Introduction

One of the greatest accounts in the life of Jesus is His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest and crucifixion. In fact, this event is so important that every Gospel author writes about it. In the garden, Jesus suffered extreme mental agony. He also experienced the despairing failure and abandonment of His closest friends. Yet, amid intense suffering and temptation, Jesus exhibits perfect, faithful obedience to His Father. It is one of the few times the reader gets a glimpse into the depths of the mind of the Lord. It is in the garden that the depth of Christ’s humanity and the height of His deity are put on full, perfect display. In Gethsemane, Christ experienced intense mental and emotional agony that led Him to the Father in prayer, resulting in obedience, and to His friends for comfort, resulting in loneliness and greater dependence on God. 

Agonizing, Blood-Soaked Sorrow Unto Death

As Jesus enters the Garden, Matthew, Mark, and Luke describe His state as “sorrowful and troubled” (Matt. 26:37) and “in agony” (Luke 22:44). The sorrow Jesus says He feels is περίλυπος, which conveys a sense of overwhelming and immense sorrow. Matthew says He was ἀδημονέω, which expresses trouble or distress, possibly even depression, depending on one’s definition. Luke says He was in ἀγωνία, which conveys agony or a violent struggle. This is one of the only times Jesus’ mental state is described in such intense ways. Previously, Jesus had wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) and was angry at the Pharisees’ hardness of heart (Mark 3:5), but in Gethsemane, the sharp emotions described are not like other accounts. One qualifier Jesus adds to these words is that he was very sorrowful, “even to death” (Mark 14:34). This heightens Jesus’ emotions as it exhibits a “depth of sorrow which threatened life itself.”¹ Most commentators before the last couple of decades did not hesitate to call Christ’s experience anxiety. It seems it is only the modern, worldly connotations that paint anxiety in a sinful light, leading some to discredit any notion that Christ experienced it.

Genuine Agony

Christ’s suffering started long before He went to the cross. He was the man of sorrows His whole life. In the garden, though, the intensity of His sorrow came to a head. Gethsemane was where the passion of the Lord began, which lasted until He declared it finished. His agony caused His sweat to become “like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44). In Gethsemane, “the shedding of blood is already beginning.”² This second qualifier only intensifies the understanding of Jesus’ mental suffering. Yes, the ultimate blood sacrifice would not come until the next day when He is mocked, beaten, and ultimately crucified, but His mental suffering was also tied to His death for sin. These two qualifiers show that Jesus genuinely suffered in the garden. He was bleeding, yet no physical beating had begun. Something was happening to Him that was not physical, it was mental. Just as He experienced the intense physical torture of being flogged, beaten, and whipped, He experienced intense, blood-soaked psychological and emotional pain. His mental suffering in the Garden was real.

Resonable Agony

The reason for Jesus’ agonizing sorrow seems to be twofold. Most basically, it can be said that Jesus had sorrow over dying. Death came in through sin and is thus unnatural to God’s perfect created order. All of humanity has some sort of distaste for death because man was not created to die. In other words, for Jesus to be fully human means for Him to have a distaste for death.

More importantly, it is much more likely that the main source of the sorrow Jesus had was that of having the wrath of God placed upon Him. Jesus, the Son, the second person of the Trinity, had perfect fellowship with the Father in “the most intimate and unbroken communion.”³ The thought of having a level of separation, in facing wrath from the Father, rightfully and perfectly brings about blood-shedding, agonizing sorrow. Thus, unlike many misinterpretations, Jesus certainly did not get cold feet before His crucifixion. As Lane puts it astutely, 

The dreadful sorrow and anxiety, then, out of which the prayer for the passing of the cup springs, is not an expression of fear before a dark destiny, nor a shrinking from the prospect of physical suffering and death. It is rather the horror of the one who lives wholly for the Father at the prospect of the alienation from God which is entailed in the judgment upon sin which Jesus assumes.⁴

The suffering Jesus went through in Gethsemane and on the cross was far greater than anything a fallen human could imagine. The Garden shows just how great the price Christ paid for His children’s sins was. The cost was great, so the reward is even greater.

Christ Sought Brotherly Comfort

Amid this intense sorrow, Jesus brought in His disciples. The role of His disciples in the Garden cannot be overstated. In all of the synoptic Gospels, their failure runs as a parallel main theme alongside Jesus’ obedience. Jesus brought all eleven of His disciples to Gethsemane and asked them all to “Sit here, while I go over there and pray” (Matt. 26:36). However, Jesus specifically took Peter, John, and James further in with Him to be direct witnesses of His suffering and His prayer. Christ let the three in on the specifics of His suffering, saying, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me,” (Matt. 26:38). Luke also specifically mentions that Jesus went just a “stone’s throw” away (Luke 22:41), indicating that the three would have undoubtedly heard His prayer, especially since praying aloud would have been the universal norm in that day.⁵ Thus, the three disciples were intimately aware of what Jesus was going through, both in His explicit explanation and by the external example of His prayers. 

Yet, what was the purpose of Jesus bringing His disciples with Him? The vast majority of scholarship sees Jesus’ inclusion of the three disciples as twofold: Firstly, He wanted them to be direct witnesses to His suffering and obedience, and secondly, humanly speaking, He desired support and comfort from them. This is most certainly the case for Gethsemane.

Objection: Christ Knew They Would Abandon Him

Some object that Jesus did not desire comfort from His disciples. For instance, Lane says that the second reason above is “almost certainly false” because Jesus had “clearly foreseen that at the critical moment they would abandon him.”⁶ This is partly true. Jesus’ foreknowledge of their abandonment is clear as He describes it to Peter just a few verses before, saying, “you will deny me three times” (Mark 14:30). However, this does not mean that Jesus did not desire them to be with Him, regardless of their anticipated failure. Jesus’ divine foreknowledge does not extinguish His good, human desires. In His prayer, Jesus asked the Father to take the cup away from Him. Is one then to argue that Jesus did not have foreknowledge about the crucifixion? Certainly not! He had predicted it multiple times before Gethsemane. Jesus knew that the crucifixion was to happen—it was His purpose on earth—yet He rightly desired not to experience the separation and the wrath of God. Similarly, Jesus knew His friends would abandon Him, yet He desired their supporting presence. As Calvin says, “He communicates to them his sorrow, in order to arouse them to sympathy; not that he was unacquainted with their weakness, but in order that they might afterwards be more ashamed of their carelessness.”⁷

Biblical, Christ-Like Love of Brothers 

Jesus’ desire for comfort in His humanity is completely consistent with the Bible, especially the Apostles’ teachings in the New Testament. Human relationships are essential for Christians. John tells those in Christ to “love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God,” (1 John 4:70). Paul says to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” (Gal. 6:2). The writer of Hebrews says to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’” (Heb. 3:13). David says “how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity,” (Ps. 133:1). If this is good and pleasant for those in Christ, it is good for Christ in His humanity. If brotherly relationship, love, unity, exhorting, and bearing of burdens are commanded as a reflection of Christ, then Christ must have exhibited them while on earth. While Christ’s friends could never have done this toward Him perfectly, it would be a misunderstanding to say that Christ did not desire godly relationships on earth. 

Consequently, it would not be a stretch to suggest that Jesus desired His brothers to offer silent support with their presence, not unlike Job’s friends when they “sat with him on the ground…for they saw that his suffering was very great,” (Job 2:13). No matter how shallow their reciprocation was, Christ rightly desired brotherly support. If it is commanded for those in Christ to seek unifying, brotherly friendship, then Christ also sought brotherly friendship.

The Failure of Brothers

However, Jesus’ desire for brotherly support does not mean that His friends offered it. Even so, each of the three present at Gethsemane showed at least a desire to share in this relationship with Christ. Just a few verses before, all three pledge devotion to their Lord and Friend. James and John told Jesus that they were able to drink the cup that Jesus will drink (Mark 10:38). Peter told Jesus, “Even though they all fall away, I will not,” (Mark 14:39). As Stein points out, all three of the disciples present with Him promised to bear His burden alongside Him.⁸ Yet, they failed. 

As Jesus prayed to the Father, He returned three times to His disciples. This again reflects the twofold reasoning behind their presence. First, Jesus wanted to set an example for His disciples of fervent prayer. He wanted the three pillars of the Church He was building to know that they “must not be discouraged or grow weary in praying, if [they] do not immediately obtain [their] wishes.”⁹ He wanted them to have continued dependence on the Father as He did. 

However, He also sought to make use of godly, human comfort in His brothers. The Scriptures do not mention that God ever responded to Christ. Luke tells us that an angel ministered to Him, but does not relay the content of what was said. It would not be unreasonable to assume that God did not respond to Christ’s cries with a direct, spoken answer. In fact, God’s silence and Jesus’ faithful obedience are likely the main points of the passage. Nonetheless, in the silence of God, Jesus went back to His closest friends three times for comfort. 

Jesus did not come to His friends for comfort in themselves but for God-glorifying comfort. He asked them to pray so that they would not enter into temptation. This is exactly what Jesus was fighting. On top of the sorrow of separation, Christ was fighting the temptation to turn away from the will of God. Gethsemane is the height of Jesus’ temptation, even coupled with sweating blood. Jesus sought to be strengthened by the disciples joining in on His fight. Asking for support from His brothers does not show sinful, God-neglecting, dependent comfort on His brothers. In fact, His brothers did not support Him, yet He endured! No, Jesus primarily went to His Father in agonizing prayer of total dependence on Him. Going to brothers for godly comfort is trusting in God by using the means He’s given. Jesus survived the Garden and the crucifixion through the strength of His Father. Yet, Christ also went to His brothers for comfort and prayer. 

Lessons from Gethsemane

The aftermath of Gethsemane cannot be overemphasized in the lessons that it teaches. John, Peter, and James promised to drink Christ’s cup with Him. Gethsemane was their “opportunity to prepare for this, just as Jesus would prepare for his suffering, by watching and praying.”¹⁰ Yet they failed. The disciples not only failed at Jesus’ crucifixion, but they also failed in even preparing for it. This lesson seemed to be something that followed the three throughout their days as their subsequent years were spent in constant suffering for the sake of Christ. 

An Answer in Silence  

Jesus taught His disciples how to deal with their future suffering, even if in the moment they did not understand. Jesus showed them repeated prayer to the Father even in the face of seemingly no answers. As Calvin says, “Christ intended to show by his example, that we must not be discouraged or grow weary in praying, if we do not immediately obtain our wishes.”¹¹ Christ continued in prayer to His Father, not because He was not getting the answer He preferred, but because He was dependent on God for His strength.

Even if God does not speak, He answers. In His first prayer, Jesus asks if the cup could pass from Him. The second and third times, Jesus says, “If this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matt. 26:42). Something changed between His prayers. France points out that Jesus not repeating the first prayer in the second, “suggests that Jesus now knows the answer to the request of v. 39, and has accepted that no alternative is possible.”¹² As previously mentioned, God does not speak. However, Kernaghan wisely points out that the repetition of Jesus’ prayer and returning to find the disciples sleeping suggests that Jesus “received an answer in their failure to keep watch.”¹³ Like an answer to His question, Jesus sees that He must drink the cup because His people are totally helpless without it; they will die in sin if He does not suffer and die. Christ shows His disciples perfect obedience, “even as He in His perfect righteousness did not desire to become sin or endure His Father’s wrath or man’s lawlessness.”¹⁴

The Highest Mountain

Christ showed His disciples His full humanity and full divinity. A few months prior, Jesus took Peter, John, and James and “led them up a high mountain” (Matt 17:1). Here, they saw Jesus transfigured. His face “shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” (Matt. 17:2). On this mountain, they saw Jesus at the height of His divinity on earth, bright as the sun, talking to Elijah and Moses, the Father speaking from heaven. Jesus let the three see something no other human had seen. Similarly, Jesus took these disciples to a mountain, and told them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matt.  26:38). Here, the three saw Jesus in the depths of His humanity. This is Christ; He who shines like the sun and He who falls on His face, bleeding from agonizing sorrow. Jesus showed His disciples that even He, the Divine One, suffers.

The Divine One Suffers Anxiety and Loneliness

It can be very rare for the church to acknowledge the mental suffering of Christ. Sorrow and anxiety are too often directly tied to sin. Often, many idealize His physical suffering and dismiss any mental agony. Yet in Gethsemane, Christ shows His people that the perfect God-man can suffer psychologically greater than any of them ever had. God almost always uses incredibly low times in His people’s lives to do great things. Suffering does not mean that a Christian is doing something wrong; it likely means that God is using them. Christ’s sorrow was not tied to sin, but His suffering was tied to the will of God.   

Christ lived a life of love, yet He experienced sorrow and loneliness. He loved His disciples more than any other human had loved their closest friends. He loved them perfectly, inexhaustibly, unconditionally, and unceasingly. His love for them was not contingent on their attitude toward Him nor their reciprocation of that love. Jesus did not experience reciprocal relationships in this world, for even “beside his friends he is alone.”¹⁵ No one loved Him the way He loved them. His ultimate comfort was found in the Godhead alone. Christ is able to sympathize with His people’s weakness. He felt what His people feel, albeit in a perfect state. Christ “knows better than we do what we are made of.”¹⁶ 

Suffering and loneliness are not necessarily bad! No, oftentimes it is the driving force that makes God’s people consistently recognize their dependence on Him. Jesus was abandoned by humanity but was never abandoned by His Father. There must be a change in Christian understanding of suffering. Woodworth says that the church must “embrace again a holy view of suffering by which despair and loneliness are recognized as God’s presence rather than his absence.”¹⁷ The one in Christ who suffers mentally is not weak-minded but has a relationship with God that someone who refuses to think cannot understand. The deeper their pain goes, the deeper their relationship with God is. Christians share in Jesus’ suffering and Jesus tells them that “in [their] darkest moments he will not respond like his own disciples did in the garden.”¹⁸ Woe to those who ignore pain and live in the lukewarm, shallow waters of comfortable vanity. Praise God for the depths of suffering in which He Himself lifts His people out of. 

Conclusion

In the Garden of Gethsemane, the severe grace of God is put on perfect display. Jesus experienced real, agonizing, blood-soaked mental suffering. Amid His sorrow, Christ brings His friends in for shared support, desiring comfort that would not be found. But in the midst of all of it, the Father remains with His Son, even without an audible answer to His cries. God was faithful to Christ, and Christ was faithful to God. His suffering led Him closer to God. This example is put on display for His disciples to imitate and pass down. Now, His people can find comfort in their suffering by looking their Savior in the eyes who says, “It’s you and Me now. I understand. Trust the Father and trust in Me. You will endure.”

1. William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), 516. ↩︎
2. Darrell L. Bock, Luke, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InnerVarsity Press, 1994), 357. ↩︎
3. Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), 574. ↩︎
4. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, 516. ↩︎
5. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, 514. ↩︎
6. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark, 518. ↩︎
7. John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, trans. William Pringle, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), 228. ↩︎
8. Robert H. Stein, Mark, Baker Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 660. ↩︎
9. Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 3:238. ↩︎
10.  Stein, Mark, 660. ↩︎
11. Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 3:238. ↩︎
12. R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007), 1006. ↩︎
13. Ronald J. Kernaghan, Mark, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InnerVarsity Press, 2007), 303. ↩︎
14. Jared Moore, “Are Your Temptations Like Jesus’ Temptations?: Yes and No!,” The Master’s Seminary Journal (2024): 229. ↩︎
15. Walter Wangerin Jr, Reliving the Passion (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 63. ↩︎
16. Craig S. Keener, Matthew, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 370. ↩︎
17. Stephen Woodworth, “Suicide and the Suffering Servant: Lessons from the Garden of Gethsemane,” Cultural Encounters (2014): 88. ↩︎
18. Woodworth, “Suicide and the Suffering Servant,” 88. ↩︎