Each of the Passion narratives have a different thrust and a different proclamation of faith in Jesus and really they= re all important. Each presentation and proclamation needs to be digested. In John= s gospel Jesus is certainly shown to be a person who is consciously laying down his life for us and that evil and sin have no power over him.

In Mark= s gospel we see very clearly that Jesus is truly human and stresses the fact that he is indeed one who suffers. Each of the gospels gives a different prospective. In Mark= s gospel it= s a rather strong statement. In the agony of the garden it= s translated in some things Jesus is sad unto death. But the Greek is even stronger than that, a lot stronger than that, he= s appalled, he’s aghast, he’s almost in a stupor over the awareness of the suffering that he has to go through. Which of course confirms other aspects of faith, that is, Jesus is sinless and because he is sinless he is more sensitive to suffering then you and I are. His sins didn’t dull his senses so he’s even more open to the pain, suffering and death and what they imply and mean. So his awareness of what is to come, which of course he knew, as you know again and again Jesus predicted his passion and recalled all that was going to happen to him. To be scourged, to be spit upon, etc., but also mentioning that he would rise on the third day.

So the first part of the cup that Jesus drinks is really fear. Fear is a normal gift to us as human beings. We need fear to protect us from any kind of evil that would approach us. It makes us become active and to avoid it. Well when it comes to pain and suffering it also makes us seek solutions. Jesus is so sensitive that he had to be overwhelmed by the amount of suffering that he’d have to go through and therefore experienced fear in a profound way beyond our comprehension. Yet it did not run his life. He did this for you and me and so this is why Jesus is always our High Priest one that knows our life and can walk with us because he’s walked through the extremes of suffering, difficulties and stress that human life can offer.

But this is not the deepest dregs of the cup that the Father is offering Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God and he came to overcome sin and death and so he came to conquer sin and it is not really that deeply understood by us, the consequences and difficulties and the reality of the damage and destruction of sin especially serious sin. Whereas Jesus is aware of this and this part of the cut that he drank is a lot deeper because Jesus sees that in serious sin we separate ourselves from God and he knows what that would mean. He knows that you are already dead even though you are walking on this earth and it= s consequences, the destruction it does to our life as human beings and the unfolding of our destiny. So the far deeper sorrow and suffering of the Passion and Death of Jesus is in the awareness and the embrace of the consequences of sin in us. Then of course there are other things that added to this because we know that Jesus is aware of the denials of Peter, he= s aware of the fact that Judas is the one who betrayed him and that he was under the influence of the devil. So this too was weighing on his heart.

But one greater mystery than all this is something that is impossible for us to really fully comprehend but we need to adore and that is this God has come down to earth and out of love for us died for us. This love of his was itself the source of a lot of suffering. Beyond our comprehension because it means that Jesus identified with each of us. He knows each of us personally and he identifies with each of us in our sinfulness, our suffering, our struggle, and our destiny. And this is what he embraced so that the statement that was read in the second reading on Isaiah that it is our suffering that he bore. That it’s our pain that he endured. That he was wounded by our rebellions and that he was bruised by our sins and on him was laid the chastisement that makes us whole. And in that text we have a rather powerful truth to meditate on and reflect on and let in because it shows clearly that there it is this is what Jesus has done for you and me. He has embraced our whole being and our whole lifetime in every aspect of it and has borne it so as to redeem and heal it. So it means that each one of us who is baptized in some deep way participates in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus and therefore we are all involved in the mystery of what we are celebrating. It touches us and we touch it. Not just now, not just as we celebrate this Good Friday, but actually our whole life is somehow touched and embraced by the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

So when we reflect on the Passion, especially when we think of the agony of Jesus= prayer in the garden, we realize that he won for us grace to do exactly what he did, namely, to say with him if it is not possible for this cup to pass away then let it be done according to your will.