The Agony in the Garden

Moments of decision are an opportunity to exercise the greatest gift to human beings from God: our free will. When we make a choice, we perform an act that is distinctly human. A choice that comes from the depths of our being has implications far beyond the experience of the moment itself. What causes agony in decision-making is not the act itself, but the awareness of the results that will follow from the act. We fear the outcome of our choice whether we have a clear sight on it or not. For most human beings, the imagination can intensify the anguish due to its tendency to magnify our fears.

For Jesus, the moment of decision to embrace His suffering and death was intensely experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had poured out all He had to His disciples at the Last Supper. He brought them with Him to the Garden where they had often prayed, in sight of the Temple across the Kidron Valley. They fell asleep, so He was alone, humanly speaking, in this most profound moment of decision. If He chose, He could have left them in the garden to face His enemies. It would have been so easy to walk up the Mount of Olives in the darkness, to find His way alone to Bethany, where no doubt Martha, Mary and Lazarus would have assisted Him to escape. Instead, He remained. After His triple prayer, "Thy Will be done," He woke His disciples and entered into the encounter that would bring about His final act of surrender to the Father's Will.

The Agony was a moment of intense Love. The Father loved the world, and so sent His only Son to be our Savior. The Son so loved the Father and, sharing His love for the world, embraced all that Love required. The Spirit stretched the humanity of the Son of God to embrace the full reality of human life, even death, death on a Cross. The decision to embrace this experience beyond fear made all the difference.