Jesus Understands
by Bill Boyd
The Church of All Nations stands on the west slope of the Mount of Olives. It is said to be built over the very stone where Jesus fell on his face and prayed. Just outside of the church, in the courtyard, is a grove of ancient olive trees. The place is usually crowded with tourists. A little north, across the old Roman road, is a small door that leads to an enclosed private garden. The olive trees are not so old, but the surrounding stone walls shut out the noise of the crowds. There are benches where our party sat. We read the account of Jesus praying in the garden, and had a time of prayer. It was one of the most emotionally moving experiences of our trip.
“Gethsemane” means “olive press.” John tells us this happened in a garden (John 18:1). Mark describes Jesus's emotions as “sore amazed,” “very heavy,” and “exceeding sorrowful” (Mark 14:33-34). Luke adds the word “agony” (Luke 22:44). “Sore amazed” carries with it the idea of fear, “very heavy” of distress. I have seen people so heavy with sorrow that they move bowed down. We sometimes sing, “O hearts bowed down with sorrow...” “Exceeding sorrow” is sorrow all around. I have heard people with such sorrow say, “I could just die.” Jesus understands that. He said to his disciples, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14:35). The word for “agony” is used only by Luke, and only here. It is a word for conflict and struggle, as in an athletic contest, but this was an agony in his soul.
Jesus said to Simon, James, and John, “Tarry ye here, and watch” (Mark 14:35), but they could not do it. When Jesus returned, he found them asleep. Jesus understood and said, “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:39). I know he was thinking of his disciples when he said this, but I wonder if he was also thinking of himself. In spirit, he was willing to drink the cup of anguish, but in the garden, his own flesh was weak.
“Night with Ebon Pinion” is one of the most haunting and beautiful songs in our hymnal. “Ebon” means dark; think of the ebony used to make the dark keys of an old piano. A “pinion” is a feathered wing. In the song, “Night,” with a dark feathered wing, “brooded o’er the vale.” The “vale” is the Kidron valley that lies between Gethsemane and Jerusalem. “Brooded” describes the way a bird covers her nest with her wings, but it also means to think deeply about something sorrowful. It was, indeed, a dark night. John said that when Judas left the upper room to betray Jesus, “...and it was night” (John 13:30). In context, this darkness had spiritual implications. When the mob came to arrest Jesus, he said to them, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).
“All around was silent, save the night wind’s wail...” We have heard the mournful sound of the wind in our hollows.
“When Christ, the Man of Sorrows, in tears and sweat as blood...” Isaiah told us that he would be “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), and Luke tells us, “being in agony, he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
I have seen a painting of Jesus praying in the garden. He is on his knees, with his hands clasped together, leaning upon a great rock with his face lifted toward heaven. It is a beautiful painting, but that is not what happened. Matthew says, “he fell on his face” (Matthew 26:39). The poet had it right when he wrote, “...prostrate in the garden.”
Then, when Jesus was lower than the lowest are low, he lifted his voice to him who is higher than the highest are high; "...prostrate in the garden, raised His voice to God.”
Jesus returned to his disciples the second time, and again, he found them asleep. This time, he let them sleep. Mark 14:39 may be the loneliest verse in the Bible: “And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.” The poet said, “Smitten for offences which were not His own, He, for our transgression, had to weep alone; no friend with words of comfort nor hand to help was there, when the meek and lowly humbly bowed in prayer.”
Perhaps he prayed in the Aramaic language of his youth. Mark tells us he prayed, “Abba, Father” (Mark 13:46). “Abba” is a familiar, reverent, and loving word for “Father,” similar to our word, “Papa.” The poet wrote, “Abba, Father, Father, if indeed it may, let this cup of anguish pass from Me I pray; yet if it must be suffered by Me, Thine only Son, Abba, Father, Father, Let thy will be done.” On the mount, Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10). In the garden, he showed us how hard it can be to pray that. When it is hard for us to pray like that, he understands.
