Agony Means More Than We Think

August 18, 2021

Fr. John Riccardo

If I’m honest, I’ve always found Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane to be troubling. Men facing their deaths have seemingly confronted it with more, bravery? How is it, why is it, that Jesus is sweating blood and in such turmoil? I know all the theological truths—that He was not simply facing a horrific death but staring down the prospect of carrying in Himself all of the sins of the entire human race (cf. 2 Cor 5:21). That said, I found it incredibly helpful to discover some nuances with regards to Luke’s description of the agony in the Garden (cf. Luke 22:39-46). The Greek words used here derive from a combatant preparing to enter the ring in a contest. In other words, Jesus is not simply staring at His own death, He is preparing to enter the ring with Death itself, and Hell, and Satan…alone and for us. Such is God’s love for you and me! With that, let’s continue our excerpts from The Christian Cosmic Narrative.

“Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph, marching up to the Temple followed by the crowds, and, it is not too much to say, he took possession of it. God, veiled in humanity, was coming to his own house, and Jesus proceeded to act as the one who had ultimate authority there. He drove out the pack of money-changers with a whip, overturning their tables and scattering their coins and their records, and declared that the Temple was God’s dwelling and was not to be profaned. He then took up his place in the Temple precincts and began to teach the crowds. Shaken by his acts, the High Priests responsible for the Temple sent a delegation to him. They nervously asked him, ‘By what authority are you doing all of this?’ (cf. Matt. 21:23). It was a polite wording of a sterner message that ran: ‘We, not you, are in charge of the Temple and all its activities. You have no business here and no right to do what you are doing. Leave peaceably lest stiffer action be taken.’ They would have immediately seized Jesus, but the crowds were too many for them and were hanging on his words…

“So, it went for the next many days leading up to the Passover feast itself. Jesus would arrive at the Temple early in the day and would teach the gathered throng, while the Romans watched, and the High Priests, along with their Pharisee allies, ground their teeth looking for some way to stop him, whether because they thought him a false teacher or because they feared an armed insurrection and the iron hand of Rome. Anticipation was intense. Then an opportunity fell into the laps of the Jewish authorities from an unexpected source. A man of Jesus’ inner circle, Judas Iscariot, approached the High Priests and offered them the information they needed to capture Jesus when he was away from the crowds. One of Jesus’ own picked men, who had lived with him during his entire public mission, who had heard his words, seen his miraculous deeds, and shared his mission and his close friendship, betrayed the Son of God into the hands of his enemies for thirty silver coins.

“Early in the evening before Passover, Jesus held a gathering of the Twelve, a kind of council of war before the final thrust. It was a solemn moment for them. They realized that the hour of their Master had come. They had marched with him into the capital, stood with him as he claimed possession of the Temple, heard his prophetic denunciations of the religious authorities in that sacred place, and witnessed the response of the populace. Now at the time of Passover, a fitting feast for enacting the new Exodus and raising the banner of the new Kingdom, Jesus had called them together to celebrate the traditional Passover meal commemorating the act by which God had freed the Israelites from slavery. One can only imagine the mingled excitement, awe, and sobriety experienced by the Twelve. These were the men who had been privileged out of all humanity to share the mission of the long-foretold Messiah King: his labors, his plans, his desires, his battles, the most intimate aspects of his life. Now the king was about to enter into his own. They sensed themselves to be at the very heart of the world’s drama, on the eve of the most significant events of all time. They gathered around their Master on this great occasion, eager to know what he might say or do.

“The gathering proved equal to its anticipated importance, though the disciples did not fully realize until later all of what was occurring. Jesus was following a script written by the Father and unknown to his followers. Later they would grasp its full significance, once he had walked the road laid before him and had taught them what it meant. For now, Jesus told them many things about the coming Kingdom and what it would demand of them. He astonished them in stooping to the position of a slave by washing their feet, underlining his earlier teaching about the proper stance for those who followed him and served his mission. Most momentously, he gave them notice of the new Covenant he was about to establish with Israel. Having sent his betrayer away, he took the bread and wine of the Passover celebration, showed them to the disciples, and announced that he himself was the fulfillment and the true meaning of both the Exodus and the Sinai covenant. ‘This is my body, offered in sacrifice; this is my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant poured out for forgiveness and salvation’ (cf. Matt. 26:26–29). He was giving them a lens through which to understand coming events: he was showing them that he was in the process of fulfilling the whole of the Law, with its history, its sacrifices, and its promises. Yet they still had no idea what it would cost their King to come into his Kingdom.

“Having finished the meal, Jesus led his disciples to the private garden of Gethsemane where they had arranged to spend the night. There he commenced his final hand-to-hand combat with his enemies, both demonic and human. There he prayed, and for a time his humanity was nearly overwhelmed by the ghastly horror of what was coming upon him. It was not the physical torture alone that was troubling him: other men had faced similar pain with fortitude and endurance. It was rather the spiritual agony he was about to encounter that so unnerved his human nature. What could it have meant to be humanity’s scapegoat, to have the entire weight of human guilt pressed upon his shoulders? What would it mean for him to be delivered, seemingly defenseless, into the pitiless hands of that dark spirit who hated God and ruled the world? … 

“The story of the passion and death of the Messiah-king is well known and often told. Here it will be enough to recall it in brief outline. As had been arranged by Judas, the soldiers of the High Priest came upon Jesus in the middle of the night, seized him, and hailed him before the High Priest and the Council. The disciples, confused and taken unawares, fled in fear. Peter and John later recovered their wits and followed at a distance. At the house of the High Priest, Jesus was tried in the middle of the night by the Jewish authorities and declared to be a blasphemer who deserved death. Unable by Roman law to implement the death sentence, the Council went early in the morning to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, with the demand that he put Jesus to death on their behalf…Not finding Jesus politically dangerous or guilty of any obvious crime, Pilate wanted to let him go. But when it became clear that the only expedient action was to accede to the wishes of the High Priest and the Council, Pilate took the easy way out: he had Jesus first scourged and then consigned to death by crucifixion.

“…Crucifixion was among the most brutal forms of execution ever devised. It was meant to last a number of days, maximizing pain, inducing terrific thirst, causing muscular convulsions throughout the body, and eventually killing by slow asphyxiation, all the time exposing the naked accused man to the derisive eyes of those passing by. It was reserved by the Romans for the worst of criminals, especially those guilty of treason. Jesus was nailed to the cross and crucified between two such criminals with the ironically intended but accurate explanation of his ‘crime’ attached to the cross: ‘The King of the Jews.’ Being close to death already, Jesus endured his torture on the cross for only about six hours. The High Priests and the other religious leaders who had been powerless against Jesus’ prophetic denunciations and had plotted in vain to trap him now came to gloat over their victory. ‘You called yourself the Son of God and the King of Israel,’ they taunted him. ‘Fool! Let us see if you can come down from that cross!’ (cf. Mark 15:30).

“With Jesus at that final hour were only Mary, his mother, faithful to the last, and accompanied by a few other women followers, and his beloved disciple John. Peter, caught by fear, had denied any connection with him; he and Jesus’ other friends and disciples were nowhere to be found. After finally entrusting the care of his mother to John, Jesus said the words ‘It is accomplished!’ and with a great cry, he died (cf. John 19:30). Thus did the true King do valiant battle against his demonic foes, offer his life in sacrifice for a guilty humanity, and come into his reign.”