“Seized by Horror and Distress”: A Brief Musing on Mark 14.33-35a
Jesus, the cool-as-a-cucumber, emotionless, impervious Savior; that’s the impression most people have of him. You hear this notion float to the top in our prayers, where we inform God of our anxious frettings, and then quickly apologize for having let the nervous-cat out of the bag, thinking that God frowns on such frivolous fussing. But look at these verses. Here is Jesus, “ the eternal Son of God,” who “became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever ” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 21) in the Garden of Gethsemene, and what is his emotional state? “And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled . And he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful , even to death . Remain here and watch." And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed ( . . . ).” We read that Jesus takes along his three closest companions, and the atmosphere is charged with deep angu...