The Suffering Savior in Gethsemane

The place mentioned in this text is a well-known place. Each year as we pass through the Passion weeks, our attention is directed to the garden of Gethsemane. It is at this place that the words are repeated which Moses heard when the Lord came near to him, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” There He comes as Head of His church; it is the man Christ Jesus. He is the one who spoke in those eternal regions, “Father, I will stand in the breach between Thee and Thy people. I will satisfy Thy justice and deliver and restore Thy people.”

This is the Father's only begotten Son. He has promised that He will tread the winepress alone. What an inexpressible blessing for His church when they may stand at a distance and see the wonder of God's grace and mercy in what must now be accomplished. Who are they? The Father has loved them with an eternal love: that is their origin. They are the ones who have sinned unto death, causing a deep gulf between God and man. They are the ones who are lying dead in sin, enemies of God and His Word. They are the ones called out of darkness unto God and His Word. They are the ones called out of darkness unto God's light by a powerful, irresistible calling. They are the ones who learn that they need a Savior to deliver them, who need a Mediator to stand in the river of the wrath of God for them. No, they do not know all this at first, but in God's time they may learn these things.

There Jesus goes. Eight of His disciples remain behind; three may go along with Him deeper into the garden. There is Peter, the one who said that he could die with Him. There are the two sons of Zebedee, who believed that they could drink of the cup from which Christ must drink. He says unto them, “Pray that ye enter not into temptation.” And He withdraws from them about a stone's cast. His Father is now waiting; sin and guilt must be atoned for. His people are now waiting; a way must be opened unto eternal life. The sword of God's holy justice is now hovering above Him.

It is remarkable that He came to a garden. This causes us to think of another garden, the home for man created in God's image, the garden of Eden. It was in that garden that man lost all. Wounded unto death, he came out of that garden. But in this garden balm for that wound is being obtained. They are a blessed people who may come to know the wound and may come to need the balm. No, the world does not need His balm. They say, “Let us eat, drink, and be merry.” The religion of our times does not need the balm, because it does not know the wound. But a people awakened unto the knowledge of their missing, burdened with sin and looking into the garden, may stammer, saying, “With His stripes we are healed.”

Led into the knowledge of the deepest misery outside of such a Savior, they cry, “Oh, that my soul may know Him!” In the garden of Eden angels wept and the devil rejoiced. In this garden we see much suffering, but the devil becomes quiet and the angels begin to sing. Here the church of the Lord stammers, “How great the love of the Father! How great the love of the Son! How precious the work of the Holy Spirit when He brings us to the knowledge of Him!”

All is quiet now. There is only one voice heard, the voice of a suffering Savior: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful.” And why? Here the sins of His people are placed upon Him. Here the flaming sword of God's burning wrath descends. Here the hell which we have merited takes hold of Him, to drag Him to the very bottom of everlasting darkness. We read that He, meaning the Mediator between God and His people, kneels down and prays. In deepest soul distress He turns to His Father, saying, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done.” He, the only begotten Son of the Father, prays, “Holy Father, this is Thy will. This is according to heaven's eternal covenant. This is the only way to save My Father's people. Help Me to drink this cup.” With the enemy closing in, He prays, using the only weapon that is now available. He clings to the Father's will. With this weapon He bows in deepest submission to His Father's will.

And there appears an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. Luke writes that from heaven He, the suffering Savior, is strengthened. How? He holds before Him the great reward that will follow this awesome sacrifice. For a moment He may see the Father's holy law restored. He may see all the Church of God before the throne. For a moment He may hear them singing the Father's praises in those heavenly regions.

Is that not the same for those people bought with the price of His precious blood? There each one stands as an unworthy, hell-worthy sinner. Ever deeper he is pressed down by the burden of sin. What a privilege when in prayer he may come to the time of everlasting mercy, when by the grace of God he may be brought to express a few stammering words, “Thy will be done.” For a moment he may receive a glimpse of that finished work of the Son of God, and he may hear, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Why not, Lord? We deserve to be forsaken, to be cast away forever. What a privilege when they may receive an eye of faith, and when that eye may be directed into the garden to see the only price that is acceptable to a holy and a just God. Luke says, “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.” This is the price required in heaven to take away a just wrath against sin. This is the price for which a people called out of darkness, led by the Spirit of God, come to hunger: that they may have some-thing of that blood applied to their heart. Then in deepest agony they cry, “Lord, grant one drop of that precious price to wash and cleanse me.”

One drop of that price is more to be desired than all the gold and silver of the world. This blood tells lost sinners that there is a hiding place for people who cannot find a hiding place anywhere else. Regarding something of this price, they say with David in Psalm 61:2, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” And seeing this, what more do the people of the Lord need? They need to be driven away from all foundations outside of this only Rock. Then the time may come when they may say with the disciples of old, “They saw no man, save Jesus only.”

What a wonderful lesson! And how necessary it is to experience that I may lose all strength from my hands and arms, so that Christ may become the strength of my spirit, my portion for aye.

Dear reader, that wonder of God's grace has a beginning. Do you know of such a beginning? That wonder of God's grace has a continuance. Such people are made ever poorer in self, that this price may become the only and true Way. The wonder becomes ever greater that from heaven God gave such a Way, such a price, and that He looked upon such a wretch as I am.

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