Jesus’ Agony in the Garden

As we approach the holiest of weeks and holiest of days, it is important to take time to consider Jesus’ words and actions.

Jesus takes upon Himself all of our sins. He accepts our sins as if they are His very own. In doing so, Jesus offers to pay personally all the debts we incur as a consequence of our sins. Yes, all of them. He pays for all those sins we have committed previously. He pays for those sins we currently are committing. He pays for all the sins that are yet to occur and will happen.

Jesus represents us. That is is he stands in our place assuming all our sins and their deadly consequences. His agony is real and intense. In his description of the Garden of Gethsemane, the evangelist Luke emphasizes this by telling us that Jesus, alone and forlorn, sweats blood (Luke 23:43).

Yet, Jesus perseveres in prayer and does not lose confidence despite the unimaginable suffering.

The human nature of our Lord Jesus is on full display in this scene. Jesus is like us in all things but sin, though He heaps our sins upon Himself so to carry them on our behalf and ransom us from their deadly consequences.

So, too, is God’s providential care on display as an angel appears at the very moment his human body seems unable to continue.

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