Gethsemane Prayer (8)

 

 

 

[Luke 22:39-46]

 

 

 

This is the ferventness of Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane: (1) Jesus prayed to Heavenly Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mk. 12:30).  By obeying the first part of Jesus’ twofold commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your mind” (v. 30), the disciples of Jesus who love God imitate Jesus and fervently pray to God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Jesus prayed to Heavenly Father while pouring out all of His sap (Lk. 22:44).  (2) Jesus fervently prayed to Heavenly Father while shedding clean tears, sweat, and blood.  But the tears and sweat we shed when we ask our Heavenly Father are not pure and clean liquids.  In other words, our tears and sweat are liquid mixed with sin.  Jesus prayed to Heavenly Father as if He was pouring oil into an oil press (Lk. 22:39).  Since there are many olive trees on the Mountain of Olives and they bear much fruit, oil was extracted from the olives with an oil press.  Jesus prayed to God while pouring out all His sap (clean and pure tears, sweat and blood).  However, our prayer seems to be a prayer that just rend our hearts.

 

                It is the patience of Jesus' Gethsemane prayer.  Jesus asked Heavenly Father not just once (Lk. 22:45-46), but twice (Mt 26:42; Mk 14:39) and three times (Mt 26:44; Mk 14:41).  He prayed patiently until He received answers to His prayers (He could have prayed three more times, but He stopped because He received an answer from Heavenly Father the third time He prayed).  In this way, Jesus prayed with the same word three times until He received an answer to His prayer (Mt 26:44; Mk 14:39).  He poured out all the same sap (clean, pure tears, sweat, blood) and asked Heavenly Father. We, too, should imitate the patience of Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane and pray to God with patience until we receive answers to our prayers, but only until God's will is fulfilled.

 

                These are the results of Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane:

 

  • The first result of Jesus’ prayer was that after Jesus received the answer to His prayer, He boldly went out toward the evil crowds who came to arrest Him and His 11 disciples.

 

Look at Matthew 26:46 – “Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!” (Note: Mark 14:42).  After praying with the same words for the third time, Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Get up, let us be going” because the man who was betraying Him was at hand (Mk. 14:42).  As He said that, Judas Iscariot came to Jesus and His disciples with a large crowd with swords and clubs sent from the chief priests and elders of the people (Mt. 26:47).  Because Jesus received the answer to His prayer, He boldly went out to the great crowd of wicked people to receive ‘this cup of suffering’ according to Heavenly Father’s will (v. 39).

 

  • The second result of Jesus’ prayer was that the amazing power (authority) of the Lord has appeared.

 

When Jesus asked the crowd, “Who are you looking for?” they answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.”   Then Jesus said, “I told you that I am He” and at that word they drew back and fell to the ground (Jn.18:4-6).  Jesus only prayed for Heavenly Father's will to be done, and the power (authority) of the Lord appeared to cause all this evil group to retreat and fall.  If we pray according to God's will, God accomplishes this with other amazing works besides what we prayed for.  Look at Matthew 6:33 – “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  Look at 1 Kings 18:46 – “Then the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel.”  The content of Elijah's prayer on Mount Carmel was that God would send light rain to relieve the drought.  But God not only sent a heavy shower (v. 45) but also let the power come upon Elijah so that Elijah ran in front of King Ahab’s chariot from Mount Carmel to Israel (about 27 km?) (v. 46).  Look at 1 Kings 3:13 – “I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.”  Since King Solomon only asked God for discernment to understand justice (v. 11), it pleased in the sight of the Lord (v. 10).  So, God gave him riches and honor that Solomon did not ask for (v. 13).  In this way, God is a God who gives us more abundantly than we ask or think when we ask according to His will like Jesus did.  Look at Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” 

 

  • The third result of Jesus’ prayer was that God has fulfilled the covenant.

 

Look at John 18:8 – “Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way."  When Jesus was arrested by the wicked group after praying in Gethsemane, He told them to let His eleven disciples to go their way (v. 8).  The wicked group came to arrest not only Jesus but also His disciples (if they arrested and interrogated the disciples, wouldn't they find evidence to accuse Jesus?) Jesus said to arrest just Himself and let His disciples go.  The reason Jesus said this was to fulfill the word which He spoke, “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one” (v. 9).  This word is to fulfill John 17:12, which Jesus said before setting out for the Garden of Gethsemane: “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”  The Lord who is true like this is the Lord who faithfully fulfills the promised words of the covenant.  What Jesus said in John 19:30, “It is finished,” is to fulfill what God said about 4,000 years ago in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your descendants and her descendants. The seed of the woman shall bruise you in the head, and you shall bruise him in the heel.”

 

               We must become people of prayer who put into practice the lessons of God we received through the earnestness, perseverance, and results of Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane.  Therefore, I hope and pray that all of us will be used as instruments of the Lord to make the Father's will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mt. 6:10).