrest. The name Gethsemane signifies an olive mill, an olive press.

And there, in that Garden of Gethsemane, that dark night, Jesus entered into the dark night of Saul, as he struggled in agony of prayer. Yes, Gethsemane signifies an olive press. And yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, so says the prophet Isaiah.

In verse 41 of our text, we read, And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. Let me pause here again, friends, to say, it must have been a great wonder and startlement to the angels in heaven to look down from their portals to see the Son of God prostrate on the ground in agony of soul, so much that the Father turned to one of them and said, Go down there and help my son.

The angels ministered to the Lord Jesus in his sufferings. He could have had legions of them to rescue him in the blink of an eye. In fact, this single angel could have taken and conquered the entire band of soldiers who would soon come and arrest Christ Jesus.

But the angel strengthened and supported the one who it would be necessary to die for our sins on a bloody cross for our redemption and salvation. Let's return to our text in verse 44. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

I will stop there. His prayers now had a great vehemency in them. Mark in his gospel describes the scene with a descriptive statement, and began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy.

The words sore amazed are significant as they speak of something like that hour of darkness which fell upon Abraham, but really much worse. Jesus was becoming heavy with the weight of malignant sins, which he, as the sinless substitute for sin, must endure as on the cross was made a curse for us that the curses of the law were transferred to him as our representative. Christ in Isaiah is prophesied to be the man of sorrows.

And here in Gethsemane, lying prostrate on the ground, sweating so profusely and furiously that his own sweat looked like drops of blood, which would indeed soon be the case when he is captured and falsely tried and crucified at Calvary where his blood will splatter the very earth that he created. O wonder of wonders! Christ's agony for sinful man! There was agony in that garden because years ago there was anarchy in another garden when man rebelled against God and through that disobedience tainted the entire human race with sin. There, at Gethsemane, we see the Son of God engaged in an encounter with the powers of darkness as Satan's hour has come to mock and taunt and to kill the Christ at last.

I know that God is omnipotent, but Satan is not. Satan can only be in one place at a time because he is a created being. I've heard people say, the devil made me do it or the devil tried to trick me or the devil was messing with me today.

I know they mean well, but chances are they will live their entire life without Satan ever bothering to come personally to visit and trouble them. I can say that there was only one time in my life, friends, when I felt Satan's presence and I felt his mocking and taunting of me and that was the day my wife tragically died. He showed up at the police station for a little while to taunt me.

I knew it was him. And Christ at Gethsemane felt that evil presence very near to him as he struggled that night in prayer and in agony his soul with the cross before him and the sins of mankind ready to descend upon him to such a dark degree the Father would have to look away from his only begotten Son on the cross and Jesus would in astonishment cry out, My God! My God! Why hath thou forsaken me? Here in Gethsemane, Jesus in travail of soul. Here in Gethsemane, he's in a bloody sweat in his present humiliation.

He asks the Father to take away the cup from him, if he will, but he resigns himself to God's will. This terrible scene of Christ's agony in the garden reminds me of a story related by Leonard Ravenhill. He said when he was a pastor in England he would often walk to his church each day and in doing so he would pass the house of an old lady who seldom came to church.

She was a recluse and an odd woman who people left alone. One day she was on the porch as Ravenhill walked by and she called out to him to come in for a cup of tea. Reluctantly he did and he was startled to find her living room and every room in the house covered and stacked with newspapers and boxes and junk laying all around the place that was filthy.

As they entered the kitchen she told him to sit down. The sink was piled with dirty dishes that hadn't been washed in weeks. She put a pot of water on the stove and when it was hot she grabbed a dirty cup from that dirty sink and handed it to him.

Ravenhill said the cup was so filthy I could barely get it to my lips without retching from its awful stench but I knew her eyes were upon me and I knew she knew I was the pastor of the church and she was watching me to see if I would drink the tea she had offered me. As I stared down into that filthy cup black with dirt and old tea grinds my mind raced back to a couple of thousand years ago to another man who was handed a cup and he had to drink the dregs of that cup which contained my filthy rotten sins and he drank it down willingly for me. Listen, friend.

Jesus hung naked on a bloody cross and suffered and died there so you could live. If you've not trusted this blessed Savior receive Him now before it's too late. Salvation is when you receive a revealed Christ.

Look unto Him and own Him as your Savior and Lord. Soon He will come in judgment on this world when His anger shall burn as an oven and then you shall meet Him as your judge. Repent before it's too late.