When Jesus faced the central purpose of HIs time on Earth – to give Himself to death on a Cross as a payment for our sins, yours and mine – He retreated to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. This event in the life of our Lord …
- Is Historically and Apologetically Instructive – Today, the Basilica of The Agony is a Christian church that enshrines the rock and physical place where Jesus prayed. A Basilica is a shrine, church, and is so named because it enshrines something and also because of its architectural design.
- Gives us insight to the price He paid just for us – He was in anguish and agony when He went there to offer prayers to prepare for His sacrifice on the Cross. The word Gethsemane means oil press. It was a physical place where they pressed olive seeds to extract the oil we all like. It was symbolic of the truth that our Lord was about to be “pressed” on the Cross; He was about to suffer horrendously as He endured the malignity of men whom He Himself created, suffered the brutality of the physical beatings he took, and agonized under the Father’s frown as He judged our sins in the body of His only dear Son, Jesus.
- Counsels us on what to do when we experience Gethsemane moments. We, too, will experience Gethsemane moments in our lives; times when we suffer anguish and agony because of trials that are too deep for us, too painful for us, too agonizing for us. And when these Gethsemane moments come, we too, must go to our prayer closets for many hours of prayer to acquire the Father’s strength and wisdom to deal with those “agony moments” that threaten our happiness and well-being.
Charles Stanley wrote, “If the perfect, sinless Son of the living God found it necessary to pray repeatedly, then there’s nothing wrong when we must do so as well.” In our sleepless nights, agonizing, fearful times when we wonder if we will survive, when life scares us and threatens us, when lifelong goals hang in the balance, we must do what our Lord modeled for us to do and that is to go the Father in agonizing prayer for comfort, peace, wisdom, courage, and direction.
And know this: the Lord has been touched with the feeling of our infirmities, so He knows exactly how we feel and when we approach His throne, He will give us mercy and grace to help in our time of need (Hebrews 4:13-15).
“My hope is in Jesus because He always welcomes us into His presence.”
[Charles Stanley: “Jesus, Our Perfect Hope,” p. 113]