Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
I think this may be the only passage from the bible I use for this particular writing. In this passage, so much can be learned about Jesus, his strength, his patience, and his relationship with God. After learning of it, we should, as always, strive to be the same.
First. Don’t expect life to be easy because I’m a Christian. Jesus never said it would be. There will always be troubles and its a common misconception that comes from somewhere unknown that once one is a Christian, he’s protected from pain. Not true.
Jesus was sorrowful and troubled. So troubled, that he explained it., “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Lets think about that for a second. Jesus was great at speaking in metaphors and often did so, but he wasn’t known for exaggeration. He was severely upset. It made me think... “he is more upset than I will ever be in my entire life.”Trouble will definitely come to us in our daily life if it came to Jesus. And its normal to feel these feelings. Now, usually, when I’m troubled, I’ve been known to drink. But Jesus shows us what to do. Pray.
Pray with humility. Growing up, I always felt weird not kneeling when I would pray. After all, I was talking to the creator. Jesus didn’t kneel. He fell on his face in humility and reverence to HIS OWN FATHER and prayed a prayer of relief. If I was living back then and saw the one that I consider my Lord and Savior fall on his face in reverence, I would have done the same even if I had no clue why I was doing it. The only person to ever live a perfect life fell on his face. That’s a huge deal.
Pray whats on your mind. Don’t sugar coat or pretend you don’t feel things, God already knows how we’re feeling. Through this prayer we see what is troubling him. In short, he doesn’t want to be crucified. Again, his prayer is not like prayers that I pray. If I ask for help I just plead and plead and plead, but the most important part of his prayer is the last. “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
To be able to acknowledge my fear for what I’m about to do and accept that the cause is greater than myself would be a feat. An uncommon feat that is known largely by people like troops, police and firemen. I have a habit of not pretending to in my prayers, if I'm frustrated or even angry, I will at the very least acknowledge my feelings in my prayer and ask for strength or wisdom. But his mindset was so on the well-being of the entire world that, in secret, when it was just him and God, he asked for another way but ended the prayer with a variation of “your will be done.” It was such a part of his personality that he said it when no one else but God could hear him.
Pray often. He was diligent and hopeful. At least hopeful enough to say the same prayer three times. I would think that Jesus was highly intelligent and, of course, knew God and his will better than anyone. A highly intelligent Jesus with the understanding of the creator’s mind would seem foolish praying the same prayer if he didn’t believe it would make a difference. Jesus believed and had faith in the idea that there could be another way. Jesus knew that through persistence, we may be satisfied.
