Two Gardens: Choices of Surrender and Redemption

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And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch. And going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. [00:43:41]

We see Jesus there, the Son of God, not standing, giving a powerful sermon, not casting out demons, but on his knees, overwhelmed with sorrow, trembling in the night. I want us to understand that the weight of the cross, while that would be very physical, and on Good Friday we'll look at that a bit more, but it was also very much spiritual. [00:44:48]

He was carrying the curse, our curse. So to really understand what is going on in this moment, we need to go back to another garden. There's another man and another tree. In Genesis 2, we find that God has created Adam. He has given him everything. He has bestowed upon him the perfect bride. [00:45:20]

The punishment should have been, as God said, If you partake of this fruit from this tree, you will surely die. But we see not wrath in that moment, but grace. Because does Adam die in that day? No, he is permitted to live a full long life. Like some of us, we were celebrating just a moment ago birthdays. [00:46:58]

And we must recognize that when God says, If you partake of this tree, you will surely die. He is in fact saying to his own son, When Adam partakes of this fruit of this tree, Son, you will surely die. Because you will become a descendant of Adam. And so we recognize that these gardens are connected. [00:48:23]

We have two sons of Adam. One is disobedient. And the other is obedient to the point of death. We have two gardens. One beautiful beyond measure. And the one that is used to describe the pressing of olives until they are crushed to produce the oil. We recognize the curse from Genesis. [00:48:42]

We read verses 33 and 34, and he says, He took with him Peter and James and John, and being greatly distressed and troubled, he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch. We see Jesus' humanity here is on full display. This is not staged emotion. [00:50:01]

But his humanity, his flesh doesn't want to endure it. Who would want to? Who would want to be whipped and beaten, spit upon and cursed at, mocked? Who would want to be nailed to a cross until you are dead? Now a cross is meant to bring humiliation and shame. [00:50:28]

Instead of disobedience, we often think the opposite of disobedience would be obedience. But scripturally speaking, it is surrender. Not what I will, but what you will. The first Adam said, my will be done. I want to know. I don't understand. There's a snake in this garden. [00:53:05]

And so you and I, we must not fall into that temptation of Adam, because Eve would come and say, look, I've taken this. And then Adam says, look, I've taken this. As a good, upstanding husband, you know, there are wonderful, if you need help with marriages, there's wonderful counselors out there. [00:54:40]

And so we'd be arrested and he'd be beaten and he would go to the cross knowing that he has an inheritance waiting knowing what the prize is he is redeeming his bride that is you that is me you are what he stayed for he became the curse Galatians 3 13 says christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. [01:03:41]

I pray that before communion take a moment to let this reality of what Jesus went through seep into our hearts may we bake it into our souls again the cross wasn't beautiful this garden was not peaceful we often think of gardens as peaceful we like to walk through them and pray through them and see their beauty. [01:05:36]

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