Garden of the Gods: Garden of Desperate Prayer

Gethsemane is a garden of olive trees sitting on the side of the Mount of Olives. It was a relatively short walk from Jerusalem, where Jesus had Passover with his disciples and prayed publicly for them. Now he needed to pray privately, and Gethsemane was the place he chose to meet with God.

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. (John 18:1, NIV)

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.” (Matthew 26:36-39, NIV)

Could Jesus have found another place to pray privately? Of course. But he chose a place of peace, a garden, to pour out his soul to God. He was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” anticipating his arrest and execution. The turmoil in his soul was in contrast to the calm of the garden.

His prayer was a desperate one. “Father, remove this cup from me!” Though Jesus had come for the very purpose of being “lifted up” (John 3:14), that he might be the lamb slain for the forgiveness of sin (John 1:29), the sheer terror of dying the way he knew he was going to die (Matthew 16:21) moved him to request a stay of execution. But in this peaceful garden setting Jesus was able to submit to God’s will, even though it meant sure death.

A garden was where Adam and Eve capitulated to the temptation of the serpent and plunged our race into spiritual death. And a garden was where the last Adam defeated the temptation to avoid death in order to rescue our race for eternal life.