When Jesus Fell

This is a tale of two Gardens.

In the first Garden, the Garden of Eden Adam fell into sin. Adam stumbled, Adam disobeyed.
It was God who created this Garden and gave it to Adam and his wife, but Adam ran way from God. Adam chose his will over the will of God, his way over the way of God. And because of this rebellion, this rejection of God Adam and Eve fall into sin and become separated from their Father--their God.

This was the first Garden. Where sin triumphed over man.

Enter Matthew 26, and the final Thursday of Jesus' life before his death.

Jesus goes up to a second garden--the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.
Matthew writes in verses 36-38

"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

Jesus is sorrowful and troubled. Why?
Why is Jesus so sorrowful and troubled? Luke writes, in his account, that Jesus is sweating drops of blood he is in so much agony.
Sweating drops of blood.

We could look to many Christian martyrs, men and women who faced equally brutal deaths for their faith in Christ that do not seem as troubled or sorrowful about their impending death. None of them will be sweating drops of blood before their execution like Jesus is. And yet they are merely men, and at first blush seem more bold and less scared than Jesus is in the Garden.

Why?

Matthew 26:39 holds the answer, and it is staggering.
Matthew writes

"And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

Jesus fell.

He fell on his face as he cried to His father for deliverance, to not have to drink the cup.

This cup that Jesus is going to have to drink, this is the cup of God's wrath. This is the cup that began to be filled up in the first Garden, when Adam ran away from God and choose himself over God. This is the cup of God's fury towards sin, towards every single person who has turned away from God and run from Him.

Towards you. And me.

And God tells Jesus that he is going to have to drink from this cup, and Jesus staggers. But, unlike Adam in the first Garden, Jesus obeys the will of God. He falls, but gets back up in order to head to the cross to make peace between man and God. God will now pour out all of His wrath, His righteous anger on Jesus Christ so that He won't have to pour it all out on us.

Tim Keller writes "Jesus doesn't come to bring judgement, He comes to bear it."

Gethsemane triumphs over Eden.
Jesus triumphs over Adam.
God triumphs over sin.

Remember both gardens. Remember the first garden, the garden that we all have lived in and the garden we still sometimes choose. The garden that shows us we are really broken, and really sinful. This is the garden that shows us our great need--our need for a second garden.

Jesus doesn't leave us in the first garden--He brings us into a second Garden, but only because Jesus has first entered into this Garden for us. Only because He has made peace for us, and He has become sin for us.

Jesus sweats drops of blood, blood that will be poured out the next day on our behalf, so that we could be brought near. That we could one day be brought before Him without blemish, without fault, without sin.

Redeemed. Restored. Reconciled.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
-Ephesians 2:13