Gethsemane - Agony in the Garden

Anguish, prayer, betrayal, arrest...

Apr 13, 2025

Friend, it is Easter season.

Without the Crucifixion and Easter Sunday, Christianity does not exist.

I wanted to take a moment to contemplate Jesus’ suffering, his emotional agony, on the night before His trial and crucifixion.

** An interpretation of His night in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“On this very night you will all fall away from me,” Jesus, the Son of God, told his disciples.

“Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

They had just finished their Last Supper in the upper room and had walked over to the base of the Mount of Olives. They were at the entrance to the Garden of Gethsemane, a garden and olive grove which they went to often.

There were only eleven disciples now, as one had left the group.

Jesus asked Peter, James and John to walk with him a bit farther into the garden.

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” Jesus said to the three. “Stay here and keep watch while I go over there to pray.”

Going a few steps farther into the garden alone, Jesus, filled with intense distress from his mission, fell with his face to the ground and prayed.

And now, this evening in the Garden of Gethsemane, his closest disciples with him, Jesus’ burden of carrying the weight of the world, was near a conclusion.

His soul, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, cried out to his Father.

“Father, oh Father. Everything is possible for you,” Jesus began. With his forehead down to the hard rocky soil, Jesus asked his Father to take the burden from him.

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.”

The weight of the sin of mankind burdened him with anguish. A drop of blood fell from his forehead onto his hand. He raised his head slightly and realized he was sweating drops of blood. The emotional anxiety of his crushing task was showing itself in physical form, sweat turning into blood.

“Yet Father, not what I will, but what You will. Your will be done.”

Back and forth Jesus struggled. Knowing the will of his Father, knowing the task must be completed, yet, his agony led him to ask for a way out.

After an hour of his heartfelt earnest prayers, an Angel appeared to Jesus. The Angel of the Father knelt with him, touched him and prayed with him. This gave Jesus much needed strength and comfort.

Jesus returned to Peter, James and John. They were sleeping.

“Peter, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?” asked Jesus. “Pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.”

Jesus went back to the same spot he was before and continued his prayers. For another hour he prayed to his Father to take the cup of human sin and death from him. Another hour of sweating blood, of wrestling between his own desire to escape the pain and the supreme will of his Father. Yet, always understanding that it was the will of the Father which was to be done.

Again he returned to the three disciples and found them asleep. Jesus said nothing this time. The three men felt ashamed and also had nothing to say to Jesus.

A third time Jesus went off to pray.

“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, then may your will be done.” Another hour of mental anguish. Then he gathered himself.

At this point Jesus was finished with his prayers. His time alone was at an end. He knew what must be done.

Jesus then knew with certainty that he was to complete his task assigned to him by his Father in Heaven. The task of saving mankind.

He accepted the will of God, his Father. He rose, took a long deep breath, let it out with a sense of calm and walked forward into his destiny.

He returned a third time to his three disciples to again find them asleep.

“Are you still sleeping?”

The men rose. “Forgive us Lord for our eyes were heavy.”

“Look, the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

They turned to see a crowd of men, armed with swords and clubs and torches, coming towards them.

“Let’s go,'“ Jesus said. “Here comes my betrayer!”

“Greetings, Rabbi,” said Judas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.

Judas, the betrayer, had arranged a signal with the High Priests who were there to arrest Jesus.

Jesus replied, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

There was an eerie moment of silence and hesitation in the crowd between the soldiers, priests, disciples and Jesus.

“Friend, do what you came for,” said Jesus to Judas, looking directly into his eyes.

Judas stepped forward and kissed Jesus on the cheek.

Immediately the soldiers seized Jesus and arrested him.

A follower of Jesus pulled his sword and struck the ear of a soldier.

“No more of this! Put your sword away, for all who live by the sword will die by the sword." Jesus touched the mans ear and healed it.

Jesus looked at the stunned crowd. “Do you think I cannot call on my Father and He will at once send legions of Angels to protect me? But no, this is how the Scriptures must be fulfilled.”

Jesus turned to the high priests leading the crowd. “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have to come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me.”

The priests did not answer.

“But this is your hour - when darkness reigns,” Jesus said in finality.

The priests gave a nod and the soldiers, holding Jesus tight, began to roughly walk him out of the Garden of Gethsemane.

Then all Jesus’ followers abandoned him and fled in fear.

What was Jesus, the Son of God, going through?

Why was Jesus feeling such agony?

What was He asked to do that was so overwhelming?

The mission which Jesus was given was arguably the most monumental task in the history of mankind.

He had been assigned to give up His omnipotence and become human and to live on earth as a man. Then, all the weight of the sins of every human would be thrust upon His shoulders. He would then carry this heavy burden throughout His life, all the while teaching mankind about His Father, His Father’s kingdom, and how He wanted humans to live on the earth God created.

The final part of His mission was to suffer betrayal, arrest, public humiliation and unbelievable pain. He was to carry the weight of the wrongdoing of all humanity with Him to a painful death.

He was to die. A long, painful, public, humiliating death.

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