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JESUS CHRIST...SON OF GOD AND SON OF MAN Lesson 19

GETHSEMANE & THE TRIAL OF JESUS

Sacred Scripture

MATTHEW 26:36-56 The Agony in the Garden &Betrayal MARK 14:32-52 LUKE 22:39-53 JOHN 18:1-14

MATTHEW 26:57-27:32 The Trial of Jesus MARK 14:53-15:20 LUKE 22:54-23:25 JOHN 18:13-19:16

PARENTS’ & CATECHISTS’ READING REFLECTION & PRAYER

DID YOU KNOW?

Gethsemane is a garden on the Mt. of Olives. After the olives were harvested from the trees there, they were crushed in a pressing machine for their oil. “Gethsemane” means “Olive Press.” Just as olives were crushed there, so too is Our Lord “crushed” beneath the weight of our sins which He takes upon Himself.

HEART OF CATECHESIS

“If you are suffering trials, or are sad, look upon Him on His way to the Garden. What sore distress He must have borne in His soul to describe His own suffering as He did…He will look upon you with His lovely and compassionate eyes full of tears, and comforting your grief will forget His own…” St Theresa of Avila Way of Perfection Chapter 26 Agony in the Garden Mosaic

Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary Lourdes France


TEACHING STRATEGY & OBJECTIVES

THEMES: IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE… “GOD MADE HIM WHO KNEW NO SIN TO BE SIN SO THAT WE MIGHT ATTAIN THE VERY HOLINESS OF GOD” (2 COR 5:21)

JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD IS TRIED AND FOUND GUILTY BY THE HUMAN RACE. HE WHO CAME THAT WE MIGHT LIVE… IS SENTENCED TO DEATH BY CRUCIFIXION

OBJECTIVES: Read the Scripture accounts of the Agony in the Garden and the Trial of Jesus and consider these points:

Jesus Himself did not sin, but He did experience the guilt of our sins which weighed so heavily upon Him

He was obedient to His Father’s Will

His agony in the Garden was not fear of the Cross but suffering for all our sins

Sacred Scripture

Grades K-4 New Catholic Picture Bible pp. 196-197 The Agony in the Garden pp. 198-203 The Trial of Jesus Grades 5-12 MATTHEW 26:36-56 The Agony in the Garden MARK 14:32-52 LUKE 22:39-53 JOHN 18:1-14 MATTHEW 26:57-27:32 The Trial of Jesus MARK 14:53-15:20 LUKE 22:54-23:25 JOHN 18:13-19:16

Catechism

Grades K-2 First Communion Catechism pp. n/a

Grades 3-6 Baltimore Catechism #1 p. 185 The Sorrowful Mysteries

Grades 7-12 Catechism of the Catholic Church n/a

STUDENTS’ READING REFLECTION & PRAYER

OPENING PRAYER: DECADE OF THE ROSARY- FIRST, SECOND, OR THIRD

SORROWFUL MYSTERY


REVIEW:

REVIEW

READINGS FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE: THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE MATTHEW 26:36-56, MARK 14:32-52, LUKE 22:39-53, JOHN 18:1-14

WHY DID WE HAVE TO READ FOUR DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SAME STORY?

Remember that all the Scriptures are Inspired by God the Holy Spirit. SACRED SCRIPTURE: THE BIBLE…THE WORD OF GOD INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WRITTEN BY MEN IN THE OLD AND NEW TES-TAMENT. Four different men [Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John] … the Evan-gelists were inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit to set down the Gospel in writing. Each evangelist had different gifts and abilities and reasons for writing. And they were writing for different congregations. So at times each of them will tell us something that the others did not. By reading all four ac-counts of what happened to Jesus in Gethsemane, we get a clearer under-standing of the events. WHERE AND WHEN IS ALL OF THIS HAPPENING?

The Last Supper [which is the First Mass] was celebrated by Our Lord with the Apostles on Holy Thursday evening, probably on April 6, 30 AD. If the Paschal Supper lasted from 6:30 pm [after sunset] until about 9:30 pm, it probably took Christ and 11 of His Apostles about an hour to travel from the southwest corner of the Holy City [Jerusalem] to the Garden of Gethsemane [beyond the Golden Gate in the upper eastern section of the city [see map]. They probably arrive at the Garden of Gethsemane at about 10:45 pm as the Hour of Darkness is drawing near. WHY IS JESUS PRAYING?

Jesus is praying so that He will have the strength to take the guilt of our sins upon Himself—and with that terrible burden, go forward to His Trial… endure the terrible tortures to which we would subject Him…and ultimately… to carry that Cross through the streets and up the hill called Golgotha [Calvary] so that He could be Crucified. WHY DOES JESUS ASK PETER, JAMES, AND JOHN TO COME ASIDE WITH HIM?

Jesus Christ is God and Man. He had a special love for Peter, James, and John… they were His close friends among the Apostles and we have seen Jesus call them aside from the others before at special moments in His Life [when He raised the Little Girl from the Dead, for the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, and also when Jesus uttered His prophecy of the calamities which would befall Jerusalem]. He was terribly oppressed and was beginning to feel the darkness closing in on Him. He wanted to keep His friends close—for His consolation and perhaps for their protec-tion! Jesus asked them to stay awake...to keep watch with Him...to pray with Him. But in this hour when Jesus needed them the most, Peter, James and John kept falling asleep.

PRACTICE THE ACT OF CONTRITION

O My God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins, because of Your just punishments, but most of all because they offend You, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love I firmly resolve, With the help of your grace, To sin no more And to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen

1. Gethsemane 2. House of Annas and

Caiaphas 3. Sanhedrin at the

Temple 4. Palace of Pontius

Pilate 5. Herod’s Palace

1

2

Palace of Annas and Caiaphas

3

4

5


REVIEW:

WHAT DOES JESUS DO AT THIS POINT?

Jesus goes a bit farther into the dark garden [about a “stone’s throw” away from Peter, James, and John] and falls down on the ground and prays. As God and Man He began to experience in Himself the guilt of all the sins which would ever be committed throughout human history.

This is a hard moment and mystery to understand. Jesus was the “spotless Lamb of God”… the Innocent Son of the Father and Son of Mary Who never sinned. But He came to save us from our sins and the damage that those sins caused in us and in the world. Although He did not [and could not] sin Himself, He could allow Himself to ex-perience the guilt of our sins—all of our sins. This is what filled Jesus with horror and crushed Him to the ground. This is what St. Paul meant when he wrote many years later…

God made Him, Who knew no sin, to be sin, so that we might become the very holiness of God [2 COR 5:21].

Have you ever committed a serious sin? Do you remember how you felt when you realized how truly terrible it real-ly was—and considered how much you may have hurt others? Can you recall how you experienced the sick and chilling and nauseous feeling of guilt within you? Imagine feeling the guilt not just for a single sin, but for all the sins you committed throughout your entire life. Imagine carrying the guilt and the weight of all the sins being committed in the world right now… or for all the sins that would ever be committed by everyone, everywhere and in every time. This is what so horrified Jesus in the Garden…this was the “opportune time” that the devil would return [LK 4:13]— the Hour of Darkness! WHAT DOES JESUS CALL HIS FATHER IN THIS DARK HOUR?

Only Mark gives us this detail in his Gospel. Jesus calls His Father “ABBA”…which is the Aramaic word for “Daddy.” He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father—and Jesus’ use of this word helps us to understand how much He loved His Father—and how close He was to Him…even though in this hour of darkness He felt as if He was very far away from Him. WHAT IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN THIS STORY?

When Jesus is praying to Our Father… His “ABBA,” He begs, “LET THIS CUP PASS FROM ME; NEVERTHELESS, NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS THOU WILT” [MT 26:39]. These words help us to understand how much Jesus is suffering—how terrible our sins are for Him to experience. In His Humanity He wants to be spared this experience. He wants His ABBA to take this terrible trial—this bitter “cup”—away from Him. But in His Humanity He also loves us and wants to save us from our sins, so He prays the all important words… “NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS THOU WILT.” Jesus says “YES” to His Father’s Plan… and this great and loving “YES” cancelled out Adam’s selfish and pride-ful “NO” when he put himself and Eve before God. St. Paul later explains this when he writes… “…through one man sin entered the world, and with sin, death….a single offense brought condemnation to all men, a single righteous act brought all men acquittal and life. Just as through one man’s disobedience all became sinners, so through one Man’s obedience all shall become just” [ROM 5:12 and 18—19]. When Jesus…crushed with the weight of our sins and our guilt said, “YES” to the Father’s Plan, He cancelled out or “eclipsed” the terrible “NO” that Adam, the father and representative of the human race, spoke in Eden…the ORIGINAL SIN: MAN DISOBEYED GOD IN THE BEGINNING AND BROUGHT SIN, SUFFERING, AND DEATH INTO THE WORLD. Jesus’ Human Will conformed itself to Our Father’s Will…and Mankind’s relationship with God, broken by sin, was restored by Jesus’ obedient sacrifice of Himself.

Agony in the Garden Stained Glass Window William Morris Trinity Church, Saugerties, NY


IS JESUS AFRAID OF THE CROSS?

Christ is not a coward; He is not afraid the way that we would be afraid. But the horror of our sins overwhelmed Him. It is because He is Holy that He was filled with anxiety and distress in the cold embrace of our “unholiness.”

John Henry Newman, a great theologian and bishop well on his way to being canonized a saint, described Jesus’ mental sufferings in a very powerful and memorable way…

“In that most awful hour, knelt the Savior of the world, putting off the defences of His Divinity, dismissing His reluctant angels, who in myriads were ready at His call, and opening His arms, baring His breast, sinless as He was, to the assault of His foe—a foe whose breath was a pestilence and whose embrace was an agony. There He knelt, motionless and still, while the vile and horrible fiend clad His spirit in a robe steeped in all that is hateful and heinous in human crime, which clung close round His Heart and filled His conscience, and found its way into every sense and every pore of His mind and spread over him a moral leprosy, till He almost felt Himself to be that which He could never be, and which His foe would fain have made Him. O the horror, when he looked and did not know Himself, and felt as a foul and loathsome sinner, from His vivid perception of that mass of corruption which poured over His Head and ran down even to the skirts of His garments. O the distraction, when He found His eyes, and feet, and lips, and heart, as if the members of the Evil One and not of God! Are these the hands of the Immaculate Lamb of God, once innocent, but now red with ten thousand barbarous deeds of blood? Are these His lips, not uttering prayer, and praise, and blessings, but as if defiled with oaths, and blasphemies, and doctrines of devils? Or His eyes, profaned as they are by all the evil visions and idolatrous fascinations for which men have abandoned their adorable Creator? And His ears, they ring with sounds of revelry and strife; and His heart is frozen with avarice and cruelty and unbelief; and His very memory is laden with every sin which has been committed since the Fall, in all the regions of the earth, with the pride of the old giants, and the lusts of the five cities, and the obduracy of Egypt, and the ambition of Babel, and the unthankfulness and scorn of Israel.”

This is merely an attempt to describe in mere words the horror which Jesus experienced when He took the guilt of our sins upon Himself. WHAT DOES LUKE TELL US THAT THE OTHER EVANGELISTS DO NOT?

Luke the “Dear and Glorious Physician” recalls for us a very important detail that Matthew, Mark, and John do not mention; Jesus’ bloody sweat. The medical condition is called hemathridrosis and is the result of very intense and traumatic anxiety which causes the tiny blood vessels surrounding the sweat glands rupture. Blood pours into the sweat ducts and flows out onto the skin surface as a bloody sweat. In this hour when Jesus was crushed and bled for us, the Father sent an angel [perhaps Jesus’ Guardian Angel] to strengthen Him [LK 22:43-44]. WHAT DOES JUDAS DO WHEN HE HANDS JESUS OVER?

Since it was probably dark in the Garden of Gethsemane and hard to see, Judas arranged a signal with the arresting soldiers who accompanied him. He would find Jesus, go up to Him, and kiss Him. What should have been a sign of love and respect became a symbol of malice and betrayal. WHAT DOES JOHN TELL US ABOUT THE ARREST THAT THE OTHERS DO NOT?

John mentions an exchange of words between Jesus and the soldiers. Jesus asks them, “WHO IS IT YOU WANT?” They reply, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus responds, “I AM!” Jesus is using the Holy Name of God, YAHWEH, to refer to Himself—and the power of this moment and this proclamation causes the arrest-ing mob to step back and fall to the ground. But it is not Jesus’ plan to escape. After making it clear in this way that no one takes His Life from Him, but that He lays it down freely, Jesus delivers Himself into their hands.

Agony in the Garden Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1841


WHAT DID PETER DO TO PROTECT JESUS—AND WHAT DOES JESUS SAY TO HIM?

Peter pulls out one of the two swords that they borrowed from the room where they celebrated the Last Supper [LK 22:37—38] and “swings the sword like a fisherman.” His aim is not so good, and all that he manages to do is to cut the ear off of one of the arresting mob, a man named Malchus. Jesus is quick to correct Peter; “PUT BACK YOUR SWORD WHERE IT BELONGS. THOSE WHO USE THE SWORD ARE SOONER OR LATER DESTROYED BY IT. DO YOU NOT SUPPOSE I CAN CALL ON MY FATHER TO PROVIDE AT A MOMENT’S NOTICE MORE THAN 12 LEGIONS OF ANGELS? BUT THEN HOW WOULD THE SCRIPTURES BE FULFILLED WHICH SAY IT MUST HAPPEN THIS WAY?” [MT 26:52—54]. WHAT DOES JESUS DO FOR MALCHUS?

It is only Luke, the physician, who pauses to provide us with the compassionate de-tail—Jesus cures him—He heals one of the very men who are arresting Him. HOW DOES THIS EPISODE END?

Jesus looks about at the crowd of evil men and cowards who have banded together to arrest Him and takes them to task… “AM I A CRIMINAL THAT YOU COME OUT AFTER ME WITH SWORDS AND CLUBS? WHEN I WAS WITH YOU DAY AFTER DAY IN THE TEMPLE YOU NEVER RAISED A HAND AGAINST ME. BUT THIS IS YOUR HOUR—THE TRIUMPH OF DARKNESS!”

“…Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.”

Arrest of Christ Fra Angelico, 1450

READINGS FROM SACRED SCRIPTURE: THE TRIAL OF JESUS MATTHEW 26:57-27:32, MARK 14:53-15:20, LUKE 22:54-23:25, AND JOHN 18:13-19:16

ABOUT WHAT TIME WAS JESUS ARRESTED, AND WHERE DO THEY TAKE HIM?

When Jesus tells the arresting officials, “THIS IS YOUR HOUR…AND THE POWER OF DARKNESS!” it is probably about midnight. The band of soldiers drag Jesus back across the darkened streets of Jerusalem to the palace of Annas and Caiaphas, which is rather close to the upper room where Jesus shared the Last Supper with His Apostles. There they planned to put Him on trial. WHY WAS JESUS ON TRIAL? WHAT DID HE DO WRONG?

Jesus had done nothing wrong, of course! But the religious officials of that time had begun to hate Jesus because He “threatened” their power base. In their position, by controlling the Temple and the way that people believed and wor-shiped, they could live very comfortable lives. Many of them were very wealthy. The Romans let the religious leaders keep their honored places as long as there was “peace”… so the Romans could rule the land and collect their taxes. Most of those in power began to see Jesus and His teachings as a threat to their hold on the people. WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO GET JESUS TO DO?

The trial before Annas [the former High Priest] was illegal. Jewish law forbade trials at night, and without a sufficient number of the San-hedrin [the ruling council] present. Their laws also did not allow them to force a prisoner to testify against himself—and required that the uniform testimony of two witnesses was necessary to condemn a man to death. They hated Jesus so much they broke their own laws—trying to force Him to say something that they could use to put Him to death. They struck Christ, blindfolded Him, slapped Him and spit on Him to show how much they hated Him.

Mocking of Christ Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308


WHAT HAPPENS TO PETER?

While they were warming themselves by a charcoal fire, Peter was recognized by several people. They begin to accuse Peter of being a follower of Jesus. In that moment of panic, Peter forgot all about the bold promises that he had made sev-eral hours earlier–that he would never abandon Jesus. Cursing and swearing he tells the mob that he doesn’t even know who Jesus is...again...and again at the moment of Peter’s third denial, the cock crows.

Luke tells us in His Gospel that at that moment Jesus turns and looks at Peter—and when Peter sees Our Lord, He remembers his promise, Jesus’ Prophecy… and he breaks down and cries.

WHERE DOES JESUS SPEND THE REST OF THE NIGHT?

Jesus is probably taken to a holding cell and chained from the hours of 3 am to 6 am. Here He may have prayed Psalm 88…so lost and abandoned He felt. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MORNING?

The Sanhedrin conducts a short “official” trial of its own, and then sends Jesus off to Pontius Pilate. WHY DO THEY BRING JESUS TO PILATE?

They don’t just want Jesus in jail, or even killed. They want Him to be sentenced to a hideous and shameful death which will disgrace Him in the eyes of the people. They do not have the legal authority to inflict the death penalty—only the ruling Romans can do this. Pontius Pilate is the Roman Governor of the Territory of Judea—so the deci-sion to execute Jesus or to set Him free is his. HOW DOES PILATE REACT TO JESUS?

Pilate is intrigued by Jesus, and is also afraid. He thinks that Jesus is innocent of the charges which the religious leaders are bringing against Him.

He asks Jesus questions. Christ tells the Roman Governor, “MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS EARTH,” and also tells Pilate that He has come to testify to the TRUTH. Pilate, like many of our modern day politicians and educa-tors asks, “WHAT IS TRUTH?” He is unable [or refuses] to recognize Jesus Christ.

TRUTH GOD’S UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY REALITY THAT WHICH IS WHAT DOES PILATE DO, AND WHY?

Pilate does not hate Jesus and just wants to avoid an unpleasant situation. He is more interested in his career than He is in justice. The Romans expected their governors to keep the peace and they did not like riots in the streets. Pilate thought that Jesus was innocent and would have preferred to set Him free…but the religious leaders had stirred up the crowds into a mob which could riot at any moment.

When someone mentioned that Jesus was a Galilean, Pilate thought he could dodge the issue by sending Jesus over to Herod Antipas—who was the ruler of Galilee. WHAT DOES JUDAS DO?

Sometime after the arrest, Judas began to feel guilty. He tries to give the thirty pieces of silver back to the High Priests…who scornfully tells him that Judas’ feelings are not their concern. Instead of admitting his sin and going to God for forgiveness, Judas turns in on himself and despairs. He hangs himself. WHAT DOES JESUS DO BEFORE HEROD—AND WHAT DOES HEROD DO TO HIM?

Only Luke in his Gospel tells us about this “side-trip.” Jesus saw that Pilate was open-minded and spoke with the Governor to try to help him to see the Truth. Herod is even worse than Pilate, and Jesus refuses even to speak with him. Herod’s soldiers treat Jesus with contempt, put a magnificent robe on Him, and send Him back to Pilate.

Visual Bible Alive

WHAT DOES PILATE WANT TO DO WITH JESUS, AND WHY?

Pilate still wants to release Jesus and tries to use a yearly custom of releasing a prisoner to set Jesus free and to calm the crowds. When they are offered the choice of having Jesus set free, or a killer named Barabbas, the crowds cry out for Barabbas.

Pilate then stupidly asks an angry mob what they want him to do with Jesus. They cry out, CRUCIFY HIM! Pilate sees that he has failed in this round, so he says that he will punish Jesus and then release Him. He sends Jesus to his soldiers to be punished. WHAT DO THE SOLDIERS DO TO JESUS?

The soldiers scourge Jesus, which is much more terrible than simply whipping Him. Scourges are whips which have sharp objects, or sometimes small lead balls, attached to the leather straps. They tear a person’s skin to shreds. Bishop Sheen once observed that Jesus endured the scourging to save us from our “sins of the flesh.”

They then hit him with a reed [a long thin stick] and made a terrible Crown of Thorns which they put on His Head. They threw the robe back over Jesus’ torn skin…and they mocked Him saying, “All Hail, the King of the Jews!” WHAT DO THE CROWDS SAY WHEN PILATE BRINGS JESUS BEFORE THEM?

Pilate probably thought that if they saw Jesus looking punished and miserable the crowd would be satisfied.

He stood Jesus up before them and said, “BEHOLD THE MAN!”

Instead of calming them down, the sight of Jesus bleeding from His terrible wounds and wearing the Crown of Thorns makes them even more angry and hateful. They begin to cry out even more passionately that Jesus be crucified. WHAT DOES PILATE DO?

Pilate still believes that Jesus is innocent…but knows he will not be able to win over the crowd. He calls for a basin and pitcher and washes his hands in front of the crowd…to show that he is “washing his hands” of Christ. He prob-ably thought that by doing this that he was showing everyone that he was not guilty for what was being done to Je-sus. But he probably convinced no one… not even himself.

He then turns Jesus over to be crucified.

Pilate Presents Jesus to the Crowd Antonio Ciseri, 1868

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