A Betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane

Reference: Mark 14:32-50

These selected verses give us an account of those things that took place following Jesus' instituting of the Lord's Supper and just prior to His trial before Annas and Caiaphas, then before Pilate, where He would be sentenced to death.

After having completed the first Lord's Supper, the scripture says that Jesus and His disciples sung a hymn together and then went out into the Mount of Olives. One can imagine as they went forth, Jesus must have begun to feel the weight of the load that He was about to bear. The agony of those coming events must have grieved His heart tremendously. Realizing that He was carrying the weight of the world on His shoulders, Jesus knew that He needed not only to pray, but some place, somewhere to go and pray. Jesus knowing this knew where to go to. A place they called the Garden of Gethsemane. A place where it is said He prayed often. (You and I ought to have a place where we pray often.)'

If one was to look closely at these events that unfolded in this garden, we would see that contrary to popular belief, there was not one act of betrayal, but three.

(1) The first betrayal is the three disciples, Peter, James and John. They proved faithless by falling asleep while He prayed. (See Mark 14: 37-38)

(2) The second betrayal is the one we most recognize. Judas led the soldiers to Jesus and identified Him with a kiss. This was aiding the enemy. (See Mark 14:43-45)

(3) The third betrayal is each one of us. At some time and in some way, we have betrayed our Savior. We have aided the enemy of Christ. We have been traitors to the Cross of Christ and the way of our Jesus. Lastly we all have at times proven faithless to and deserted our Lord when He needed us most.

Yet with this being the case, even though His disciples betrayed Him and even though each of us have betrayed Him, we can still praise Him. For while He was on the cross of Calvary, He cried out to His Father in Heaven: "Father, forgive them, for they know now that they do!"

This is the joy and power of Easter, that we have a Savior who loves us enough to look beyond our faults and see our needs. We celebrate Easter because Jesus sacrificed His life that you and I might have life. Though we have betrayed Him as the disciples did, we can turn our errors of betrayal into reminders to serve Him continually.