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The Solitary Sufferer at the Olive Press (Matthew 26:36-38) · Reformed Thinking

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So in 1415, there was this early reformer named Jan Huse, and he
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was tied to a wooden stake. Right, the execution.
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Yeah, the kindling was piled super high around his legs.
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Yeah. And as the executioner lit the
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flames, history tells us his he didn't scream in terror.
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He actually died singing hymns of joy.
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And if you Fast forward a few centuries, you read these
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accounts of men like Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, and
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they were literally joking with each other as they were burned
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alive. Yeah, just incredible peace.
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Right. They face this horrific physical
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death. Absolute, unshaken peace.
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So why, centuries earlier was the captain of our salvation?
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You know the Son of God sweating blood in a garden.
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Right. Paralyzed by dread?
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Yeah. Begging for a different path.
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I mean, it's a stark contrast. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today we're taking you on a specific deep dive into the
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source text surrounding Matthew 26.36 through 38.
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And our mission here is to uncover the severe theological
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weight of Christ's sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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Yes, rejecting those sort of superficial modern readings that
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treat this as just a passing moment of emotional sadness.
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Yeah, we are looking at this moment through a strict,
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historically rooted lens to understand the crushing reality
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of divine rap. So to grasp what is happening on
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that night, we really have to pull back.
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Yeah, we need to look at the geopolitical and religious
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climate of 1st century Judea. Absolutely.
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It is the night of Passover, so Jerusalem is just swelling with
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hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
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Oh yeah, Pact type. And at the same time, the
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religious elite, they are actively plotting a murder under
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the cover of darkness. The Roman occupation is casting
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this long, brutal shadow over the entire city.
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Creating an atmosphere of just constant tension, right?
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But above all that noise, the true Passover lamb is moving
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deliberately towards sacrifice. I mean, think about the sensory
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reality of Jerusalem on Passover.
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And you can't even imagine. Hundreds of thousands of lambs
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had just been slaughtered in the temple courts.
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It was a memorial of Israel's deliverance from Egypt.
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So the blood was literally flowing out of the Temple Mount.
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And in the middle of this setting, Jesus is preparing for
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the final once for all sacrifice.
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He is not a victim of random historical accidents, no, or bad
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political luck. The sovereign decree of God is
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marching forward precisely on schedule.
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And the geographical path Jesus takes right after leaving the
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upper room. It's staggering when you
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actually map it out. It really is.
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The text specifically notes that he and his disciples crossed the
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Kidron Valley to reach the Mount of Olives.
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Which is such a massive historical parallel.
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It is. It links to a terrible night.
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Centuries earlier, King David crossed this exact same valley,
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weeping. You know his head covered, his
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feet bare. Right.
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Fleeing treason. Yeah, he was fleeing the treason
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of his own son Absalom. You can read about that in
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Second Samuel 15. Absalom had stolen the hearts of
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the people, and David was forced into exile in the dead of night.
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And now the greater son of David is crossing that same brook.
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Exactly. He is also facing betrayal by
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someone close to him, Judas. But Jesus is not weeping over an
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earthly throne. He is weeping over the impending
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cup of divine judgement. Yeah, and the physical location
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they arrive at after crossing that valley, it provides a
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really stark visual for what is about to happen.
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Yeah, the text calls it Gethsemane.
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Right. That is the compound Aramaic
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word Gatsumani, which translates literally to olive press, Olive
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press and an ancient Near Eastern agrarian culture.
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Extracting olive oil was a violent process.
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You didn't just squeeze an olive with your hands.
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No, no, you place the harvest listed olives into a stone
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basin, then this massive unrelenting stone wheel which
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was often pulled by a beast of burden.
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It was rolled over them. Crushing it crushed the olives
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until the oil flowed out. The imagery the text points out
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here is impossible to miss. Christ is brought to the place
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of the crushing stone. I have actually seen the ruins
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of those ancient olive presses. Oh, really?
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Yeah. And the stone wheel is gigantic.
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You look at it and you realize it is completely immovable by
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human hands. It pulverizes whatever is
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trapped underneath it. That physical tool is a
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terrifying analogy for the invisible spiritual weight of
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sin pressing down on Christ. He is being crushed and this
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links directly to Isaiah 53.10. Yes, where the prophet says it
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please the Lord to crush him, right?
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Isaiah 53.10 declares it was the Father's will to put Him to
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grief. The historical reality of the
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physical olive press becomes a tangible, visible illustration
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of the spiritual agony Christ endured.
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The spiritual weight of the sins of the elect begins to press
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down upon his soul right there among the olive trees.
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And this physical setting is the backdrop we must keep in mind as
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we analyze the specific arrangement of the disciples
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within that space. Because Jesus does not just walk
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into the garden and tell everyone to huddle up together.
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He initiates A deliberate staging.
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Right. He gives a very specific
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directive creating a physical separation.
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He issues a Greek command in verse 36 Katha, say .2, which
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translates to sit here. Yeah, so he leaves a majority of
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his friends behind. He leaves eight of the disciples
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at the perimeter of the garden. He tells them to sit while he
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goes over to pray, and this broad separation is loaded with
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theological application. Yeah, the source text argues
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that this physical separation destroys any concept of
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synergism. Let's breakdown synergism for a
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second. It is the idea that man can
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cooperate in his own salvation, like two people rowing a boat
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together to reach the shore. Right.
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God rows one side, man rows the other.
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But if the disciples represent all of humanity in this moment,
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what does their inability to stay awake say about human
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merit? It leaves human merit entirely
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bankrupt. I mean, God is actively securing
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redemption and man is asleep on the job.
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Wow. Yeah.
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The text points out that this scene is a flat rejection of
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Arminianism, which suggests fallen man retains A cooperative
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role in securing his salvation through his own free will.
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It also functions as a rejection of Roman Catholicism,
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specifically the concept of Mary as a comediatrix, or the idea of
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Saints interceding to add to the treasury of Mary.
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So in the garden there are no Co redeemers.
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None. Jesus leaves the eight behind
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because they can do absolutely nothing to contribute to the
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Atonement. Humanity is asleep while the
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Savior is agonizing. You cannot add to the finished
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work of the cross. Your only contribution to
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salvation is the sin that made it necessary.
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Exactly. OK, I followed the logic of
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leaving the eight behind. But then Jesus takes three of
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them further into the garden. He takes Peter, James, and John.
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He does. This seems contradictory.
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If human merit is bankrupt, and if Jesus knew they were going to
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fail and fall asleep anyway, why bring them closer at all?
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That is a great question. Why give them a front row seat
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to his agony? Well, the analysis provided in
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our sources clarifies that these three men are brought closer as
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witnesses to the cost of redemption, not to aid in it.
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No. OK, as witnesses.
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Look at the specific history of this inner circle.
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These are the same three men who saw his transfigured glory on
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the mountain in Matthew 17. Right.
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They saw his face shine like the sun.
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And they were the ones who witnessed the raising of
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Jairus's daughter from the dead. They have seen the absolute
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heights of His divine majesty and life giving ability.
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So they've seen him as the undeniable victor, and now they
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have to see him as the crushed Man of Sorrows.
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Precisely. Now they must witness His
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absolute sorrow. Their presence and their
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subsequent failure to stay awake highlights the sheer necessity
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of a solitary Savior. Wow.
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They prove that salvation requires an alien external
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righteousness, a righteousness outside of ourselves, provided
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by Christ alone. Because they couldn't even keep
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their eyes open to offer him moral support, let alone help
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him bear the wrath of God. Exactly.
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The physical isolation of Jesus points to his mediatorial
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isolation. There is one mediator between
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God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
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That brings us back to the contrast we started.
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With the martyrs. Yeah, the internal horror he
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experiences alone in that garden.
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We talk about Yonhos and the martyrs dying with joy.
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If the cross was just a physical execution by the Romans, Jesus
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seems weaker than the martyrs who came after him.
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Right. If this was just about the
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physical pain of crucifixion, then the martyrs possessed a
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courage that the Son of God lacked.
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And we know that cannot be true. So what is actually happening in
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his mind? The text explains that Christ is
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not facing near Roman nails or a physical cross.
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He is anticipating the unmitigated fury of divine
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wrath. He's anticipating the father
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turning his face away from him. Yes, he is about to have the
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foul, putrid sins of his people imputed to his perfectly holy
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account. A martyr dies with the presence
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of God comforting him. But Christ is about to die with
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the presence of God crushing him, right?
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The specific words Matthew uses to describe this terror are
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fascinating. I really want to look at the
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Greek word study the author provides because it completely
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changes how we read this. Let's do it.
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Verse 37 says he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
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The word for sorrowful is lepaistai.
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Yes, lepaistai is a standard Greek word for severe mental
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distress and grief. It is a heavy word for sure, but
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the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to pair it with a remarkably
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rare word, adomanine. Adomanine.
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This word only appears three times in the entire New
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Testament. We see it here in the parallel
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passage in Mark and in Philippians 2.26 where
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Epiphroditus is distressed because his friends heard he was
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sick. So to understand the severe
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weight of a demonine, we have to look at its use in secular Greco
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Roman antiquity, right? I read the historical examples
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of this and it is chilling. It was used to describe soldiers
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who were suddenly paralyzed by the dizzying terror of impending
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slaughter. Imagine standing in a shield
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wall, seeing a massive opposing army charging at you, and
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realizing you are completely trapped.
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Your knees give out. Your vision blurs that.
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That is a physical reality of the word.
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It is a sudden, terrifying disorientation.
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It goes far beyond the common Greek word tarasu, which just
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means agitation or stirring up. Jesus is experiencing an
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apocalyptic horror. His human nature is recoiling at
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the prospect of bearing the sins of the world and drinking the
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cup of God's wrath. I can think of for dumb money.
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And it's the physical sensation of Vertigo.
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You know that intense dizziness where you lose all sense of up
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and down, left and right? Oh yeah.
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But combine that Vertigo with absolute paralyzing dread.
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It is a total loss of orientation.
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The ground drops out from underneath and that.
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Horror is further detailed in the very next verse.
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In verse 38 Jesus says my soul is very sorrowful, even to
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death. The Greek phrase there is para
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lipos espinha secumu heshtanatu look.
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At that word para lipos, the prefix pari means a round.
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Think of words like perimeter or Periscope.
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It shows that grief is Hemming him in from every conceivable
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angle. There is no escape route.
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Everywhere he looks, past, present, future, there is only
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wrath and suffering. The author notes that this grief
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was so severe, so physically and spiritually taxing, that it
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would have killed his human nature right there in the garden
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before he ever reached the cross, if he had not received
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divine sustenance. The agony was literally lethal.
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That level of extremity forces us to ask a massive theological
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question. Which is how?
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Could God suffer? I mean, how could the creator of
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the universe, who is entirely self-sufficient, be crushed to
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the point of death in a garden? This is where we have to look
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closely at the nature of Christ Himself.
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To answer how God could suffer, we have to define the hypostatic
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union. Right.
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The hypostatic union is the doctrine that Jesus Christ has
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two distinct natures, a divine nature and a human nature united
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in one person forever. We use the language from the
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Council of Chalcedon here. These two natures are united
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without confusion, without change, without division, and
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without separation. OK, so the Son of God assumed a
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true human body and a reasonable human soul.
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Yes, therefore, His human soul can be sorrowful and his human
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nature can suffer, while his divine Person remains the
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eternal, unchanging Son. So he is 100% God and 100% man.
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The text takes a rigid stance on this doctrine.
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It specifically notes that groups like Jehovah's Witnesses
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and Mormonism are blasphemous cults precisely because they
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deny this union. They view Jesus as a created
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being. A highly exalted creature, sure,
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but a creature nonetheless. Right.
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And the theological logic behind that condemnation is rigorous.
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Think about the mechanics of the atonement.
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If Jesus were a finite created being, he could never absorb
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infinite wrath. Never.
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A finite creature would be eternally consumed by the
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infinite wrath of God. It would be like trying to soak
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up the entire Pacific Ocean with a single kitchen sponge.
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That's a great visual. It is mathematically impossible.
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Only the God man who possesses an infinite divine nature could
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offer a sacrifice of infinite worth in a finite amount of
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time. The hypostatic union is not
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abstract theology for academics. It is the absolute requirement
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for the atonement to be valid, yes.
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And the Old Testament connections here are brilliant.
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When Jesus says my soul is very sorrowful, he is actually
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quoting Psalm 42.50. Really.
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Yeah, that original Psalm was the lament of an exiled Levite
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who was cut off from the temple, surrounded by enemies, wondering
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where is God was. Jesus deliberately appropriates
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that lament. He establishes himself as the
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ultimate exile. He is the true and better exile.
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He is the one who will be cast outside the camp, as Hebrews
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1313 describes it, to bear our reproach.
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Right. He's cut off from the favorable
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presence of the Father so that we can be brought in.
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And that fulfillment points us to another massive theological
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connection. The author highlights the
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contrast between Eden and Gethsemane.
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We're looking at Adam, Christ theology.
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Let's trace that timeline. The first Adam was placed in a
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pristine, perfect garden. He had every advantage.
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Every single one. He faced A temptation, asserted
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his own will against God, and brought death and condemnation
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to all of humanity. Then you have the last Adam,
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Jesus Christ. He enters a dark, agonizing
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garden. He is under immense distress.
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He faces an immeasurably greater temptation, the temptation to
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bypass the cross. Yet He submits His human will to
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the Father and brings eternal life to His people.
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In Eden, Adam said my will be done and ruined us.
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In Gethsemane, Jesus said Thy will be done and saved us.
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I hear theologians talk about the active and passive obedience
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of Christ. I get the passive part.
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He passively endures the suffering in the cross, right?
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But I sometimes struggle with the active part.
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Adam actively ate the fruit. Jesus is just enduring suffering
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here, right? So how does this display both
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the active and passive obedience of Christ?
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That is a great clarification to make.
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Passive obedience refers to Christ's willingness to suffer
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the penalty of our sin, taking the curse, bearing the wrath.
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But active obedience is seen in His perfect, unbroken submission
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to the Father's law and will in the garden.
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Under the greatest temptation to despair and abandoned mission,
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He maintains perfect righteousness.
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He actively chooses obedience. Right, he says.
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Not as I will, but as you will. He actively fulfills the
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righteous requirement of the law that Adam failed to provide, and
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he prepares to endure the passive obedience of the cross.
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And from the perfection of Christ, the text abruptly shifts
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to the failing disciples. Jesus tells them, Remain here
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and watch with me. This shifts our focus to the
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call to watchfulness. Command watch with me.
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It really exposes the total inadequacy of human resolve.
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Think about what happened just a few hours earlier in the Upper
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room. Peter had just loudly,
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forcefully promised that he would follow Jesus to prison and
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to death. He swore he would never fall
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away. Yet Jesus does not tell Peter to
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boast more loud, loudly. He commands him to watch and
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pray. The flesh cannot be trusted.
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Privilege, past experiences, and sincere affection do not remove
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the need for constant dependent vigilance.
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And the author applies this concept of spiritual sleep to
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our modern era. Yeah, the text draws parallels
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to current cultural issues. Now to impartially report what's
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in the text. The author argues that
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ideologies like critical race theory, social justice
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frameworks, and secular humanism act as spiritual anesthetics
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designed to put the church to sleep.
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We are just observing how the author uses the historical
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failure of the disciples to issue an overarching theological
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warning here. Exactly.
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The author contends that these modern frameworks distract the
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Church from its primary mission. They create a spiritual
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lethargy. The author asserts that true
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reconciliation between hostile groups is found only at the
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cross, not in political ideologies.
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So the underlying theological warning there is the necessity
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of dependent prayer. Yes, the author aggressively
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critiques modern evangelical pragmatism and seeker sensitive
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movements. Oh yeah.
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These are church models that rely heavily on marketing,
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Polish techniques, fog machines and entertainment rather than
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desperate reliance on God. The logic the author uses is
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Yerp. If the sinless Son of God
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required dependent, agonizing prayer in the hour of testing,
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then prayerlessness in fallen believers is inexcusable pride.
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If Jesus needed to pray in Gethsemane to face his trial,
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how can the modern church function on mere strategy and
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secular management tactics without falling completely
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asleep? It is a devastating critique.
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If the Lord of glory falls on his face in desperate prayer, we
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have no business relying on our own cleverness.
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This text applies severe warnings, but it also
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establishes strict theological boundaries that offer immense
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comfort. Right.
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For example, the author fiercely repudiates the prosperity
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gospel. When you look at Jesus sweating
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blood in Gethsemane, when you see him crushed and pleading
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with the Father, how can anyone stand behind a pulpit and
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promise temporal wealth and perfect physical health?
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The prosperity gospel treats God as a cosmic vending machine, but
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the Lord of glory was crushed unto death.
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He promises followers they would face tribulation.
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The true gospel promises the forgiveness of sins and eternal
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life, not a comfortable, affluent life here and now.
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The author also unpacks A cessationist viewpoint,
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contrasting it with modern mysticism.
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Cessationism is the theological position that the miraculous
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sign gifts like speaking in tongues, prophetic utterances,
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and new direct revelations from God ended with the Apostolic era
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once the Canon of Scripture was closed.
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The author argues that believers should not seek subjective extra
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biblical encounters or chase after emotional highs.
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Instead, the objective, completed Word of God is
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sufficient. We have the perfectly recorded
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agony of the Savior in the text. We do not need new prophecies or
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individual whispers from God. The written word gives us
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everything we need for life and godliness.
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The source material also outlines a specific
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dispensational comfort. Yes, the author speaks from a
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premillennial, pre tribulational perspective.
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Now, while we generally look at things from a reformed
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perspective that typically holds to Covenant theology, we want to
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accurately relay the author's viewpoint here.
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The argument presented is that because Christ fully exhausted
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the wrath of God in the garden and on the cross, the church is
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entirely secure. The logic of the pre
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tribulational view presented in the text is that the church will
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be caught up in the clouds, the rapture before the
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eschatological tribulation wrath is poured out upon the earth.
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The Bride of Christ will not face the wrath that he already
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absorbed. He drank the cup down to the
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dregs so that the Church would not have to drink a single drop
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of divine judgment. The text also touches on two
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final applications regarding obedience and order within the
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covenant community. First, there's a call to uphold
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complementarianism. This is the belief in specific
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ordained roles for men and women in the church and the home.
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The author connects this directly to the Trinity.
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Yes. The author notes that these
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roles reflect the willing submission of the Son to the
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Father within the economic Trinity.
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Jesus is equal to the Father in essence, power and glory, yet He
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willingly submits to the Father's plan, saying not my
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will, but yours be done. The author argues this
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establishes the pattern for order and submission within the
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family and the church. 2nd, the author points out the command
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for believers, baptism. The text argues that if you have
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placed your faith in Christ, baptism is required as the
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outward declaration of your inward faith.
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It is a public identification with his death, burial and
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resurrection. Again, we are detailing the
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specific applications the author draws from this text regarding
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obedience. Let's summarize the main
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arguments we have walked through today.
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Sounds good. We have seen Christ's deliberate
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sovereign movement into the olive Press of Gethsemane.
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We have examined the severe linguistic reality of his
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terrifying, claustrophobic sorrow.
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The Adomonine that threatened to kill his human nature.
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We have seen the absolute necessity of the hypostatic
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union, the God man suffering in our place, to absorb infinite
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wrath. And we have witnessed the
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complete destruction of human merit as the disciples slept
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while the Savior labored entirely alone.
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Based on all of this, the author issues a closing plea urging you
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to abandon any trust in your own self righteousness.
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Do not put your hope in your church attendance, your moral
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record, or your good intentions. When the crushing weight of the
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law is applied to your life, those things will snap like
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twigs. You are urged to cast yourself
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wholly and entirely upon the solitary sufferer, the only
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mediator who drank the cup of wrath.
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I want to leave you with the final thought to consider
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building on the mechanics of the olive press we discussed
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earlier. It's a heavy thought.
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If Christ's sorrow in Gethsemane was a deliberate, purposeful
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descent into the crusher to extract the oil of our
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redemption, look at your own lies.
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Consider how your own moments of intense, isolated crushing might
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not be a sign of God's absence. Instead, that crushing might be
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the very mechanism designed by a sovereign God to strip away
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yourself reliance, break your pride, and force you to watch
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and pray with the only One who survived the press.