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Why would God use a boy with cerebral palsy? That’s what 7 year-old Kyle West asked. Now 18, God has used Kyle in incredible ways, including on The Truth Project. Despite Kyle’s difficulties, God has a plan and purpose for his life and for yours. Watch Del's bonus teaching looking at the topic now or watch the full episode online now at Cross Examine's Facebook page www.facebook.com/CrossExamine.
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Dr. Del Tackett is the author, architect and teacher for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project, a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
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The Divine Hesitation—Agony in the Oil Press (cont)
Posted on April 11, 2009
Filed Under Theology | 30 Comments
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!
The Passover meal was finished. The evening discussion with the disciples had come to an end. They had sung a final hymn together.
And now it was time.
There wasn’t anything left to do but head for the garden…Gethsemane…the Oil Press. 
Jesus had often met with His disciples there. That’s how Judas knew where He would be. It must have been a delightful place—a place of quiet solitude, away from the city. Luke says it was Jesus’ custom to go there…just across the ravine of the Kidron at the base of the Mount of Olives.
But this visit would be different. Instead of “getting away” for a little respite, this was going to be a time of great distress and sorrow—a time of being deeply grieved, as Jesus put it, “even to the point of death”.
The disciples must have sensed it. They must have known this wasn’t going to be a typical trip to the garden. A few days earlier Jesus had used the “c” word. He told them that the Passover was coming and that He was going to be handed over to be crucified. The thought of crucifixion must have sent a chill up their spines. It was an ugly, nauseating image.
Surely this must be parable language, right?
Then there was all this talk at dinner about Jesus’ body being broken for them and His blood being poured out and how He had desired to eat the Passover with them before He suffered…and then He shocked them all with His final words—that Peter, this very night, would deny Jesus. Not once, but three times. Peter? No…of all people, not Peter. There must be some spiritual message behind all of this. We’re just not getting it yet.
The walk across the ravine must have been deathly silent.
Foreboding…that’s probably the right word.
But if there were any doubts about the deep seriousness of this night, it didn’t take long to dispel them.
Jesus took Peter, James and John a little farther in with Him and then He went on alone, fell on His face and began to pray in agony…crying out to the Father to remove the cup from Him. I can’t imagine that the disciples were missing all of this. I used to think that they had just immediately fallen asleep, but Luke says they were “sleeping from sorrow”. I wonder if they had been listening to Jesus in agony and they had wept for Him until their eyes had become “heavy” as Matthew and Mark report…heavy with sorrow. Five minutes of this must have been wrenching. Mark implies that it was probably an hour. They couldn’t last an hour. Nor two. Nor three. Matthew says that Jesus, after finding them asleep, went back and prayed the same thing the second time and then the third time.
For three hours, Jesus is in agony before the Father…asking Him to keep Him from what is about to happen. But each time Jesus declares “not my will, but yours be done.” What a remarkable example of obedience! What an amazing act of love!
But…what was it that caused Jesus so much agony? What was it that grieved Him so deeply…to the point of death?
For years I naturally assumed it was the crucifixion that weighed so heavily upon Him.
I no longer think so.
It wasn’t the thought of the nails that caused Jesus to gasp for breath in the garden. It wasn’t the crown of thorns that moved Him to ask for a stay. It wasn’t the scourging that made Him hesitate before the Father.
No, I don’t think any of this would have given Jesus pause.
I think it was The Separation.
I think it was knowing that for the first time in all eternity, the Son was going to be separated from the Father. For the first time, their unity and intimate fellowship and oneness was to be torn asunder.
It was the penalty for sin, separation from God, that caused the Savior to collapse on the ground in the garden.
Enduring the cross meant a whole lot more than enduring the rejection of man or any of his temporary means of inflicting pain. Enduring the cross meant facing the moment when Jesus would cry out, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken Me!”
This was the Cost.
This is was the Payment.
Forgive us for ever treating it lightly.
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30 Responses to “The Divine Hesitation—Agony in the Oil Press (cont)”
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Oh how i have ached over the three denials of Peter, as i reflect on my life and look at the times of my out right disobedience, my out right denial, the pain the tears the aching and i would cry out for forgiveness, mercy and grace.
Interestingly and without question how our heavenly father can be so loving so kind so gentle to a such wayward child is beyond comprehension… the spiritual message behind this that we didn’t understand yet came when Jesus appeared for the third time to his disciples. Jesus asked Peter not once, twice but three times “Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me?” Peter being grieved than realized just how much Jesus loves him …. “Jesus you know i love you” knowing all his heart …..Jesus replied “feed my sheep”
It was than as now that our Lord and Saviour knows our heart and wants us to continue to share this undeniable truth for all to come and be saved.
“I suppose the world itself could not contain all the books that should be written. amen”
every passage is a favorite but this passage is a real blessing and inspiration. with a quill and ink in hand and the holy bible in the other let the author of creation direct our paths and we scribe our travel notes on all the great things he has done and is doing!
He lives!… He lives! and you ask me how i know he lives? he lives within my heart
What a great and seldomely looked at point! Jesus knew that he was going to be seperated from the union of the trinity ever in all eternity and pay the penalty of sin and death with a descent to hell for us! This depth of love is not really discussed to this degree in most congregations but it the complete and total truth. This is the essence of what Christ bought us from, and then in ressurection, giving us victory that we could never have otherwise. What an infinitely deep love that God has for us! Thank you again for sharing this point of what Christ really had to endure at the garden. If we really understood that point, oh how we wouldn’t take God’s grace for granted! God Bless you and keep you!
Professor Tackett,
It is late Easter evening and I am reading your last few blog entry’s and it is in your writings that I am transformed to another time. The scriptures came alive and I have felt I was in the garden and feel great remorse and grief as the details of these last three days have been so actively on my mind. Thank you for your insight regarding the agony and grief Jesus felt just prior to his crucifixion. I never want to be separated from our Lord and Savior, it is chilling and unthinkable. I look forward to the second tour of “The Truth Project” tomorrow night in my home. Thank you for coming into my home and changing us forever. God is changing one life at a time. Alonna.
Dr Del,
I am currently going through “The Truth Project” at our church. It is such a blessing. Thank you for your deep insight to the Truth.
As you described the reason Christ was so sorrowful in the garden, I think back to the time when John 3:16 really came alive to me. That my Lord would die for me as “Whosoever believeth” was something that had perhaps become rote because of the many times I had quoted the verse, but then I realized as a parent that I couldn’t imagine giving one of my three children for people who hated them and spat on them.
As the old hymn says “Hallelujah! What a Savior”
Ruth
Dr. Del, thanks for another truly inspiring thought. The human form of our Master surely sought to avoid the coming pain and you are so right in saying that his example of obedience is truly aweinspiring.
Pardon my ignorance is having to ask this question but if our God is omnipresent and is everywhere simultaniously to where or what state was our Messiah separated from Him? Is it the withdrawing of the Spirit Himself making him to be as a total apostate?
Thanks for the great journey you have begun for me.
“The Separation” – To me, this gives new depth to Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he pours out his heart over the unity he shares with the Father… and prays for his followers to experience the same with him and each other… even as he contemplates the cup of Separation he is about to drink.
Thank you Dr. Tackett. I wholeheartedly agree with your statements of Jesus grief over the separation. I’m curious as to when others think that separation occurred. Did it occur in the garden? While on trial? When being flailed? O when being crucified?
But as we study these moments, we must remember the anguish of the Son of Man as he contemplated the separation from the Father.
Now think of the anguish of the Father. Nothing (that I know of) is written of this yet we know because of our faith that it occurred.
Think of the anguish a mother or father has when their child is lost. That is nothing in comparison as in the case of Jesus, the Son was of the Father.
Now realize the anguish we cause the Father every day because of actions which separate us from Him. And in an amazing twist, it is only because of our faith in one whom He was separate from, that we can close our separation with the Father.
God, you truly are mystical!
Sola Gloria Deo
I believe you are right. The separation! As I read your article it reminded me of a dream I once had. I was walking down the aisle in church and everyone turned away from me. As I approached my husband he too turned. And in that one moment I thought to myself, “This must be similar to how my Lord felt when He was rejected and despised”. I remember the deep remorse and overwelming feeling of lonliness that lingered when I awoke. Easter took on an entirely new meaning. There are times even today I remember that lonliness and the darkness and I cry, “Thank you dear,Jesus. You have paid the penalty for my sins and I am not separated from Your love and Truth.”
Pardon my ignorance as well, but I have the same question as Bob and desire to fully understand:
If our God is omnipresent and is everywhere simultaniously to where or what state was our Messiah separated from Him?
Thank you for your work in the ministry!
Jesus had all the power of God but still chose to do the will of the Father. “Not my will, but yours be done”….amazing love!!
Thank you Del,I must say that it deeply touch me. In fact I found (picturing)my self standing in the garden with Jesus and the others.
It must of been a sorrowful time. To be seperated from the Father God must of been a hard choice for him to make. Glory be to God for the
resurrection and the forgiveness of our sins because of his obedience. For God so Loved the World that he gave his only Son…..
I think it’s impossible to comprehend how significant and agonizing the separation was, but to call it the cost and the price detracts from the utter necessity of spilled blood. That is the price and cost that runs through scripture. It is the price of healing our separation.
Thank you for the Truth Project. I am currently helping facilitate a tour at our church. The comments above about not only the agony Jesus felt but also of our Heavenly Father’s agony at this moment makes me think of Abraham and Isaac. When I teach this section of Genesis, I like to point out how the agony of Abraham over the sacrifice of his son Isaac must reflect our Heavenly Father’s agony. I never ceased to be amazed at the incredible foretelling pictures God has illustrated for us in the scriptures. God Bless
wow!! Thank you!
Thank you, Del, for your insight on this subject. Like you, I once believed that the physical pain of the Cross or the psycological pain of carrying all the sin of the entire world would have been the reason that Jesus asked for the cup of suffering to pass.
But on reflection, Jesus, the Son of God, would have had mental and physical reserves enough to deal with those kinds of pain. But being separated from the Father, that would have shaken him more than we can imagine.
Thank you Del! I too have reflected on what exactly caused Jesus such grief in the Garden. And I am in agreement that it must have been the foreknowledge that as He (Jesus) bore my sin (and the sin of the world), God the Father would turn away from God the Son – a separation, which was unfathomable! What great love is shown through the obedience of Christ!
Dear Dr. Tackett,
A dear friend recently told me about your blog site and I have been enjoying very much ever since. God has surely gifted you with the ability to explain spiritual and practical truths in a very unique and unforgettable way.
This particular blog really worked its way into my heart, specifically your point of The Separation. Your words came back to mind this morning as I was reading Romans 8. When I came to verse 35, “What shall separate us from the love of Christ…?” and the apostle Paul continues naming what cannot separate us from God’s love, a new understanding and appreciation flooded my heart.
Absolutely nothing could happen between God and His children that would cause God to turn His back on us the way He had to turn His back on His Son on that awful afternoon. What an astounding, comforting promise. How blessed we are to not to have to endure that agony, ever in the future, no matter what. Jesus did it for us. Praise His name!!
Thank you again for your scholarship and insights. May God continue to bless you and your family.
I was privileged to see Capernaum (sp?) last year. Thank you for this insight on this location. I could feel Him there. I’m sure did too.
Readers, if you ever get the opportunity to go to Israel, please just go. It’s a trip you will never regret.
God Bless you my Brother, Del Tackett, for your gift of Teaching to us all. I love being taught by God through His instrument – You.
Hugs and high fives!
When I first read the Gospels’ descriptions of the garden scene, I thought first of the physical pain Jesus knew He would endure. As He deepened my fellowship with Him, I saw the distress of carrying the sin of all humanity for all time. Either makes me drop in sorrow and thanksgiving. But the separation from God had to be the most heartwrenching for Jesus, as He had been with the Father from eternity. There is nothing worse than separation from God!
As a “layman” who has a passion for wrestling with the truth by writing down my biblical musings, I was once allowed to preach the Sunday morning message at my church. The title was “God in a God-forsaken Place” and it centered on Genesis 1:2. In that verse the Spirit of God moves about in a dark, chaotic, formless place– the kind of place some might term “God-forsaken”. I connected it with this other God-forsaken place– the place of Jesus’s cry on the cross. Jesus– God himself– entered such a place. If we find ourselves in circumstances of darkness, apparent meaninglessness, chaos, pain, God can enter this God-forsaken place, and sometimes he’s entering it through us.
Thank you for these words that cause me to ponder more deeply the sacrifice the Jesus offered for me and also to begin to imagine even more clearly that moment when the Father El-Kanno – The Jealous God saw the separation also at that moment.
WOW..has the Lord God got a vessel in you. I marvel at His over-whelming love for us that He should provide such an articulate man to carry His message….thank you so much for being a vessel of honor for our Lord and Savior!
I love The Truth Project, what a wake up call to those who are called by His Name
Finished the Truth project at church last week, very good. Much appreciated
Oh that is so awesome to read that about the Separation of the SON from the FATHER that is exactly what I teach my JR High kids at church and the passion I feel knowing that I can never understand the full ramifications of what this meant I am just turned with emotion everytime I teach it, I know it is big!
I believe that says a lot about how we are ashamed and sometimes look away from people or others look away from us because of sin or unforgiveness in our hearts and pride. If we can remember Jesus already took all that scorn, we can stop doing that.
I believe if we had even the faintest notion of the agony Christ suffered over the separation that He knew was coming, we would have a whole different level of relationship with Him. I have thought for some years that this was behind the drops of blood that He sweated in the garden and yet the full impact of that is lost on us, as we have no idea how much He was giving up since we have never been in an even vaguely similar situation. Thank God our relationship depends not on our comprehension of Him, but on His love and compassion for us, or we would never make the grade.
I have long believed this too. Comparing the separation to the cross. I believe that the anguish of the separation most likely was such a painful thing that it may have actually caused a depression of sorts within his body. Thus, actually helping Jesus with the trauma to come. Such a deep pain as this can cause the body to become numb in many ways. Although, it was not a painless event. It may have helped him maintain the clarity of thought we see described to the end.
Absolutely heartbreaking!
The images of the garden are beautiful.
THE PHRASE “NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE”- IT JUST TOUCHES MY HEART THE HUMILITY AND HUMBLNESS OF SPIRIT OUR LORD JESUS CARRIES EVEN TO THE ROAD TO THE CROSS. HE SETS AN EXAMPLE TO ALL OF US THAT NO MATTER WHAT WE GO THROUGH, DURING OUR JOURNEY HERE ON EARTH I.E PERSECUTIONS AS HIS FOLLOWERS, TO CARRY ON KNOWING THE INTERNAL REWARD THAT AWAITS US IS GREAT.
THOSE PICS ARE SO BEAUTIFUL.
THANKS
I at one time worked in a pediatric unit in a hospital. One of the most disheartening observations was that of a child who was separated from their mother. For whatever the reason,the mother could not be there, or had to leave,the child was devastated. We saw this many times with children between the ages of 10mos to maybe 5-8 years. Not matter what the nurses tried to do to console the child, nothing worked. Some would cry constantly until their eyes were swollen shut, and they would sleep. They would not eat play or anything. Awakening, they would cry more. This was termed “Separation Anxiety” in the medical field.
I, for a long time, thought it was the actual taking on of the sins of the world that Jesus grieved. Since He Himself, had never known sin.
Now, being put in rememberence of those children,
I see in scripture and your comments, that it was indeed more than just “separation anxiety”, it was the angony of it.