‘The agony of the garden opens a window on to the greater agony of the cross’

In his book ‘More Ready than You Realise’ the writer and speaker Brian McLaren describes an encounter with a person in his church called George. George believes God exists but, by his own admission, is ‘still no closer to believing in Jesus Christ’ because Jesus doesn’t make sense to him, particularly his death on the cross. George asks Brian McLaren, ‘Why did Jesus have to die?’ Brian asks George for two weeks to think about his question!
Brian McLaren wrestles with the question but finds no answer. He shares his dilemma with his brother, Peter, saying, ‘. . . a couple of weeks ago I realised that I don’t know why Jesus had to die.’
His brother quickly replied, ‘Well, neither did Jesus.’ After citing the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as evidence, Peter said, ‘sounds to me like Jesus didn’t really understand why it had to be that way either. But the point wasn’t understanding it; the point was doing what needed to be done.’
When it is time to meet George again, McLaren shares his brother’s answer to the question. George is impressed with this non-answer and tells McLaren, ‘It kind of makes the question not really matter so much.’

If we were to meet George I would want us to say, ‘George the question of why Jesus had to die on the cross does matter. While Brian McLaren may be a personable, intelligent and gifted man but his non-answer has done you a disservice. Jesus did indeed know why he had to die on the cross. That’s one of the factors that make it so wonderful.

Brian McLaren’s brother failed to see the significance of the words Jesus prays in Gethsemane. Jesus talks about this cup. John Stott writes, ‘The Old Testament imagery will have been well known to Jesus. He must have recognized the cup he was being offered as containing the wine of God’s wrath . . . God’s purpose of love was to save sinners, and even to save them righteously; but this would be impossible without the sin-bearing death of the Saviour.’

This cup teaches us that our God is holy, and that he sees our sin as for more serious thing than most people seem to realise. This cup shows us that God is moved to righteous anger by our rebellion. Jesus knows that he is going to experience God’s righteous condemnation. Jesus knows that he is the only truly innocent person who has ever lived. So Jesus must know that he is dying as a substitute for sinful humanity. He is going to experience God’s wrath that we might know God’s mercy. He is giving his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).