Beholding Christ in His Sufferings

Matthew 26:36-39

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 

Before the cross, Jesus took three of His closest disciples to witness one of the most vulnerable moments of His time on earth.

There at the olive grove, the Garden of Gethsemane, He desired to share His wrestling with God with common men, fishermen to be precise, whose strength in the hour was insufficient to keep them awake.

‘Abba, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” .’

The struggle was so real He agonized with drops of blood coming down His brow.

We will never fully understand the weight of what Christ truly suffered for us. But there at that moment, our Saviour did not hide the struggle and weight suffering He was to bear with His disciples.

I wonder how the disciples dealt with this incident in the Garden of Gethsemane. I believe it became a poignant reminder to them. In the days to come, many of them suffered and died for the sake of Christ. I wonder if they also had their ‘Garden of Gethsemane’ moment.

I wonder if after they pondered and realised what Christ willingness wrought for mankind, they became willing to go through their own Gethsemane moment.

‘ Abba, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me;’ Peter himself might have wrestled. ‘nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 

 After all, Jesus himself made known to Him the reality of the suffering he would bear on that day He met Peter as the Resurrected Christ the seashore.

Paul, although not there at the garden of Gethsemane at that moment, wrote to the Philippians ‘ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.’ (Philippians 3:10-11)

Today, the invitation to us is the same, Maybe for us Christians who live comfortably, not to jump and  think of imprisonment or martyrdom outright yet. But to be willing to behold Christ in the moments of His suffering like Peter, James and John did. And then to ask ourselves, is He worthy of our willingness to suffer?