IN 1981, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie released a single called Under Pressure.

The first verse went like this: “Pressure pushin' down on me/ Pressin' down on you, no man ask for”.

We probably all know what it is to feel under pressure. It's a common reaction of feeling overwhelmed by the demands of life. It causes stress, causes anxiety, causes headaches, causes exhaustion.

But if there was anyone who ever felt under pressure, it was the Lord the night before the cross.

One old saint put it this way: “It would be the night he underwent a stress of cosmic dimension, the greatest in the chronicles of the universe.”

Mark (14:32-36) simply states they went to a place called Gethsemane. Jesus says to his disciples, stay here while I pray. And he took Peter, James and John along with him.

Gethsemane means oil press. Gath means pressure. Scholars tell us the garden was probably owned by a wealthy acquaintance of Christ.

Often it's pictured as a beautiful spot, but it wouldn't have been. It would have been a barren place, a walled orchard on the Mount of Olives, containing its own oil press, but nothing to look at.

When Jesus gets to the entrance of the walled garden, he leaves the bulk of his disciples there and takes three onto the property.

Jesus knew what was coming. By taking Peter, James and John, Jesus is proving his perfect humanity.

In his darkest hour, he wanted companionship. They were the three in his inner circle, the ones who had been at Jairus's house, who witnessed the little girl restored to life, who were on the Mount of Transfiguration.

They had witnessed his glory. Now they were about to witness his grief.

There Christ experienced pain. He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. The words bear the element of astonishment, terrified surprise.

Jesus knew what the night entailed and what the next day entailed. He knew Judas was on his way, that the Sanhedrin would condemn him, that Pilate would sentence him, that Peter would deny him, that the soldiers would crucify him.

As he looked into the cup he was to drink that night, he was astonished and overcome with horror. No human being, however great his or her anguish, has experienced anything like this.

That night the world witnessed the greatest display of obedience ever seen. As JC Ryle put it, Jesus took the full chalice of man's sin and God's wrath, and drank it for you and for me.

There's a song called “Oh to See the Dawn”, a Getty hymn, that speaks to this. Its chorus goes: “This, the power of the cross/ Christ became sin for us,/ Took the blame, bore the wrath:/ We stand forgiven at the cross.”

The next time we say “I'm under pressure”, remember what He bore for you and for me.

Stephen Cousley

Minister

St Thomas Baptist Church, Exeter