John and the Purpose of Gethsemane

One of the surprising aspects of the gospel of John is the fact that it doesn’t speak of the Savior’s experience in the Garden of Gethsemane.  All four gospels tell of the Savior’s suffering on the cross, and the three synoptic gospels all speak of His prayers and allude to His suffering in the garden.  Matthew recorded, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39).  Mark gave us similar words: “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36).  Luke left us the most details about Gethsemane, referring to how “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).  But the gospel of John is remarkably silent on the sacrifice in the garden, which is all the more surprising because John Himself was there—the other gospels tell us how Peter, James, and John went with Him and waited for Him.  Then why didn’t John tell us about the suffering in the garden, one of most the pivotal moments of the Savior’s entire ministry?

I do not know all the reasons why John didn’t us more specific details about the Savior’s suffering in the garden, but he did give us a powerful sermon from the Savior on that night about the effects of His sacrifice.  After the teachings of John 13-14 given as they ate the Passover in the upper room, Jesus said, “Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:31).  Later in John 18 we read, “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples” (John 18:1).  That seems to indicate that John 15-17 were spoken by the Savior as they made their way from the city to the garden that evening, and in that last chapter in particular He indirectly taught of the purpose of His atonement.  While we have reference in the synoptic gospels to the prayer the Savior offered once in the garden, John gave us the great intercessory prayer offered at some point on the way to Gethsemane in John 17.  In it we learn the great purpose of the Savior’s atonement: “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are…. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us…. That they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (v11, 21-23).  The “at-one-ment” of the Savior was performed so that we could indeed become one with the Father and with Him; without His intercession we would be cut off from the presence of the Lord forever.  The Savior suffered the price of our sins in Gethsemane so that we might, as Jesus prayed, have “life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ” and that “the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (v3, 26).  That prayer in John 17, a prelude to the suffering, lays out what the suffering would accomplish for all of us who will follow Him.  The synoptic gospels give us at least some details about what happened in the garden that night, but John’s gospel teaches us what the results of that sacrifice were: the possibility for us to be one with God and to forever “abide in his love” (John 15:10).