Jesus Garden Trip and Beyond!

Some years ago I attended a lecture by Fr. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, O.P. He proposed the question: "What happened here toward the end of Jesus' life? Can we get behind the Gospel accounts of the Agony and what followed?" He stated that topography is important in our searching and seeking.
He then went into an extended comparison of the four Gospel accounts reviewing how there was growing hostility to Jesus prior to the Agony in the Garden. Then he explored in detail the actual Garden accounts in the four Gospels.
His explanation of what happened goes pretty much like this: In chapter 11 of John's Gospel we are told that Lazarus is sick. The sisters Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." Jesus delays for "two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples remind him that the Jews "were just now trying to stone you...." He goes and we recall the story of the raising of Lazarus. After this however Jesus doesn't go into Jerusalem until the festival. He is greeted by the crowd with branches of palm trees and shouting. 12:14 "Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it."

He entered Jerusalem to this acclaim.
Jesus knew he was a hunted man. At the Last Supper he knew that one would betray him. There he had an emotional farewell. He had to be living under extreme tension. After the Last Supper he leaves and crosses the brook Kidron and continues to Gethsemane. The trip from the city took him through the huge graveyard at night. Since it was the feast of Passover it would have been a night of the full moon. He walks through this graveyard at night. All this contributed to his coming death moving from his head to his heart. He had to stop and pull himself together. In Mark's one source the human Jesus breaks down. (With Mark's account there are two sources discerned. The second source waters down this experience, to coincide with the picture of Jesus as divine.)
Jesus is able to pull himself together, rally his apostles and confront his enemies. The enemies are coming from the city. He could have escaped. He had done so before (Luke 4:29-30 and certain references in John's Gospel) It would have been just a brief trip to Bethany where he had friends. He could have received food and water there for an escape into the desert. It was then just a short journey over the precipice of the hill to Jericho. The Jews didn't have an army. But this time Jesus is taken. He has a loyalty to his understanding of the Father's will that goes beyond the rational.
As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now you know the rest of the story."