The Obedient Son: Jesus in Gethsemane

Much recent theology has read the garden of Gethsemane as a scene of suffering, and has used it to speak to a world burdened by innocent pain. Mark Bonnington accepts the pastoral value of that reading but argues that it misses the centre of the narrative.

His proposal is that the governing theme of the passage is obedience. Jesus is not primarily presented as a victim whose agony mirrors ours, but as the Son who yields his will to the Father. Once that is seen, the details of the scene fall into place, and the account of the atonement that follows is changed.

The article sets itself against a tendency in modern theology to locate the meaning of the cross in the suffering of God rather than in the obedience of the Son. Bonnington is not dismissive of the writers who take that view. He engages them directly, and he is willing to grant what is true in their emphasis on divine solidarity with the afflicted.

What he resists is the assumption that the primary question is the one the modern world asks about pain. The gospel, he suggests, answers a different question first, about the one who is faithful where Adam was not, and who goes to the cross in obedience rather than under compulsion.

Why it matters

The argument has consequences for preaching and for pastoral care. A congregation that hears only of a suffering God may find comfort, but it will not hear the summons to follow the Son who obeyed. Bonnington's aim is to hold both together, with obedience as the key that makes sense of the rest.

The full text of the article is held in the printed journal. Enquiries about access can be made to the editor.