36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”
The grief Jesus experienced weighed heavy, three separate words being used to describe it. The first word is “grieved” (vs. 37) and has the sense of deeply saddened. It is the same word used of the Holy Spirit, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Eph 4:30). The sadness of the human predicament—sin finally comes to this, the suffering of the Savior. It weighed heavily on Him, overwhelming Him. Like the psalmist wrote, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within me” (Psalm 22:14). Jesus knelt before the crushing prospects of taking on the sin of every human being.
The second word is “distressed” and carries the sense of “anguished,” to the point of being incapacitated. The idea here is like a scene from an old movie which depicted a police detective who wanted a scar for an undercover assignment. So he had two men hold him down and a third took a red-hot poker and touched it to the inside of his upper arm. The only way he could do it was to voluntarily make himself incapacitated. That is the idea here. Jesus was allowing Himself to be incapacitated by the emotion and event of the moment. He braced for the onslaught of God’s wrath. Judas was already dispatched on his mission, the die had been cast, there was no turning back. He is constrained to move forward.
The third word, rendered “grieved,” is a different, more intensified word, in the original Greek than the previous word translated “grief.” This time it carries a sense of “intense sadness.” Luke used it to describe the rich young ruler who walked away from Jesus’ challenge to discipleship, he was “grieved.” (Luke 18:23). This kind of grief we normally associate with the deepest losses. The more we love someone or something, the greater the sense of loss and the experience of grief. For some, the loss of a dream, a job, position, respect, possessions–can bring on grief. Jesus was not concerned about losing any of these things. What weighed heavily was the loss of relationship with His Father, with whom He had been in sweet fellowship from eternity past. Shortly His grief would be poured out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
Lord, I am overwhelmed by what You went through for me, for us. Thank You that You were constrained to do it out of love for Your Father and for me.
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