John 17:1-2 – When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
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As Jesus approached the end of His last day, He stopped to spend an entire night in prayer. What someone does in the final moments of their life reveals who or what they care most about. Jesus’ actions reveal that meeting with the Father in prayer was His highest priority.
Reading Jesus’ Gethsemane Prayer is spiritually overwhelming, just as it was physically overwhelming for Jesus. His tear-stained agonizing prayer is a sacred glimpse into His most miserable moment so that He might comfort us on our darkest days.
Gethsemane means an oil press, and an oil press stood amid a field of olive trees where it was used to press the oil from the fruit by crushing it. John 18:1 reveals that an olive grove, or garden, was in this place where Jesus prayed. There, Jesus’ soul would be pressed until it was crushed, and heartfelt prayer poured forth. Jesus’ prayer in the darkness of the garden is brutally and painfully honest.
In His darkest hour of abandonment and betrayal, with the horrid specter of crucifixion quickly coming, Jesus did not doubt the Father, deny the Father, rebel against the Father, or run from the Father. No, instead, He got down on His knees in surrender to speak with the Father in prayer. In this act, we witness another reminder of one of the great truths about prayer: it is not primarily about getting God to do what we want, but rather about having our will aligned with His. That way, when the most brutal moments of life envelop us, we will take the Father’s hand to lead us through—and not around—our valleys of darkness.
Pray for the same Holy Spirit’s power that empowered Jesus to help you turn to God in prayer when you feel betrayed or wronged.
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