Years later, a man named Jesus, from the Galilean town called Nazareth, kneels down to pray in a garden. He is distressed and in deep anguish. As he fights to utter words of prayer, sweat mixed with blood falls from his face.
For the last three years, he has been announcing the arrival of God’s Kingdom. Some people are following Jesus everywhere he goes. Fishing towns and villages throughout Galilee are buzzing: “Is this the Messiah, the human one God promised?” He has to be!
The problem is that he refuses to kill any of Israel’s enemies. Not even one person! He tells people to forgive everyone, even their enemies.
The people were expecting their Messiah to be a warrior king, not a king of mercy and forgiveness. Their hope is for restoration, which is good, but they have come to trust in the world’s terms for establishing peace rather than God’s terms.
Much to their surprise, part of Jesus’ announcement is a warning against Israel! He specifically focuses on Jerusalem, the temple, and the leaders of Israel, promising them that God will expose their evil. He warns of God’s coming judgment (Matt. 7:24-27, 10:7-15, 24:1-28). And if Israel will not accept the blessing of God on his terms, then like Adam and Eve, they too will be placed outside of the source of life.
Notice here that Jesus is not wielding an angry threat to harm his own creation or human beings, whom he loves. He is an honest truth-teller, teaching people about what is real. His good blessing must be received on his terms, not achieved on their own terms.
Jesus does not condemn or terrify them. He weeps over the lost sheep of Israel, and he pleads with them as a true friend and shepherd (Luke 19:41-44). The New Testament stories tell us that he has deep compassion on them (e.g., Mark 6:34; Matt. 9:36). Though they had wandered from the partnership he had with them, he never stops loving them (John 13:1).
And it’s toward the end of the Gospel accounts that we find Jesus in the garden. He’s facing the same question Adam and Eve faced: Do I trust and follow God’s will, or do I trust that what I want is best?
Adam and Eve both trusted their own desire more than God’s will—something every human being also does. Will Jesus also make the same mistake, following the pattern established in the garden of Eden, or will he introduce something new?
In a new garden, he prays, “Not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). Where all humanity has gone wrong, Jesus gets it right. He stays in the blessing by refusing to ignore the will of God.
This is good, but we also remember that promise in Genesis 3, where God said this rescuing human being would also be defeated by the deceptive creature! This is God’s will? This is a hard responsibility for Jesus to accept, but he accepts it in love and is ready to serve and suffer by offering his own life on behalf of Israel (cf. Isa. 53; Mark 10:45).
Not long after the garden scene in Gethsemane, Jesus is defeated. Mocked and publicly tortured before a final execution by the Roman guard, this promised Messiah ends up condemned as a below-average, dead criminal.
