Live Free with Josh Howerton - Holy Week: A Lonely Garden | Ep. 43 | Wednesday April 5, 2023

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

At this point in the week, Jesus is left alone. He is overcome with grief as He prepares for the crushing weight of sin to be placed upon Him. In today’s episode, Pastor Mike shares how significant this moment is at the present time and how the events following would change the world forever. You’ll want to equip your heart and mind to hear about this lonely time in the garden. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's daily drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. This week's devotionals will walk us through Holy Week as Pastor Mike helps prepare our hearts for Easter. For more information on our special Easter weekend services this coming weekend, visit lakepoint. church slash Easter. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive podcast. My name is Mike, and we have been walking with Jesus during the final week of his life.

We started out on a crowded street. Yesterday, we moved to a sinner's table, and today we're going to follow him to a lonely garden. You know, Jesus and the guys had borrowed an upstairs room to celebrate the Passover meal. and to be sure it was inspiring in a moving time, but it was also a very strange, confusing night for all the guys in that room for a lot of different reasons. And they left there, minus Judas,

they had a unique bond together. Think about these guys traveled together for three years. They worked together, ate together, learn together, laugh together, grieved together, hope together. And Matthew 26, verse 30, says, they closed out the evening, singing together. They sang a hymn. And then he went out to a place called the Mount of Olives.

Now the Mount of Olives where they were headed as a ridge about two miles long and rises over like 2,600 feet on the east side of Jerusalem. I got the stand there a few years ago, and you can see the city, and you can tell that Jesus could see his betrayers coming out of that city. You could watch the whole thing unfolding from that vantage point. But it's pretty gnarly looking. I mean, just olive trees everywhere. And back in that day, olive trees were very significant with all the oil that they

produced. It was an important part of the diet. It was used extensively in cooking and burning lamps and all kinds of religious practices. But during Jesus Day, the olives were crushed on these huge stone olive presses. I wish I could show you a picture of one. You'll just have to Google it. But they were the stone basin with these huge and heavy millstones, and the oil was squeezed from them on these olive presses that would run into a pit and we'd collect it and put it in the clay jars. These olive crushers were often placed in a cave where the more moderate temperature would improve the efficiency of the oil production. And this is where Jesus went. He went to the olive press.

It says in verse 36, then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gassimony. Now, the word Gassimini is derived from two Hebrew words, which means a place for pressing oil. So the Gassimini that we often think about as a beautiful garden with dew on the roses was probably more like an olive press in a cave in the middle of a bunch of gnarly looking olive trees and according to Luke it was a place where Jesus would often go. So don't miss the image you're here. Here's Jesus the night before he was crucified with the weight of the sins of the world pressing down, squeezing the life out of his soul.

here he is at Gassimony, a place where things get crushed. When he tells them, he says, sit here while I go over there and pray, and he tells the other eight guys again, minus Judas, you guys hang right here, you three, Peter James, John, you come with me kind of his inner circle. He tells them this, my soul is crushed with grief, to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.

And he gets real vulnerable, and he tells him, my soul is crushed. I need some friends right now. When you read through the Gospels, you will notice how Jesus went off to be with God a lot of times all by himself. Sometimes he would send the disciples off at a boat. He would tell them, you guys go ahead, the next village, I'll catch up. He would spend significant time alone praying.

And even though this time he would once again pray all by himself, he still wants somebody close by. He needed their presence. He needed their friendship. And I just think that's pretty cool, that God in the flesh still needed friends. Isn't that true of all of us? I mean, almost instinctively,

we want somebody by our side in the hospital before a major surgery, or at least to know someone's sitting out in the lobby while it's all going on. We want somebody sitting in that courtroom during the proceedings. We might be nervous about a job interview, and we say, to a friend, just go with me, just sit in the parking lot, sit in the car, just pray for me. We want somebody walking with us when we go into that first recovery, meeting. We want somebody standing

next to us in that funeral home when we're grieving. We all need the reassuring touch of a friend or family member in those times. We all want somebody there. And Jesus did too. He's experiencing the depth of loneliness here at Gassimony that

he'd never, ever experienced before. Did you catch how he tells us his closest friends? My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. I've been reading some research recently about how rejection, actually, physically hurts. One of the one of the researchers I read said the mind, brain, and body are tightly linked. These findings may offer insights into how heartbreak and rejection can lead to

different types of physical illness and disorders because social rejection is interpreted by the brain as being as harmful as damage to the physical body. And you talk about someone experiencing intense rejection? Talk about betrayal. Talk about heartbreak. Jesus says, listen, guys, I feel like I'm dying. My soul is crushed. I love what Philip Yancey writes in his book, The Jesus I Never knew. He said, his words suggest something more ominous than loneliness.

Is it possible that for the first time ever, he did not want to be alone with the father? Jesus no more relish the prospects of pain and death than you and I do, but there was more to work at well, a new experience for Jesus that can only be called God, forsakenness. At its core, Gassimini depicts, after all, the story of unanswered prayer. The cup of suffering was not removed. See, Jesus knew in these moments the crushing weight of sin of all mankind would be placed upon him. He had never felt separation for the Father that sin

brings never, and he knew it was coming, and his soul felt crushed. He knew the truth of the Old Testament prophecy about his destiny in Isaiah 53. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. He knew the reality of 2 Corinthians 521. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The greatest person who ever walked the planet, the only one qualified to be called good would be cursed. Galatians 3 says Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. His road that final week led to Gassimony, the place where olives get crushed. And in this night, the truth that where that road would lead him tomorrow crushed his soul.

He went a little deeper into the groves, and it says, he went a little further and bowed with his face to the ground, praying. the most significant words ever uttered, my father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me, yet I want your will to be done, not mine. You ever been there in the middle of if and yet? If you could do this, God, yet, I believe you know best. This profound wrestling between if and yet would continue all through the night as he pours out his breaking heart to his father. After a while, he gets up and checks on his friends, maybe he just wants to talk about what he has been talking to God about. Maybe he's just looking for a little encouragement. Like somebody's like, you okay in there?

But it's not to be. You guys ever been in a class at school or a boring movie or a boring podcast, and you're finding it hard to stay awake, especially after you've just eaten. Sometimes it's about impossible to stay awake. happens to Jesus' friends, he returns, finds them asleep. He goes, listen, you guys couldn't stay awake with me for like an hour? I know the spirit is willing, but the body is weak, and he singles Peter out. But I don't think he jumps all over Peter. I think there might be some disappointment. But it's also this mix with a dose of reality. He says, Peter, do you remember? On the way over here, you said that you would deny me? You would die for me? Listen, buddy, you can't even stay awake.

I know you got good intentions. But, remember you're not as strong as you think you are. The temptation to fall away is going to come at you strong so you need to watch and pray. You know, all of this made me think back to a little poem. I can't believe I can still remember it. I was a high school student. A message touched me profoundly about the love of God. I was 17 years old. And this old man named Ennis Dowling was preaching about love. And he told story after story after story about love. And then he told the story about the unconditional love of dogs. And I've always been. a dog lover like you had me at wolf right i still can't believe i remember this this poem from when

i was 17 but i've never forgotten it the poem was i wonder if christ had a little black dog all curly and woolly like mine with two silky ears and a nose rounded in the wet and two eyes that sparkle and shine well i'm sure if he had that little black dog knew right from the start he was god he needed no proof that he was divine he just worshipped the ground that he tried but i'm sure that he hadn't because i have read how he prayed the garden alone. When all of his friends and disciples have fled, even Peter, the one called the stone, well, I'm sure if he had that little black dog would have never have left him to suffer alone but crawling up under his arm, would have licked his dear fingers and agony clasp and counting all favors but loss when they let him away he would have trod it behind

and followed him all the way to the cross. But there was no faithful dog. Just a bunch of snoring men. It says Jesus left the second time and prayed, Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, then your will be done. Remember the cup that he held a few hours early at the Last Supper? He held it up and said, this cup is a new covenant. This is my blood poured out for the sins of many. And now he's pleading, Father, can you take this cup away from me? I mean, is there another way?

There again, he's wrestling between if and yet. If you could do this, if you could take this away. but yet your will be done. And he comes back a third time and they're asleep again. And he tells them to go ahead and get your sleep. You guys can't help it. And you're going to need it, in fact, because things are going to get real crazy.

And then he says, but look, the time has come. The son of man is betrayed to the hands of sinners up. Let's get going. My betrayer is here. And with that, he courageously, walks into the darkness toward the ones who wanted him dead. And this all went on at Gassimini, the place where things get crushed. When I thought about Jesus being there at Gassimony, the Olive Press, during the most intense

night of his life, it made me want to ask you, what do you do when you're being pressed? What do you do when you feel like you're like being crushed? I thought about this a lot this week personally. And I wrote down just a few statements after reading this story again. They're kind of resolved statements for me because I told you at the beginning of this journey down the road with Jesus, when you watch him, you can't help but want to be like him. What he was able to do was so impressive. My respect grew even deeper this week. And based on what I saw him do at Gassimini, here's some statements I just jotted down that flowed out of my heart.

The first thing I wrote down was I will not go through tough stuff alone. See, God reminded me that I have a tendency to withdraw when difficult things come my way. I don't want to bother other people with this. It's not a big deal, really. It's kind of a private matter. No one needs to know this is an issue. No one needs to know this really hurts. Nobody needs to see my vulnerability because I'm supposed to be strong.

I'm supposed to be an example. I got this. And even though they didn't exactly come through for him, I mean, imperfect people sometimes failure, Jesus still knew the value of have some close friends with him. He knew the value of having some people that were just there. following Jesus' example, I just wrote down this week, when I go through tough stuff, I'm not going to go through it alone.

Second thing I jotted down was this. I'm going to pray with raw honesty. Because sometimes we pray way too neat, way too buttoned up, way too religious sounding, way too reserved, way too vague. This struggle for Jesus was a gut level one, an honest one. These prayers were not rehearsed or formulaic. They were real. They were intense.

They were raw. They didn't come out of a book. They came from a soul that felt crushed. It says in Hebrews chapter 5, while Jesus was on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings with a loud cry and tears to the one who could rescue him from death. So I just wrote down, I'm going to pray that way. Gut level honest with my own voice, my own words, my own pain, my own request, my own heart. I'm just going to shout out, cry out to the one who loves me deep.

And the third thing I wrote down this week was this. I'm just going to surrender to God's better plan, and I'm going to live with purpose. In Mark's account, he says this. Jesus cried out, Aba, which means daddy. Abba, daddy, father, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet, I want your will to be done. So we come to God's sin if and yet, Father, Aba, daddy, everything's possible for you.

I know you can heal this cancer. I know you can repair this marriage. I know that you can prevent this bankruptcy. I know that you can reverse this verdict. I know you can save my job. I know you can fix my heartbreak. Everything is possible for you. But God, I just want to tell you, I trust your better plan.

I trust your better view from above. I believe that your ways are higher. Your wisdom is better. That your love runs much deeper. This is what I'd like to see. Yet, not my way. I will, but yours be done. When he was finished praying, he sees them coming to arrest him.

And Peter, perhaps trying to make up for falling asleep, grabs a sword and starts flailing around and chops the ear off a guy. Well, Jesus heals the guy's ear, and he says, Peter, put your sword up. You live by the sword, you're going to die by the sore. Shall I not drink the cup of suffering that the father has given me? Peter, listen, I just settled all this back of the olive crusher. I'm supposed to let this happen. This is God's plan.

This is my road. This is my purpose, my destiny. Come on. Put your sword up. You know, what if you knew that the road marked out for you would include betrayal, rejection, humiliation, pain, and public execution? What if you knew that a cross was in your future at age 33 and that you would be nailed there for something you did not even do.

Would you still walk that road? Jesus did. He chose it. And I hope you're grateful today. We're going to walk out of the olive groves, and tomorrow we're going to stand in a dark courtyard. We'll see you then. For more biblical teaching and worship,

join us for our Easter weekend services this coming Saturday and Sunday, either in person or online. You can find all. all the information about our Easter services at lakepoint. dot church slash Easter. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review,

and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of LakePoint, visit lakepoint. compt.ch slash daily drive.