the garden

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THE GARDEN

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12 READ MARK 14:32-42



It’s quiet in the garden, but Jesus is not. Distress, sorrow, and

anguish course through his heart. He enters Gethsemane to pray, knowing this will be no regular bedtime prayer. Jesus is about to be betrayed.

The garden is the ultimate test for our king.



As his time on earth races to an end, Jesus falls to the ground to

plead for another way. “Abba! Father!” These are intimate words no average Jew would dare use with God, but this intimacy is not without anguish. With loud cries and tears of agony, our king calls out to his Father for help.

Overwhelmed by grief, Jesus shows us what it looks like to trust the

Father who cares for us.

Jesus knows what awaits him. He knows that the silence will soon be

interrupted by the footsteps of his betrayer. He knows his closest friends will abandon him. He knows exactly what the cup of suffering will taste like, and he pleads with the Father to remove it.

Here we see the humanity of Jesus more clearly than ever before.

Our savior king feels deeply the weight of our sin, and it is almost unbearable. It feels as though the anguish might kill him.

If ever our king was to be defeated, this is the moment.



But Jesus is not defeated. He accepts the response of the Father to

proceed as planned. He perfectly obeys because he knows what lies ahead will change the world. The one without sin prepares to bear all of ours.

If Jesus hadn’t obeyed the Father in the garden, he would have been

swallowed up by death forever and there would be no resurrection, no

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salvation, and no future kingdom for you to inherit by faith. If he fails this test, all hope is lost.

We have life because Jesus didn’t fail.



The one to whom all Scripture has been pointing to as the better

Adam, the better lamb, the better ark, and the better king, bows before the Father and declares that his way is better.

Be overwhelmed with gratitude at what the obedience of Jesus cost

him. Then, follow his example by doing as he did. Trust the plan of God. Give your life to him in full assurance that our king is better.

PRAY God, thank you for Jesus’ obedience. Thank you for his perfectly sinless life and sacrificial death that makes salvation possible for me. I repent of the ways I have not trusted what you say and ask that you help my heart believe that your way is better.

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