
Mark 14.32-41 KWL - 32 Jesus and his students came to a field
- which was named Gat Semaním/“oil press.”
- Jesus tells his students, “Sit in this spot while I can pray.”
- 33 Jesus takes with him Simon Peter, James, and John.
- He begins to be surprised—and greatly troubled.
- 34 Jesus tells them, “My soul is deathly sad.
- Stay here, and stay awake.”
- 35 Going a little ahead, Jesus is falling to the ground,
- and is praying that, if it’s possible, can this hour pass him by?
- 36 Jesus was saying, “Abba! Father! Almighty you!
- Take this cup away from me!
- But not what I want. What you want.”
- 37 Jesus returns and finds his students sleeping,
- and tells Peter, “Simon, you sleep? You can’t stay awake one hour?
- 38 Stay awake and pray!—lest you might come to temptation.
- A truly eager spirit—and weak flesh.”
- 39 Jesus goes away to pray again,
- praying the same words.
- 40 Returning again, Jesus finds his students sleeping,
- for their eyes are very heavy.
- They had not known what to answer him.
- 41 Jesus returns a third time and tells his students,
- “You sleep now and rest. It’s enough.
- The hour comes—look!
- The Son of Man is handed over to sinful hands.”
The first of St. Francis’s
It comes up in
John 18.1 KWL - When he said this, Jesus with his students went over the Kidron ravine,
- where there was a garden. He and his students entered it.
John Paul recognized this is the beginning of Jesus’s passion, not
Still, Jesus was really agitated, and John Paul recognized it’s this psychological trauma that marks where Jesus’s passion began. Not just when he was taken away to die.
The beginning of Jesus’s passion.
You’ll notice John skipped the story of the prayer. The author was more interested in what Jesus had to teach his students before his arrest. But the other gospels focused on Jesus, here freaking out over what he knew was to come.
Yeah, he knew it was coming. He’d warned his kids it was coming. Now the time had arrived… and understandably, Jesus didn’t want it to. He’s no masochist. He didn’t wanna be tortured to death. Who would? Since
Since this plea of Jesus in Gethsemane dings their theology a bit, various Christians insist Jesus was only having
But like he told Simon Peter, flesh is weak. Even his own. ’Cause like all humans, Jesus could feel pain, and pain is a powerful demotivator. Jesus could bleed, break, and die, and before
Lots of us Christians like to describe Gethsemane as “the last temptation of Christ,” ’cause we imagine when he freaked out and started to pray really hard, we figure it’s because he was tempted to cut and run. No he wasn’t. At every point in Holy Week—heck, at every point from when he left the Galilee to come to Jerusalem—he could’ve put a stop to everything. He could still stop everything if he chose; as he pointed out to Simon Peter, all he had to do was say the word.

