More than an Example
When we think about what Jesus endured in the Garden of Gethsemane for us, we see a wonderful (and challenging) example of how we ought to live. We see that we should pray when we are facing difficulties. We see that we should obey even when we are facing a great cost. As we see Jesus waking up His disciples and encouraging them to pray instead of blasting them for failing to keep Him company, we see that we need to be patient with those who let us down.
Jesus is a fantastic example for us, in fact the best example ever. But if that’s all we take away from this passage, we have completely missed the point—because Jesus doesn’t kneel there in that garden primarily as your example. If you walk away from these verses thinking that you just need to try harder so that you live like Jesus, you will be absolutely crushed. You cannot do it.
The point of these events is not for you and me to look at Jesus’ bravery and His forgiveness and His trust and His sacrifice and be inspired to be a bit more like Him. The point is that you and I should realize that we’re not like Jesus, that we don’t love and forgive and trust and obey the way that we should. We don’t just need an inspiring example; we need a saving substitute. We need someone who will take our punishment, and who will give us His perfection. We need someone who will die our death and give us life. We need a Savior. We don’t need Jesus to do things better than us, to learn from; we need Jesus to do it for us, to be saved by.
On the Mount of Olives, we see Jesus, under the most extreme circumstances imaginable, tasting the cup of God’s wrath. And it staggers Him. It astonishes Him. It knocks Him to the ground. But it doesn’t shake His love for you. Not an ounce. If you’re a Christian, you can look at Jesus contemplating the cup of hell, surrounded by disciples who are failing Him, and you can see Him saying to His Father: I will take it for them.
You are Loved
And so if you’re a Christian, you can look at Jesus kneeling in anguish and know beyond all doubt that God loves you. What is going to happen, what is going to change that would make Jesus stop loving you? If the fury of God’s holy wrath doesn’t do it, what will? If God the Father loved you enough that He would send the Son that He loved to endure this kind of suffering for you, what will shake His love for you? “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8 v 32).
You may not consider yourself particularly loveable. You may have spent most of your life looking for something or someone to make you feel loved. You may have been burned or betrayed by someone who said “I love you” but proved to mean “I love me”. You may have settled for receiving a half-hearted love which is less than you’d dreamed of, but the best you think you’ll find. You may have been told that you must learn to love yourself, but deep down that’s proving impossible because you can’t ignore the un-lovely things that you know about yourself. You may have been laboring under the feeling that you need to get good enough to earn God’s love.
Well, look at Jesus on the Mount of Olives, saying to the Father: I will take the cup. He took it for you. He loved you so much that He did that for you. You are loved, by the only One in the universe whose love matters eternally. He loves you!
Extract taken from Passion p22-24
Mike McKinley is the author of Passion, Did the devil make me do it? and Church Planting is for Wimps. Since 2005 he has been pastor of Sterling Park Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia. Before that, he served on the pastoral staff of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC, having received his MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary. Mike is married to Karen, and they have five children.