Welcome to the garden. Today, we will read one of the longest chapters in the New Testament, Matthew 26.

 
The Garden of Earthly Realities
 

Anyone who says reading the Bible is boring has not read this chapter. We have scandal, betrayal, and action—including swordplay. As I read through this today, I thought of many lessons I could, and have, taught from it. But God wanted me to focus on one element: the location, the Garden of Gethsemane. I resisted this, thinking that we must always focus on Jesus, and it is true. But He chose this setting for important reasons, which we will discuss.

As I write this, I have the old Joni Mitchell song, made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young—”Woodstock”—in my head. That iconic line, “We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden,” (1) resonates deeply. I was also reminiscing about how when I published Tucson Parent Magazine, I wrote a column called “In The Garden with Wolfie.” That would be my son, and I wrote about the tranquility and connection we had working in our garden. There is something profound about getting your hands into the soil, planting a seed, and watching it grow.

 
A Place of Crushing, Not Tranquility
 

Gethsemane was definitely not Woodstock, but it was a place that Jesus liked to go. I had to research what it was like in those days. In my mind, I pictured a rose garden or flowers, with winding paths and stone benches. A fragrant, colorful, but tranquil area. I thought it might be a place He felt connected to the Father. I was wrong on these counts.

The Garden of Gethsemane was an area below terraced olive orchards. It was where they would bring the olives to be crushed to have the oil drained from them. The oil they would use for anointing kings.

When I think of the process of using a press to extract the oil, I can see why God uses this location. It is where they “put the squeeze on” Jesus and trapped Him. The irony is He was in plain sight daily. God does not hide from us. He is transparent and wants us to look closer into Him. He uses parables to help us connect to things we can understand, not to confuse us. So, here He brings us to the oil press. He is about to be anointed the King of the Jews, but this will require Him to be crushed first. This is the gospel: He died for us.

 
The Cup of Our Iniquity
 

In the garden, He asks in Matthew 26:39, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” With God, all things are possible. He could have asked, “Father, take this cup from me,” and it would have been done, but we would have no salvation. One moment of weakness, and we would have all been forever damned. Instead, He left it in the Father’s hands, stating, “Your will be done.”

Jesus was completely human, yet He had remained sinless. Without sin, there would be no reason for death. He knew that to be absent from this body is to be in the presence of the Father (2 Corinthians 5:8), so He was not fearing death or even the pain leading up to it. He was speaking about the Cup. That was a cup filled with sin—your sin and mine. I once did the math, and if I sinned only ten times a day, at my age, that would add up to around a quarter-million sins. But I have probably had inappropriate thoughts and actions ten times while writing this devotional. In truth, I have millions of sins that need forgiveness. We all do. That cup was the wrath that God would have to pour out for all the sins of all believers. For Jesus to drink that cup, He would have to take the weight of all those sins—a number I can’t even fathom.

He knew it was possible. God was giving the humanity in Him a moment to decide. He chose the Father’s will.

 
The Agreement
 

Then, in verse 42, He restates it: “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” What would not be possible is redemption without a price. Now, fully God, He accepted that. Then, agreeing with His humanity, He prays the same prayer a third time (Matthew 26:44), demonstrating what He had taught in Matthew 18:19-20: “if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

Then, like the olives, He will be crushed for our iniquity. (Isaiah 53:5)

 
Lightening the Load
 

I will never look at the Garden of Gethsemane the same knowing this. He took us there to show us what had to happen so that we could understand the weight of our sins. Knowing that, I hope you will no longer look at sin as just a part of life—it doesn’t have to be. We should all try to lighten the load we place on our Savior.

 
Tomorrow, we will read Matthew 27-28.

Footnotes

1 Joni Mitchell, “Woodstock,” track 11 on Ladies of the Canyon, Reprise Records, 1970.