The Agony in the Garden

This post is a day late (and likely more than a dollar short) but I wanted to pass along something that has occurred to me again and again while meditating on the First Sorrowful Mystery, the events of which Christians commemorate on Holy Thursday.

It's clear from biblical texts like Mark 14:34 - "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," that Jesus was very much aware of his approaching passion, and that this knowledge figured large in the agony of spirit that he endured at Gethsemane, as he again confirmed a will completely submitted to the Father - "Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.".

But it is difficult to contemplate the scene, and Jesus' words, "Could you not keep watch for one hour?" without feeling that there is more at work than just the prospect of pain and death.

One, I think, can sense it as well in Jesus' heartbreaking soliloquy; "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.".

At Gethsemane, our Lord, in the fullness of his humanity, is not only deeply grieved at his own approaching death, but seems also to be mourning for his own people, and for the earthly Kingdom that might have been; "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.".

I'm convinced that when "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people" he was holding out to his people the real prospect of paradise, of an earthly and heavenly kingdom with the Son of God on the throne, reigning in justice and truth. It was no mere rhetoric... mankind had the chance, for a few years, to choose the undoing of original sin, to usher in the Eternal Kingdom... if only we had followed.

But we would not. We were blind.

And then, one feels a profound loneliness, as well; "Do you still not understand?". It wasn't just Jesus' teachings that the disciples failed to comprehend, it was Jesus himself. He had been revealing himself to them for years - everything he did and said was toward that end - and yet in the end, there was no one he could confide in, no one he could rely on... not one true friend who would go with him to the end.

This is all speaking of our Lord in his humanity, of course. Yes, he was the Creator God, the Alpha and Omega, but he was also fully human and responded to human disappointments as even a perfect man would. Jesus knew he was about to die, knew his people had rejected him and his kingdom for good and all, and he was completely alone (save for the love of his Mother). His impending death was, perhaps, the easiest of all to take.

(The painting is The Agony in the Garden, by El Greco)

Comments

[Celeste]

Howdy Tim--

Your ruminations on the Agony in the Garden really hit me. I'm stunned. Will get back to you after I pick my teeth up off the floor......

[J.R. Stoodley]

Tim, do you mean to say that Jesus intended to or even offered to set up an eternal earthly kingdom but the Jews rejected it, so it didn't happen? That's what your post sounds like to me, but I would contend Jesus did exactly what he had intended to do.

Of course, Jesus may well have felt great sorrow over those people who he knew would reject the salvation he was going to offer.