Gethsemane
At Gethsemane, we get an important and valuable window into the humanity of Jesus. We see a picture of the incarnation being played out. Christ’s humanity goes beyond him having flesh and bones. Jesus didn’t fly effortlessly through his humanity above the reality we know and experience. At the garden, Jesus faces the same difficult decision we do, and the same choice a long list of biblical characters wrestled with in scripture.
Christ's garden experience is similar to the experience of Job, Habakkuk and the Psalmist among many others. The tragedy is here. The enemy is coming. O LORD where are You? Why have You not intervened? Do You see what is going on here? And Christ responds, "But Your will not mine." Christ trusts. Just as Habakkuk is told to trust. Just as Job is told to trust.
God told Job that He is in command of the wild things, even the worst of wild things. The human experience is a tapestry of light and dark colors. Real life is beautiful and filled with difficult and dangerous moments. This is the human experience. Beautiful things and wild things. Victories and failures. Vistas and valleys. Christ in the garden is Christ perfectly doing what God has instructed all the saints since the start of scripture. God’s instruction is, trust Me, I AM the one that owns this. I AM in command of even the scariest and most tragic wild events. I AM and will use all things, good and evil, to paint the desired picture. I AM over all of it. Like the perfect maestro the good and the wild all blends and braids together as I AM commands. There is no piece of it I AM does not command. There is no event that I AM is not sovereign over. There is nothing I AM does not oversee. Even the garden and the cross. I AM owns it all.
Christ in the garden, trusting and moving forward despite the tragedy ahead - adds metric tons of value to Christ's humanity. Like us, Christ faces the catastrophe with trust and endures despite the trial. At Gethsemane we see Christ didn’t volunteer for the cross. The cross found him. And when presented with it, Jesus trusted and moved forward. Abraham, Isaac, Habakkuk, the Psalmist, Job, Moses; all faced the same human dilemma Christ faced in the garden. Like us, his enemies invade (Habakkuk). Like us, his reality and comforts are taken violently (Job). Like us, nobody listens and insists on selfish wants and hates him (Moses). Like us he moves forward toward tasks that make no sense (Abraham). Like us, he must face a destiny of doom (Isaac). Yet Jesus proceeds and trusts. Yes, because He loves. But more because he must. It is the same human journey we all experience. In his humanity, what choice does Christ really have but the will of the Father? None. It is the same for everyone as all things move inexorably to the cross where the human experience is dealt with permanently.
See, Christ (God incarnate) sits in our location. He wears our shoes and walks the difficult mile. Perhaps the most difficult mile we can know. We walk with him there, from the Garden to the Cross. We walk that path daily. Faced with troubles unimaginable in a broken complicated world that, honestly isn’t going to end well for any human. And Christ walked it too, every step. The depths of betrayal and the suffering of loss. The end of ourselves and our earthly pilgrimage. Blunt force end of days inevitable and guaranteed. The valley of death (Ps 23). Who is right there, walking with us in this journey? Jesus Christ. For him, the difficulty of each step and incredible weight of the cross crushing Him. The undeniable, unavoidable, all sovereign powerful right hand of God the Father’s will pressing in, welcome or not, good or not, making life play out as He commands.
Why? Because He is one of us, and the will of the Father is that Christ owns it. Every piece of existence and every piece of you. And nothing, not even the sacrifice of Himself is going to prevent him from taking claim of you and bringing you to Himself, where you were intended to be, in perfect, free and pure, relationship with the Creator of the cosmos. There is no violence He will not endure, no injustice he will not take, no tragedy he will experience that will stop Him from walking the human experience path from Gethsemane right up to the cross, and beyond (Amos 9). That is how important you are. That is how good He is. And that is how the human experience collides with redemption.