Even today, truth is falling in our streets, and judgment is turned back. Truth and justice no longer rule the hearts and minds of people. “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity” (Isaiah 5 9:4). The burden of God was to restore and to save, but no one would take heed to His heartbeat.
By Kim Johnson
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The hour was late and quickly approaching midnight as Jesus led his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane; the weight of eternity for billions of lost souls was descending on His heart. As they approached the garden and the burden became all-consuming, Jesus said to his disciples, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26: 3 8). After separating Himself from His disciples, He collapsed under the weight of His coming ordeal. The burden for the eternal destiny of man since the fall of Adam consumed every fiber of His being. It was not facing death that brought Him to the garden; it was not the expectation of untold suffering that brought Him to the garden; it was the weight of the sins of the world that brought Him to the garden. It was a burden for your soul and my soul and the countless other souls of men and women before and after the incarnate life of Jesus that drove Him to the garden. He was making intercession for all transgressors. He was pouring out His soul unto death, even the death of the cross.
When Jesus prayed, “0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:3 9). He was speaking on behalf of His people, who were appointed to the wrath of God because of sin. The cup that Jesus was referring to was the cup of trembling (judgment). For there to be salvation, sin had to be judged. Jesus, as the Lamb of God, was about to take upon Himself the judgment of God for the sins of all mankind—the punishment of God’s wrath appointed to sinners. Isaiah 51:22 says, “Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.” Psalm 75:8 says, “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” Psalm I I 6: 1 3 says, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.”
As Jesus prayed, the intensity of His burden grew into travail. Why? Could it be because He could hear the cries of countless lost souls pleading for the cup of judgment to pass from them? Could He have seen a vision of all the spirits in hades waiting for the promise of redemption?
Travail in and of itself is a birthing process. His burden for Jew and Gentile alike caused Him to travail until the church was birthed into the kingdom of God. Isaiah 5 3: I 112 confirms the purpose of His agonizing, travailing prayer in the garden: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Jesus submitted to the burden of the Spirit in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are the present-day fruit of His travail. Today, we are living in the divine overflow of His intercession made in the garden.
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