Hey guys, so, if you’ve read the gospels you know that Jesus Christ really liked teaching people through parables. Sometimes the meaning of Christ’s parables was not immediately clear to people. Sometimes it took some effort to understand and to extract the message. In a lot of what Christ said and did there were multiple layers of meaning. In this episode, we’re going to talk about another scenario where I think Christ was trying to teach us something that at first glance might be really easy to miss.
Alright, after the last supper, Christ left Jerusalem with Peter, James, and John. They crossed a little brook called Kidron and entered a garden called Gethsemane. The booklet “True to the Faith” teaches, “Jesus’s atoning sacrifice took place in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. In Gethsemane, He submitted to the will of the Father and began to take upon Himself the sins of all people …. The Savior continued to suffer for our sins when He allowed Himself to be crucified—’lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world’ (1 Nephi 11:33)”.
Now, Latter-day Saints are not the only Christians who believe that Christ suffered for our sins partially in Gethsemane, but it is a somewhat controversial subject. We’re not really going to get into it today, but know that our discussion about Gethsemane today is not at all intended to detract from the massively important events of Calvary.
So, Matthew records that once in the garden of Gethsemane, Christ “began to be sorrowful and very heavy.” He withdrew some distance from the disciples, and Luke records that he began to pray, “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Mosiah 3:7 in the Book of Mormon describes Christ’s suffering in less ambiguous terms: “behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.”
To read more: Faith & Beliefs
