Maundy Thursday: Gethsemane
Today is Maundy Thursday. That means it’s the day that Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, gave them a new commandment to “love one another”, instituted the Lord’s Supper, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and was betrayed and arrested.
Reading: John 18:1-11
Here in John 18 we see Good News in the Garden. Jesus isn’t fleeing. He isn’t trying to hide in the Garden. He’s in complete control. Verse 4 tells us that Jesus knew all of what was about to happen, and knowing that He went out and asked the soldiers and the priests who they were looking for. Jesus is the one who knows all things. He is the omniscient God. He knows the future. And knowing it all, He didn’t shrink back or hide. Instead, He steps forward and offers Himself up to them.
When they say it’s Jesus of Nazareth they’re looking for, Jesus answers “I AM!” That’s the name of the LORD! Jesus is telling them, not just that He’s the one they’re looking for, but that He is the living LORD. And in response, they fall down. Jesus’ glory is revealed in the Garden, even as He’s being arrested to be taken to the Cross. He is the LORD of Glory.
Yet the one who is the LORD of Glory, the one who is the Great I AM, the one who knows the end from the beginning, freely offers Himself up. He doesn’t flee from what’s coming. Instead, demonstrates even in His arrest exactly why He’s come. For He tells the soldiers, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go” (verse 8). He has come to rescue others. Jesus has come to save His people, and even in His arrest He demonstrates that He has come to give up His life in the place of others. He gives up His life so that His disciples can go free — so that we can go free. Jesus has taken our place in His death on the cross. In all that He suffered, He did it as our Substitute to save us.
What does He save us from? He saves us from what He takes in our place. And in verse 11, He describes that as a cup. In the Old Testament we read of this cup of the fury of God’s wrath on sin. It’s the punishment for the unbelief and sin of the world. And so Jesus here, on the night of His arrest, is telling us that He has come to save us, by suffering in our place the wrath of God which we deserved as the just judgment for our sin.
Yet, on this same night that Jesus tells us He’s come to drink the cup of God’s wrath for us, He offers us another cup — the cup of salvation. On that same night, He instituted the Lord’s Supper, and in it He gives a cup to drink saying: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you … for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke22:20; Matthew 26:28). Jesus has taken the cup of God’s wrath so that we can drink the cup of salvation — the forgiveness that comes to us through His blood shed in our place.
Jesus has paid the price for us on the cross. He has suffered the wrath of God for our sins. Instead of drinking that cup of God’s wrath ourselves, we can trust in the one who has drunk it for us. Come to Him and drink of the cup of salvation He offers us — come to Jesus and trust in Him, and taste and see that He is good.