Bereansearching Bible Studies

Introduction

There is another “Hidden Gem” in the Bible that many people would easily miss apart from careful Holy Spirit led searching. By God’s grace alone, this student of the Bible is blessed to share this additional gem (first shown to me by another believer) with whomsoever God leads to this page. It has to do with the words “about a stone’s cast” as we find in Luke 22:41

Jesus’ Atonement Began after the Last Supper at the Beginning of Passover

Jesus’s Atoning Sacrifice at Jerusalem can be shown to have spanned three earthly days (and nights) as foreshadowed in the Old Testament in both Jonah and Nehemiah Chapter 2. It would begin after sundown Thursday night (night one) and following the Last Supper (the Passover meal with His Disciples). It would then continue through to His “physical” death on the cross, and subsequent burial that same Friday (day one). Then His body would lie in the tomb all of the Sabbath day (night two and day two). Then it remained in the tomb for another night, Saturday night (night three) and Jesus would arise from the dead on Sunday morning (the third day).  Note that it is also consistent with what we read in Matthew 12:40, where Jesus compared His Atonement period to the three days and three nights that Jonah was in the whale’s belly.

We know that the Atonement began Thursday night, because we learn that after the Thursday evening Passover meal (the feast of unleavened bread) that it was in the night. And it is interesting that, typically, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives at night, as we read in Luke 21:37 that Jesus would teach in the day time in the temple; “and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is call [the mount] of Olives.” However, the very last time Jesus went to the Mount of Olives on that Passover night, He stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane (which .  According to Luke 22:39, “And he (Jesus) came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.” 

We should all be aware that the Garden of Gethsemane is just east of Jerusalem at the base of the Mount of Olives by the uppermost part of the valley of the Brook Kidron and where Jesus’s Atonement began on Passover evening/night as we read in John 18:1,”When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron (“Cedron” is Kidron in Greek), where was a garden (Gethsemane), into the which he entered, and his disciples.” The account of Jesus suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane can be also be found in three other places in the Bible, in Matthew 26:36–46, Mark 14:32–42, Luke 22:39–46.  From those three descriptions, we learn that Jesus was in the Garden with the disciples, then Jesus told them to remain, while He went further with Peter, James, and John, and then, alone, a bit farther.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, after Jesus had separated Himself from His disciples “about a stone’s cast” as we read in Luke 22:41) and prayed three times (e.g., Luke 22:42), “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” The “cup” was the cup of God’s wrath that Jesus had to take in penalty for the sins of God’s elect. Remember also shortly afterward where Jesus reprimanded Peter for trying to protect Him in John 18:11, “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”  Moreover we know that the Garden was where the agony of the Atonement had begun because we read in Luke 22:44, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This verse is sufficient alone to tell us that Jesus Atoning Sacrifice had Spiritually begun in the Garden of Gethsemane, but there is further corroboration, if we only look more closely.

A Stone’s Cast?

The significance of Luke 22:41 should not be missed by the reader. “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,” The language of a stone’s cast is important because the casting of stones has great significance in the Bible.  It is used to condemn someone to death in the Bible.  Jesus was condemned to death on the behalf of all those who would believe on Him as their Lord God and Savior.  Any sin is sufficient to justify death by stoning, not just blasphemy against God or murder. Remember that in Numbers 15:32-36, we read of a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath was subsequently taken outside of the camp and stoned to death by God’s command to Moses.

Additionally, when we think of stoning in the Bible, John 8:2-11, comes to mind where Jesus was challenged by the scribes and Pharisees to command a woman taken in adultery be stoned to death we read of Jesus’ answer in John 8:7, “¶So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.“

More significantly, there is another case that we should all be aware of regarding “stoning”.  In Deuteronomy 21:18 we read, “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and [that], when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; [he is] a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.¶ And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God😉 that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.    We should all remember that Jesus was accused, falsely, of being a glutton and a drunkard in Luke 7:34, “The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!”  And following Jesus’s Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was spiritually deemed to have been worthy of stoning on behalf of the elect, Jesus hung on the cross on that same Passover day, and that cross, being hewn of wood, served as a “tree” as we read in Galatians 3:13 , “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:” And Jesus’s body was buried before sun down that day in the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea as recorded in Matthew 27:57-60.

The mention of “a stone’s cast” was placed there by God to show that Jesus had at that point come under judgment for the sins of God’s elect. 2 Corinthians 5:21 makes clear that, “For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.“

Jesus was subsequently tormented in every way until His death on the cross, that occurred just outside the walls of Jerusalem on Friday afternoon (the ninth hour, or 3:00 p.m.).  Then Jesus’s body was buried in the tomb and remained there, Friday night (the second night) through Saturday (the sabbath day and the second day), through Saturday night until the resurrection early Sunday morning, which marked the third day.

Conclusion

May the reader be blessed with not only this understanding (that the Bible is replete with such amazing hidden gems that reveal the Supernatural origin of the Bible) but more importantly that the Bible is True and that Jesus (Who Is The Word made flesh) Is The Only Way to Peace and Eternal Life with God for the remission of sin through Jesus’ Atoning Sacrifice. Jesus is indeed “The Way, The Truth, and The Life“.

This entry was posted on November 8, 2023 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Bible Studies. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.