In
the Markan account of the agony in the garden there are two words in the
English version (Authorized Version) on which Whyte fastens attention. We read
that Jesus began to be sore amazed. Luther in his day had claimed that
the original Greek words at this point were the most astonishing in the whole
Bible—a judgment reinforced by a modern commentator who affirms that they ‘depict
the greatest possible degree of infinite horror and suffering’ (Lohmeyer). What
caused the evangelist to use such an expression? Whyte freely confesses his own
sense of bafflement. Yet he is convinced that the shudder of aversion can only
have been brought about by one thing. ‘It was sin “laid upon Himself”
till He was “made sin”.’ It had been amazement and horror enough to stand and
see deceit and envy and pride, all of that kind, as He describes it in terrible
worlds, ‘coming out of the heart’ of man. But it was a new thing to our Lord to
have all that poured in upon Himself. To be made sin ‘amazed’ out Lord:
it absolutely overwhelmed Him—cast Him into ‘an agony’: it was ‘loaded Him and
sickened Him and slew Him’. And it was Whyte’s challenge and offer to his
hearers and in such prayer they could enter into the fellowship of Christ’s
sufferings and share in His work of saving the world from sin. (F. W.
Dillistone, The Christian Understanding of Atonement [London: James Nisbet
& Co. Ltd., 1967, 1968], 293; “Whyte” is Alexander Whyte, author of the
book, Lord, Teach us to Pray)
(b)
The words of Gethsemane: The
narrative describing the intense struggles in the Gardne of Gethsemane has an
extraordinarily dramatic quality. The triple sequence from the challenge to
three to stay awake in the second discovery of their stupefaction through sleep
to the final acceptance of their complete insensitivity: the reiteration of the
phrase ‘the Hour’—the Hour of doom, the House of destiny: the Greek words
translated into English as ‘deep amazement and anxiety’, suggestive of horror
and shuddering and profound agitation: all these provide a setting for Jesus’
words which serves to intensify the sense of inner conflict which they portray.
As
far as the authenticity of the reported words is concerned there are slight
differences in the three Synoptic accounts and there are verbal echoes of the
Lord’s Prayer which may have influenced the precise formulation. Yet the
general character of the scene and of the words spoken in such that it is
exceedingly difficult to imagine any motive for pure fabrication. A romancer
would surely have depicted Jesus in an attitude of facing death with confidence
and fearlessness and ready acceptance of the will of God. instead there is the
fearful encounter with horror and darkness issuing in the cry: “My soul is
weighed down with sorrow even to the point of death. And whatever links there
may be with the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer, there is one outstanding image
which seems to be the key to all, mainly ‘the cup’. Each evangelist reports the
agonized plea that the cup might be removed. Matthew refers to it a second time—‘The
cup’ represents that from which Jesus shrinks back in horror and amazement. For
the significance of this cup-symbol we naturally look to the Old Testament. It
is true that in the Old Testament ‘the cup’ is used in two different senses. On
the one hand the cup represents joy, salvation, new life, refreshment.
What
shall I render to the Lord
For all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and all on the name of the Lord. (Psalm 116:13).
On
the other hand, and even more frequently, it represents suffering, punishment,
dereliction, woe: it is a ‘cup of wrath’ and a ‘bowl of staggering’.
‘For
not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting
up: but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up
another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well
mixed, and he will pour a draught from it, and all the wicked of the earth,
shall drain it down to the dregs.’ (Psalm 75:6-8)
There
has already been a reference to the cup in the incident recorded in Mark 10:35-45.
In that context the cup is certainly the symbol of tribulation and suffering.
And now in Gethsemane it is psychologically understandable that an image which
had been gathering associations in Jesus’ mind should become overwhelmingly
real and full of foreboding. The Cup. The cup to be drained to the dregs. The
cup containing the final judgment upon human sinfulness. Must He drink this
Cup? Must He face this Hour? He wrestles and prays, He falls prostrate on the
ground. He agonizes in a sweat of blood. He falls prostrate on the ground. He
agonizes in a sweat of blood. Yet the final word that issues as a cry from the
depths, as simultaneously the acceptance and the overcoming, is the utter
paradox of two wills made one:
Nevertheless
now what I will but
may Thy will be done
Here
again it is in the cry itself that the promise of final reconciliation is
contained. (Ibid., 364-65)
