The Agony in the Garden (Matthew 26:36-46)

On the night before his death, Christ went with the apostles to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. This garden was found on the Mount of Olives. During a time of great crisis in his life, this was where King David had once retreated, to mourn and to pray (2 Samuel 15:30-31).

Faced with the prospect of his upcoming death, Christ became “grieved and agitated.” All alone while the apostles slept, he prayed three times: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.”

This distressing episode, known as the ‘Agony in the Garden’, is also covered in St Mark’s and St Luke’s gospels. (Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46) Christ’s selfless prayer finds its echo in the Our Father, in the words ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.

The book of Hebrews tells us that Christ also wept while praying in the garden: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (5:7)

Pope Francis observed: “The Gospels testify how Jesus’ prayer became even more intense and deep at the hour of his passion and death. These culminating events of his life constitute the central core of Christian preaching: those last hours lived by Jesus in Jerusalem are the heart of the Gospel, not only because the Evangelists reserve proportionally greater space to this narrative, but also because the event of his death and resurrection — like a flash of lightning — sheds light on the rest of Jesus’ life.”

He went on: “He was not a philanthropist who took care of human suffering and illness: he was and is much more. In him there is not only goodness: there is something more, there is salvation, and not an episodic salvation — the type that might save me from an illness or a moment of despair — but total salvation, messianic salvation, which gives hope in the definitive victory of life over death.”

The pope added: “In the days of his last Passover, we thus find Jesus fully immersed in prayer. He prays dramatically in the garden of Gethsemane… assailed by mortal anguish. And yet, precisely in that moment, Jesus addresses God as “Abba”, Father (cf. Mark 14: 36). This word, in Aramaic, which was Jesus’ language, expresses intimacy, it expresses trust. Just as he feels the darkness gather around him, Jesus breaks through it with that little word: Abba, Father.”

In this stained glass window, the sorrowful Christ is portrayed kneeling in prayer, dwelling on the cup he was asking to pass him by. He is gesturing towards the cross on which he would die the very next day. Christ is also depicted already wearing the purple robe with which he would later be clothed by the Roman soldiers (cf Mark 15:17). The Latin title at the base of the image, FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA, means ‘your will be done’. The artist who produced the window (which is believed to be Italian or French) is sadly unknown.

See the full image:

Where to find this work of art
St Raphael’s, Kingston

Read the relevant passage
Matthew 26:36-46

On a similar theme

• From the Old Testament: Christ’s obedience in the Garden of Gethsemane stands in contrast to Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
• From the New Testament: Immediately after the Agony in the Garden, Christ was arrested.