This is Christ In The Garden, by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, not a image to be worshipped but a piece of art that brings to our attention the hope of the gospel.
This week we especially give our attention to the suffering of our Lord. A beautiful promise is given to us in the garden scene (Luke 22:40-46), just prior to Christ’s crucifixion. He had taken the disciples with Him to pray. He told them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” But they didn’t do so well with the praying part. As Jesus agonized in prayer to His Father, sweating “like great drops of blood falling down to the ground,” they were sleeping. Their self-discipline couldn’t compete with sleep so it certainly couldn’t compete with temptation and the curse of sin. Neither does ours!
Thanks be to God that His Son is the Savior who stays awake. Not only did He stay awake in the garden to pray but He also stayed the course to take up the cross and suffer in our place for our sins. And now He sits at the Father’s right hand, never sleeping but always interceding as our all-sufficient Advocate. There He pleads our case before the Father. By faith in His sacrifice we are declared forgiven and fully righteous. His righteousness is given to us.
Because the Redeemer never sleeps, I can rest from my sins, failures, and worries in Him.
