Jesus' Suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane

And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 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. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Luke 22:39-46

Steps: 1, 2, 3, 11, 12

In this story Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane to remake the decision that Adam failed to make long ago in the Garden of Eden. Jesus had to decide whether He would allow Himself to die like a criminal for mankind's sake. He was innocent and did not need to suffer because He had never done anything wrong. But mankind had done every possible thing wrong - murder, rape, lies, stealing, child abuse, addictions, every possible thing wrong. Jesus was deciding whether He, the innocent one, would allow all of the guilt of the entire human race through all time, to be placed on Him at one time. If He would decide to suffer this then mankind could be introduced to recovery, if He chose not to do this then all of mankind would eventually burn out and die as a race. This was His decision. Three times He had to struggle with this and then He made the decision, He the innocent one, would suffer for all of mankind, no matter what it would take, even all the way to being crucified for all.

Prayer for Today: God, we pray that we may have some little idea of what it would be like to feel the guilt for all of mankind's history. To even think about it for a while gets overwhelming for us. To think that Jesus would do that for us, to go to Calvary, to suffer the beatings, and to experience the rejection of all His people, to experience feeling like He was being abandoned by You, is too much. But we thank You Father, that You allowed, and in fact You suffered with Him just as You suffer with us. Touch our hearts that we be grateful for this precious precious gift. Help us to understand, and help us to be willing to go into recovery to not allow our addictions to separate us from You. Thank You again.