Man of Constant Sorrow: A Reflection From the Garden

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what it must have been like for Jesus as he prayed for the metaphorical cup to pass from him? Have you wondered why the same God who knew the road would always lead to cross would ask three more times there in the garden if there was absolutely no other way for this to happen? Have you felt the crushing agony to realize that there has only been one time that Christ called to the Father and all he got back was silence, or how devastating that silence would really be?

It is Saturday night of this year’s Holy Week. We may awake tomorrow and celebrate the glories of a resurrected Christ – but I want to spend time among the olive branches with the Son of God and Son of Man as He was bathed in sweat and blood from the pressures of the world crushing down on him. Realizing how desperately Jesus did not want to go to the cross despite knowing since the time before there was time that he would need to hang on that tree will never lessen the truths of Christ’s divinity. It will only demonstrate the depths of his love for all of us.