Gethsemane: Jesus’s Soul Crushed With Grief
Christians around the world celebrate Palm Sunday, the day Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey and received enthusiastic praise as the Jews’ long-awaited messianic ruler. But that day didn’t mark the start of an earthly, political reign. Instead, it began the final week of a life that would end on a cross outside the city’s walls. The turning point of that week for Jesus came on the evening before his death as he prayed in a garden called Gethsemane. In the midst of severe personal agony, the son of a carpenter from Nazareth confronted and accepted his destiny. In doing so, Jesus experienced the spectrum of anguish with an intensity that overwhelms normal human turmoil. By doing so, he solidified his claims as the absolute intercessor between Heaven and Earth. Gethsemane represents Jesus’ ultimate identification with the humanity he came to rescue. In the Crucible Throughout his ministry, as the Gospels attest, Jesus keenly understood the ordeal he must endure as