Jesus Understands

And He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sad (overwhelmed with grief) so that it almost kills Me! Remain here and keep awake and be watching.  (Mk 14:34) (AMP) 

Please don't ever say Jesus doesn't understand the pain you are going through.  Here amongst the olive trees, in a place where olives were pressed and crushed, Jesus was going through His own crushing.  For the last three years He had laid down His life in service to the twelve and the many others who called out, and now He was about to lay down His life on the cross for the salvation of many. 

For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. (Mk 14:21) (NLT) 

This dark night of Gethsemane, when He most needed the support and prayers of Peter, James and John, He grappled alone with the Father's pending judgement to fall on Him because of our sins.  Imagine how He felt that night.   So intense was His struggle that He sweat drops of blood.

At the last meal Jesus had with His disciples, He warned them of His coming trial and death and the betrayal of one whom He had taught and loved to the end.  Not only the betrayal of a friend, with whom He had shared his bread, but all the disciples would run that night and flee as fast as they could away from the situation.

And Jesus said to them, You will all fall away this night [that is, you will be caused to stumble and will begin to distrust and desert Me], for it stands written, I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. Mar 14:27  [Zech. 13:7.]

Peter, James and John who had witnessed His glory on the mountain and His struggle in the garden, could not watch and pray one hour with Him in His deepest need.  Even though Jesus knew of the events unfolding as fulfilment of scripture written well before His time, even from the foundation of the world, there was no comfort found in the agony of the moment.

Jesus knows what it feels like to be abandoned by His closest friends and yet even as they forsook Him and stumbled in their faith, His promise was to go ahead of them after He rose from the dead and meet them in Galilee.

The writer of Hebrews is quick to allay our inadequacies, hurts and fears with this little gem:-

For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathise and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning. Heb 4:15 

Isn't that so comforting, that the Creator of the Universe, understands.  He has shared our plight, by putting on flesh, coming and dwelling among us.  He knows what it is like to be tired, hungry, cold, alone, abandoned, hurt, lied about, envied, distrusted, condemned, misunderstood, put on trial and sentenced to death.  He has loved His own, taught, healed, raised the dead and yet been despised for it all.  He has felt the sharp bite of the whip upon His back in order that we could have continued healing.  He heard the condemning and accusatory words, was spat upon and mocked. He felt the weight of the cross as He dragged it to His pending death.  He heard the sharp reverberation of metal upon metal as the iron pegs nailed him to that tree.  Shamed before all, He tasted death, paid for our sins and rose in power and glory. 

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. Heb 4:16