The suffering God knows

He took Peter, James, and John with him. Distress and anguish came over him, and he said to them, ‘The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me. Stay here and keep watch.’

He went a little further on, threw himself on the ground, and prayed that, if possible, he might not have to go through that time of suffering. ‘Father’, he prayed, ‘my Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want.’ (verses 33-36)

Read Mark 14:27-42

Jesus’ experience in the garden of Gethsemane has long been a source of comfort for the church. It teaches us that in the person of his Son, God knows what it is to be consumed by agony. He knows what it is to be crushed by impending death. When you are hurting, it helps to know that ‘God knows’.

Jesus’ words reveal that it was more than a painful death he was facing. When he refers to ‘this cup’, Jesus is speaking of God’s active judgment (Jeremiah 25:15). ‘This cup’ is shorthand for God’s wrath against sin and ungodliness. It is not death by crucifixion but death by divine condemnation that confronts Jesus. And in the face of that judgment, in the face of an angry God, he can only cry, ‘Father, my Father!’ This is the cry of the suffering Son of God for the whole human race. This is the cry of the suffering Son of God for you.

Father, my Father! I thank you that I can come to you in Jesus’ name. Comfort me when I am in trouble, and help me to be your comfort to others. Amen.

by Adam Cooper, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)

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