How does the gospel of Matthew lead us to understand the meaning of the cross? We could look at how he intentionally shaped the crucifixion narrative, or we could listen to Jesus’s own statements about his death. But Matthew also draws attention to one critical moment several hours prior to the crucifixion: Jesus’s agony in Gethsemane. While many rightly emphasize the unparalleled distress of this story, Jesus’s firm resolve is often overlooked and equally significant. It is both Jesus’s distress about his approaching death as well as his determination to move forward that displays his loyal love and the significance of the cross.
The Distress
The evening before he died Jesus took his disciples to the garden of Gethsemane. Leaving his disciples to sit and wait, he took with him three of his closest friends—Peter, James, and John. Very soon his soul became stirred with emotion. Matthew uses multifaceted and intense language to describe this. Jesus became “sorrowful” and “troubled,” words of distress and alarm (Matt. 26:37). The anguish was so intense that it nearly took his life: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (v. 38). This echoes the refrain of Psalms 42 and 43: “why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?” But Jesus does not merely identify with these Psalms; he fulfills them, bringing this grief to its most complete expression.
At this point he left even these three close disciples to wait behind him; he now must go further alone. There is a weight in this garden that only Jesus can bear, a battle he alone must face. He then “fell on his face and prayed” (v. 39).
What was leading him to collapse to the ground and nearly die from distress? We find out with the words of his prayer. He prayed multiple times and for at least an hour, but Matthew summarized this with one sincere plea: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” Jesus had mentioned “this cup” before, using it to refer to his coming death (20:22–23). The image came from the Psalms and Isaiah, where it referred to God’s judgment against sin. Psalm 75:8 says, “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” Isaiah 51:17 says, “Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.” The cup is filled with God’s wrath, and the wicked will consume it to the bottom.
This is why Jesus staggers. It is not at the thought of physical pain alone—many noble ones have met unjust and painful execution with poise. It is at the prospect of consuming, and being consumed by, “this cup”—the cup of God’s wrath. He pleads with the Father to let it pass, yet with a posture of submission: “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matt 26:42). He is the one person in all history who doesn’t deserve a drop of it, and yet he will receive it as his own on behalf of his people.
The Determination
Yet as deep as the distress is, it does not continue. The storm came and remained with dark and disturbing force, but then it passed and Jesus rose again with renewed resolve. By the end of his prayers Jesus appears settled. Yet it is not because he received assurance that the cup would pass. On the contrary, he was certain that he must drink it. Yet he nevertheless appeared resolute and he spoke to his disciples with an air of calm confidence: “See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand” (v. 45–46). No soldier will need to drag him unwillingly out of the garden. From this moment we never again see Jesus hesitate, waver, or plea as he did in Gethsemane. The awful agony of Gethsemane was utterly unique. Jesus moved through that storm and emerged with firm resolution.
What does this show us? It reveals that in the garden, in all his distress, Jesus reaffirmed and realigned with his purpose. He re-embraced his mission. He was, in a sense, deciding all over again that he would embrace the cross and drink the cup of God’s wrath. Gethsemane was not only a place of emotional turmoil, but of firm resolution.
It is this combination of agony and tenacity that lies at the heart of Gethsemane. We do not often use language of bravery and courage to refer to Jesus, but Gethsemane shows us just how fitting it is. It was the most courageous moment in human history.
Consider a parallel of this distress-determination connection in J. R. R. Tolkien’s story, The Hobbit. We see this at a critical moment near the climax of the story. Bilbo Baggins had been enlisted by a group of dwarves to help reclaim their home and treasure from a dragon named Smaug. They endured many perilous troubles on their journey, and they finally arrived at the Lonely Mountain, inside of which was their lost kingdom, now occupied by Smaug. They came to the secret doorway which opened into a dark tunnel that descended into the mountain. Bilbo came all this way for this very purpose—to go into the mountain to help reclaim the Dwarves’ lost treasure—and so he entered the tunnel alone.
Yet as he descended, he could feel the dragon’s heat. He could hear the dragon’s snore. At just this moment, as this long-awaited threat was now about to become an experiential reality, Bilbo stopped. He came all this way, but now at the moment of fulfilling his commitment, he hesitated.
“It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.”[1]
1. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 197.
Bilbo committed to this journey long ago and he moved toward its fulfillment with great courage up to this very point. But as the moment itself drew near, as he stood face-to-face with the reality of it, he hesitated. He had one final opportunity to turn back. In that tunnel, all alone, he fought the real battle, the battle to go on with his mission or to turn back. Nothing in his life before or after this moment compared—“going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did.”
Gethsemane was Jesus’s tunnel into the mountain. He left his friends to wait while he fought this battle alone. He was not yet at the cross, but he now could feel it’s heat. It was at this point that he stopped. He hesitated. He fell down with a sorrow so great that it alone almost took his life. Yet he then rose with great resolve. He moved forward with conviction of purpose. This was history’s greatest moment of courage.
The Loyal Love of Jesus
This moment of brave determination illuminates the heart of Christ and the meaning of the cross. We see three commitments that Jesus demonstrates at Gethsemane.
The first is his unwavering commitment to his Father. Jesus staggers at the thought of what lies before him, but he never wavers in his humble submission. He asks for the cup to pass, but he affirms his willingness to submit to the Father. His trust is wholehearted and his submission complete. The book of Hebrews reflects on how Jesus learned obedience through this moment: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:7–8).
Second, we see his commitment to the triune God’s eternal plan of redemption. The Father and Son agreed together, along with the Spirit, to redeem the elect through the incarnation and ministry of the Son. Jesus remained resolute in his commitment to this plan all through his life and ministry. Gethsemane shows the cost of this commitment. As John Calvin said of Gethsemane, “This is our wisdom: duly to feel how much our salvation cost the Son of God.”[2] He drank the cup of wrath we deserve so we could drink the cup of blessing we don’t.
2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford L. Battles, 2 vols (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1960), 2.16.12.
Finally, we see Jesus’s loyal love for his people. Jesus does not stagger at the precipice of an abstract idea, nor at the thought of a mere redemptive transaction. He was about to bear our sins on the cross. He staggers at the thought of drinking the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf.
Donald MacLeod wrote that the question put to Jesus in the garden is this: “Is it worth it? Are they worth it?”[3] Now that the cup is in his sight and the very thought of drinking it drops him to his knees, the question is: Does he love his elect—in spite of their unworthiness—enough to go through with this? Does he love us this much? Are we worth it to him? Gethsemane is the answer. For all who trust Christ, we can know it was not merely his duty to die for us; it was his desire. The cup was bitter, but his love was stronger.
3. Donald Macleod, Christ Crucified: Understanding the Atonement (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 30.
Gethsemane—with both the anguish and the resolve, both agony and tenacity, distress and determination—shows us the heart of Christ and the meaning of the cross. It shows us Jesus’s submission to the Father, his commitment to redemption, and his loyal love for his people.
