Certainly one of the critical moments in our Lord’s earthly life was the time in Gethsemane before His arrest and all the events of His passion.
Despite the presence of the disciples, the Son of God (in a very real sense) was alone with His Father in moments of agony and surrender. The Lord was “troubled and deeply distressed,” and He said that His “soul [was] exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Mark 14:33, 34).
You sense His awareness of the sufferings and separation ahead as He distanced Himself from the others and prayed three times to His Heavenly Father. His surrender was complete. He embraced the will of the Father and was ready to meet His betrayer (v. 42).
There was a uniqueness to these Gethsemane moments that must be recognized due to the uniqueness of our Lord and His sufferings and sacrifice for our sins. Our experience hardly relates.
But what I want to draw your attention to is this picture of God’s Servant in deep distress, alone with His Father, even in the center of the Father’s will. The challenge He faced was not simply the opposition of man but the cost involved in doing the will of the Father in a fallen world.
We not only see the Son of God uniquely going to the cross, but we also see our Lord deeply troubled, distressed, and sorrowful as He anticipates what lies ahead in the will of God. And this experience may be....
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