Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.”
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Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go there and pray.”
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Then went Iesus with them into a place which is called Gethsemane and sayde vnto the disciples syt ye here whyll I go and praye yonder.
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Then went Iesus with them into a place which is called Gethsemane, and said vnto his disciples, Sit ye here, while I goe, and pray yonder.
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Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Matthew 26:36 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Mark 14:32-42 They came to a place which was named Gethsemane. He said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I pray.” He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed. He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch.” He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him. He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire.” He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you watch one hour? Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again he went away, and prayed, saying the same words. Again he returned, and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they didn’t know what to answer him. He came the third time, and said to them, “Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Arise! Let’s get going. Behold: he who betrays me is at hand.”
- Matthew 26:42 Again, a second time he went away, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup can’t pass away from me unless I drink it, your desire be done.”
- Luke 22:39-46 He came out and went, as his custom was, to the Mount of Olives. His disciples also followed him. When he was at the place, he said to them, “Pray that you don’t enter into temptation.” He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. When he rose up from his prayer, he came to the disciples, and found them sleeping because of grief, and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
- Matthew 26:39 He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”
- Psalms 22:1-2 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
- Psalms 69:13-15 But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
- Hebrews 5:7 He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,
- Psalms 69:1-3 Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.
- John 18:1-11 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. Judas then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were happening to him, went out, and said to them, “Who are you looking for?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas also, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When therefore he said to them, “I am he,” they went backward, and fell to the ground. Again therefore he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way,” that the word might be fulfilled which he spoke, “Of those whom you have given me, I have lost none.” Simon Peter therefore, having a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter, “Put the sword into its sheath. The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not surely drink it?”
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Christ having regard to the weakness of his disciples,…
Christ having regard to the weakness of his disciples, leaving all the rest in safety, taketh with him but three to be witnesses of his anguish, and goeth of purpose into the place appointed to betray him in.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place…
36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
Ver. 36. Unto a place called Gethsemane] By Mount Olivet stood this garden; and there he began his passion, as well to expiate that first sin committed in a garden, as to sanctify unto us our repasts and recreations. Here, after our Saviour had prayed himself "into an agony," Λγωνιζομενος (to teach us to "strive also in prayer" as for life, and to struggle "even to agony," as the word signifieth, Col 4:12), he was taken quasi ex condieto, and led into the city through the sheep gate (so called of the multitude of sheep driven in by it to be offered in the temple) to be sacrificed, as a lamb undefiled and without spot.
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Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder] It may be lawful therefore in some cases to pray secretly in the presence or with the privity of others, so there be some good use of them.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Mark leaveth out yonder, Mar 14:32. Luke saith, Luk…
Mark leaveth out yonder, Mar 14:32. Luke saith, Luk 22:39-41, He came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed. Whether this Gethsemane were the name of a garden, or of a village wherein was a garden, is not much material for us to know. In Jerusalem, they say, they had no gardens, but their gardens were without the gates. Certain it is, it was on the other side of the brook Cedron, Joh 18:1, and either in or at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Thither Christ went with his disciples, that is, eleven of them; we shall hear of the twelfth by and by. Luke saith, that he bade his disciples pray that they might not enter into temptation: these words Matthew and Mark have, after Christ’s first return to them; they say he now said only,
Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Our blessed Saviour being now come with his disciples…
Our blessed Saviour being now come with his disciples into the garden, he falls there into a bitter and bloody agony, in which he prayed with wonderful fervency and importunity to his heavenly Father. His sufferings were now coming on a great pace, and he meets them upon his knees, and would be found in a praying posture.
Learn thence, That prayer is the best preparative for, as well as the most powerful support under, the heaviest sufferings that can befall us. As to this prayer of our Saviour’s in the garden, many things are very observable.
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As, 1. The place where he prayed, in the garden; but why went Christ thither? Was it to hide or shelter himself from his enemies? Nothing less: for if so, it had been the most improper place, because he was wont to retire thither to pray, Judas knew the place, for Jesus oft-times resorted thither; so that Christ went thither not to shun, but to prepare himself by prayer to meet, his enemies.
Observe, 2. The time when he entered the garden for prayer, it was in the evening: here he spent some hours in pouring out his soul to God: for about midnight Judas and the soldiers came and apprehended him in a praying posture.
Teaching us by his example, that when imminent dangers are before us, especially when death is apprehended by us, to be very much in prayer to God, and very fervent in our wrestling with him.
Observe, 3. The matter of our Lord’s prayer, that if possible the cup might pass from him; that is, those bitter sufferings which were then before him; particularly the insupportable burden of his father’s wrath. He prays, if possible, that his Father would excuse him from this dreadful wrath, his soul being amazed at it.
But what! Did Christ then begin to repent of his undertaking for sinners? Did he shrink and give back when it came to the pinch? No, no; as Christ had two natures, being God and Man, so he had two distinct wills; as Man, he feared and shunned death; as God-man, he willingly submitted to it; the divine spirit and the human nature of Christ did now assault each other with disagreeing interests, till at last victory was got on the spirit’s side.
Again, this prayer was not absolute, but conditional if it be possible. Father, if it may be, if thou art willing, if it please thee, let it pass: if not, I will drink it.
Learn hence, 1. That the cup of suffering is in itself considered as a very bitter and distasteful cup, which human nature abhors, and cannot by desire and pray may pass from it.
2. That yet oft-times the wisdom of God is pleased to put this bitter cup of affliction into the hands of those whom he doth most sincerely love.
3. That when God doth so, it is their duty to drink it with humble submission, and cheerful resignation. Not my will, but thine be done.
Observe, 4. The manner how our Lord prayed; and here we shall find it, 1. A solitary prayer; he went by himself alone, out of the hearing of his disciples; he saith unto them, Tarry ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
Mark, Christ did neither desire his disciples to pray with him, nor to pray for him. No, he must tread the winepress alone; not but that Christ loved and delighted in his disciples’ company; but their were occasions when he thought fit to leave them, and to go alone to God in prayer.
Thence learn, That the company of our best friends is not always seasonable. Peter, James, and John, were three good men; but Christ bids them tarry, while he went aside for private prayer. There are times and cases when a Christian would not be willing that the dearest friend he has in the world should be with him, or understand and hear what passes betwixt him and his God.
2. This prayer of Christ was an humble prayer; that is evident by the postures into which he cast himself; sometimes kneeling, sometimes lying prostrate upon his face. He lies in the very dust; lower he cannot fall; and his heart was as low as his body. And such was the fervour of his spirit, that he prayed himslef into an agony. O let us blush to think how unlike we are to Christ in prayer, as to our praying frame of spirit!
Lord, what drowsiness and deadness! what laziness and dulness! what stupidity and formality, is found in our prayers! how often do our lips move, and our hearts stand still!
3. It was a repeated and reiterated prayer. He prayed the first, second, and third time. He returns upon God over and over, plies him again and again, resolving to take no denial.
Learn thence, That Christians ought not to be discouraged, though they have besought God again and again for a particular mercy, and no answer of prayer has come unto them.
Observe also, how our Lord used the same prayer three times over, saying the same words. A person then may pray with and by a form of prayer, and yet not pray formally, but in a very acceptable manner unto God. Christ both gave a form of prayer to his disciples, and also used one himself.
Observe next, The posture in which our holy Lord found his own disciples, when he was in his agony: they were sleeping, when he was praying. O wonderful! that they could sleep at such a time.
Hence we gather, that the best of Christ’s disciples may be sometimes overtaken with infirmities, with great infirmities, when the most important duties are performing. He cometh to his disciples and findeth them sleeping.
Observe farther, The gentle reproof he gave the disciples for sleeping: What! could ye not watch with me one hour? Could not you watch, when your Master is in such danger? Could not you watch with me, when I am going to deliver up my life for you? What! not one hour, and that the parting hour too? After this reprehension, he subjoins an exhortation: Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: and superadds a forcible reason, for though the spirit is willing, yet the flesh is weak.
Thence learn, That the holiest and best resolved Christians, who have willing spirits for Christ and his service, yet in regard of the weakness of the flesh, or the frailty of human nature, it is their duty to watch and pray, and thereby guard themselves against temptations. Watch and pray,--for though the spirit is willing, yet the flesh is weak; though you have sincerely resolved rather to die with me than deny me, yet be assured, that when temptation actually assaults you, when fear and shame, pain and suffering, death and danger, are before you, and present to your sense, the weakness of your flesh will prevail over these resolutions, if you do not watch diligently, and pray fervently for divine assistance.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he took with him Peter, and the two…
And he took with him Peter, and the two sons of Zebedee,.... James and John, who perhaps were the strongest, and best able to bear the shocking sight, and were his favourite disciples; who were admitted to be with him at other times, when the rest were not; as at the raising of Jairus's daughter, Mar 5:37, and moreover, these were at his transfiguration on the mount, Mat 17:1, which was a representation and presage of his glory; and so were very proper persons to be witnesses of his sorrows and agonies, which were the way to it; and three of them were taken by him for this purpose, being a sufficient number to bear testimony, since by the mouth of two or three witnesses everything is established:
and began to be sorrowful; his soul was troubled on the same account six days before, Joh 12:27, but was now sorrowful. He was a man of sorrows all his days, and acquainted with griefs, being reproached and persecuted by men: but now a new scene of sorrows opened; before he was afflicted by men, but now he is bruised, and put to grief by his Father: his sorrows now began, for they did not end here, but on the cross; not that this was but a bare beginning of his sorrows, or that these were but light in comparison of future ones; for they were very heavy, and indeed seem to be the heaviest of all, as appears from his own account of them; his vehement cry to his Father; his bloody sweat and agony; and the assistance he stood in need of from an angel; and the comfort and strength he received from him in his human nature: all which, put together, the like is not to be observed in any part of his sufferings:
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and to be very heavy; with the weight of the sins of his people, and the sense of divine wrath, with which he was so pressed and overwhelmed, that his spirits were almost quite gone; he was just ready to swoon away, sink and die; his heart failed him, and became like wax melted in the midst of his bowels, before the wrath of God, which was as a consuming fire: all which shows the truth, though weakness of his human nature, and the greatness of his sufferings in it. The human nature was still in union with the divine person of the Son of God, and was sustained by him, but left to its natural weakness, without sin, that it might suffer to the utmost, and as much as possible for the sins of God's elect.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Then cometh Jesus to a place called Gethsemane -…
Then cometh Jesus to a place called Gethsemane - That is, the valley of fatness. The garden probably had its name from its soil and situation, laying in some little valley between two of those many hills, the range of which constitutes the Mount of Olives. Mark xiv, 32; Luke xxii, 40.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 36. A place called Gethsemane] A garden at…
Verse 36. A place called Gethsemane] A garden at the foot of the mount of Olives. The name seems to be formed from גת gath, a press, and סמן shemen, oil; probably the place where the produce of the mount of Olives was prepared for use. The garden of the oilpress, or olive-press.
Sit ye here] Or, stay in this place, while I go and pray yonder: and employ ye the time as I shall employ it - in watching unto prayer.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mat 26:36-38. Then cometh Jesus to a place called…
Mat 26:36-38. Then cometh Jesus to a place called Gethsemane — A garden, lying, it seems, at the foot of the mount of Olives, which had its name, probably, from its soil and situation, the word, from גיא שׂמנים, signifying, the valley of fatness. And saith to the disciples, Sit ye here — Probably near the garden door, within, for John says the disciples went into the garden with him: while I go and pray yonder — In a retired place, at a little distance. Doubtless he intended that they should be employed as he was, in watching and prayer. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, who had been witnesses of his transfiguration and glory, and were now to be witnesses of his humiliation and agony: and began to be sorrowful and very heavy — Gr. Δυπεισθαι και
αδημονειν, to be penetrated with the most exquisite sorrow, and overwhelmed with deep anguish. This was probably from the arrows of the Almighty sticking fast in his soul, while God laid on him the iniquities of us all. Who can tell what painful and dreadful sensations were then impressed on him by the immediate hand of God? Then saith he, My soul is exceeding sorrowful — Gr. Περιλυπος, surrounded with sorrows on every side; even unto death — “This expressions,” says Dr. Campbell, “is rather indefinite, and seems to imply a sorrow that would continue till death; whereas the import of the original is such a sorrow as was sufficient to cause death.” He therefore renders the clause, My soul is overwhelmed with a deadly anguish. Castalio translates it, In tanto sum animi dolore ut emoriar, “I am in such trouble of mind that I shall die.” He evidently meant, that his sorrow was so great that the infirmity of his human nature must immediately sink under it without some extraordinary relief and support; for which he was about to pray, and for which he wished them to pray, adding, Tarry ye here and watch with me — Had these disciples done as Christ here directed, they would soon have found a rich equivalent for their watchful care, in the eminent improvement of their graces by this wonderful and edifying sight. For Christ was now sustaining those grievous sorrows in his soul, by which, as well as by his dying on the cross, he became a sin-offering, and accomplished the redemption of mankind.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane - This account is also…
Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane - This account is also recorded in Mar 14:32-42; Luk 22:39-46; Joh 18:1.
Mat 26:36
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Then cometh ... - After the institution of the Lord’s Supper, in the early part of the night, he went out to the Mount of Olives.
In his journey he passed over the brook Cedron Joh 18:1, which bounded Jerusalem on the east.
Unto a place - John calls this “a garden.” This garden was on the western side of the Mount of Olives, and a short distance from Jerusalem. The word used by John means not properly a garden for the cultivation of vegetables, but a place planted with the olive and other trees, perhaps with a fountain of water, and with walks and groves; a proper place of refreshment in a hot climate, and of retirement from the noise of the adjacent city. Such places were doubtless common in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Messrs. Fisk and King, American missionaries were at the place which is commonly supposed to have been the garden of Gethsemane in 1823. They tell us that the garden is about a stone’s cast from the brook of Cedron; that it now contains eight large and venerable-looking olives, whose trunks show their great antiquity. The spot is sandy and barren, and appears like a forsaken place. A low broken wall surrounds it.
Mr. King sat down beneath one of the trees and read Isa 53:1-12, and also the gospel history of our Redeemer’s sorrow during that memorable night in which he was there betrayed; and the interest of the association was heightened by the passing through the place of a party of Bedouins, armed with spears and swords. A recent traveler says of this place that it “is a field or garden about 50 paces square, with a few shrubs growing in it, and eight olive-trees of great antiquity, the whole enclosed with a stone wall.” The place was probably fixed upon, as Dr. Robinson supposes, during the visit of Helena to Jerusalem, 326 a.d., when the places of the crucifixion and resurrection were believed to be identified. There is, however, no absolute certainty respecting the places. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, vol. ii. p. 484) supposes it most probable that the real “Garden of Gethsemane” was several hundred yards to the northwest of the present Gethsemane, in a place much more secluded than the one usually regarded as that where the agony of the Saviour occurred, and therefore more likely to have been the place of his retirement. Nothing, however, that is of importance depends on ascertaining the exact spot.
Luke says that Jesus “went as he was wont” - that is, accustomed - “to the Mount of Olives.” Probably he had been in the habit of retiring from Jerusalem to that place for meditation and prayer, thus enforcing by his example what he had so often done by his precepts the duty of retiring from the noise and bustle of the world to hold communion with God.
Gethsemane - This word is made up either of two Hebrew words, signifying “valley of fatness” - that is, a fertile valley; or of two words, signifying “an olive-press,” given to it, probably, because the place was filled with olives.
Sit ye here - That is, in one part of the garden to which they first came.
While I go and pray yonder - That is, at the distance of a stone’s cast, Luk 22:41. Luke adds that when he came to the garden he charged them to pray that they might not enter into temptation - that is, into deep “trials and afflictions,” or, more probably, into scenes and dangers that would tempt them to deny him.
Mat 26:37
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee - That is, James and John, Mat 10:2. On two other occasions he had favored these disciples in a particular manner, suffering them to go with him to witness his power and glory, namely, at the healing of the ruler’s daughter Luk 8:51, and at his transfiguration on the mount, Mat 17:1.
Sorrowful - Affected with grief.
Very heavy - The word in the original is much stronger than the one translated “sorrowful.” It means, to be pressed down or overwhelmed with great anguish. This was produced, doubtless, by a foresight of his great sufferings on the cross in making an atonement for the sins of people.
Mat 26:38
My soul is exceeding sorrowful - His human nature - his soul - was much and deeply affected and pressed down.
Even unto death - This denotes extreme sorrow and agony.
The sufferings of death are the greatest of which we have any knowledge; they are the most feared and dreaded by man; and those sufferings are therefore put for extreme and indescribable anguish. The meaning may be thus expressed: My sorrows are so great that under their burden I am ready to die; such is the anxiety of mind, that I seem to bear the pains of death!
Tarry ye here and watch with me - The word rendered “watch” means, literally, to abstain from sleep; then to be vigilant, or to guard against danger. Here it seems to mean to sympathize with him, to unite with him in seeking divine support, and to prepare themselves for approaching dangers.
Mat 26:39
And he went a little further - That is, at the distance that a man could conveniently cast a stone (Luke).
Fell on his face - Luke says “he kneeled down.” He did both.
He first kneeled, and then, in the fervency of his prayer and the depth of his sorrow, he fell with his face on the ground, denoting the deepest anguish and the most earnest entreaty. This was the usual posture of prayer in times of great earnestness. See Num 16:22; 2Ch 20:18; Neh 8:6.
If it be possible - That is, if the world can be redeemed - if it be consistent with justice, and with maintaining the government of the universe, that people should be saved without this extremity of sorrow, let it be done. There is no doubt that if it had been possible it would have been done; and the fact that these sufferings were “not” removed, and that the Saviour went forward and bore them without mitigation, shows that it was not consistent with the justice of God and with the welfare of the universe that people should be saved without the awful sufferings of “such an atonement.”
Let this cup - These bitter sufferings. These approaching trials. The word cup is often used in this sense, denoting sufferings. See the notes at Mat 20:22.
Not as I will, but as thou wilt - As Jesus was man as well as God, there is nothing inconsistent in supposing that, as man, he was deeply affected in view of these sorrows. When he speaks of His will, he expresses what “human nature,” in view of such great sufferings, would desire. It naturally shrunk from them and sought deliverance. Yet he sought to do the will of God. He chose rather that the high purpose of God should be done, than that that purpose should be abandoned from regard to the fears of his human nature. In this he has left a model of prayer in all times of affliction. It is right, in times of calamity, to seek deliverance. Like the Saviour, also, in such seasons we should, we must submit cheerfully to the will of God, confident that in all these trials he is wise, and merciful, and good.
Mat 26:40
And findeth them asleep - It may seem remarkable that in such circumstances, with a suffering, pleading Redeemer near, surrounded by danger, and having received a special charge to watch - that is, not to sleep - they should so soon have fallen asleep.
It is frequently supposed that this was proof of wonderful stupidity, and indifference to their Lord’s sufferings. The truth is, however, that it was just the reverse; “it was proof of their great attachment, and their deep sympathy in his sorrows.” Luke has added that he found “them sleeping” for sorrow - that is, “on account” of their sorrow; or their grief was so great that they naturally fell asleep. Multitudes of facts might be brought to show that this is in accordance with the regular effects of grief. Dr. Rush says: “There is another symptom of grief, which is not often noticed, and that is “profound sleep.” I have often witnessed it even in mothers, immediately after the death of a child. Criminals, we are told by Mr. Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, in London, often sleep soundly the night before their execution. The son of General Custine slept nine hours the night before he was led to the guillotine in Paris.” - Diseases of the Mind, p. 319.
Saith unto Peter ... - This earnest appeal was addressed to Peter particularly on account of his warm professions, his rash zeal, and his self-confidence. If he could not keep awake and watch with the Saviour for one hour, how little probability was there that he would adhere to him in the trials through which he was soon to pass!
Mat 26:41
Watch - See Mat 26:38. Greater trials are coming on. It is necessary, therefore, still to be on your guard.
And pray - Seek aid from God by supplication, in view of the thickening calamities.
That ye enter not into temptation - That ye be not overcome and oppressed with these trials of your faith so as to deny me. The word “temptation” here properly means what would test their faith in the approaching calamities - in his rejection and death. It would “try” their faith, because, though they believed that he was the Messiah, they were not very clearly aware of the necessity of his death, and they did not fully understand that he was to rise again. They had cherished the belief that he was to establish a kingdom “while he lived.” When they should see him, therefore, rejected, tried, crucified, dead - when they should see him submit to all this as if he had not power to deliver himself - “then” would be the trial of their faith; and, in view of that, he exhorted them to pray that they might not so enter temptation as to be overcome by it and fall.
The spirit indeed is willing ... - The mind, the heart is ready and disposed to bear these trials, but the “flesh,” the natural feelings, through the fear of danger, is weak, and will be likely to lead you astray when the trial comes. Though you may have strong faith, and believe now that you will not deny me, yet human nature is weak, and shrinks at trials, and you should therefore seek strength from on high. This was intended to excite them, notwithstanding he knew that they loved him, to be on their guard, lest the weakness of human nature should be insufficient to sustain them in the hour of their temptation.
Mat 26:42-44
It is probable that our Lord spent considerable time in prayer, and that the evangelists have recorded rather “the substance” of his petitions than the very “words.” He returned repeatedly to his disciples, doubtless to caution them against danger, to show the deep interest which he had in their welfare, and to show them the extent of his sufferings on their behalf
Each time that he returned these sorrows deepened. Again he sought the place of prayer, and as his approaching sufferings overwhelmed him, this was the burden of his prayer, and he prayed the same words. Luke adds that amid his agonies an angel appeared from heaven strengthening him. His human nature began to sink, as unequal to his sufferings, and a messenger from heaven appeared, to support him in these heavy trials. It may seem strange that, since Jesus was divine Joh 1:1, the divine nature did not minister strength to the human, and that he that was God should receive strength from an “angel.” But it should be remembered that Jesus came in his human nature not only to make an atonement, but to be a perfect example of a holy man; that, as such, it was necessary to submit to the common conditions of humanity - that he should live as other people, be sustained as other people, suffer as other people, and be strengthened as other people; that he should, so to speak, take no advantage in favor of his piety, from his divinity, but submit it in all things to the common lot of pious people. Hence, he supplied his wants, not by his being divine, but in the ordinary way of human life; he preserved himself from danger, not as God, but by seeking the usual ways of human prudence and precaution; he met trials as a man; he received comfort as a man; and there is no absurdity in supposing that, in accordance with the condition of his people, his human nature should be strengthened, as they are, by those who are sent forth to be ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, Heb 1:14.
Further, Luke adds Luk 22:44 that, being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. The word “agony” is taken from the anxiety, effort, and strong emotion of the wrestlers in the Greek games about to engage in a mighty struggle. Here it denotes the extreme anguish of mind, the strong conflict produced in sinking human nature from the prospect of deep and overwhelming calamities.
“Great drops of blood,” Luk 22:44. The word rendered here as “great drops” does not mean drops gently falling on the ground, but rather thick and clammy masses of gore, pressed by inward agony through the skin, and, mixing with the sweat, falling thus to the ground. It has been doubted by some whether the sacred writer meant to say that there was actually “blood” in this sweat, or only that the sweat was “in the form” of great drops. The natural meaning is, doubtless, that the blood was mingled with his sweat; that it fell profusely - falling masses of gore; that it was pressed out by his inward anguish; and that this was caused in some way in view of his approaching death. This effect of extreme sufferings, of mental anguish. has been known in several other instances. Bloody sweats have been mentioned by many writers as caused by extreme suffering. Dr. Doddridge says (Note at Luk 22:44) that “Aristotle and Diodorus Siculus both mention bloody sweats as attending some extraordinary agony of mind; and I find Loti, in his “Life of Pope Sextus V.,” and Sir John Chardin, in his “History of Persia,” mentioning a like phenomenon, to which Dr. Jackson adds another from Thuanus.” It has been objected to this account that it is improbable, and that such an event could not occur. The instances, however, which are referred to by Doddridge and others show sufficiently that the objection is unfounded. In addition to these, I may observe that Voltaire has himself narrated a fact which ought forever to stop the mouths of infidels. Speaking of Charles IX of France, in his “Universal History,” he says: “He died in his 35th year. His disorder was of a very remarkable kind; the blood oozed out of all his pores. This malady, of which there have been other instances, was owing to either excessive fear, or violent agitation, or to a feverish and melancholy temperament.”
Various opinions have been given of the probable causes of these sorrows of the Saviour. Some have thought it was strong shrinking from the manner of dying on the cross, or from an apprehension of being “forsaken” there by the Father; others, that Satan was permitted in a special manner to test him, and to fill his mind with horrors, having departed from him at the beginning of his ministry for a season Luk 4:13, only to renew his temptations in a more dreadful manner now; and others that these sufferings were sent upon him as the wrath of God manifested against sin that God inflicted them directly upon him by his own hand, to show his abhorrence of the sins of people for which he was about to die. Where the Scriptures are silent about the cause, it does not become us confidently to express an opinion. We may suppose, perhaps, without presumption, that a part or all these things were combined to produce this awful suffering. There is no need of supposing that there was a single thing that produced it; but it is rather probable that this was a rush of feeling from every quarter - his situation, his approaching death, the temptations of the enemy, the awful suffering on account of people’s sins, and God’s hatred of it about to be manifested in his own death - all coming upon his soul at once sorrow flowing in from every quarter - the “concentration” of the sufferings of the atonement pouring together upon him and filling him with unspeakable anguish.
Mat 26:45
Sleep on now and take your rest - Most interpreters have supposed that this should be translated as a question rattler than a command,
“Do you sleep now and take your rest? Is this a time, amid so much danger and so many enemies. to give yourselves to sleep?” This construction is strongly countenanced by Luk 22:46, where the expression. Why sleep ye? evidently refers to the same point of time. There is no doubt that the Greek will bear this construction, and in this way the apparent inconsistency will be removed between this command “to sleep,” and that in the next verse, “to rise” and be going. Others suppose that, his agony being over, and the necessity of watching with him being now past, he kindly permitted them to seek repose until they should be roused by the coming of the traitor; that while they slept Jesus continued still awake; that some considerable time elapsed between what was spoken here and in the next verse; and that Jesus suffered them to sleep until he saw Judas coming, and then aroused them. This is the most probable opinion. Others have supposed that he spoke this in irony: “Sleep on now, if you can; take rest, if possible, in such dangers and at such a time.” But this supposition is unworthy the Saviour and the occasion. Mark adds, “It is enough.” That is, sufficient time has been given to sleep. It is time to arise and be going.
The hour is at hand - The “time” when the Son of man is to be betrayed is near.
Sinners - Judas, the Roman soldiers, and the Jews.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Gethsemani. St. John tells us it was a garden,…
Gethsemani. St. John tells us it was a garden, whither Jesus was accustomed to go with his disciples, which Judas knew. St. Luke says, he went according to his custom to the mount of Olives; i.e. where he used to spend part of the nights in prayer. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain § 131. — THE AGONIES OF GETHSEMANE, Mat_26:36-46.
§ 131. — THE AGONIES OF GETHSEMANE, Mat_26:36-46.
36. Unto a place called Gethsemane — Supposing the last paragraph to be out of the order of time, we must connect this verse to Mat_26:30. We suppose the supper-room to have been situated somewhere upon the eastern brow of Mount Zion. (See note on Mar_14:13.) From the supper-room we must trace our Lord going forth over the “great bridge” of the Tyropoeon; passing through the temple precincts, and through the great front temple gate, (or perhaps through what was equivalent to the present St. Stephen’s gate;) descending the valley of Jehoshaphat; crossing the brook Kedron, (about where its dry channel is now spanned by a small bridge of a single arch,) and walking, followed by the eleven, toward the ascent of Olivet. In a level space between the Kedron and the foot of the hill is a yard or garden, which, from the ancient olive trees there, is called Gethsemane, or the press of oil. There is still at the base of the Mount of Olives a secure enclosure, signalized by several most venerable olive trees, surrounded by a stone wall to designate the spot. Stanley says: “In spite of all the doubts that can be raised against their antiquity or the genuineness of their site, the eight aged olive trees, if only by their manifest difference from all others on the mountain, have always struck even the most indifferent observers. They will remain, so long as their already protracted life is spared, the most venerable of their race on the surface of the earth; their gnarled trunks and scanty foliage will always be regarded as the most affecting of the sacred memorials in or about Jerusalem, the most nearly approaching to the everlasting hills themselves in the force with which they carry us back to the events of the Gospel history.” Captain Lynch says that these olives are one thousand years old; and as the olive tree reproduces from the same root, these trees are the radical descendants from the same germ as those of our Saviour’s time. By the word place is generally understood a villa or cluster of houses, to which the garden was an appendage.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 36. Gethsemane]=the oil press; “over the brook Cedron, where…
36. Gethsemane]=the oil press; “over the brook Cedron, where was a garden” (John).
36–46. The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane
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Mar_14:32-42; Luk_22:39-46; Joh_18:1
In St Luke’s account Mat_26:43-44 are peculiar to his Gospel. The use of the rare word “agony” by the same evangelist has given the title to this passage.
St Luke also relates that “there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” There is, however, some reason for doubting the genuineness of these verses.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 36-46. The agedly of Jesus in the garden…
Vers. 36-46. The agedly of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. (Mar_14:32-42 Luk_22:39-46 Joh_18:1)
Gethsemane (equivalent to "oil press"). Jesus retired thither for privacy and for prayer in anticipation of what was coming. St. John explains, "Where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples." This so called garden was situated a short distance from the bridge over the Kedron, at the foot of the Mount of Olives. It was a plantation of olives; and there are many of these trees, some of great age, still growing in the neighbourhood. The fanciful idea that some of these witnessed the agony of our Lord has no support whatever. In the first place, olive trees do not live two thousand years; and, secondly, it is certain that in the sieges of Jerusalem all surrounding trees were ruthlessly destroyed; and lastly, the exact site of this terrible scene is unknown, though tradition has fixed upon a certain spot now enclosed with walls, and containing a building known by the name of "The Chapel of the Sweat." The disciples. Eight of them Judas having long ago departed and three Jesus took with him deeper into the dim recesses of the wood. Sit ye here. Remain here, at the entrance to the olive yard. These might not behold even the beginning of his desolation. Their present faith and love were not equal to the strain. Go and pray yonder. One is reminded of Abraham at Mount Moriah, when he says to the attendants, "Abide ye here, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you". (Gen_22:5) When the Lord says "here" and "yonder," he points to the spots indicated. He always retired to pray, even as he tells his followers to enter into their closets when they put up their supplications to their Father in heaven.
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Vers. 36-46. The agony in the garden.
Jesus, with his apostles, after the eventful moonlight walk from Jerusalem, came to a place at the foot of the Mount of Olives, called "Gethsemane," or the oil presses. Here he entered upon a scene the moral grandeur of which is only exceeded by that of Calvary. The olive in the oil press, like the grape in the wine press, was trodden. (see Mic_6:15) The sufferings of the Lord in the garden were purely mental; those on the cross were physical also. Meditate upon the trouble of his soul
I IN ITS TERRIBLE SEVERITY.
1. This is expressed in his references to it.
(1) A few days earlier he said, "Now is my soul troubled"; (Joh_12:27) but here the storm of temptation sets in earnest.
(2) The expression, "to be sorrowful" (ver. 37), conveys the idea of horror. The "horror of great darkness". (see Gen_15:12) This was the setting in of that last and darkest cloud of temptation which finally descended so low as to darken the earth at the Crucifixion. (see Mat_27:45)
(3) The word rendered "to be very heavy" (New Version, "sore troubled") implies the loss of pleasure derived from other things. This is characteristic of very deep human grief. Our Lord was truly human.
(4) The suffering increases. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." The nature of this sorrow also was human, but its severity was beyond all human comprehension. For the love from which he contended was Divine love for the whole human race. What must have been the agony of that sense of death!
2. It is expressed in the agony of his prayer.
(1) "He fell on his face." Great anguish is expressed as rolling in the dust. (see Mic_1:10) Job, in his great grief, fell on the ground.
(2) His prayer was importunate. "If it be possible." Mark gives it thus: "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee". (Mar_14:36) To God all things are not morally, though physically all things are, possible. "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Here is the human will of Christ, in the extremest circumstances, deferring to his Divine will.
(3) His supplication was with "strong crying and tears" to be saved from this fearful death sorrow. (see Heb_5:7) These cries reached the hearing of the disciples, and they observed his tears when he came to them in the moonlight.
(4) The petition was thrice repeated. Paul expresses his own importunity in the words, "I besought the Lord thrice". (see 2Co_12:8)
Perhaps the iteration of the prayer of Jesus implied as many distinct temptations. They were, however, related to the same "cup.
II IN ITS VARIOUS SOURCES.
1. It partly arose from the contradiction of sinners. (See Heb_12:3)
(1) The treachery of Judas was working to its issue. He sorely felt the ingratitude of that "familiar friend in whom" once he worthily "trusted," but who was now desperately fallen. (el. Psa_41:9 Joh_13:18 Act_1:25)
(2) The treachery of the Jews was working with Judas, their type. This also afflicted his patriotic heart. See that wonderful description in the hundred and ninth psalm of the sorrows of Messiah in connection with the treachery of Judas and of the Jews.
(3) The wickedness of the world at large was also before him in all its enormity. A specimen of that enormity was soon to be displayed in the conduct of the Roman governor and his men of war. For this he felt acutely, as having taken upon him that humanity which is common to all.
2. It partly arose from the weakness of his disciples.
(1) They were slow of heart to believe fully in him. This, notwithstanding all the pains he had taken to instruct them, notwithstanding all the miracles to confirm his teaching which they had seen.
(2) But they were full of self-assertion. This he had that day witnessed in their professions of readiness to die with him. And though he, in the spirit of prophecy, rebuked it, still they remained self-confident; for they slept when they should have watched.
(3) When David wept at this Mount of Olives, all his followers wept with him; (see 2Sa_15:30) but when the Son of David was there in tears, his followers were asleep. Yet was not their sleep without sorrow. (see Luk_22:45) Still it was open to rebuke. "He saith unto Peter," who had been foremost in promising to die with him, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
(4) This evidence of their weakness Jesus uses to press upon them the urgent need of their watching and praying, that they might not yield to the approaching temptation. If prayer against the hour of temptation was needful for the Master, how much more so for the servants! "Prayer without watching is hypocrisy; and watching without prayer is presumption" (Jay).
(5) "Sleep on now." This is the same as "Why sleep ye?" as it is given in Luk_22:46; a rebuke, e.g. "I no longer enjoin upon you to watch; the season is now past for that duty, the time of trial for which watching and praying would have prepared you has arrived." He watched and prayed, and received strength to drink the bitter cup; (cf. Luk_12:43 Heb_5:7) they slept away the precious moments, and the hour of trial found them without strength.
3. It partly arose from the malignity of Satan.
(1) The devil was in Iscariot. (cf. Luk 22:3Jo Luk_13:2, Luk_13:27)
(2) The devil was in the Jews. The prevalence of demoniacal possession at the time of Christ"s sojourn amongst them was a sign of the condition of the nation.
(3) The devil was in the Gentile nations. He was, and still is, to a fearful extent, "the god of this world.
(4) That was emphatically "the hour of the power of darkness the crisis in which Satan was permitted to put forth all his strength in his conflict with the "Seed of the woman." For the sufferings on the cross were but the complement and sequel of those in the garden.
4. It principally arose from the anger of God. We may here make the general observation, viz. that the terrible "cup" which Jesus had to drink was given to him by the hand of his Father (cf. ver. 39; Joh_18:11). The subject will be more particularly considered as we meditate further upon the trouble of the soul of our Lord.
III IN ITS AWFUL VICARIOUSNESS.
1. He shares his sorrows with those he loves best.
(1) To the college of the apostles he said, "Sit ye here, while I go yonder and pray." Rome are able to go only so far with Christ in his sufferings.
(2) "And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee" to whom he said, "Abide ye here, and watch with me." "Sit ye here" (ver. 36), and "Abide ye here" (ver. 38), mark a law of progression in following.
(3) To these he said, "Watch with me." Watch while I watch. Watch as I watch. The temptations directed against Christ are those directed against his Church.
(4) But who were these? They were the three formerly chosen to be the witnesses of the Transfiguration. (see Mat_17:1) Those are best prepared to suffer with Christ who have seen his glory. So likewise those who suffer with him may expect to reign with him. The sons of Zebedee had offered themselves to drink of his cup. (see Mat_20:20-23)
2. But there is a limit to their companionship.
(1) "Tarry ye here." Beyond this the best and most perfected cannot go. Christ had lately prayed with his disciples; (see Joh_17:1) now he prays alone. Note: Our prayers with our families must not be pleaded to excuse the neglect of secret devotions.
(2) But why did he now pray and suffer apart? Because his sufferings now were vicarious, and in these he could have no sharer, for he only was sinless, and he only was Divine. In his pleadings he makes no mention of his virtues, for he was suffering as the Sin bearer for the world.
(3) That this agony in the garden was for us is evident, else One so great and glorious as he was would never have "feared" as he did. His fear was not for the loss of natural life to himself. That, to one who on the third day after his death was to rise again, is clearly out of the question. His "godly tear" (see Heb_5:7, New Version) was for the loss of spiritual and eternal life to the whole world. May it not also have been lest, if the death sorrow in the garden should prove fatal, the fulfilment of the Scriptures in respect to his death by crucifixion might be imperilled?
(4) The "cup" was the Passion which was now beginning, but had to be completed on the cross. The allusion may be to the poison cup given to criminals. To this Paul possibly alludes when he says, "Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death forevery man". (Heb_2:9) Here the whole world is represented as standing guilty and condemned before the tribunal of God. Into every man"s hand is placed the deadly cup, and he is required to drink off the poison. But Jesus enters, takes every man"s cup out of his hand, drinks off the poison, and thus tastes or suffers the death which every man otherwise must have suffered (see A. Clarke, in loc. ). J.A.M.
Truths learnt in Gethsemane.
A little garden on the side of the Mount of Olives is now shown to travellers as the garden of Gethsemane. It is enclosed with a wall. A few olive trees remain, possibly the descendants of those that covered Jesus with their shade. This spot is, however, too close to the city, and too near a main road, to have provided our Lord with the seclusion that he sought. Dr. Thomson tells of gardens a little further off, less than a mile from the city, and says that he found one, in a sheltered vale, suiting exactly our Lord"s purpose, only a few hundred yards northeast of the exhibited site. Three things are impressed on us by the scene in Gethsemane.
I WE GAIN IDEAS CONCERNING OUR LORD"S HUMANITY. It was Divine-humanity, so we may expect to find some unusual elements. But it was veritable humanity, so we may expect to find more likeness to us than diversity from us. Brotherliness of feeling and experience is seen:
1. In the restlessness of Christ"s spirit. We know what it is to be restless when we have forebodings of coming calamity.
2. In our Lord"s desire to be alone, and yet longing to have some one to be present and sympathize with him.
3. In our Lord"s resistance of anticipated physical sufferings.
4. In his gentle way of dealing with disciples who were weak rather than wilful, and therefore failed to watch. Gethsemane helps us to feel "he was in all points tempted like as we are.
II WE GAIN IDEAS CONCERNING THE CAUSE OF OUR LORD"S SUFFERINGS. No doubt he felt, as no one ever felt before,
(1) the separation between God and man; and
(2) the hatefulness of sin.
And he estimated, as no one else ever has, the awful curse and penalty which wilful sin has brought upon humanity. The woe he had so seen to pass through seemed to reveal the penalty to him. This made the burden of deliverance so heavy made it involve so much. It all crowded on his mind and heart, and forced the earnest cry and prayer.
III WE GAIN IDEAS CONCERNING OUR LORD"S WILLINGNESS TO SUFFER. The soul offering the will offering for sin was made in Gethsemane. God required the full sacrifice of a completed, tested obedience. Calvary completed the testing. Christ was a perfect offering. He freely, willingly, gave himself unto God. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain Mat 26:36-56.
Mat 26:36-56.
The Agony In Gethsemane And The Arrest Of Jesus
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Found also in Mar 14:32-52 Luk 22:39-53; Joh 18:1-12. The time of this section is between midnight and morning. Gethsemane is here called a place, Rev. Ver., margin, an enclosed piece of ground; compare the same word in Joh 9:5. The name Gethsemane means ’oil-press.’ But the place was not simply an oil-press, for John calls it a garden or orchard, probably containing fruit trees and flowers, as well as vegetables. Gethsemane is now shown as a small enclosure lying just where the three roads across the Mount of Olives branch off at its base (see on "Mat 21:1"), and between the central and southern roads, both of which lead to Bethany. This enclosure is of somewhat less than an acre, and contains several very old olive trees, looking at a distance like large old apple trees. These identical trees appear to be traced back for many centuries. But they cannot have existed in our Lord’s time, for Josephus tells us ("War." 6, 1, 1), that the Romans, in order to build their mounds about the walls, cut down all the trees for ten or twelve miles around the city, so that the region that had been so beautiful with trees and gardens (paradises) was now desolate on every side, and a pitiable, mournful spectacle. And even before this ("War." 5, 12, 2), they had drawn around the city a wall which is described as passing south along the foot of the Mount of Olives to a point opposite Siloam, and must therefore have passed exactly where the present enclosure stands. The real Gethsemane was probably quite near this enclosed place. As "Jesus oft-times resorted thither with his disciples," so that Judas "knew the place", (Joh 18:2) we naturally think of it as near the way to and from Bethany. If not a small public garden or park, it was owned by a public-spirited man who allowed visitors to enter at will, particularly during the great festivals, or else by some friend of Jesus, like the owner of the house in which he had eaten the passover.—In 1871, a party of Americans went forth from Jerusalem one night at Easter to visit Gethsemane. Passing through what is traditionally called St. Stephen’s Gate, we went along a winding path far down the steep descent into the narrow valley of the Kidron (which has there no water except in the rainy season), and crossing, were almost immediately at the modern stone wall which encloses the old olive trees. The paschal full moon for us too shone bright on the scene. It was late at night, and all was still; and at several different points we kneeled, a little company from a distant land, and one or another of us prayed with choked utterance, for we knew that we could not be far from the spot at which the Saviour kneeled down, and fell prostrate, and prayed in his agony.
This section divides itself into two parts, the Agony and the Arrest.
I. Mat 26:36-46. The Agony In Gethsemane
Mar 14:32-42 Luk 22:40-46. John does not record this, but he records (Alf.) a somewhat similar utterance on the previous day, Joh 12:28-33, and other passages which reveal mental suffering, Joh 13:21, Joh 16:32. Sit ye here, apparently outside of the enclosure. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. These three belong to the first group of four among the Twelve (see on "Mat 10:2"); they alone had accompanied Jesus when he raised Jairus’ daughter to life, and up into the Mount of Transfiguration. Began, and continued for some time (see on "Mat 11:20"). Very heavy; sore troubled is a better translation than ’very heavy.’ Mark has the same peculiar Greek term. My soul is exceeding sorrowful. The phrase, which resembles Psa 41:6 (42) in Sept., can only denote a real human mind; compare Joh 12:27. The ancient fancy which some are trying to revive, that in the Incarnation the divine nature took the place and fulfilled the functions of a human soul, is incompatible, not only with this scene and the temptation of Joh 4:1 ff., but with the whole history of Jesus. Whatever anthropomorphic expressions may be necessarily used in speaking of God, it is evident that the divine nature could not, in any proper sense of the term, suffer agony. How his human soul could suffer apart from his divine nature, is a part of the mystery of the Incarnation, like his temptation, his increasing in wisdom, (Luk 2:52) and his not knowing the day nor the hour. (Mar 13:32) Nor is it wise to make trichotomist distinctions between ’soul’ here and ’spirit’ in Joh 4:41; see on "Mat 16:25". Even unto death. Compare Isa 38:1. The time is now nearer than on the occasion described in Joh 12:27, and his suffering is more intense. Alford: "Our Lord’s whole inmost life must have been one of continued trouble of spirit—he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief—but there was an extremity of anguish now, reaching even to the utmost limit of endurance, so that it seemed that more would be death itself." Tarry ye here. He had brought the three to some point removed from the other eight. And watch with me. The idea seems to be that they were to guard his season of exceeding and deadly sorrow from intrusion, and also to give him the support of knowing that sympathetic friends were close by. In any season of extraordinary sorrow, one likes to be much alone, and yet to have some dear friends near, so that be may go to them when the craving for sympathy becomes uppermost. Alford: "He does not say pray with me, for in that work the Mediator must be alone."
Mat 26:39-41. He withdraws the first time. He went a little further. Luke says ’about a stone’s cast,’ say fifty yards. This might be from the eight disciples, as Luke does not mention the special three; but from comparing his whole connection we see that it more likely means the three. Jesus doubtless sought the most secluded spot in the enclosure, and probably withdrew from the light of the full moon to the shade of trees. Fell on his face. Luke says ’kneeled,’ which would naturally be followed, in an agony of distress, by complete prostration. And prayed, the tense (in Mark and Luke also) denoting continued action. The Saviour evidently spent much time in prayer, and particularly on any special occasion. At his baptism, (Luk 3:21) before choosing the twelve, (Luk 6:12) when the multitudes wanted to make him king, (Mat 14:23 Joh 6:15) when the disciples were just becoming satisfied that he was the Messiah, (Luk 9:18) when on the Mount of Transfiguration, (Luk 9:28) and upon other occasions, there is special mention of his praying, sometimes for many hours, even a whole night. So his praying here, long and repeatedly, is no new thing in his experience. O, my father. Mark gives the Aramaic word Abba, which our Lord doubtless actually employed, and then adds the Greek word, making ’Abba, Father’; so Paul in Rom 8:15. If it he possible, i, e., morally possible, consistent with the Father’s purpose of saving men. The God-man speaks according to his suffering human nature, referring all to the Father (compare Mat 20:23; Mar 13:32). In Mark (Mar 14:36) the expression is stronger, ’All things are possible unto thee.... but what thou wilt’—he refers it to the Father’s will. This cup, a common image for great suffering, like some allotted bitter draught. See on "Mat 20:22". Let this cap pass from me. So Mark. But Luke, in the common and probably correct text, ’If thou art willing to let this cup pass away from me’—the sentence remaining unfinished, an aposiopesis, as in Luk 13:9, Luk 19:42 Act 23:9 (Winer, 599 f. 750). We have seen that the words spoken from heaven at the baptism and the Transfiguration (Mat 3:17, Mat 17:5) are not reported in precisely the same terms by the different Evangelists, which conclusively shows that they did not undertake to give in all cases the exact words spoken. But there is no substantial difference.[1] Not as I will, but as thou wilt. Compare Joh 5:30, Joh 6:38 Php 2:8. Many months earlier, when he first spoke to the disciples of his approaching death, he indicated that such was God’s thought and purpose. (Mat 16:23) He cometh unto the disciples, the three. And findeth them asleep. Luke adds ’for sorrow.’ They felt a dull, depressing sorrow at the intimation that their Master was about to leave them, was about to be killed. They saw nothing to be done by themselves, and could not realize that the danger was so imminent and perilous as the result showed. Such a state of mind often superinduces heavy sleep; and it was now long past midnight. These same three disciples were "heavy with sleep" during the Transfiguration. (Luk 9:32) And saith unto Peter, who was the recognized leader, in some sense, of the Twelve, see on "Mat 16:16". Notice that the following verbs are all plural; he addresses all three through Peter. What, could ye not, is a good English equivalent to the peculiar phrase of the original, ’were ye thus unable,’ were ye as unable as this? Watch with me one hour. The expression is doubtless only general and not to be pressed, but it shows that he had been alone no little time. ’Watch’ refers primarily to keeping awake, but also suggests mental alertness. It became a favourite term with the apostles; compare Mat 24:42, Mat 25:13, 1Th 5:6, 1Co 16:13 Rom 13:11 Col 4:2, 1Pe 5:8. That ye enter not, may be connected with both ’watch and pray,’ or with only ’pray,’ as in Rev. Ver. margin, and so Origen ("On Prayer," page 557, Migne), Chrys., Theophyl., Euthym. In Luk 22:40 it is simply ’pray that ye enter not,’ etc.; and in Luk 22:46 Rev. Ver., ’rise and pray lest ye enter into,’ the latter connection is much the more natural of the two.[2] Temptation, compare on Mat 4:1. Observe that it is not merely "that you may overcome temptation," or "that you may be supported under temptation," but "that you may not come into temptation," may avoid being tempted. Compare on Mat 6:13, and see Luk 22:31. The Com. Ver., through oversight or in its passion for variety (see on "Mat 25:46"), translates by ’lest ye enter’ in Mark and Luke. In the following clause it gives in Mark, ’the spirit truly is ready,’ but in Matt. where the Greek has exactly the same words, it translates, the spirit indeed is willing, the word ’indeed’ being used to translate the Greek word men, a particle which merely indicates that to its clause something else will presently be brought in contrast; compare on Mat 3:11 or Mat 9:37. The emphasis is on ’spirit,’ not at all on ’indeed.’ This is given as a general proposition, suggested by their case. The flesh means not simply the body as opposed to the mind, but the body as representing our sinfulness, being so used because bodily sins are patent; while the spirit represents what is better in us, regarded as produced by divine influence. Compare a similar contrast between body and spirit, or flesh and spirit, frequently occurring in Paul’s Epistles. This statement was not added by way of excuse, as some have imagined, but of warning and incentive. The fact that while the spirit is willing the flesh is weak forms a reason why we should watchfully and prayerfully strive to keep out of temptation, lest it take advantage of our weakness and overcome us. Euthym.: "Do not look to the soul’s readiness and be bold, but look to the flesh’s weakness and be humble."
[1] After Mat 26:39, the old uncial represented by 13, 69, 124, some Greek lectionaries, and the Syriac of Jerusalem introduce the account of the bloody sweat and the angel’s appearing, taken from Luk 22:43 f., and, of course, not genuine here. A number of important documents omit that passage from Luke. But the omission can be more easily accounted for than the insertion. All the Gnostic heretics of the second century would dislike the passage intensely, and many orthodox people might think it derogatory. Epiphanius remarks that "orthodox persons removed the passage, because they were afraid, and did not understand its design and extreme importance." We think, therefore, that it ought to be retained in Luke. In combining the Gospels, this passage is more naturally connected with the first season of prayer, than with the second or third, when his agony seems to have been less severe.
[2] If connected with both terms, the dependent clause is final; if taken only with ’pray,’ it is non-final, see on "Mat 5:29". Origen, Chrys., etc. use the infinitive (and so Luk 22:40), which is the classical construction to convey the idea often expressed in ’later’ Greek by hina non-final; and the infinitive in this connection could not be taken with ’watch.’
Mat 26:42-44. He withdraws the second and third times. He went away again the second time. When one is in very bitter grief, and, after being for some while alone, comes back to his friends, it is natural, especially if they do not seem very sympathetic, that presently a great wave of sorrow should come afresh over his soul, and he must again seek to bear it alone. If this cup may not pass away. Correct text omits ’cup.’ The Rev. Ver. has more literally cannot. ’May not’ is a quite different and feebler expression, the question being not merely as to the permissible but the possible, as in Mat 26:39. Mark (Rev. Ver.) says, ’and prayed, saying the same words.’ They are, as given by Matt., substanstantially the same as the first time, and yet we note a certain progress. He does not now begin by asking that the cup may pass away, and afterwards attain resignation; he begins with the assumption that it cannot be otherwise (which the Greek phrase implies), and at once expresses resignation. The third time, Matthew also has, ’saying the same words.’ This was very different from the "vain repetitions " condemned in Mat 6:7. Impassioned feeling sometimes makes repetition natural. Thy will be done, the same phrase as in the model prayer, Mat 6:10. Asleep again. Alas! not even from ardent Peter, and the impassioned "disciple whom Jesus loved," could he find sympathy in this terrible time. Mark adds (Bib. Un. Ver.), ’and they knew not what to answer him.’ Their minds were confused at the thought of the Messiah dying, of the miracle-worker slain, of the Master forsaking the disciples, and this increased their dull drowsiness. Luke does not mention his withdrawing three separate times, but makes one general statement, (Luk 22:40-46) substantially equivalent to the more detailed narrative of Matthew and Mark. Again. The Greek word for this (palin) occurs twice in Mat 26:44, according to the best documents. The third time. Yet again the wave of sorrow came rolling over his soul. It must have been something awful and overwhelming, if Jesus found it so hard to hear. Was this dread cup merely the bodily pains and the shame of approaching crucifixion? Was it merely the interruption of a good man’s course of self-denying and loving usefulness? Why, many of his followers have faced impending death, even at the stake, without once praying that they might, if possible, be spared the trial; have in the very midst of the torturing flames been found "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer "all this for him. Were they sustained by conscious innocence? He alone was perfectly innocent. Were they supported by the remembrance of good already done, by unselfish devotion to human welfare and to God’s glory, by the indwelling Spirit? In all respects, he much more. The agony of Gethsemane, and the cry of the forsaken on Calvary, can be accounted for, in one of strong and sinless character, only when we remember how it is said, "Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf." "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities "; "Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree." (2Co 5:21, Rev. Ver.; Isa 53:5, 1Pe 2:24, Rev, Ver,) The effect of these agonizing supplications is referred to in Heb 5:7-9, Rev. Ver. He was "heard for his godly fear," and while the cup did not pass away, he became through suffering completely fitted to sympathize and to save. (Heb 2:18, Heb 4:15, Heb 5:7 ff.) We need not then be surprised that our prayers also are often answered by granting, not what we at first asked, but something better.
Mat 26:45 f. His final return, Sleep on now, and take your rest. This is a "permissive imperative." (Winer, 311 391, Ellicott, "Hist. Lect."). He has no further need of their keeping awake; his struggles in the solitude close by are past. So far as concerns the object for which he desired them to watch (Mat 26:38), they may now yield to sleep without any effort to resist. But the close of his season of struggle is promptly followed by the approach of a new experience for him and for them. It may be (Hackett) that just after saying ’sleep on now,’ his eye caught the gleam of the torches descending the steep declivity beyond the ravine of Kidron and coming towards them. Behold, calling attention, as so often in Matthew The hour is at hand, has come near, the same expression as in Mat 3:2; and so in Mat 26:46. The Son of man, the Messiah, see on "Mat 8:20". Is betrayed, present tense, because just on the point of occurring. The word really means ’is delivered,’ compare on Mat 26:23. Into the hands of sinners. The Greek has no article, but means, ’into sinners’ hands,’ indicating not the particular persons, but the kind of persons. The reference is not to the mere officials sent to lay hands on him, but to the wicked authorities, the Sanhedrin. Rise, let us be going, looks to what is just beginning, as ’sleep on now,’ based itself on what had just ended. He does not propose to go away and avoid those who are approaching, but to go forth from the enclosure and meet them. (Joh 18:4 ff.) Other proposed explanations of the apparent conflict between Mat 26:45 and Mat 26:46 may be found copiously discussed in Morison.
II. Mat 26:47-56. Jesus Delivered Up By Judas, And Seized By The Soldiers
(Mar 14:43-52 Luk 22:47-53 Joh 18:2-12)
And while he yet spake. So Mark and Luke, and compare Joh 18:4. He foresaw not only ’the hour,’ but the moment. Judas, see on "Mat 10:4"; see on "Mat 27:3". He had probably gone to the house where the supper was eaten, and not finding them there, had come on to the well-known garden. (Joh 18:1 f.) A great multitude, with swords and staves. So Mark. John (Rev. Ver. margin), says that Judas received ’the cohort’ of soldiers, which, if full, would be several hundred men, and the extreme solicitude of the Jewish rulers lest the Galilean crowds attending the feast should rescue Jesus might well account for so large a force; but the word may be used generally for a ’band’ of men. The article suggests the particular cohort or band then garrisoning the temple. It was commanded by a chiliarch, or military tribune, a rank higher than our colonel. (Joh 18:12 ; compare Act 21:31 ff.) Edersh. suggests that so large a force and so high an officer commanding would hardly have been furnished without the knowledge of Pilate, and this might account for the anxious dream of Pilate’s wife. (Mat 27:19) It was common to strengthen the garrison of the Castle of Antonia at the time of the great feasts, in order to restrain the throngs in the city and in the temple courts, (Act 21:31 ff.) just as the Turks do now at Easter. This ’band’ cannot have been Jewish soldiers, for the Romans would not have allowed bodies of armed natives in what was now a regular Roman province. The ’great multitude’ may have included many followers through curiosity, as people were moving about through the whole of the passover night. Whatever was the number of soldiers, there was at any rate a military force to support the officials sent to make the arrest, which was not the case at the attempt of six months earlier. (Joh 7:32) Besides the weapons, John says the party had ’lanterns and torches.’ The moon was full, for the passover came at the middle of the month, and the month began with the new moon, but the officials might expect to have occasion for search in dark places, and for assured identification. From the chief priests and elders. Mark adds, ’the Scribes,’ thus showing more plainly that the Sanhedrin is meant, see on "Mat 26:59". We learn presently from Luk 22:52 that some of these dignitaries were themselves among the multitude. So there were soldiers (John), temple officials (Luke, John), at least one servant of the high-priest (Matthew, Mark, Luke), and some of the chief-priests and elders (Luke); altogether ’a great multitude’ (Matthew, Mark, Luke).
Mat 26:48-50. Jesus is pointed out and seized. Gave them a sign, gave it when they set out together. All the better instincts of human nature revolt at the treacherous disciple’s kiss. The kiss was a common form of salutation, but only between friends. And Judas seems to have pretended a very marked friendliness; for both Matt. and Mark, in saying ’and kissed him’ (Mat 26:49), do not use the simple verb as before, but compound it with a preposition, so as to mean kissed frequently, eagerly, warmly. (Rev. Ver., margin.) There is the same change from the simple to the compound verb in Luk 7:45 f., where the latter denotes warm affection; compare also the prodigal’s father, (Luk 15:20) and Paul’s friends. (Act 20:37) The distinction is recognized by Meyer, Ellicott, Grimm, Alford, Morison, Edersh. Compare Pro 27:6, Rev. Ver. "The kisses of an enemy are profuse." Hold him fast, take him, the same word as in Mat 26:4, Mat 26:50, and Mat 26:55, and the translation ought not to be varied. Our Lord is described by John as coming voluntarily forward to the multitude and avowing himself to be the person they were seeking; and this while Judas was standing with them. We may perhaps suppose that Judas, to fulfil his contract and earn his reward, stepped forward notwithstanding and gave the appointed sign. And the occasion for this may have been afforded by the fact that the multitude, overawed by the calm majesty of the Saviour as he avowed himself, "went backward and fell to the ground." (Joh 18:6) Moreover, the Roman officer might not know but that some other person was pretending to be the one whom he sought, and would naturally wait for the sign agreed upon. Master, or Rabbi. This term was often used by the disciples in addressing Jesus, compare on Mat 8:19. Friend is not the common Greek term, but signifies companion, ’comrade,’ as in Mat 20:18. He had long been an every-day associate, and Jesus reminds him of this fact. (Do that) for which thou art come. This is the natural meaning of the Greek, and not, Wherefore art thou come? The Greek pronoun used is not an interrogative, but a relative, which as very often in Greek and Latin suggests its antecedent, ’(that) for which thou art come.’ We then have to supply a verb, which might be ’tell’ (Morison, ’say’), ’mind’ (Meyer), or better ’do.’ (Euthym.) This accords with the saying given by Luke, ’Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’ and with Joh 13:27, Bib. Un. Ver., ’What thou doest, do quickly.’ ’Wherefore,’ in Com. Ver., would imply that Jesus did not know, and would seem to conflict with Luke. ’(What is that) for which thou art come,’ is also a possible way of supplying the gap.[1] Laid hands on Jesus and took him. The binding (Joh 18:12) seems to have occurred a little later, when they were about to lead him away.
[1] Winer, Buttm., and Grimm, and many commentators, take the pronoun as used interrogatively, being influenced by a traditional interpretation (from the Vulgate). But there are no clear examples of such a use of the relative hos (compare Meyer), and it is highly improbable in itself. The examples collected by Moulton in his Winer, 207 f. are all readily explained as relative with the antecedent understood, or as attracted relative.
Mat 26:51-54. The disciple’s rash attempt at defence. One is the numeral, not simply ’some one.’ John tells (Joh 18:10) that it was Simon Peter, and gives also the name of the man smitten, Malchus. The names were perhaps omitted by Matt., Mark, and Luke because Peter was still living when they wrote, and might have been seized on this pretext in any season of special persecution by the Jews; (compare Act 21:27) while when John wrote, Peter was dead. Compare on Mat 26:7. Stretched out his hand and drew his sword, details all the circumstances, as in Mat 5:1. and often. Luke says (Luk 22:49) that others of the Twelve in sympathy with Peter united with him in asking, ’Lord, shall we smite with the sword?’ And one of them (rash Peter) did not wait for the answer, but smote. A (the) servant of the high priest. The word is, doulon ’slave,’ see on "Mat 8:6". But a slave of the high priest would have, under the circumstances, a sort of official character. All four Evangelists mention this, for it was an important circumstance, greatly increasing the peril of Peter’s position. His invincible self-confidence had made him fall asleep notwithstanding the Master’s warnings. Now, suddenly awakening, he saw the new comers laying hands on the Master, and with a sudden impulse he attacked and wounded a person having official importance. Smote off his ear, having evidently intended to smite his head a deadly blow. Peter came very near (Alf.) being like Barabbas and his followers, "who in the insurrection had committed murder." (Mar 15:7) Luke and John mention that it was the right ear, and we can see exactly how the blow missed. Return thy sword into his place. ’His’ is the original possessive of it (hyt), see on "Mat 24:32". Notice that Jesus does not bid him throw away the sword. All they that take the sword , etc. Compare Rev 13:10. Christ’s followers are not to carry on his work with carnal weapons. Luther.: "Christ has no other sword than the sword of his mouth. (Rev 2:16) Those who wish to fight for him must in like manner have no other." Even as a matter of general human prudence, men who carry weapons in a civilized country are on the whole in much greater danger than men who do not. Thinkest thou, etc., lit., or if this consideration does not restrain you, take another view of the matter (compare or, Mat 7:9), thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father, is the exact translation, not simply ’pray.’ Now (rather even now), in the common Greek text is connected with ’beseech,’ but in—B L, and most of the early versions it is connected with ’shall send’ as in Rev. Ver. Give, or supply, furnish. More than twelve legions of angels. To protect twelve men (himself and the eleven), he might have twelve legions and more of defenders. If a cohort seemed formidable, he might have legions. A full Roman legion at that day contained some six thousand men. Of course the expression is general, a round number, and stated strongly. He is not helplessly submitting through lack of strength and of protection, (compare 2Ki 6:17) but is voluntarily yielding himself to those who design putting him to death. He could easily avoid all that is coming, but how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? viz., that the Messiah must be despised and rejected, must suffer and die. (compare Luk 24:25 f.) ’The Scriptures,’ a technical term among the Jews, denoting the collection of books which we call the Old Testament, see on "Mat 21:42". Only Matthew gives here the reference to prophecy, a matter in which he took peculiar interest, as writing especially for Jewish readers; but Mark also gives the parallel to Mat 26:56. John (Joh 18:11) records another expression in harmony with Mat 26:52-54, "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it "? Just after, or just before, thus speaking to Peter, he spoke also (Luk 22:51) to the persons who were arresting him, "Suffer ye thus far"; suffer the resistance of the mistaken but well-meaning follower to go thus far without punishing him. Then immediately healing the ear by a miraculous touch, he induced them to let the rash disciple alone.
Mat 26:55 f. Having rebuked the disciple, and conciliated the persons immediately engaged in arresting him, Jesus now turns to the multitudes that thronged around. Luke shows (Luk 22:52) that among them were chief priests and captains of the temple and elders, who might naturally enough, in their extreme solicitude, come along to see that the perilous arrest was surely and safely made. In that same hour, (compare Mat 18:1) viz., at the time when they were engaged in arresting him; but it is not easy to see why this more emphatic expression is used instead of the simple ’then.’ Perhaps the following words were well known among the Christians to have been spoken by Jesus, and Matt. means to say that this was the time of their utterance. Mark and Luke have a simple ’and.’ Are ye come out as against a thief, etc. Better as in Rev. Ver., as if against a robber are ye come out with swords and staves to seize me? Not a ’thief,’ but the quite different Greek word meaning ’robber,’ see on "Mat 27:38". A thief would try to escape by flight, a robber was likely to resist, and they must bring weapons to apprehend him. ’Seize’ is in the Greek a stronger term than that of Mat 27:48, Mat 27:50, and end of 55; Mark makes exactly the same distinction. Jesus reproaches the multitudes with coming against him as if a man of violence. There had been abundant opportunity of arresting him without difficulty. I sat, imperfect tense, continued or habitual action. This posture, which was common for a teacher, (Mat 5:1) would have made it easy to seize him, and also indicated quiet innocence. Daily, for several days of the preceding week; possibly it points back also to earlier periods of teaching at Jerusalem, recorded only in the Fourth Gospel. With you, is wanting in some of the best documents. In the temple, hieron, the general sacred enclosure and edifices (see on "Mat 4:5"); he taught in the Court of the Gentiles and the Court of Israel; not being of the tribe of Levi, we may be sure he never entered the , nor the Court of the Priests. And ye laid no hold on me. He thus reminds them that he had given no occasion for their treating him as violent and dangerous, nor for their arresting him at all. But all this was done, is come to pass (compare on Mat 1:22), still the Saviour’s words, as clearly shown by Mar 14:49. In the course of Providence this plotting and arresting had all taken place, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled; though the human actors had no such design. The Scriptures of the prophets, because the reference is especially to the predictive portions of Scripture, the Messianic prophecies; compare at the crucifixion, Joh 19:28. Luke records the additional saying, in harmony with that given here, "But this is your hour, and the power of darkness." The purpose of redemption now permitted that great wrong, which was to he wonderfully overruled for good. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. In judging them, we must remember that the Master had forbidden all resistance, and had distinctly said he was about to leave them. Mark adds (Mar 14:51 f.) an account of a certain young man who left his solitary garment when he was seized by the captors, and fled. The mention of this slight incident may be sufficiently accounted for by the fact that it shows how great was the terror felt by the followers of Jesus. Some think, however, that it is to be regarded as a personal reminiscence, the youth being Mark himself, whose mother is found living at Jerusalem a dozen years later; (Act 12:12) and it is suggested (Weiss, Edersh.) that the youth had followed Jesus and the disciples from the house in which they had eaten the passover, and so that the hospitable householder was Mark’s father. There is very slight ground for this conjecture, or for the notion that it was Lazarus of Bethany. We find afterwards that Peter and John must have speedily returned. (Mat 26:58 Joh 18:15) They might be regarded as exceptions to the general statement that all fled; but the Saviour had also made a general prediction, (Mat 26:31, R.V.) ’All ye shall be offended because of me this night.’—So the officials and the soldiers led Jesus away; (Joh 18:13) and mean time (Weiss,"Life"), "Jerusalem slept in peace, and did not know what had happened."
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 26:37. The three disciples in Gethsemane. (1) How hard to realize the significance of great crises in life. (2) How imperfect is all human sympathy with the Divine Redeemer. (3) How readily does human infirmity weigh down the willing spirit. (4) How watchful we should be in all times of special trial. (5) How great the privilege of praying that we may not come into temptation.—Three witnesses of three scenes. (1) Their Master’s power, Mar 5:37. (2) Their Master’s glory, Mat 17:1. (3) Their Master’s agony.
Mat 26:39, Three prayers of Jesus. (1) The prayer he taught his disciples to pray. (2) The prayer he offered in behalf of his disciples, John 17. (3) The prayer he made in ’his own behalf. alford: "All conflict of the holy soul is prayer; all its struggles are continued communion with God. When Abraham’s faith was to be put to so sore a trial, he says, ’I and the lad will go yonder and worship.’ Our Lord (almost on the same spot) unites in himself (Stier) as the priest and victim, Abraham’s faith and Isaac’s patience." —The three gardens, Eden, Gethsemane, Paradise. The fall of man in Eden made necessary the agony of man’s Saviour in Gethsemane, and this made possible the admission of man into the Paradise on high.
Mat 26:40 f. Even in this season of special suffering he has time to counsel his disciples; so on the cross he prays for his murderers, provides for his mother, and answers the request of his companion in suffering.
Mat 26:41. Safety as regards temptation. (1) Temptation is dangerous because the flesh is weak. (2) Our only real safety is in avoiding temptation. (3) In order to this, let us be watchful and prayerful.
Mat 26:42. pressense: "Not thy will but mine be done, changed Paradise into a desert; not my will but thine be done, changed the desert into Paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of glory."
Mat 26:43. Their eyes were heavy. Bengel: "Such slothfulness often holds the pious when it is least becoming."
Mat 26:45. Rest and arise. It is often the case that when one cause of anxiety has ceased and left us a moment’s rest, in the next moment some new trouble comes, and we must arise to face it.
Mat 26:47-54. The betrayal of Jesus. (1) The traitor’s kiss, and the Saviour’s calm response. (2) The rash disciple’s blow, and the Saviour’s mild rebuke. (3) The Saviour’s determination, though he could escape in a moment, to fulfil the Scriptures and work out the world’s salvation.
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain A place called Gethsemane.
Mat_26:36-39
A place called Gethsemane.
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The language and tone befitting our prayers to God
To a thoughtful and inquiring mind, nothing will be more manifest than the decorum of our Saviours addresses to the throne of grace. He is never betrayed into flights and ecstasies; never uses any phrase which is not marked by the strictest rules of soberness and truth. In His agony in the garden, when, if ever, the mind of an afflicted and sorrowful man, overwhelmed with grief, and preparing for trial and for death, might be expected to break forth into piteous cries and strong phrases, there is not one word which betrays the slightest excess. His soul is wrung with pain. He is very sorrowful. He is sorrowful even unto death. His agony is, perhaps, unspeakable; but not one impassioned cry, not one indecorous expression, not one familiar word, escapes his lips. His prayer is such as befits a son who honours his father, and who seems to have ever present to his mind the dignity of that parent. Now compare this with the prayers of ignorant and uneducated men-with the loud cry, the coarse phrases, the vehement gesticulations, the monstrous apostrophes they employ; above all, with the familiar way in which they speak of God and address themselves to Him, and judge between them and Jesus Christ. Jesus came to set us an example, as well in what He said as in what He did. He taught us how to pray. He showed on this great occasion, an occasion which none beside will ever experience, what is to be the tone and manner of our addresses to God. He was dignified in the midst of His distress. His holy father was an object of the devoutest reverence, so devout that He never presumes either then, or at any time, to use familiar language to Him..His prayer was such that it might have been listened to by the greatest prince or the pro-roundest scholar, yet it was a prayer so simple that any one can use it. Every sentence, every word, every syllable, is suitable to the majesty of heaven and the weakness of man. He never descends to low phrases and conversational terms, nor forgets, for one moment, that He is in intercourse with the Father of spirits. (George Wray, M. A.)
Submission to the Divine will
Payson was asked, when under great bodily affliction, if he could see any particular reason for the dispensation. No, he replied; but I am as well satisfied as if I could see ten thousand; Gods will is the very perfection of all reason.
Duty of submission
I know no duty in religion more generally agreed on, nor more justly required by God Almighty, than a perfect submission to His will in all things; nor do I think any disposition of mind can either please Him more, or become us better, than that of being satisfied with all He gives, and contented with all He takes away. None, I am sure, can be of more honour to God, nor of more ease to ourselves. For if we consider Him as our Maker, we cannot contend with Him; if as our Father, we ought not to distrust Him; so that we may be confident, whatever He does is intended for our good; and whatever happens that we interpret otherwise, yet we can get nothing by repining, nor save anything by resisting. (Sir Wm. Temple.)
My will, not thine, be done, turned Paradise into a desert. Thy will, not mine be done, turned the desert into Paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven. (E. de Pressense, D. D.)
A visit to Gethsemane
The interest attached to the events belonging to the course of our Redeemer becomes more touching and more absorbing as they advance towards the close, etc.
I. What was the place called Gethsemane? There were reasons why this garden should be selected, at once obvious and important. Knowing what He had to undergo, the Lord Jesus wanted privacy; the disciple who was to betray Him knew the place, etc.
II. The emotion of which the place called Gethsemane was the scene. It was the emotion of sorrow.
1. Its intensity. Formerly His sorrow had been chastened and subdued, while now it burst forth irrepressibly and without reserve. Presented in the Evangelical narratives.
2. Its cause. The solitude of the cause of the Saviours emotion, is exclusively this, that He was not only a martyr, but a Mediator, and that He suffered as an expiation on behalf of human sin. He was feeling the immense and terrible weight of propitiation.
3. Its relief and end. Support conveyed as an answer to His prayers, through the ministration of an angel, invigorating Him for the endurance of the final and fearful crisis which was before Him. He is enthroned in the loftiest elevation.
III. The impressions which our resort to the place called Gethsemane ought to secure.
1. The enormous evil and heinousness of sin.
2. The amazing condescension and love of the Lord Jesus.
3. The duty of entire reliance upon the Saviours work, and entire consecration to the Saviours service. For that reliance, genuine and implicit faith is what is required-faith being the instrument of applying to whole perfection of His work, etc. Who can do other than recognize at once the obligation and the privilege of entire consecration? (J. Parsons.)
The soul-sorrow of Jesus
I. That the bodily sufferings of Jesus, however acute and protracted, could not constitute a sufficient atonement for sin. Nor meet the demands of a violated law. The bodily suffering is no adequate compensation for the evil committed. The soul is the chief sinner. The sufferings of Christ in His body could not be a sufficient atonement for sin because they did not exhaust the curse pronounced by the law against transgression.
II. The severity of the mediators sorrow. When He made His soul an offering for sin.
1. He suffered much from the temptations by which He was assailed.
2. From the ingratitude and malignity of man.
3. The soul-sorrow of Christ was produced by the sensible withholding of all comforting communication from heaven, and by the feeling of forsakenness in the hour of distress.
4. The sorrow of the Redeemers soul rose to its height when he did actually endure the wrath of God due to our sins. (J. Macnaughton.)
The representative human conflict
Our Savours conflict in Gethsemane was a representative conflict, and it reveals to us the meaning of human life, and the struggle through which we must pass.
I. There are only two wills in the world-Gods wilt, and mans will.
II. The blessedness of man, the creature, must lie in the harmonious working together of these two wills.
III. These two wills are at present in antagonism.
IV. How can these two wills be brought together into harmony? Answer-
1. Not by any changing of the perfect will of God.
2. Mans will is wrong, imperfect, misguided, it may be changed, it ought to be changed, it must be changed. Here is the proper first sphere of a redeeming work. What shall change it? The truth as it is in Jesus. The work wrought out for us by Jesus. The grace won for us by Jesus. The constraining of the love of Jesus. The power of the risen and living Jesus. (Selected.)
The soul-passion of Christ
What is the explanation we are to give of this passage in our Lords life? One explanation which has been offered is that Gethsemane witnessed a last and more desperate assault of the evil One; but for this the Bible gives no clear warrant. Certainly, the evil One, after his great defeat on the mountain of the Temptation, is said to have departed from our Lord for a season, aa expression which seems to imply that he afterwards returned; but, so far as the text of Scripture can guide us, he returned to assail not the Workman hut the work. What took place in Gethsemane is totally unlike the scene in the Temptation. At the Temptation, our Lord is throughout calm, firm, majestic. He repels each successive assault of the tempter with a word of power. The prince of this world came, and had nothing in Him, But in Gethsemane He is overcome by that, whatever it was, which pressed on Him. He is meek, prostrate, unnerved, dependent (as it seems) on the sympathy and nearness of those whom He had taught and led. There He resists and vanquishes with tranquil strength a personal opponent; here He sinks as if in fear and bewilderment to the very earth, as though a prey to some inward sense of desolation and collapse. His own words, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, point to some great mental trouble; and if He was suffering from a mental trouble, what, may we dare to ask, was its provoking cause?
I. Was it not, first of all, an apprehension, distinct, vivid, and overpowering, of what was presently coming? In Gethsemane, by an act of His will, our Lord opened upon His human soul a full view and apprehension of the impending sufferings of His passion and death; and the apprehension was itself an agony. The whole scene, the succession of scenes, passed before His mental eye; and as He gazes on it, a heart sickness-outcome and proof of His true Humanity-seizes on Him, and He shrinks back in dread from this dark and complex vision of pain.
II. He was, so to speak, mentally robing himself for the great sacrifice-laying upon His sinless soul the sins of a guilty world. To us, indeed, the burden of sin is as natural as the clothes we wear; but to Him the touch of that which we take so easily was an agony, even in its lightest form; and when we think of the accumulated guilt of all the ages clinging around and most intimately present to Him, can we wonder that His bodily nature gave way, that His Passion seemed to have been upon Him before its time, and that His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. (Canon Liddon.)
The Christians Gethsemane
Surely He did not address these words, at once so imperative and so plaintive, to His apostle alone. They were words for all time, warning us not so to remember Calvary as to forget Gethsemane. Good indeed it is to retire to this inmost sanctuary of the human soul, to retire from a world of men, a world which chiefly fixes its eye on the outward and the material, and which passes its years in struggles and efforts that often leave no more traces upon anything that really lasts, then do the busy little children on the seashore, who diligently pile up their sand castles in face of the rising tide. The soul of Jesus in Gethsemane was, above all things, in contact with realities, but they are the realities of the world of spirits at the least not one whir less real than the stones and the gases of the world of matter. The soul of Jesus in Gethsemane was engaged in a fearful struggle, but it was a struggle with issues reaching not into the next few weeks or years of some puny human life here below, but into the most distant vistas of the eternal world. It is not at all times that even good Christians can enter into the meaning of this solemn scene, but there are mental trials which interpret it to us, and which in turn are by it (if we will) transfigured into heavenly blessings.
I. There is the inward conflict which often precedes our undertaking hard or unwelcome duty or sacrifice. The eye measures the effort required, the length and degree of endurance which must be attempted ere the work is really done; and, as the eye traverses the field before it, all the quick sensibilities of feeling start up and rehearse their parts by anticipation, and cling to and clog and embarrass the will, holding it back from the road of duty. Struggles such as this between inclination and duty may be at times sorrowful to the soul, even unto death. When they come on you, brace yourselves by watching and praying with Jesus in Gethsemane, that you may learn to say with Him, Not my will, but Thine, be done.
II. There are forms of doubt respecting Gods goodness and providence, which are a great trouble at times. Not self-caused doubts, but embarrassments which beset earnest and devout souls under stress of great sorrow or calamity. The best remedy for these is to kneel in spirit side by side with Jesus m Gethsemane; it is prayer such as His was that struggles under a darkened heaven into the light beyond.
III. Desolateness of soul, making Gods service distasteful. Prayer becomes insipid and unwelcome, duty is an effort against the grain, the temper is dejected. Tempted to give up all in disgust, and let things take their chance for time or eternity. They who experience this can but kneel in Gethsemane with the prayer, O, my Father, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt.
IV. The approach of death. This may indeed come upon us suddenly as a thief in the night, but may also be ushered in, as it generally is, by a preface of weakened health and lingering sickness. In many cases it has happened that at the very beginning of an illness which was to end with life, a clear presentiment of this has been graciously vouchsafed. I was sitting at luncheon, said one of the best of Christs servants in this generation, and I suddenly felt as never before: I felt that something had given way. I knew what it meant, what it must mean. I went up into my room; I prayed God that He would enable me to bear what I knew was before me, and would at the last receive me for His own Sons sake. It was the close of a life as bright as it was beautiful, in which there was much to leave behind-warm and affectionate friends, and an abundance of those highest satisfactions which come with constant and unselfish occupation; but it was the summons to another world, and as such it was obeyed. Death is always awful, and the first gaze at the break-up of all that we have hitherto called life must ever have about it a touch of agony. And yet, if Jesus in Gethsemane is our Shepherd, surely we shall lack nothing; yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil, for He is with us who has gone before, His rod and His staff comfort us. (Canon Liddon.)
Christs agony in the garden
I. We dwell more on the bodily anguish of our Lord than the metal. We figure to ourselves the external woes of which flesh was the subject rather than those griefs which were within the soul. We must not, forget that others besides Christ have died the most cruel deaths with fortitude. The bodily sufferings of Christ were but an inconsiderable part of His endurances. It was in soul rather than in body that our Saviour made atonement for transgression. You must be aware that anguish of soul more than of the body is the everlasting portion which is to be swarded to sinners; so we may expect that the soul-agony of a surety or substitute would be felt more than the bodily. Indeed, in the garden there was no bodily suffering, no spear, nails.
II. Exceeding sorrowful unto death The soul cannot die, yet so exceeding was Christs sorrow that He could speak of it as nothing less than actual death. The soul was the sin-offering.
1. We would have you be aware of the enormous cost at which you have been ransomed.
2. It gives preciousness to the means of grace thus to consider them as brought into being by the agonies of the Redeemer. Will you trifle with them?
3. Having spoken not only of the exceeding sorrowfulness of Christs soul, but of the satisfaction which that sorrowfulness yields, I would not conclude without a vision of His glorious triumphs. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Divine sorrow
I. The causes of his sorrow.
1. That gloom may have been the sense of the near approach of death with all the dread misgivings which beset the spirit in that supreme hour.
2. It may have been the sense of loneliness, of the ingratitude, the failure of His disciples and countrymen.
3. Or it was the sense of the load of human wickedness entering into His soul, so as almost to take possession of it. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. These troubled His soul.
4. This scene is the silent protest against the misery of wrong-doing, against the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
II. The great example of how and in what spirit we ought to pray. There is something higher in the efficacy and in the answer of prayer than the mere demanding and receiving the special blessings for which we ask. The cup did not pass from Him; but in two ways His prayer was granted.
1. In the heavenly strength that was given to Him to bear all the sorrows laid upon Him. The very act of prayer gives strength, will open our souls to supporting angels.
2. Not the substitution of the will of Christ for the will of the Eternal God, but the substitution of the will of the Eternal God for the will of His most dearly beloved Son. Great as is the will, holy as are the desires, Divine as are the aspirations that go up from earth, there is something greater, holier, Diviner yet; and that is the will that rules the universe, the mind which embraces within its scope the past, the present, and the future, this world and the next, the seen and the unseen. Without the agony, without the cross, Christianity and Christendom would not have been. If any act or event in the worlds history was essential to its onward progress, essential to the elevation and purification of the individual man, it was the anguish which this night represents to us. This is the apparent conflict, but real unity of the sorrows of Gethsemane and Calvary with the perfect wisdom and mercy of the Supreme Intelligence. It is this conflict and this unity which lend such a breathless interest to the whole story of this week, which breathes at once the pathos and the triumph, the grief and the joy, through its example and its doctrine, through all its facts and all its poetry, through all its stirring music and all its famous pictures. And it is a conflict and a unity which still in its measures continue, and shall continue, as long as the will of humanity struggles and toils on earth to accomplish the will of Divinity. Not our will, but Gods will be done. Not our will, for we know not what is best for us. We still see as through a glass very darkly, the end is not yet visible. But Gods will be done, for He knows our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. His will, His supreme will in nature and in grace, let us learn to know; and having learned, to do it. Thy will be done. Make Thy will our will. Make Thy love our love. Make Thy strength perfect in our weakness, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. (Dean Stanley.)
Prayer
I. The right of petition. We infer it to be a right.
1. Because it is a necessity of our nature. Prayer is a necessity of our humanity rather than a duty. The necessity to
(1) that of sympathy;
(2) the necessity of escaping the sense of a crushing fate.
2. We base this request on our privilege as children-My Father.
3. Christ used it as a right, therefore we may. You cannot help praying if Gods Spirit is in yours.
II. Erroneous notions of what prayer is. They are contained in that conception which He negatived, As I will. A common conception of prayer is, that it is the means by which the wish of man determines the will of God. The text says clearly, Not as I will. The wish of man does not determine the will of God. Try this conception by four tests.
1. By its incompatibility with the fact that this universe is a system of laws.
2. Try it by fact.
3. Try it by the prejudicial results of such a belief. Gives unworthy ideas of God. Consider the danger of vanity and supineness resulting from the fulfilment of our desires as a necessity.
4. It would be most dangerous as a criterion of our spiritual state if we think that answered prayer is a proof of grace. We shall be unreasonably depressed and elated when we do or do not get what we wish.
III. The true efficacy of prayer-AS Thou wilt. All prayer is to change the will human into submission to the will Divine. Hence we conclude-
(1) That prayer which does not succeed in moderating our wish, in changing the passionate desire into still submission, is no true prayer;
(2) That life is most holy in which there is least of petition and desire, and most of waiting upon God; in which petition often passes into thanksgiving. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Prayer to seek Gods will, not mans wish
Practically then, I say, Pray as He did, till prayer makes you cease to pray. Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in Gods will. The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it. There appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. That was the true reply to His prayer. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Submission a progress
Let us come into the presence of the Suppliant-this most human, yet most Divine Person, who is wrestling here in an agony even more spiritual than mortal. It is night. Christ has left the guest-chamber. He has crossed the brook Kedron. He has entered a garden, oftentimes His resort during His visits to Jerusalem, at the foot of the slope of Olivet; He has come hither to pray. Such prayer must be secret. He leaves His disciples at the entrance. Even secret prayer may be the better for having friends near. So with a touching union of love and humility He entreats His three disciples to watch with Him. See the example of suffering which is here set before us in Christ.
I. That all sorrow, all suffering, even if it be anguish, is A cup. It is something definite, of a certain measure. It is of the Fathers mingling; the cup of medicinal love.
II. Concerning this cup itself You may pray. There is not the distress upon earth as to which we ought not to pray.
III. But how pray.
1. As to a Father.
2. Again with an If. You must recognize the possible impossibility.
3. With an earnest confession of the comparative value of two wills-your will and Gods. Jesus went away the second time, and prayed. And what was this second prayer? O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done. This second prayer asks not at all for the removal of the cup. The first was prayer with submission; the second is submission without even prayer. Here is an example, set us by our Lord, of a progressive, growing submission to the mighty hand of God. I do not mean that our Lord had to learn, in the garden of Gethsemane, a lesson of obedience unknown before. How was Christ made perfect, but in the sense of a transition from disobedience to obedience. Yet, thus, in a constant development of obedience under a course of increasing difficulty. The earthly life of Christ was a perpetual going forward. Let this cup pass. Was it not an added trial that the Saviour, like an apostle (2Co_12:8-9) had asked relief, and not been answered? Beyond the submission of the will lies the silencing of the will; beyond the desire to have only if God will, the desire that God only may will, whether I have or not. All of us have wishes, strong impulses of the will towards this and-that; it is a part of our nature. By what steps shall they pass unto our final good?
1. We must turn them into prayers. Everything evil will refuse that test. You cannot turn a sinful wish into prayer.
2. The next step is not only to pray your wishes, but to pray them in a spirit of submission.
3. Then nothing remains but the act of submission, pure, simple, unconditional, absolute. No longer, Let this cup pass, but If this cup may not pass, Thy will be done. All this I leave to Thee; I ask not; I desire not; I pray not longer concerning it, only Thy will be done. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)
The figure of the cup
Do we not use the same kind of language ourselves, having still no such thought as that the cup of anguish we speak of, or pray to be taken away, is a judicial infliction? This figure of the cup is used in Scripture for all kinds of experience, whether joyful or painful. Thus we have the cup of salvation, the cup of consolation, the cup of trembling, of fury, of astonishment, of desolation. Whatever God sends upon man to be deeply felt, and by whatever kind of providence, whether benignant, or disciplinary, or retributive, is called his cup. (Horace Bushnell.)
Jesus praying
There are several instructive features in our Saviours prayer in His hour of trial.
1. It was lonely prayer. He withdrew even from His three favoured disciples. Believer, be much in solitary prayer, especially in times of trial.
2. It was humble prayer. Luke says He knelt, but another evangelist says He fell on His face. Where, then, must be thy place, thou humble servant of the great Master? What dust and ashes should cover thy head? Humility gives us good foot-hold in prayer. There is no hope of prevalence with God unless we abase ourselves that He may exalt us in due time.
3. It was filial prayer-Abba, Father. You will find it a stronghold in the day of trial to plead your adoption. You have no rights as a subject, you have forfeited them by your treason.
4. It was persevering prayer. He prayed three times. Cease not until you prevail.
5. It was the prayer of resignation-Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gethsemane
I. Gethsemane suggests our blessed Redeemers longing for human sympathy. Tarry ye here and watch with Me. It is a purely human feeling.
II. Reminds us of the sacredness of human sorrow and Divine communion.
III. Reveals the overwhelming depth and fulness of the Redeemers sorrow. Reminds us of the will of Christ yielded to the will of the Father.
IV. Has its lessons and influences for all our hearts. How it condemns sin! How it reveals the chiefest human virtue, and the power by which it may be attained! How it brings the Father close to our hearts in their sorrow and extremity! (W. H. Davison.)
The prayer in Gethsemane
I. The occasion of these words.
II. The matter of these words.
1. The person to whom He makes His address.
2. The matter of His request.
3. The manner or earnestness of it.
4. The submission of it. Enforce two things:
I. There is an aversion in human nature from the pangs and bitterness of death.
II. Notwithstanding that, there are grounds of submission to the will of God in it. (E. Stillingfleet.)
The Fathers cup
It is a Father that gives the cup.
1. A Father who knows what is fittest to be given us.
2. A Father who stands by His children to help and assist them.
3. A Father who will abundantly reward the taking of what He gives. (E. Stillingfleet.)
Our Lords example of resignation
To show how the Son of God exercised this virtue here upon earth.
1. We all desire the conveniences of life, and to be above dependence. For our sakes He became poor, and never complained on that account.
2. Hard labour attended with weariness is disagreeable. Our Saviours life, during His ministry, was a life of hardship and fatigue.
3. Hunger and thirst, when long endured, are enemies to our nature, and put us to violent uneasiness till they are satisfied. These our Lord often suffered.
4. To those who have the instructions of others committed to their care, it is agreeable to meet with persons teachable and of good capacities, and tiresome to inform slow understandings.
5. Return of baseness and treachery from our intimates whom we have loaded with benefits, are most grievous to be borne, and will wring from the mildest temper complaints. Even to Judas, Jesus showed great lenity.
6. A good man, whose office it is to instruct others in religion, will be grieved when his charitable labours are lost, and he hath to do with stubborn offenders, who are deaf to all reproofs and admonitions.
7. To be injured in our reputation, and exposed to malicious calumny, is a great trial of human patience. This our Saviour endured.
8. To see multitudes involved in a great calamity is a grief to a charitable man.
9. Future evils, when we see them coming and are sure we cannot escape them, torment us near if not quite as much as when they are present.
10. Men love life and are unwilling to lose it. Most painful and ignominious was the death which Christ endured. (J. Jortin.)
Inducements to resignation
1. A belief in the goodness of God.
2. The reward in heaven which we may secure.
3. The behaviour of our Lord which we should be anxious to imitate. (J. Jortin.)
Christs agony
In the garden Christ is exhibited to us in a two-fold character-as our surety and as our example. As our surety, suffering for us, and as our example, teaching us how to suffer.
I. O`ur surety.
1. How great were the sufferings of the Redeemer, and what was their true character.
2. How terrible the wrath of God is.
3. How great the guilt of sin is.
4. How great is the love of the Father and of the Son for sinners.
II. Our example. From it we learn-
1. That our being severely afflicted is no proof that we are not the children of God.
2. That it is not sinful to shrink from affliction or suffering of any kind, and to plead exemption from it.
3. The duty of submission to the will of God even under the greatest trials.
4. The efficacy of prayer in bringing support and comfort under affliction. (A. L. R. Foote.)
Storms beat round mountain souls
It has been said by a great poet, that great characters and great souls are like mountains-they always attract the storms; upon their heads break the thunders, and around their bare tops flash the lightnings and the seeming wrath of God. Nevertheless, they form a shelter for the plains beneath them. That marvellous saying finds an illustration in the lowliest, saddest soul the world has ever had living in it-the Lord Christ. Higher than all men, around His head seemed to beat the very storms of sin; yet beneath the shelter of His great, consoling, sustaining spirit, what lowly people, what humble souls, what poor babes as to wisdom, what sucklings as to the worlds truth, have gained their life in this world and eternal rest in God. (George Dawson.)
The broken will
Man must be thrown down that his will may be broken; and his will must be broken that God may reign within him. The will of God in man is life eternal. (George Dawson.)
Falling on His face
His great life lies before us, that we may strive to follow Him; and then, though falling on our faces as He fell, we may find ourselves able to rise up as He did. For in rising, He laid down His own will and took Gods will in its place. (George Dawson.)
Gods providence an argument for submission
His providence is comprehensive and complete; no unforeseen accidents in the freest and most contingent things, no unvoluntary obstruction in the most necessary things can break the entireness, or discompose the order of His providence. How exactly and easily does He manage and over-rule all things? The whole world is His house, and all the successive generations of men His family; some are His sons, and by voluntary subjection; others His slaves, and by just constraint fulfil His pleasure. Twas the saying of a wise king, instructed by experience, that the art of government was like the laborious travail of a weaver, that requires the attention of the mind and the activity of the body; the eyes, hands, and feet are all in exercise. And how often is the contexture of human councils, though woven with great care, yet unexpectedly broke? So many cross accidents interpose, so many emergencies beyond all prevention start up, that frustrate the designs and hopes of the most potent, rulers of this world. But God disposes all things with more facility than one of us can move a grain of sand. (W. Bates.)
Emblem of providence
The sun applies its quickening influences for the production and growth of a single plant, as particularly as if there were no ether things in the world to receive them; yet at the same time it passes from sign to sign in the heavens, changes the scenes of the elements, produces new seasons, and its active and prolific heat forms and transforms whatsoever is changed in nature. This is a fit resemblance of the universal and special operations of Divine providence. (W. Bates.)
Present comforts in affliction
The gracious soul has a taste and sight how good the Lord is, as an earnest of the fulness of joy in heaven. Hope brings some leaves of the tree of life to refresh us with their fragancy; but love, of its fruits to strengthen us. As transplanted fruits, where the soil is defective and the sun less favourable, are not of that beauty and goodness as in their original country; so heavenly joys in this life are inferior in their degree to those of the blessed above, but they are very reviving. (W. Bates.)
Resignation
The entire resignation of our wills to the disposing will of God is the indispensable duty of Christians under the sharpest afflictions.
I. What is consistent with this resignation?
1. An earnest deprecation of an impending judgment is reconcilable with our submission to the pleasure of God, declared by the event.
2. A mournful sense of afflictions sent from God, is consistent with a dutiful resignation of ourselves to His will.
II. What is included in the resignment of ourselves to God in times of affliction.
1. The understanding approves the severest dispensations of Providence to be good, that is, for reasons, though sometimes unsearchable, yet always righteous, and for gracious ends to the saints.
2. This resignment principally consists in the consent and subjection of the will to the orders of heaven.
3. The duty of resignation consists in the composure of the affections to a just measure and temper, when under the sharpest discipline.
III. The reasons to convince us of this duty of resigning ourselves and all our interests to God.
1. The first argument arises from Gods original supreme right in our persons, and all things we enjoy.
2. The righteousness of God in all His ways, if duly considered, will compose the afflicted spirit to quiet and humble submission.
3. His power is immense and uncontrollable, and it is a vain attempt to contend with Him, as if the eternal order of His decrees could be altered or broken.
4. His paternal love in sending afflictions is a sufficient argument to win our compliance with His will.
(1) All His sons are under the discipline of the rod; and who would be so unhappy as to be exempted from that number for all the prosperity in the world?
(2) Chastisement is the effect of His parental love. (W. Bates.)
Comforts in trial
The historian tells of a clear vein of water that springs from Mongibel, that great furnace, that always sends forth smoke or flames, yet is as cool as if it distilled from a snowy mountain. Thus the saints in the fiery trial have been often refreshed with Divine comforts, and such humble submissions and gracious thanksgivings have proceeded from their lips, as have been very comfortable to those about them. (W. Bates.)
Mans evil nature
Proud dust is apt to fly in Gods face upon every motion of the afflicting passions; and by the resistance of self-will He is provoked to more severity. (W. Bates.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 36. To a place called Gethsemane. The word means…
36. To a place called Gethsemane. The word means “oil-press,” and would indicate that a press for making oil out of the olives, which grew in abundance on the mountain, stood there. It was on the western slope of the Mount of Olives. Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. He speaks to the eight who were to remain. These eight would form, as it were, a watch against premature surprise. While I go and pray. The great crisis was at hand, and it was casting its dark shadow before on the spirit of our Lord. In this hour of the power of darkness he felt that he must throw himself upon his Father's bosom.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Mat_26:36. Gethsemane = “the oil press.”—On the slope of…
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_26:36. Gethsemane = “the oil press.”—On the slope of the Mount of Olives. Probably there was, or had been, in it a press for the manufacture of olive oil. The identity of this garden with the traditional spot is disputed.
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Mat_26:45-46. Sleep on now.… Rise, let us be going.—The sudden transition may be explained either
(1) by regarding the first words as intended for a rebuke, or else
(2) at that very moment Judas appeared, and the time for action had come. The short, quick sentences, especially as reported by St. Mark, favour the second suggestion (Carr).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_26:36-46
De profoundis.—One chief characteristic of this part of the story of Jesus is its unapproachable grief. The disciples see this in the demeanour of the Saviour. He is “sorrowful and very heavy” (Mat_26:37). The Saviour confesses it of Himself (Mat_26:38). We hear it in the character of the prayer He puts up. He asks, “if possible” (Mat_26:39), to be heard. Also, in the urgency with which He presents it, viz., three times (Mat_26:44), in the same words, in succession. Evidently, something which is the profoundest of horrors possesses His soul. Another account, indeed (Luk_22:44), describes Him as being convulsed by its depth. We shall do well to contemplate, this being so, first, the mysteriousness, and, secondly, the instructiveness, of this astonishing grief.
I. Its mysteriousness.—This is to be found, to begin, by inquiring into its special occasion and cause. To what, in reality, was this fearful dread to be traced? What was this evil, the mere anticipation of which had such almost deadly effect? It could hardly have been that very ordinary evil which we commonly speak of as “death.” Thousands of men far inferior on any showing to Jesus of Nazareth, have met this with composure, some even with joy. Neither could it have been merely the ignominious manner and extreme shame of the kind of death which the Saviour knew to be awaiting Him so shortly. That were to make Him inferior to the two malefactors who afterwards died by His side; one of whom, at any rate, was above complaining of the undoubted disgrace of his cross (Luk_23:41). Evidently, what Christ had in view was something deeper by far—something which appears to have been fully known only to God and Himself. Spare Me “this cup”—this cup, with which no other “cup” is fit to compare. Who amongst men shall say what that was? Just as mysterious, next, is the consideration of the Person to whom this cup was delivered. We read of Him, e.g., as one who, in the very highest sense, could address God as His “Father” (Mat_26:39; Mat_26:42). Also, as one whom God Himself had acknowledged in the same sense, not long before, as His Son; and as the Son, moreover, as well of His love, as of His fullest approval and trust (Mat_27:5). Further, we find Him now, in His capacity of a Son, showing the perfection of love to His friends. It was not much that He asked of His disciples at this crucial hour of His life—little more, in fact, than some token of sympathy in the extremity of His anguish (Mat_26:38). When this little was refused Him, as we find that it was; when, instead of watching with Him, they are found buried in sleep; how tenderly considerate, yet how anxiously merciful, is the excuse which He makes—which He, the injured one, makes (Mat_26:40-41). Further, yet, we find Him, now, in the same capacity, showing the like perfectness towards God. What entire confidence—what profound submission—what burning loyalty—what utter devotion—we find here in His words (Mat_26:39)! Never, in fact, do we see all His excellences brighter than they are seen to be at this time. Here is the mystery presented to us by this side of the case! Never such a brother—never such a Son—as when about to be treated as neither! Nor less mysterious, once more, is the consideration of the Hand which inflicted this on Him. Whom does the Saviour appeal to on the subject? From whose “will” does He ask for the favour of exemption (Mat_26:39)? Is it not from the will of that “Father” of whom He afterwards said, “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Here is, therefore, on the whole, the sum of the mystery involved in this case. It is wonderful that there should ever have been an occasion for a prayer of this kind! Wonderful that such a Son should ever find Himself in such case! Wonderful that He Himself should have been willing to be in that case! Wonderful that such a Father should have ever put Him in that case! More wonderful still that He should have finally left Him in it in reply to that prayer—that thrice-repeated entreaty—that urgent entreaty—that agonised entreaty—of the Son of His love! Never was there anything, to our eyes, of a more mysterious kind! The whole story, in fact, is full of absolute bewilderment to our natural thoughts.
II. Its instructiveness, all the same.—How it teaches us, e.g., on this very account, to accept the darkness which marks it. Why should we expect things, in such a matter, to be of a different kind? Why should we ever have supposed, in such an arena, that there should have been nothing obscure to our eyes? The very nature of that arena, on the one hand, peremptorily forbids such a thought. How should any inquiry be all light to us which turns, as this does, on the nature of God? On the relations existing between those Three who are One? And on the doings of the Man who represents our race at the most critical period alike of His life and our age? The nature of our “eyes,” on the other hand, forbids it no less—one might almost say even more. We have neither the faculties nor the experience for measuring things of this kind. It is doubtful, indeed, whether any created intelligence of any kind can understand them in full (see 1 Peter 1, end of Mat_26:12). It is certain that our intelligence can only discern them in part. Hardly even a microscope turned on the sun is less competent for its task. It is our wisdom, therefore, it is even the best use of our powers, to see in the obscurity of what we look upon one proof of its truth. On the other hand, in such a matter, we are taught here equally to embrace the light that there is. The light that shines out on us, for example, from the very obscurity of the words which our Saviour addresses here to His Father. With all that is dark in them, is it not clear from them that He had some purpose in view when He spake them? Something of transcendent importance, both in God’s eyes and His own? Something that somehow could not be accomplished unless He accepted that cup? Something of such a nature that if He had been spared from it, God could not have spared us? Something, this being so, which God would not take away—and which He did not refuse—on that very account? All this, with all the concomitant darkness, is as clear as the sun. And all this, therefore, is to be embraced by us with all wonder and praise. Jesus thereby shown to be a Saviour—and God a Father—indeed! Beautifully confirmatory of this is what we read last in this place. What a contrast there is between our Saviour’s words in Mat_26:38-39, and those in Mat_26:45-46! What a ring of fortitude—of tranquil intrepidity—there is in these last! Now He faces, now He goes to meet, what He could hardly think of previously. Clearly, His Father has answered His prayer (cf. Luk_22:43; Heb_5:7), though in a way of His own. Clearly, therefore, the will of both is the same. Clearly, also, that will is nothing less than the salvation of man. With that object in view; that “cup” was prepared—was given—was not taken away—was accepted—was put to the lip. With that in view He who thus took it received strength for it from above. Here is the final “light” out of this “darkness.” Is it anything less than “the Light of the world”?
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_26:36-44. The human Christ in Gethsemane.—
I. Like us, He sought sympathy in the time of sorrow.
II. Like us, He gave expression to His grief when, only few could hear.
III. Like us, in trouble and darkness He wished His friends to keep awake.
IV. Like us, He dreaded calumny more than death.—What was the cup? Not death, but the death of a criminal.—Evan Lewis, B.A.
Mat_26:36. Christ in Gethsemane.—
1. As the truth of the gospel, so the right way of suffering for the truth, must be learned from Christ; therefore our Lord taketh with Him His disciples unto Gethsemane—a garden and place where He is to begin His last sufferings—that they might see how voluntarily and holily He addressed Himself unto that service.
2. As we should not make ostentation of going to private prayer, so neither need we scrupulously conceal our purpose when it may edify.—David Dickson.
The conflict in Gethsemane.—
I. The place of the conflict.—There are two rival Gethsemanes, and rival guides wrangle about the truth of this and that local identification. One place, called the true Gethsemane, is walled round by the Latins. Another, a little more to the north, is walled round by the Greeks; both enclosures being under lock and key. The New Testament lends no help to inquiries that have reference to sanctity of places.
II. The story of the conflict.—
1. Its intensity is the first fact in the story that strikes us.
2. This awful inward conflict was in a scene of outward peace.
3. The conflict wrung from the Saviour a great cry: “O, My Father,” etc. We have a glimpse here of the conflict carried on by Christ for us, single-handed.
4. Under all the sorrows of the Man of sorrows, in this night of conflict, there was tender personal thought about His disciples.
III. The sleep of the disciples.—There was tender remonstrance, but not severe reproof. It was treated by Jesus only as a symptom of mortality. This quick apology of love for weakness is set on record for all who need it.—C. Stanford, D.D.
Mat_26:38. Intensified sorrow.—Christ’s sufferings were intensified by various reasons:—
I. From His perfect foreknowledge of all the complication and bitterness of His agonies.—“Knowing all things that should come upon Him.”
II. From the length of time within which they were compassed.—We might speak of His whole life as a scene of suffering; but His last sufferings were crowded and pressed together in an extraordinary degree. It will be found that a space of nearly twenty-four hours was occupied with His death.
III. From His deep sense of the evil of sin which occasioned those sufferings.—Tertius.
Mat_26:39. Our Lord’s Gethsemane-prayer.—Three elements are distinguishable in our Lord’s prayer:—
I. The sense of sonship, which underlies all, and was never more clear than at that awful moment.
II. The recoil from the cup, which natural instinct could not but feel, though sinlessly. The flesh shrank from the cross, which else had been no suffering; and if no suffering, then had been no atonement. His manhood would not have been like ours, nor His sorrows our pattern, if He had not thus drawn back, in His sensitive humanity, from the awful prospect now so near. But natural instinct is one thing, and the controlling will another. However currents may have tossed the vessel, the firm hand at the helm never suffered them to change her course. The will, which in this prayer He seems so strangely to separate from the Father’s, even in the act of submission, was the will which wishes, not that which resolves. His fixed purpose to die for the world’s sin never wavered. The shrinking does not reach the point of absolutely and unconditionally asking that the cup might pass. Even in the act of uttering the wish it is limited by that “if it be possible,” which can only mean: possible, in view of the great purpose for which He came. That is to be accomplished, at any cost; and unless it can be accomplished, though the cup be withdrawn, He does not even wish, much less will, that it should be withdrawn. So the third element in the prayer is:—
III. The utter resignation to the Father’s will, in which submission He found peace, as we do.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Jesus in Gethsemane.—
1. The struggle in Gethsemane was the completion of that in the wilderness, and prepared the way for the suffering of Golgotha.—The devil uses two ways of turning men from the path of righteousness: he offers them pleasures such as God does not approve, and urges them to avoid the hardships to which God calls them. By these same two means he tried to force the Lord Jesus also to deviate from the line of obedience, from fidelity to His mission. It is true, Satan is not mentioned in the Gospel narratives when this scene is related. But it was of this very moment that Luke was thinking when he finished the narration of the temptation in the wilderness by these words: “The devil departed from Him for a season” (Luk_4:13), or, more exactly, “until a favourable time.” Jesus Himself, when He saw this moment approaching, expressed Himself thus: “The prince of this world cometh” (Joh_14:30).
2. After a man has overcome the attractions of pleasure, it only remains to him to rise above the instinctive fear of pain in order that he may be faithful unto the end.
3. Jesus, in His prayer, puts His will and that of the Father over against each other: “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” How can that be? Had He a different will from that of God? Jesus took our nature when He entered into human life. He consequently possessed all our legitimate instincts, particularly that of the fear of suffering. It was this fear above which it was now His concern to rise by sacrificing it to His mission, as He had given up the desire for enjoyments when in the wilderness. By the third act of wrestling and prayer He subordinates the voice of nature to the voice of the Spirit unreservedly.
4. This is not, as is often believed, the beginning of the atonement; it is only the condition of the atonement. In fact, the atonement does consist not only in a certain amount of suffering to be endured. It consists in the suffering humbly accepted and righteously endured.
5. Victory should properly precede combat.—Jesus had already conquered when the time of suffering came. It is properly at Gethsemane that these words in the priestly prayer were accomplished: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself” (Joh_17:19).—Prof. F. Godet, D.D.
Mat_26:41. Temptation.—In the precept, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation,” there is enjoined a feeling of apprehension and alarm. It is equivalent to saying, “Do not suffer yourself to be at ease.” Beware of quietly enjoying your life. You are lost if you live without fear. As to moral and spiritual dangers, the greater number seem to have determined to indulge in a careless and almost unlimited confidence. As a natural consequence, they are overrun and spoiled and ruined by what they so little dread and guard against—that is to say, by temptations. “That ye enter not into temptation.” The words seem to say very pointedly:—
I. Beware of the beginning.—And since temptation is sure to be early with its beginnings, so, too, should watching and praying: early in life; early in the day; early in every undertaking.
II. Be quickly alarmed at the indications that a thing is becoming temptation. “Here a questionable effect is beginning upon me; nay, it is a bad effect. Certain principles of truth and duty are beginning to slacken their hold on me.” Be cautious of pursuing an evident good in a way in which there must be temptation. Beware of the kind of companionship that directly leads into temptation.—John Foster.
Preservatives from sin.—
1. The advice given.—“Watch and pray.” The Christian in danger:—
1. From the world.—Its spirit, frowns, smiles.
2. From the devil.—As a person, his influence, subtilty, etc.
3. From the flesh.—The deification or degradation of reason; indulging in passion, constitutional sin, etc.
II. The reason on which the advice is founded.—“That ye enter not,” etc.
1. It is possible to be overcome.—David, Peter, etc.
2. To be overcome deprives of spiritual enjoyment.
3. Endangers spiritual interests.
4. Not watchfulness alone, or prayer alone, but both conjoined, render the soul invulnerable.—J. C. Gray.
The spirit willing, the flesh weak.—We ought to take this, not as an excuse for torpor, but as an incentive to watchfulness.—Bengel.
Mat_26:45. Too late.—In these words our Lord means, “It is too late. The opportunity is lost and gone. The time for watching and praying is over; you have let it escape you. You may as well sleep now. Alas! there is now nothing to be done; you must now enter, as you may, into temptation.” If this be the true account of the words as first spoken, we shall readily think of ways in which they come home to us.
I. They have a direct bearing upon the whole subject of temptation.—This is the time for watching and praying—before the temptation comes. Mark that well. It is the moral of the whole. Remember there is a prayer which comes too late; there is a prayer which even contradicts itself in the asking; there is a prayer which asks to be kept safe under the temptation which we are going in quest of.
II. The words have a meaning also as respects opportunity.—There is not a relation in which we stand one to another, which may not be taken as a selfishness and refused as an opportunity. One by one, these are withdrawn. He who once said, “Watch and pray,” says at last, “Sleep on now, and take your rest.”
III. This saying is not less true in its bearing upon that total sum of all opportunities which is the life.—When Christ at last comes, and finds us still sleeping; then He is compelled to say—else He could be trifled with, else He were not the Judge, He were not the Faithful One and the True—He is compelled to say, “Sleep on now, and take your rest.” “The harvest is past” etc.—C. J. Vaughan, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Mat 26:36 - Mat 26:46.
Matthew
GETHSEMANE, THE OIL-PRESS
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Mat 26:36 - Mat 26:46.
One shrinks from touching this incomparable picture of unexampled sorrow, for fear lest one’s finger-marks should stain it. There is no place here for picturesque description, which tries to mend the gospel stories by dressing them in to-day’s fashions, nor for theological systematisers and analysers of the sort that would ‘botanise upon their mother’s grave.’ We must put off our shoes, and feel that we stand on holy ground. Though loving eyes saw something of Christ’s agony, He did not let them come beside Him, but withdrew into the shadow of the gnarled olives, as if even the moonbeams must not look too closely on the mystery of such grief. We may go as near as love was allowed to go, but stop where it was stayed, while we reverently and adoringly listen to what the Evangelist tells us of that unspeakable hour.
I. Mark the ‘exceeding sorrow’ of the Man of Sorrows.
Somewhere on the western foot of Olivet lay the garden, named from an oil-press formerly or then in it, which was to be the scene of the holiest and sorest sorrow on which the moon, that has seen so much misery, has ever looked. Truly it was ‘an oil-press,’ in which ‘the good olive’ was crushed by the grip of unparalleled agony, and yielded precious oil, which has been poured into many a wound since then. Eight of the eleven are left at or near the entrance, while He passes deeper into the shadows with the three. They had been witnesses of His prayers once before, on the slopes of Hermon, when He was transfigured before them. They are now to see a no less wonderful revelation of His glory in His filial submission. There is something remarkable in Matthew’s expression, ‘He began to be sorrowful,’-as if a sudden wave of emotion, breaking over His soul, had swept His human sensibilities before it. The strange word translated by the Revisers ‘sore troubled’ is of uncertain derivation, and may possibly be simply intended to intensify the idea of sorrow; but more probably it adds another element, which Bishop Lightfoot describes as ‘the confused, restless, half-distracted state which is produced by physical derangement or mental distress.’ A storm of agitation and bewilderment broke His calm, and forced from His patient lips, little wont to speak of His own emotions, or to seek for sympathy, the unutterably pathetic cry, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful’-compassed about with sorrow, as the word means-’even unto death.’ No feeble explanation of these words does justice to the abyss of woe into which they let us dimly look. They tell the fact, that, a little more and the body would have sunk under the burden. He knew the limits of human endurance, for ‘all things were made by Him,’ and, knowing it, He saw that He had grazed the very edge. Out of the darkness He reaches a hand to feel for the grasp of a friend, and piteously asks these humble lovers to stay beside Him, not that they could help Him to bear the weight, but that their presence had some solace in it. His agony must be endured alone, therefore He bade them tarry there; but He desired to have them at hand, therefore He went but ‘a little forward.’ They could not bear it with Him, but they could ‘watch with’ Him, and that poor comfort is all He asks. No word came from them. They were, no doubt, awed into silence, as the truest sympathy is used to be, in the presence of a great grief. Is it permitted us to ask what were the fountains of these bitter floods that swept over Christ’s sinless soul? Was the mere physical shrinking from death all? If so, we may reverently say that many a maiden and old man, who drew all their fortitude from Jesus, have gone to stake or gibbet for His sake, with a calm which contrasts strangely with His agitation. Gethsemane is robbed of its pathos and nobleness if that be all. But it was not all. Rather it was the least bitter of the components of the cup. What lay before Him was not merely death, but the death which was to atone for a world’s sin, and in which, therefore, the whole weight of sin’s consequences was concentrated. ‘The Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquities of us all’; that is the one sufficient explanation of this infinitely solemn and tender scene. Unless we believe that, we shall find it hard to reconcile His agitation in Gethsemane with the perfection of His character as the captain of ‘the noble army of martyrs.’
II. Note the prayer of filial submission.
Matthew does not tell us of the sweat falling audibly and heavily, and sounding to the three like slow blood-drops from a wound, nor of the strengthening angel, but he gives us the prostrate form, and the threefold prayer, renewed as each moment of calm, won by it, was again broken in upon by a fresh wave of emotion. Thrice He had to leave the disciples, and came back, a calm conqueror; and twice the enemy rallied and returned to the assault, and was at last driven finally from the field by the power of prayer and submission. The three Synoptics differ in their report of our Lord’s words, but all mean the same thing in substance; and it is obvious that much more must have been spoken than they report. Possibly what we have is only the fragments that reached the three before they fell asleep. In any case, Jesus was absent from them on each occasion long enough to allow of their doing so.
Three elements are distinguishable in our Lord’s prayer. There is, first, the sense of Sonship, which underlies all, and was never more clear than at that awful moment. Then there is the recoil from ‘the cup,’ which natural instinct could not but feel, though sinlessly. The flesh shrank from the Cross, which else had been no suffering; and if no suffering, then had been no atonement. His manhood would not have been like ours, nor His sorrows our pattern, if He had not thus drawn back, in His sensitive humanity, from the awful prospect now so near. But natural instinct is one thing, and the controlling will another. However currents may have tossed the vessel, the firm hand at the helm never suffered them to change her course. The will, which in this prayer He seems so strangely to separate from the Father’s, even in the act of submission, was the will which wishes, not that which resolves. His fixed purpose to die for the world’s sin never wavered. The shrinking does not reach the point of absolutely and unconditionally asking that the cup might pass. Even in the act of uttering the wish, it is limited by that ‘if it be possible,’ which can only mean-possible, in view of the great purpose for which He came. That is to be accomplished, at any cost; and unless it can be accomplished though the cup be withdrawn, He does not even wish, much less will, that it should be withdrawn. So, the third element in the prayer is the utter resignation to the Father’s will, in which submission He found peace, as we do.
He prayed His way to perfect calm, which is ever the companion of perfect self-surrender to God. They who cease from their own works do ‘enter into rest.’ All the agitations which had come storming in massed battalions against Him are defeated by it. They have failed to shake His purpose, they now fail even to disturb His peace. So, victorious from the dreadful conflict, and at leisure of heart to care for others, He can go back to the disciples. But even whilst seeking to help them, a fresh wave of suffering breaks in on His calm, and once again He leaves them to renew the struggle. The instinctive shrinking reasserts itself, and, though overcome, is not eradicated. But the second prayer is yet more rooted in acquiescence than the first. It shows that He had not lost what He had won by the former; for it, as it were, builds on that first supplication, and accepts as answer to its contingent petition the consciousness, accompanying the calm, that it was not possible for the cup to pass from Him. The sense of Sonship underlies the complete resignation of the second prayer as of the first. It has no wish but God’s will, and is the voluntary offering of Himself. Here He is both Priest and Sacrifice, and offers the victim with this prayer of consecration. So once more He triumphs, because once more, and yet more completely, He submits, and accepts the Cross. For Him, as for us, the Cross accepted ceases to be a pain, and the cup is no more bitter when we are content to drink it. Once more in fainter fashion the enemy came on, casting again his spent arrows, and beaten back by the same weapon. The words were the same, because no others could have expressed more perfectly the submission which was the heart of His prayers and the condition of His victory.
Christ’s prayer, then, was not for the passing of the cup, but that the will of God might be done in and by Him, and ‘He was heard in that He feared,’ not by being exempted from the Cross, but by being strengthened through submission for submission. So His agony is the pattern of all true prayer, which must ever deal with our wishes, as He did with His instinctive shrinking,-present them wrapped in an ‘if it be possible,’ and followed by a ‘nevertheless.’ The meaning of prayer is not to force our wills on God’s, but to bend our wills to His; and that prayer is really answered of which the issue is our calm readiness for all that He lays upon us.
III. Note the sad and gentle remonstrance with the drowsy three.
‘The sleep of the disciples, and of these disciples, and of all three, and such an overpowering sleep, remains even after Luke’s explanation, “for sorrow,” a psychological riddle’ {Meyer}. It is singularly parallel with the sleep of the same three at the Transfiguration-an event which presents the opposite pole of our Lord’s experiences, and yields so many antithetical parallels to Gethsemane. No doubt the tension of emotion, which had lasted for many hours, had worn them out; but, if weariness had weighed down their eyelids, love should have kept them open. Such sleep of such disciples may have been a riddle, but it was also a crime, and augured imperfect sympathy. Gentle surprise and the pain of disappointed love are audible in the question, addressed to Peter especially, as he had promised so much, but meant for all. This was all that Jesus got in answer to His yearning for sympathy. ‘I looked for some to take pity, but there was none.’ Those who loved Him most lay curled in dead slumber within earshot of His prayers. If ever a soul tasted the desolation of utter loneliness, that suppliant beneath the olives tasted it. But how little of the pain escapes His lips! The words but hint at the slightness of their task compared with His, at the brevity of the strain on their love, and at the companionship which ought to have made sleep impossible. May we not see in Christ’s remonstrance a word for all? For us, too, the task of keeping awake in the enchanted ground is light, measured against His, and the time is short, and we have Him to keep us company in the watch, and every motive of grateful love should make it easy; but, alas, how many of us sleep a drugged and heavy slumber!
The gentle remonstrance soon passes over into counsel as gentle. Watchfulness and prayer are inseparable. The one discerns dangers, the other arms against them. Watchfulness keeps us prayerful, and prayerfulness keeps us watchful. To watch without praying is presumption, to pray without watching is hypocrisy. The eye that sees clearly the facts of life will turn upwards from its scanning of the snares and traps, and will not look in vain. These two are the indispensable conditions of victorious encountering of temptation. Fortified by them, we shall not ‘enter into’ it, though we encounter it. The outward trial will remain, but its power to lead us astray will vanish. It will still be danger or sorrow, but it will not be temptation; and we shall pass through it, as a sunbeam through foul air, untainted, and keeping heaven’s radiance. That is a lesson for a wider circle than the sleepy three.
It is followed by words which would need a volume to expound in all their depth and width of application, but which are primarily a reason for the preceding counsel, as well as a loving apology for the disciples’ sleep. Christ is always glad to give us credit for even imperfect good; His eye, which sees deeper than ours, sees more lovingly, and is not hindered from marking the willing spirit by recognising weak flesh. But these words are not to be made a pillow for indolent acquiescence in the limitations which the flesh imposes on the spirit. He may take merciful count of these, and so may we, in judging others, but it is fatal to plead them at the bar of our own consciences. Rather they should be a spur to our watchfulness and to our prayer. We need these because the flesh is weak, still more because, in its weakness toward good, it is strong to evil. Such exercise will give governing power to the spirit, and enable it to impose its will on the reluctant flesh. If we watch and pray, the conflict between these two elements in the renewed nature will tend to unity and peace by the supremacy of the spirit; if we do not, it will tend to cease by the unquestioned tyranny of the flesh. In one or other direction our lives are tending.
Strange that such words had no effect. But so it was, and so deep was the apostles’ sleep that Christ left them undisturbed the second time. The relapse is worse than the original disease. Sleep broken and resumed is more torpid and fatal than if it had not been interrupted. We do not know how long it lasted, though the whole period in the garden must have been measured by hours; but at last it was broken by the enigmatical last words of our Lord. The explanation of the direct opposition between the consecutive sentences, by taking the ‘Sleep on now’ as ironical, jars on one’s reverence. Surely irony is out of keeping with the spirit of Christ then. Rather He bids them sleep on, since the hour is come, in sad recognition that the need for their watchful sympathy is past, and with it the opportunity for their proved affection. It is said with a tone of contemplative melancholy, and is almost equivalent to ‘too late, too late.’ The memorable sermon of F. W. Robertson, on this text, rightly grasps the spirit of the first clause, when it dwells with such power on the thought of ‘the irrevocable past’ of wasted opportunities and neglected duty. But the sudden transition to the sharp, short command and broken sentences of the last verse is to be accounted for by the sudden appearance of the flashing lights of the band led by Judas, somewhere near at hand, in the valley. The mood of pensive reflection gives place to rapid decision. He summons them to arise, not for flight, but that He may go out to meet the traitor. Escape would have been easy. There was time to reach some sheltering fold of the hill in the darkness; but the prayer beneath the silver-grey olives had not been in vain, and these last words in Gethsemane throb with the Son’s willingness to yield Himself up, and to empty to its dregs the cup which the Father had given Him.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The arrival at Gethsemane:
The arrival at Gethsemane:
v. 36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.
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v. 37. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
v. 38. Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with Me.
Gethsemane, valley of the oil-press, was a small country-place with a large garden of olive-trees, well known also to Judas, because it was a favorite haven of seclusion of the Lord. With a full knowledge of all that was to happen in this night, He sought out this place of the betrayal, hoping to gain a last hour of prayer. Eight of the disciples He left at the entrance of the garden. They were to wait there for Him until He was through praying at the spot to which He pointed. Only the three disciples that had been witnesses of His transfiguration He took along with Him, to see the agony of His soul. He felt the need of someone whom He could trust, from whom He might expect some assistance in the form of encouragement and prayer in this hour. For now He began to be excessively sorrowful and to be anguished, an expression indicating the most harrowing and terrifying spiritual affliction. In His agony He calls out to them that His soul is exceedingly sorrowful, surrounded and overwhelmed with a sorrow of the most trying kind. The terrors of death were falling upon Him. He begged them for at least some measure of companionship and sustaining power through prayer. And still the anguish of His soul increased, making even the nearness of these disciples unbearable.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
This begins the account of Jesus praying in Gethsemane.
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began to become sorrowful
"he became very sad"
My soul is deeply sorrowful
Here "soul" refers to the whole person. AT: "I am very sad" (See: Synecdoche)
even to death
This is an idiom. AT: "and I feel as if I could even die" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
Gethsemane
disciple
pray
Peter
Zebedee
trouble
soul
watch
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 26:36-46 This scene reveals the depth of Jesus’ awareness…
26:36-46 This scene reveals the depth of Jesus’ awareness of the suffering that awaited him on the cross, as well as his utter commitment to God’s will (see 20:28). Expressions in 26:41-42 echo the Lord’s Prayer (6:9-13).
26:36 Gethsemane is the name of an olive orchard approximately 250 yards east of Jerusalem’s Golden Gate, overlooking the Kidron Valley on the edge of the Mount of Olives. Jesus and his disciples apparently met there often (Luke 22:39-40; John 18:1-2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.