Greg and Amy unpack what believers can learn from Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, a powerful expression of his humanity but also a model of submission to God through lament.
Transcript
Question: In the garden, Jesus prayed, “Let this cup pass from me.” It is clear that Jesus knew—both in his humanity (Isaiah 53 and John 3:14) and divinity—that he would die and how he would die. Yet, he prayed a prayer he already knew the answer to three times. Difficult to reconcile. What might you suggest here?
Greg: Well, it’s not difficult for me to reconcile, because I think if we have a robust understanding of his humanity, then we can understand the human anguish that he faced at that moment. Think of him on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That’s a citation. He’s repeating a verse that opens up Psalm 22. The next line in that psalm gives insight. This looks like forlorn and “I don’t know what’s going on,” and that’s the way some people have characterized it, but the next verse says, “Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.” Here I am. I need deliverance. I’m not getting deliverance. And I take this as a cry from his humanity, not a question about what is entailed there.
That whole psalm is a psalm that sounds like a crucifixion from a first-person perspective, and it ends on a note of hope: “He has performed it.” Well, that sounds like, “It is finished.” So, there’s an expression that Jesus cries out on the cross in the midst of all of this that I think we have reason to believe is not an expression of doubt or confusion, but an expression of lament or anguish of a human soul enduring indescribable suffering. And I think that also helps us to understand what’s going on in the garden.
It’s interesting how he continues that prayer: “If possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but thine be done.” In other words, that’s an acknowledgment that it’s not possible. He has understanding that his sacrifice is necessary to forgive sins. This is another argument in favor of the blood atonement. Jesus had to go to the cross. It wasn’t just so he could die and be an example to others or show his victory over the cross—these are different characterizations of the atonement—but he had to do this because, somehow, in the bookkeeping of God, it was a necessary component that provided for forgiveness.
I take from that—even in the garden—that he is fully aware of the necessity of this, yet he is in the midst of anguish as he anticipates it because he knows the price he’s going to have to pay. He is saying a thing that is understandable: “If it’s possible, let this pass from me. But not my will, but yours be done.”
Amy: So many of the psalms are expressions of lament, and I think this is something that, maybe, we need to do more of—find a way to lament and be in anguish before God and express what we’re feeling, even knowing, maybe like Jesus did, that it wouldn’t be taken away, and that he was submitting to his will even in this anguish.
So, what I would take from this is that the fact that you’re lamenting doesn’t mean you’re not submitting to his will. And, so, I would hope, if anyone feels like they can never express that lament to God, they would feel free to express that, because if Jesus can do that—knowing that nothing was going to change—then there must be something valuable in expressing that to God.
One thing that this does—the people around him would have seen the intensity of what he was going through and his willingness to go through it at the same time. Because he wasn’t demanding anything. He could have stopped anything at any time, and that was clear. But instead, he expresses how hard this is while at the same time submitting to God in this. All of these things together are certainly glorifying God in many ways. We see what he’s going through. His submission and the cost of that is made clear to the people around him. His love for the Father is made clear through this—that he is still putting that plan ahead of everything else. So, I think this accomplished many things in the way that we understand God and what happened here. And it also is a good model for us in that we can be open about our lamenting before God without crossing over into anger against God or accusing God but rather submitting to what he has for us, knowing that all things are working together for good.
Greg: The writer of Hebrews said that he endured the shame of the cross for the joy set before him. Both are conscious elements, according to that passage. He was aware of the shame of the cross, and he was aware that joy would follow. So, I think he had full comprehension at all stages of this. And what we see on the cross—where he cites the opening line of Psalm 22—and the prayers in the garden are properly understood as the cry of a human being facing a daunting challenge that he knows he must go through, and he’s willing to go through, but he is not unaffected emotionally by the reality of that ahead of him or while he’s experiencing it.
Amy: Now, imagine if we didn’t have this record. Maybe he just sat there in the garden and just prayed quietly with a beaming smile on his face. It would change the way we looked at the whole crucifixion. This reveals to us what actually was happening there—that this was real suffering. He wasn’t just above it all in some ethereal state where it didn’t touch him. This actually touched him. It actually mattered. It made a difference. It was real. And all of that is accomplished through his prayers and the people who heard him praying.