My friend
Christopher Davis reproduced the following quotes from various (mainly historic
Protestant) sources commenting on Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane. With his
permission, I am reproducing them as they show that the view Jesus’ suffering
in Gethsemane playing a role in the atonement is not unique to Latter-day Saint theology and Scripture:
Martin Luther:
“The
sweating of blood and other high spiritual sufferings that Christ endured in
the garden, no human creature can know or imagine; if one of us should but
begin to feel the least of those sufferings, he must die instantly. There are
many who dies of grief of mind; for sorrow of heart is death itself. If a man
should feel such anguish and pain as Christ had, it were impossible for the
soul to remain in the body and endure it—body and soul must part asunder. In
Christ only it was possible, and from him issued bloody sweat." - Martin
Luther, Section 172 of The Table Talk of Martin Luther, p.64
"Indeed,
all people who are pulled in by the gravity of Christ's passion experience the
spiritual rebirth that makes them capable of true love of God and genuine sorrow
for sin. But this human sorrow, as Staupitz would emphasize in the same breath,
is always so pitifully small that it definitely cannot attain the forgiveness
of sins on the basis of its own emotional quality. ONLY CHRIST'S INFINITELY
PRICELESS SORROW FOR HUMAN SIN IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE AND THE SPIRITUAL
SUFFERING OF HIS PASSION (WHICH FAR EXCEEDED HIS PHYSICAL PAIN ON THE CROSS)
COMPENSATED FOR ALL THE INADEQUACY OF OUR HUMAN REPENTANCE. Only in that is
there any causal connection between the sinner's penitential love and the
forgiveness of sins." - Berndt Hamm, "The Early Luther: Stages in a
Reformation Reorientation", p.18
Melancthon W. Jacobus:
“His
approaching death, and it was as though they had just begun, though He had been
a 'man of sorrows.' The context shows that He suffered now and was 'very
heavy'—oppressed and burdened. He had no sins of His own to make Him sorrowful,
but HE HAD ASSUMED THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF SINNERS, HE HAD UNDERTAKEN TO BE
'MADE A CURSE FOR US.' Mark says, 'He began to be sore amazed and to be very
heavy.' He bore the curse of sin—THE WEIGHT OF HIS PEOPLE'S CONDEMNATION LAY
UPON HIM.
My soul is
exceeding sorrowful, &c. Here He broke out in an expression of His inward
agony. As yet all was quiet in the garden—no one had bruised Him—the mere dread
of dying could not so have distressed Him, for martyrs have triumphed at the
stake—but he was pouring out His soul unto death. (Isa. 53. last vs.) HE STOOD
ALREADY IN THE SINNER'S PLACE, AND HENCE, HIS EXCEEDING SORROW OF SPIRIT 'EVEN
UNTO DEATH' —REACHING THE MEASURE OF DEATH SUFFERINGS BEFORE PHYSICAL DEATH CAME
ON. OBSERVE, IT WAS SOUL-SORROW UNTO DEATH!
Watch with
me. This means substantially the same as Luke's language, 'Pray that ye enter
not into temptation' (22. 40); yet, including, besides this vigilance and
prayer for themselves, the idea of sympathizing with Him. He called for their
liveliest interest. He was brought to that point of shrinking where He called
in their help. It was near midnight.
A little
further—that is, beyond them—removing from the three disciples so as to be
quite alone in His grief. Luke's words, 'about a stone's cast,' refer to this.
Fell on his face. Luke says, He 'kneeled down and prayed.' But Matthew mentions
this more distressed and prostrate attitude which His prayer took, expressive
of a most overwhelming wo. All these attitudes of earnestness and anguish He
took. This was the natural gesture of his emotion.
If it be
possible. Luke has it, 'If thou be willing.' Mark refers it also to the
Father's pleasure, and speaks of ail things being possible with God. Here is
the conflict and agony in the Redeemer's breast, showing the extremity to which
he was brought, even to the point of shrinking! HERE IS HIS FILIAL SPIRIT UNDER
THE HEAVIEST SUFFERING. Here it is proved how necessary it was that Christ
should take this cup, and not only that He should die, and none other, but that
He should take This Cup, and not another cup— even this cup of the curse! It
was not possible that He should be released from this—for in this there was
substitution and expiation. 'He hath borne our griefs,' &c. Cup, or
chalice. As a cup contains something to drink, it is used to express a draught
of bitter experience.
Nevertheless.
This he refers at last to the Father's appointment, and thus He defers to the
Father's pleasure. It was not more important that Christ should be voluntary in
His sacrificial work, than that in Him the Father should be 'well pleased'
(Isa. 42. 21). This was expressed at His baptism. 'This is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased.' 'It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put him to
grief.' (Isa. 53. 10.) 'THOU SHALT MAKE HIS SOUL AN OFFERING FOR SIN' 'THE LORD
HATH LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITIES OF US ALL.' (Isa. 53. 10.) 'A BODY HAST THOU
PREPARED ME,' HE SAYS; AND NOW, IN THE SACRIFICE, THE FLESH THAT WAS TAKEN IN
ORDER TO DIE, SCARCELY SURVIVES THIS AGONY; AND THE HUMAN SOUL SHUDDERS AND
SHRINKS AT THE ENDURANCE. THIS NEVERTHELESS HINTS AT THE COVENANT WHICH CHRIST
HAD ENTERED INTO WITH THE FATHER, WHICH BOUND HIM TO ITS TERMS. Though the
curse was awful, yet the will of the Father was supreme. Though Christ shrunk,
yet He was voluntary, in consideration of that covenant engagement.
Asleep. Luke
has it, He 'found them sleeping for sorrow.' (ch. 22. 45.) This refers to the
three whom He had taken apart. No other Evangelist mentions the cause of their
drowsiness. But Luke was a physician (Col. 4. 14), and he was prepared to speak
on this point, and he would be likely so to do. So he notices the bloody sweat
(22. 44), and the cure of Malchus' ear (22. 51). Persons condemned to die are
often waked from sound sleep by the executioner. Excessive sorrow brings on
sleep. This is hinted at by our Lord in the next verse. Saith unto Peter. Peter
had boasted, but now he was to see and feel his weakness. How feeble are our
best resolutions or dispositions towards God. How easily are we overcome by the
world, the flesh and the devil. What could we do but for upholding, and
strengthening, and reclaiming grace.
Watch and
pray, that ye enter not; or, in Mark, 'lest ye enter into temptation.' They
were in danger of losing their confidence in Christ, when they should see Him
betrayed into the hands of sinners. And here they are directed to watch against
this temptation, which He saw to be coming on. A concern for their own souls in
this coming trial, should keep them watching against Satan's power in their
hearts. We should always watch, knowing that the adversary is always ready to
ensnare and destroy us. They were to pray against being overcome, and lest they
should be overcome by that temptation. So we are to pray that we may not run
into temptation, nor come in the way of it— especially that we may not yield to
it. And if we do not pray, the tempter will gain the advantage. The spirit
indeed is willing (Mark has the same Greek wora, but it is there rendered
'ready.' They were in danger from the infirmities of the flesh. These are a
fruitful source of temptation. Satan attacks us through the flesh, and takes
advantage of our weaknesses. Therefore we are the more earnestly to pray for
all needed supports and helps in the trying hour. We should take this passage
(says Bengel), not to excuse our torpor, but to sharpen our vigilance (see Heb.
5. 7).
He went away
again. The tenor of His prayer seems altered now, and it is rather a devout
submission. He returns now to give in His free and full consent to the
endurance. THE SUFFERINGS ARE HER SHOWN TO HAVE BEEN WELL UNDERSTOOD
BEFOREHAND. THIS WAS MOST IMPORTANT. This is distinctly declared by John (18.
4), 'Jesus knowing all things that should come upon him.' YET, 'DRINKING THE
CUP,' THAT IS, TAKING ALL THE LOAD OF OUR CONDEMNATION, AND GOING THROUGH THE
BITTER EXPERIENCE, WAS FULL OF AGONY, FROM WHICH THE FLESH COULD NOT BUT
SHRINK. Luke notes that an angel from heaven here appeared and strengthened Him
(vs. 43), and that 'His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling
down to the ground,' (vs. 44,) occasioned, as in other instances on record, by
the extreme suffering. Yet he does not say blood, but 'as it were'
blood—bloody—or large as drops of blood. And this was from anguish of soul—from
burdens laid upon His spirit. ALREADY HE LAY UNDER THE TREMENDOUS WEIGHT OF THE
CURSE, AND STOOD CHARGED WITH THE INIQUITIES OF SUCH AS HE HAD UNDERTAKEN FOR
IN COVENANT WITH THE FATHER. Yet, in the midst of it all, He declares His
willingness to drink the cup, because this was His part in the eternal covenant
of redemption, and by this means Jesus was to 'save His people from their
sins.'”
Norman MacLeod:
"In the
garden of Gethsemane sin was triumphant. Holiness was abandoned even by the
All-Holy. It was the hour of the prince of darkness. The Father had withdrawn
His consoling presence. The pitiless storm of Divine wrath beat upon the soul
of the suffering Saviour in all its fury. HE STOOD CHARGED WITH THE COLLECTIVE
GUILT OF ADAM'S FALLEN RACE; and all the arrows of Almighty justice flew at
once to His heart. How fearful must have been the pressure of that physical
suffering which caused Him to pray that, if it were agreeable to the will of
His Father, the bitter cup might pass from Him! But this could not be. As the
representative of a guilty world, He must tread the wine-press of God's wrath
alone. There is no way of reconciling these intense sufferings of the
immaculate Son of God with the attributes of the Most High upon the principles
of the Socinian, who utterly denies their vicarious nature. THE AGONY IN THE
GARDEN IS A KNOT THAT NOTHING CAN UNTIE, BUT THE OLD DOCTRINE OF OUR SIN BEING
REALLY IMPUTED TO CHRIST, AND CHRIST BEING MADE A SIN AND CURSE FOR US. In the
agony of Jesus we behold, then, the true nature and the proper effects of sin.
"The wages of sin is death." Therefore His "soul was exceeding
sorrowful even unto death." We see here a specimen of that
"indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," which every soul of
man would have had to suffer, had He not become the sufferer in our stead. LET
US THINK OF GETHSEMANE AS THE PLACE WHERE JESUS BORE THE WRATH OF JEHOVAH, THAT
WE MIGHT BE RESTORED TO HIS SMILES AND MERCY. As we mourn over the entrance of
the devil into the Garden of Eden, and the dreadful fall of our first parents,
let us behold with joy the ‘seed of the woman’ wrestling with this base usurper
in the garden of Gethsemane, that He might enable us to crush him beneath our
feet.” - Norman MacLeod, “Christ In the Garden”, The Christian Guest (1859), p
357-358.
Hugh Latimer:
“He took
Peter, James, and John, into this garden. And why did he take them with him,
rather than other? Marry, those that he had taken before, to whom he had
revealed in the hill the transfiguration and declaration of his deity, to see
the revelation of the majesty of his Godhead, now in the garden he revealed to
the same the infirmity of his manhood: because they had tasted of the sweet, he
would they should taste also of the sour. He took these with him at both times:
for two or three is enough to bear witness. And he began to be heavy in his
mind; he was greatly vexed within himself, he was sore afflicted, it was a
great heaviness. He had been heavy many times before; and he had suffered great
afflictions in his soul, as for the blindness of the Jews; and he was like to
suffer more pangs of pain in his body. BUT THIS PANG WAS GREATER THAN ANY THAT
HE EVER SUFFERED: YEA, IT WAS A GREATER TORMENT UNTO HIM , I THINK A GREATER
PAIN, THAN WHEN HE WAS HANGED ON THE CROSS; than when the four nails were
knocked and driven through his hands and feet; than when the sharp crown of
thorns was thrust on his head. This was the heaviness and pensiveness of his
heart, the agony of the spirit. And as the soul is more precious than the body,
even so is the pains of the soul more grievous than the pains of the body:
therefore there is another which writeth, Horror mortis gravior ipsa morte;
"The, horror and ugsomeness of death is sorer than death itself."
THIS IS THE MOST GRIEVOUS PAIN THAT EVER CHRIST SUFFERED, EVEN THIS PANG THAT
HE SUFFERED IN THE GARDEN. It is the most notable place, one of them in the
whole story of the passion, when he said, Anima mea tristis est usque ad
mortem, "My soul is heavy to death"; and cum coepisset expavescere,
"when he began to quiver, to shake." The grievousness of it is
declared by this prayer that he made: Pater, si possibile est, &c.,
"Father, if it be possible, away with this cup: rid me of it." He
understood by this cup his pains of death; for he knew well enough that his
passion was at hand, that Judas was coming upon him with the Jews to take him.”
- Hugh Latimer, The Seventh Sermon of M. Latimer preached before King Edward
(1549)
Hippolytus (early Christian):
“Thus then,
too, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the conditions proper to
Him as man, since He hungers and toils and thirsts in weariness, and flees in
fear, and prays in trouble. And He who as God has a sleepless nature, slumbers
on a pillow. And He who for this end came into the world, begs off from the cup
of suffering. And in an agony He sweats blood, and is strengthened by an angel,
who Himself strengthens those who believe in Him, and taught men to despise
death by His work.” - Hippolytus, Against Noetus, 18
International Bible Commentary:
“This
conflict presents our Lord in the reality of His manhood, in weakness and humiliation,
but it is impossible to account for it unless we admit His Divine nature. Had
He been a mere man, His knowledge of the sufferings before Him could not have
been sufficient to cause such sorrow. The human fear of death will not explain
it. As a real man, He was capable of such a conflict. But it took place after
the serenity of the Last Supper and sacerdotal prayers, and before the sublime
submission in the palace and judgment hall. The conflict, therefore, was a
specific agony of itself. He felt the whole burden and mystery of the world's
sin, and encountered the fiercest assaults of Satan. Otherwise, in this hour
this Person, so powerful, so holy, seems to fall below the heroism of martyrs
in His own cause. His sorrow did not spring from His own life, His memory of
His fears, but from the vicarious nature of the conflict. The agony was a
bearing of the weight and sorrow of our sins, in loneliness, in anguish of soul
threatening to crush His body, yet borne triumphantly, because in submission to
His Father's will. Three times our Lord appeals to that will, as purposing His
anguish; that purpose of God in regard to the loveliest, best of men, can be
reconciled with justice and goodness in God in but one way; that it was
necessary for our redemption. Mercy forced its way through justice to the
sinner. Our Lord suffered anguish of soul for sin, that it might never rest on
us. To deny this is in effect not only to charge our Lord with undue weakness,
but to charge God with needless cruelty. "Surely He hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows…. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His
stripes we are healed" [Isaiah 53.4-5]" - International Bible Commentary,
Matthew, p.359
