Jesus was in the garden for his great battle

JESUS WAS IN THE GARDEN FOR HIS GREAT BATTLE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Matthew 26:36 36ThenJesus went with his disciplesto
a place calledGethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit
here while I go over there and pray."
The Garden Of The Soul by SPURGEON
“A place calledGethsemane.”
Matthew 26:36
THOUGH I have takenonly these few words for my text, I shall endeavorto
bring the whole narrative before your mind’s eyes. It is a part of the teaching
of Holy Writ that man is a composite being–his nature being divisible into
three parts–“spirit,” “soul,” and “body.” I am not going to draw any nice
distinctions tonight betweenthe spirit and the soul, or to analyze the
connecting link betweenour immaterial life and consciousnessand the
physical condition of our nature and the materialism of the world around us.
Suffice it to say that whenever our vital organization is mentioned, this triple
constitution is pretty sure to be referred to.
If you notice it carefully, you will see in our Savior’s sufferings on our behalf
that the passionextended to His spirit, soul, and body–and although at the last
extremity upon the Cross it was hard to tell in which respectHe suffered
most, all three being strained to the utmost–yet it is certain there were three
distinct conflicts in accordancewith this threefold endowment of humanity.
The first part of our Lord’s dolorous pain fell upon His spirit. This took place
at the table in that upper chamber where He ate the Passoverwith His
disciples. Those ofyou who have read the narrative attentively will have
noticed these remarkable words in the thirteenth chapter of John and the
twenty-first verse:“When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in
spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you
shall betray Me.”

Of that silent conflict in the Savior’s heart while He was sitting at the table no
one was a spectator. Into any man’s spiritual apprehensions it was beyond the
powerof any other creature to penetrate. How much less into the spiritual
conflicts of the Man Christ Jesus? No one could by any possibility have gazed
upon these veiled mysteries!He seems to have sat there for a time like one in
the deepestabstraction. He fought a mighty battle within Himself. When
Judas rose and went out it may have been a relief. The Savior gave out a
hymn as if to celebrate His conflict! Then, rising up, He went forth to the
Mount of Olives.
His discourse with His disciples there is recordedin that wonderful chapter,
the fifteenth of John, so full of holy triumph, beginning thus, “I am the true
vine.” He went to the agony in the same joyous spirit like a conqueror, and oh,
how He prayed! That famous prayer–whata profound study it is for us! It
ought, properly, to be called “The Lord’s Prayer.” The manner and the
matter are alike impressive. “These words spokeJesus,and lifted up His eyes
to Heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify Your Son, that Your
Son also may glorify You.” He seems to have been chanting a melodious paean
just then at the thought that His first battle had been fought–that His spirit,
which had been troubled–had risen superior to the conflict, and that He was
already victorious in the first of the three terrible struggles.
As soonas this had occurredthere came another hour, and with it the power
of darkness in which not so much the spirit as the soul of our blessedLord
was to sustain the shock of the encounter. This took place in the garden. You
know that after He had come forth triumphant in this death struggle He went
to the conflict more expresslyin His body, undergoing in His physical Nature
the scourging, the spitting and the Crucifixion–although in that third case
there was a grief of spirit and an anguishof soul likewise whichmingled their
tributary streams. We would counselyou to meditate upon eachseparately,
according to the time and the circumstance in which the pre-eminence of any
one of these is distinctly referred to.
This secondconflictwhich we have now before us well deserves our most
reverent attention. I think it has been much misunderstood. Possiblya few
thoughts may be given us tonight which shall clearawaythe mist from our
understanding and open some of the mystery to our hearts. It seems to me
that the agony in the gardenwas a repetition of the If carefully pondered you
may discoverthat there is a singular and striking connectionbetweenthe
triple temptation and the triple prayer. Having fought Satan at the first in the
wilderness, on the threshold of His public ministry, our Lord now finds him at

the lastin the garden as He nears the termination of His mediatorial work on
earth.
Keep in mind that it is the soul of Jesus of which we now speak while I take up
the severalpoints consecutively, offering a few brief words on each. THE
PLACE OF CONFLICT has furnished the theme of so many discourses that
you canhardly expectanything new to be said upon it. Let us, however, stir
up your minds by way of remembrance. Jesus wentto the GARDEN to
endure the conflict because it was the place of meditation. It seemedfit that
His mental conflict should be carried on in the place where man is most at
home in the pensive musings of his mind–
“ The garden contemplationsuits.”
As Jesus had been accustomedto indulge Himself with midnight reveries in
the midst of those olive groves, He fitly choosesa place sacredto the studies of
the mind to be the place memorable for the struggles of His soul–
“ In a garden man became
Heir of endless death and pain.”
It was there the first Adam fell, and it was meet that there–
“The secondAdam should restore
The ruins of the first.”
He went to that particular garden, it strikes me, because it was within the
boundaries of Jerusalem. He might have gone to Bethany that night as He had
on former nights, but why did He not? Do you not know that it was according
to the Levitical law that the Israelites should sleepwithin the boundaries of
Jerusalemon the Paschalnight? When they came up to the temple to keep the
Passoverthey must not go awaytill that Paschalnight was over. So our Lord
selecteda rendezvous within the liberties of the city that He might not
transgress eventhe slightestjot or tittle of the Law.
And again, He chose that garden, among others contiguous to Jerusalem,
because Judas knew the place. He wanted retirement, but He did not want a
place where He could skulk and hide Himself. It was not for Christ to give
Himself up–that were like suicide. It was not for Him to withdraw and secrete
Himself–that were like cowardice. So He goes to a place which He is quite sure
that Judas, who was aware ofHis habits, knows He is accustomedto visit. And
there, like one who, so far from being afraid to meet His death, pants for the
Baptism with which He is to be baptized, He awaits the crisis that He had so
distinctly anticipated.

“If they seek Me,” He seemedto say, “I will be where they can readily find
Me, and lead Me away.” Every time we walk in a gardenI think we ought to
remember the garden where the Saviorwalked, and the sorrows that befell
Him there. Did He selecta garden, I wonder, because we are all so fond of
such places, thus linking our seasons ofrecreationwith the most solemn
mementoes of Himself? Did He recollectwhatforgetful creatures we are, and
did He therefore let His blood fall upon the soil of a garden, that so often as
we dig and delve therein we might lift up our thoughts to Him who fertilized
earth’s soil, and delivered it from the curse by virtue of His own agonyand
griefs?
Our next thought shall be about the WITNESSES. Christ’s spiritual suffering
was altogetherwithin the veil. As I have said, no one could describe it. But His
soul-sufferings had some witnesses. Notthe rabble, not the multitude–when
they saw His bodily suffering that was all they could understand–therefore it
was all they were permitted to see. Justso, Jesus had often shownthem the
flesh, as it were, or the carnalthings of His teaching when He gave them a
parable. But He had never shownthem the soul, the hidden life of His
teaching. This He reservedfor His disciples.
And thus it was in His passion. He let the Greek and the Roman gather
around in mockeryand see His flesh torn, and rent, and bleeding–but He did
not let them go into the garden with Him to witness His anguish or His prayer.
Within that enclosure none came but the disciples. And mark, my Brothers
and Sisters, not all the disciples were there. There were a hundred and twenty
of His disciples, at least, if not more, but only elevenbore Him company then.
Those elevenmust cross that gloomy brook of Kidron with Him. And eight of
them are setto keepthe door, their faces towards the world, there to sit and
watch–onlythree go into the garden–andthose three see something of His
sufferings.
They behold Him when the agonybegins, but still at a distance. He withdraws
from them a stone’s cast, for He must tread the winepress alone and it is not
possible that the priestly Sufferer should have a single peer in the offering
which He is to present to His God. At the last it came to this, that there was
only one observer. The chosenthree had fallen asleep, God’s unsleeping eyes
alone lookeddown upon Him. The Father’s earalone attended to the piteous
cries of the
“He knelt, the Savior knelt and prayed,
When but His Father’s eyes
Lookedthrough the lonely garden’s shade
On that dread agony.

The Lord of all above, beneath,
Was bowed with sorrow unto death!”
Then there came an unexpected visitor. Amazement wrapped the sky as
Christ was seenofangels to be sweating blood for us! “Give strength to
Christ,” the Father said as He addressedsome strong-wingedspirit–
“The astonishedseraph bowedhis head,
And flew from worlds on high.”
He stood to strengthen, not to fight, for Christ must fight alone. But applying
some holy cordial, some sacredanointing to the oppressedChampion who was
ready to faint, He, our greatDeliverer, receivedstrength from on high and
rose up to the last of His fights.
Oh, my dear Friends, does not all this teachus that the outside world knows
nothing about Christ’s soul-sufferings? They draw a picture of Him. They
carve a piece of woodor ivory, but they do not know His soul-sufferings–they
cannot enter into them! No, the mass of His ownpeople do not know them, for
they are not made conformable to those sufferings by a spiritual fellowship.
We have not that keensense of mental things to sympathize with such grieving
as He had, and even the favoredones, the three–the electout of the elect–who
have the most of spiritual graces andwho have, therefore, the most of
suffering to endure, and the most of depressionof spirits–even they cannot
pry into the fullness of the mystery!
God only knows the soul-anguishof the Savior when He sweatgreatdrops of
blood! Angels saw it, but yet they could not understand it. They must have
wondered more when they saw the Lord of Life and Glory sorrowful with
exceeding sorrowfulness, evenunto death, than when they saw this round
world spring into beautiful existence from nothingness, or when they saw
Jehovahgarnish the heavens with His Spirit, and with His hand form the
crookedserpent. Brethren, we cannotexpect to know the length and breadth
and height of these things! Only as our own experience deepens and darkens
shall we know more and more of what Christ suffered in the garden.
Having thus spokenabout the place and the witnesses,letus saya little
concerning THE CUP ITSELF. What was this “cup” about which our Savior
prayed–“If it is possible let this cup pass from Me”? Some of us may have
entertained the notion that Christ desired, if possible, to escape fromthe
pangs of death. You may conjecture that although He had undertaken to
redeem His people, yet His human nature flinched and started back at the
perilous hour. I have thought so myself in times past. But on more mature

considerationI am fully persuaded that such a supposition would reflect a
dishonor upon the Savior.
I do not considerthat the expression“this cup” refers to death at all. Nor do I
imagine that the dear Savior meant for a single moment to express even a
particle of desire to escape fromthe pangs which were necessaryfor our
redemption. This “cup,” it appears to me, relates to something altogether
different. Not to the last conflict, but to the conflict in which He was then
engaged. If you study the words–andespeciallythe Greek words–whichare
used by the various Evangelists, Ithink you will find that they all tend to
suggestand confirm this view of the subject.
The Savior’s spirit, having been vexed and having triumphed, was next
attackedby the Evil One upon His mental Nature, and this mental Nature
became, in consequence, mosthorribly despondent and castdown. As when
on the pinnacle of the temple the Savior felt the fear of falling, so when in the
garden He felt a sinking of soul, an awful despondency, and He began to be
very sorrowful. The “cup,” then, which He desired to pass from Him was, I
believe, that cup of despondency and nothing more.
I am the more disposedso to interpret it, because nota single word recorded
by any of the four Evangelists seemsto exhibit the slightestwavering on the
part of our Savioras to offering Himself up as an atoning Sacrifice. Their
testimony is frequent and conclusive–“He setHis face to go towards
Jerusalem.” “Ihave a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened
till it is accomplished.” “The SonofMan goes, as it is written of Him.” You
never hear a sentence of reluctance orhesitancy. It does not seemto be
consistentwith the Characterof our blessedLord, even as Man, to suppose
that He desired that final cup of His sufferings to pass awayfrom Him at all.
Moreover, there is this, which I take to be a strong argument–the Apostle tells
us that He was “heardin that He feared.” Now, if He feared to die, He was not
heard, for He did die. If He fearedto bear the wrath of God, or the weightof
human sin, and really desired to escape from them, then He was not heard, for
He did feel the weight of sin, and He did suffer the weight of His Father’s
vindictive wrath. Thus it appears to me that what He fearedwas that dreadful
depressionof mind which had suddenly come upon Him so that His soul was
very heavy. He prayed His Fatherthat that cup might pass away–andso it
did–for I do not see in all the Savior’s griefs afterwards that singular
overwhelming depressionHe endured when in the garden.
He suffered much in Pilate’s hall. He suffered much upon the tree. But there
was, I was almost about to say, a bold cheerfulness aboutHim even to the last,

when for the joy that was setbefore Him He endured the Cross!Yes, when He
cried, “I thirst,” and, “My God, My God, why have you forsakenMe?” I think
I notice a holy force and vigor about the words and thoughts of the Sufferer
which not the weak and trembling state of His body could extinguish! The
language ofthat twenty-secondPsalm, which seems to have struck the
keynote, if I may so speak, ofHis devotion on the Cross, is full of faith and
confidence.
If the first verse contains the bitterest of woe, the twenty-first verse changes
the plaintive strain. “You have heard (or answered)Me” marks a transition
from suffering to satisfactionwhich it is delightful to dwell upon. Now,
perhaps some of you may think that if this cup only meant depressionof the
spirits and dismay of the soul it was nothing of much significance, orat leastit
weakensthe spell of those words and deeds which twine around Gethsemane.
Permit me to beg your pardon. I know personallythat there is nothing on
earth that the human frame cansuffer to be compared with despondencyand
prostration of mind. Such is the dolefulness and gloom of a heavy soul, yes, a
soul exceedinglyheavy even unto death that I could imagine the pangs of
dissolution to be lighter!
In our last hour joy may lighten up the heart, and the sunshine of Heaven
within may bear up the soul when all outside is dark. But when the iron enters
into a man’s soul he is unmanned, indeed! In the cheerlessnessofsuch
exhausted spirits the mind is confused. Well can I understand the saying that
is written, “I am a worm and no man,” of one that is a prey to such
melancholy. Oh that cup! When there is not a promise that can give you
comfort. When everything in the world looks dark. When your very mercies
frighten you and rise like hideous specters and portents of evil before your
view.
When you are like the brothers of Benjamin as they opened the sacks and
found the money, but instead of being comforted said, “What is this that God
has done unto us?” When everything looks black and you seem, through some
morbid sensitivenessinto which you have fallen, to distort every objectand
every circumstance into a dismal caricature, let me say to you, that for us
poor sinful men this is a cup more horrible than any which inquisitors could
mix! I can imagine Anne Askew on the rack, braving it out, like the bold
woman she was, facing all her accusers andsaying–
“I am not she that lets
My anchorto fall;
For every drizzling mist
My ship’s substantial,”

but I cannot think of a man in the soul-sicknessofsuch depressionof spirits as
I am referring to, finding in thought or song a soothing for his woe.
When God touches the very secretofa man’s soul, and his spirit gives way, he
cannot bear up very long. And this seems to me to have been the cup which
the Saviorhad to drink just then–from which He prayed to be delivered–and
concerning which He was heard. Considerfor a moment what depressedHis
soul. Everything, my Brothers and Sisters, everything was draped in gloom
and overcastwith darkness that might be felt! There was the past. Putting it
as I think He would look at it, His life had been unsuccessful. He could say
with Isaiah, “Who has believed Our report, and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed?” “He came unto His own, and His own receivedHim not.”
And how poor was that little successHe did have! There were His twelve
disciples, and one of them He knew to be on the way to betray Him. Eight of
them were asleepat the entrance to the garden and three asleep within the
garden! He knew that they would all forsake Him, and one of them would
deny Him with oaths and curses!What was there to comfort Him? When a
man’s spirit sinks he needs a cheerful companion–he needs somebodyto talk
to. Was not this felt by the Savior? Did He not go three times to His disciples?
He knew they were but men, but then a man can comfort a man in such a time
as that. The sight of a friendly face may at Him with unmeaning gazes. DidHe
not return back againto prayer because there was no eye to pity, and none
that could help? He found no relief! Half a word sometimes, or even a smile–
even though it be only from a child–will help you when you are sadand
prostrate. But Christ could not get even that! He had to rebuke them almost
bitterly. Is not there a tone of irony about His remonstrance–“Sleeponnow
and take your rest”?
He was not angry, but He did feelit. When a man is low-spirited he feels more
keenly and acutely than at other times. And although the splendid charity of
our Lord made that excuse–“The spiritis willing but the flesh is weak,”yetit
did cut Him to the heart and He had an anguish of soul like that which Joseph
felt when he was sold into Egypt by his brothers. You will see, then, that both
the pastand the present were sufficient to depress Him to the greatestdegree.
But there was the future–and as He lookedforwardto that, devoted as His
heart was, and unfaltering as was the courage ofHis soul (for it were sacrilege
and slander, I think, to impute even a thought of flinching to Him)–yet His
human heart shrank back in fear!
He seemedto think–“Oh, how shall I bear it?” The mind startedback from
the shame and the body startedback from the pain, and the soul and body

both started back from the thought of death and of death in such an
ignominious way–
“He experiencedthem all–
The doubt, the strife,
The faint, perplexing dread.
The mists that hang over parting life
All gatheredround His head–
That He who gave man’s breath might know
The very depths of human woe.”
Brethren, none of us have such cause fordepressionas the Saviorhad! We
have not His load to carry and we have a Helper to help us whom He had not,
for God, who forsook Him, will never forsake us. Our soul may be castdown
within us but we can never have such greatreasonfor it, nor canwe ever
know it to so greatan extent as our dear Redeemerdid.
I wish I could picture to you that lovely Man–friendless like a stag at bay with
the dogs compassing Him round about and the assemblyof the wicked
enclosing Him, foreseeing everyincident of His passion, evento the piercing of
His hands and His feet, the parting of His garments, and the lots castupon His
vesture–andanticipating that last deathsweatwithout a drop of waterto cool
His lips! I canbut conceive that His soul must have felt within itself a solemn
trembling such as might well make Him say, “I am exceedinglysorrowful even
unto death.” This, then, seems to me to be the “cup” which our Lord Jesus
Christ desiredto have passedfrom Him and which did pass from Him in due
time.
Advancing a little further, I want you to think of the AGONY–whichwe have
been accustomedto call this scene in the garden. You all know that it is a
word which signifies “wrestling.” Now there is no wrestling where there is
only one individual. To this agony, therefore, there must have been two
parties. Were there not, howevermystically speaking, two parties in Christ?
What do I see in this King of Sharon but, as it were, two armies? There was
the stern resolve to do all and to accomplishthe work which He had
undertaken.
And there was the mental weakness anddepressionwhich seemedto say to
Him, “You cannot! You will never accomplishit.” “Our fathers trusted in
You and You did deliver them. They cried unto You and were delivered. They
trusted in You and were not confounded.” “But I am a worm and no man, a
reproachof men, and despisedof the people.” So that the two thoughts come
into conflict–the shrinking of the soul–andyet the determination of His

invincible will to go on with it and to work it out. He was in an agonyin that
struggle betweenthe overwhelming fear of His mind and the noble eagerness
of His spirit.
I think, too, that Satanafflicted Him–that the powers of darkness were
permitted to use their utmost craft in order to drive the Saviorto absolute
despair. One expressionused to depict it I will handle very delicately–a word
that, in its rougher sense, means, and has been applied to persons out of their
mind and bereft for awhile of reason. The term used concerning the Savior in
Gethsemane canonly be interpreted by a word equivalent to our “distracted.”
He was like one bewildered with an overwhelming weightof anxiety and
terror. But His Divine Nature awakenedup His spiritual faculties and His
mental energyto display their full power. His faith resistedthe temptation of
unbelief.
The heavenly goodness thatwas within Him so mightily contendedwith the
Satanic suggestions and insinuations which were thrown in His way that it
came to a wrestling. I should like you to catchthe idea of wrestling as though
you saw two men trying to throw one another, struggling togethertill the
muscles stand out and the veins start like whipcord on their brows. That were
a fearful spectaclewhentwo men in desperate wrath thus close in with each
other. The Saviorwas thus wrestling with the powers of darkness and He
grappled with such terrible earnestnessin the fray that He sweat, as it were,
greatdrops of blood–
“The powers of Hell united pressed
And squeezedHis heart, and bruised His breast!
What dreadful conflicts raged within
When sweatand blood forcedthrough His skin!”
Observe the wayin which Christ conductedthe agony. It was by prayer. He
turned to His Fatherthree times with the same words. It is an index of
distraction when you repeatyourself. Three times with the same words He
approachedHis God–“MyFather, let this cup pass from Me.” Prayer is the
greatcure-all for depressionofspirit. “When my spirit is overwhelmed within
me, I will look to the Rock that is higher than I.” There will be a breaking up
altogether, and a bursting of spirit unless you pull up the sluices of
supplication and let the soul flow out in secretcommunion with God! If we
would state our griefs to God they would not fret and fume within and wear
out our patience as they sometimes do.
In connectionwith the agonyand the prayer there seems to have been a
bloody sweat. It has been thought by some that the passageonly means that

the sweatwas like drops of blood. But then the word “like” is used in
Scripture to signify not merely resemblance but the identical thing itself. We
believe that the Savior did sweat, from His entire Person, greatdrops of blood
falling down to the ground. Such an occurrence is very rare, indeed, among
men. It has happened some few times. Booksofsurgery record a few
instances, but I believe that the persons who under some horrifying grief
experience such a sweatneverrecover–theyhave always died.
Our Savior’s anguish had this peculiarity about it, that though He sweat, as it
were, greatdrops of blood falling to the ground so copiouslyas if in a crimson
shower, yet He survived. His blood must needs be shed by the hands of others,
and His soul poured out unto death in another form. Remembering the doom
of sinful man–that he should eathis bread in the sweatof his face–wesee the
penalty of sin exactedin awful measure on Him who stoodfor sinners. As we
eat bread this day at the Lord’s Table, we commemorate the drops of blood
that He sweat. With perspiration on his face and huge drops on his brow, man
toils for the bread that perishes–but bread is only the staff of life.
When Christ toiled to give life itself to men, He sweat, not the common
perspiration of the outward form, but the blood which flows from the very
heart itself. Would that I had words to bring all this before you! I want to
make you see it. I want to make you feel it. The heavenly Lover who had
nothing to gain except to redeem our souls from sin and Satan, and to win our
hearts for Himself, leaves the shining courts of His eternalGlory and comes
down as a poor, feeble, and despisedMan!
He is so depressedat the thought of what is yet to be done and suffered and
under such pressure of Satanic influence, that He sweatdrops of blood, falling
upon the cold frosty soil in that moon-lit garden. Oh the love of Jesus!Oh the
weight of sin! Oh the debt of gratitude which you and I owe Him!–
“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small!
Love so amazing, so Divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!”
We must proceedwith the rich narrative to meditate upon our SAVIOR
CONQUERING.Our imagination is slow to fix upon this precious feature of
the dolorous history. Though He had said, “If it is possible, let this cup pass
from Me,” yet presently we observe how tranquil and calm He is when He
rises up from that scene of prostrate devotion! He remarks, as though it were
in an ordinary tone of voice, some expectedcircumstance–“Heis at hand that
shall betray Me. Rise, let us be going.” There is no distractionnow. No hurry,

no turmoil, no exceedinglysorrow even unto death. Judas comes, and Jesus
says, “Friend, why are you come?”
You would hardly know Him to be the same man that was so sorrowful just
now. One word with an emanation of His Deity suffices to make all the
soldiery fall backwards.SoonHe turns round and touches the earof the high
priest’s servant and heals it as in happier days He healedthe diseasesandthe
wounds of the people that flockedround Him in His journeys. Away He goes,
so calm and collectedthat unjust accusations cannotextort a reply from Him!
And though beseton every hand, yet is He led as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth.
That was a magnificent calmness ofmind that sealedHis lips and kept Him
passive before His foes!You and I could not have done it. It must have been a
deep profound peace within which enabled Him to be thus mute and still
amidst the hoarse murmur of the counciland the boisterous tumult of the
multitude. I believe that having fought the enemy within He had achieveda
splendid victory! He was heard in that He feared, and was now able in the
fullness of His strength to go out to the lasttremendous conflictin which He
met the embattled hosts of earth and Hell–and yet unabashed after He had
encounteredthem all–to wave the banner of triumph and to say, “It is
finished.”
Let us ask, in drawing to a conclusion, whatis the LESSON FROM ALL
THIS? I think I could draw out twenty lessons, but if I did they would not be
so goodand profitable as the one lessonwhich the Saviordraws Himself.
What was the lessonwhichHe particularly taught to His disciples? Now Peter,
James, and John, open your ears!And you, Magdalene, andyou, Mary, and
you, the wife of Herod’s steward, and other gracious women, listenfor the
inference which I am going to draw! It is not mine–it is that of our Lord and
MasterHimself. With how much heed should we treasure it up! “What I say
unto you I sayunto all, Watch.” “Watch,” and yet again, “Watchand pray
lest you enter into temptation.”
I have been turning this overin my mind to make out the connection. Why, on
this particular occasion, should He exhort them to watch? It strikes me that
there were two sorts of watching. Did you notice that there were eight
disciples at the garden gate? Theywere watching, or ought to have been. And
three were inside the garden. They, too, were watching, or ought to have been.
But they watcheddifferently. Which waywere the eight looking? It strikes me
that they were setthere to look outwards–to watchlestChrist should be
surprised by those who would attack Him. That was the objectof their being

put there. The other three were setto watch His actions and His words–to
look at the Saviorand see if they could help, or cheer, or encourage Him.
Now you and I have reasonto look both ways, and the Savior seems to say as
we look upon the agony–“Youwill have to feel something like this, therefore
watch.” Watchoutwards–be always onyour watchtowerlestsin surprise you.
It is through sin that you will be brought into this agony. It is by giving Satan
an advantage over you that the sorrows ofyour soul will be multiplied. If your
foot slips your heart will become the prey of gloom. If you neglectcommunion
with Jesus, if you grow cold or lukewarm in your affections, if you do not live
up to your privileges you will become the prey of darkness, dejection,
discouragement, and despair. Therefore, watch, lestyou enter upon this great
and terrible temptation.
Satancannot bring strong faith, when it is in healthy exercise, into such a
state of desolation. It is when your faith declines and your love grows
negligent, and your hope is inanimate that he canbring you into such
disconsolateheaviness thatyou see not your signs, nor know whether you are
a Believeror not. You will not be able to say, “MyFather,” for your soulwill
doubt whether you are a child of God at all. When the ways of Zion mourn,
the harps of the sons and daughters of Zion are unstrung. Therefore, keep
goodwatch, you who like the eight disciples are chargedas sentinels at the
threshold of the garden.
But you three, watch inward. Look at Christ. “ConsiderHim that endured
such contradiction of sinners againstHimself.” Watch the Savior and watch
with the Savior. Brothers and Sisters, I should like to speak this to you so
emphatically that you would never forgetit! Be familiar with the passionof
your Lord! Get right up to the Cross!Do not be satisfiedwith that, but getthe
Cross on your shoulders–getyourselfbound to the Cross in the spirit of the
Apostle when he said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.”
I do not think that I have had sweeterwork to do for a long time than when, a
few weeksago, Iwas looking over all the hymn writers and all the poets I
knew of for hymns upon the passionof the Lord. I tried to enjoy them as I
selectedthem, and to getinto the vein in which the poets were when they sung
them. Believe me, there is no fount that yields such sweetwateras the fount
that springs from Calvary just at the foot of the Cross!Here it is that there is
a sight to be seenmore astounding and more ravishing than even from the top
of Pisgah!
Get into the side of Christ–it is a cleft of the rock in which you may hide until
the tempestis passed. Live in Christ. Live near to Christ and then let the

conflict come and you will overcome even as He overcame!And rising up
from your sweatand from your agony you will go forth to meet even death
itself with a calm expressionon your brow, saying, “My Father, not as I will,
but as You will.”–
“My God, I love You, not because I hope for Heaven thereby,
Nor because they who love You not
Must burn eternally.
You, O my Jesus, You did me
Upon the Cross embrace.
For me did bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.
And griefs and torments numberless,
And sweatofagony!
Yes, death itself–andall for me
Who was Your enemy.
Then why, O blessedJesus Christ,
Should I not love You well?
Not for the hope of winning Heaven,
Nor of escaping Hell.
Not with the hope of gaining anything,
Nor seeking a reward
But as You Yourself have loved me,
O ever-loving Lord,
Even so I love You, and will love,
And in Your praise will sing
BecauseYou are my loving God,
And my Eternal King.”
I hope that this meditation may be profitable to some tried Christians and
even to impenitent sinners likewise. Ohthat the pictures I have been trying to
draw might be seenby some who will come and trust in this wondrous Man,
this wondrous God who saves all who trust in Him! Oh, rest on Him! “Though
your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red
like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Do but trust Him and you are saved! I do
not sayyou shall be saved some day, but you are savedtonight!
The sin which was on your shoulder, heavy as a burden when you came into
this house, shall all be gone. Look now to Him in the garden, on the Cross, and
on the Throne! Trust Him! Trust Him! Trust Him NOW! Trust Him ONLY!
Trust Him wholly–

“Let no other trust intrude–
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”
May the Lord bless you, everyone in this assembly, and at the Table may you
have His Presence. Amen.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Agony In The Garden
Matthew 26:36-46
J.A. Macdonald
Jesus, with his apostles, afterthe 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 exceededby that of Calvary. The olive in the oil press, like the grape in
the wine press, was trodden (see Micah6:15). The sufferings of the Lord in
the gardenwere purely mental; those on the cross were physicalalso.
Meditate upon the trouble of his soul -
I. IN ITS TERRIBLE SEVERITY.
1. This is expressedin his references to it.
(1) A few days earlier he said, "Now is my soul troubled" (John 12:27); but
here the storm of temptation sets in in earnest.
(2) The expression, "to be sorrowful" (ver. 37), conveys the idea of horror.
The "horror of greatdarkness" (see Genesis 15:12). This was the setting in of
that last and darkestcloud of temptation which finally descendedso low as to
darken the earth at the Crucifixion (see Matthew 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. "Mysoulis 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 contendedwas Divine
love for the whole human race. What must have been the agonyof that sense
of death!
2. It is expressedin the agony of his prayer.
(1) "He fell on his face." Greatanguishis expressedas rolling in the dust (see
Micah1:10). 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" (Mark 14:36). To God all
things are not morally, though physically all things are, possible.
"Nevertheless, notas I will, but as thou wilt." Here is the human will of
Christ, in the extremestcircumstances, deferring to his Divine will.
(3) His supplication was with "strong crying and tears" to be savedfrom this
fearful death sorrow (see Hebrews 5:7). These cries reachedthe 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 besoughtthe Lord thrice" (see 2 Corinthians 12:8). Perhaps the
iteration of the prayer of Jesus implied as many distinct temptations. They
were, however, relatedto the same "cup."
II. IN ITS VARIOUS SOURCES.
1. It partly arose from the contradiction of sinners. (See Hebrews 12:3.)
(1) The treachery of Judas was working to its issue. He sorelyfelt the
ingratitude of that "familiar friend in whom" once he worthily "trusted," but
who was now desperatelyfallen (el. Psalm41:9; John 13:18; Acts 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 ofMessiahin connectionwith the treacheryof
Judas and of the Jews.
(3) The wickednessofthe world at large was also before him in all its
enormity. A specimenof that enormity was soonto be displayed in the
conduct of the Roman governorand his men of war. Forthis he felt acutely, as
having takenupon him that humanity which is common to all.
2. It partly arose from the weaknessofhis disciples.
(1) They were slow of heart to believe fully in him. This, notwithstanding all
the pains he had takento 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 witnessedin their
professions ofreadiness 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 weptwith him
(see 2 Samuel 15:30);but when the Sonof David was there in tears, his
followers were asleep. Yetwas not their sleep without sorrow (see Luke
22:45). Still it was open to rebuke. "He saith unto Peter," who had been
foremostin promising to die with him, "What, could ye not watchwith 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 againstthe hour of temptation was needful
for the Master, how much more so for the servants!"Prayerwithout watching
is hypocrisy; and watching without prayer is presumption" (Jay).
(5) "Sleepon now." This is the same as "Why sleepye?" as it is given in Luke
22:46;a rebuke, e.g. "I no longer enjoin upon you to watch; the seasonis now
past for that duty, the time of trial for which watching and praying would
have prepared you has arrived." He watchedand prayed, and received
strength to drink the bitter cup (cf. Luke 12:43; Hebrews 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. Luke 22:3; John 13:2, 27).
(2) The devil was in the Jews. The prevalence ofdemoniacalpossessionatthe
time of Christ's sojourn amongstthem 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
"Seedof the woman." For the sufferings on the cross were but the
complement and sequelof 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;John 18:11). The subject will be
more particularly consideredas 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 ofthe 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 Peterand the two sons of Zebedee" to whom he
said, "Abide ye here, and watchwith me." "Sit ye here" (ver. 36), and "Abide
ye here" (ver. 38), mark a law of progressionin following.
(3) To these he said, "Watchwith me." Watch while I watch. Watch as I
watch. The temptations directed againstChrist are those directed againsthis
Church.
(4) But who were these? They were the three formerly chosento be the
witnesses ofthe Transfiguration(see Matthew 17:1). Those are best prepared
to suffer with Christ who have seenhis glory. So likewise those who suffer
with him may expectto reign with him. The sons of Zebedee had offered
themselves to drink of his cup (see Matthew 20:20-23).
2. But there is a limit to their companionship.
(1) "Tarry ye here." Beyond this the bestand most perfected cannotgo.
Christ had lately prayed with his disciples (see John 17:1); now he prays
alone. Note:Our prayers with our families must not be pleaded to excuse the
neglectof secretdevotions.
(2) But why did he now pray and suffer apart? Becausehis 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 greatand
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
Hebrews 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 respectto his death by
crucifixion might be imperilled?
(4) The "cup" was the Passionwhichwas now beginning, but had to be
completed on the cross. The allusionmay be to the poison cup given to
criminals. To this Paul possibly alludes when he says, "Jesus Christ, by the
grace ofGod, tasteddeath forevery man" (Hebrews 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 everyman's cup out of his hand,
drinks off the poison, and thus tastes orsuffers the death which every man
otherwise must have suffered (see A. Clarke, in loc.). - J.A.M.
Biblical Illustrator
A place called Gethsemane.
Matthew 26:36-39
The language and tone befitting our prayers to God
George Wray, M. A.
To a thoughtful and inquiring mind, nothing will be more manifest than the
decorum of our Saviour's addressesto the throne of grace. He is never
betrayed into flights and ecstasies;never uses any phrase which is not marked
by the strictestrules of soberness andtruth. In His agony in the garden, when,
if ever, the mind of an afflicted and sorrowfulman, overwhelmedwith grief,
and preparing for trial and for death, might be expectedto break forth into
piteous cries and strong phrases, there is not one word which betrays the
slightestexcess.His soul is wrung with pain. He is very sorrowful. He is
sorrowfuleven unto death. His agonyis, perhaps, unspeakable;but not one
impassionedcry, not one indecorous expression, not one familiar word,
escapeshis lips. His prayer is such as befits a sonwho 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 setus an example, as well in what He saidas in what He
did. He taught us how to pray. He showedon this greatoccasion, anoccasion
which none beside will ever experience, whatis to be the tone and manner of
our addressesto God. He was dignified in the midst of His distress. His holy
father was an objectof the devoutestreverence, so devout that He never
presumes either then, or at any time, to use familiar language to Him..His
prayer was suchthat it might have been listened to by the greatestprince or
the pro-roundest scholar, yet it was a prayer so simple that any one can use it.
Every sentence, everyword, every syllable, is suitable to the majesty of heaven
and the weaknessofman. He never descends to low phrases and
conversationalterms, nor forgets, forone moment, that He is in intercourse
with the Fatherof spirits.
(George Wray, M. A.)
Submission to the Divine will
Paysonwas asked, whenunder greatbodily affliction, if he could see any
particular reasonfor the dispensation. "No," he replied; "but I am as well
satisfiedas if I could see ten thousand; God's will is the very perfection of all
reason."
Duty of submission
Sir Wm. Temple., E. de Pressense, D. D.
I know no duty in religion more generallyagreedon, 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 satisfiedwith all He gives, and contentedwith all He
takes away. None, I am sure, can be of more honour to God, nor of more ease
to ourselves. Forif 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, whateverHe does is intended for our good; and whatever happens
that we interpret otherwise, yetwe canget 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 desertinto Paradise, and made
Gethsemane the gate of heaven.

(E. de Pressense, D. D.)
A visit to Gethsemane
J. Parsons.
The interest attachedto 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, atonce obvious and important.
Knowing what He had to undergo, the Lord Jesus wantedprivacy; 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 chastenedand subdued, while
now it burst forth irrepressibly and without reserve. Presentedin the
Evangelicalnarratives.
2. Its cause. The solitude of the cause ofthe Saviour's 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 answerto 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 IMPRESSIONSWHICH OUR RESORT TO THE "PLACE
CALLED GETHSEMANE" OUGHT TO SECURE.
1. The enormous evil and heinousness of sin.
2. The amazing condescensionand love of the Lord Jesus.
3. The duty of entire reliance upon the Saviour's work, and entire
consecrationto the Saviour's service. Forthat 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 atonce the
obligation and the privilege of entire consecration?
(J. Parsons.)

The soul-sorrow ofJesus
J. Macnaughton.
I. THAT THE BODILY SUFFERINGSOF JESUS, howeveracute and
protracted, COULD NOT CONSTITUTEA SUFFICIENT ATONEMENT
FOR SIN. Normeet the demands of a violated law. The bodily suffering is no
adequate compensationfor the evil committed. The soul is the chief sinner.
The sufferings of Christ in His body could not be a sufficient atonementfor
sin because theydid not exhaustthe curse pronounced by the law against
transgression.
II. THE SEVERITYOF THE MEDIATOR'S SORROW. WhenHe 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 Redeemer's soulrose to its height when he did actually
endure the wrath of God due to our sins.
(J. Macnaughton.)
The representative human conflict
Selected.
Our Savour's 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-God's wilt, and man's will.
II. The blessednessofman, the creature, must lie in the harmonious working
togetherof these two wills.
III. These two wills are at present in antagonism.
IV. How can these two wills be brought togetherinto harmony? Answer —
1. Notby any changing of the perfectwill of God.
2. Man's 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 wonfor us by Jesus. The constraining of the love of
Jesus. The powerof the risen and living Jesus.
(Selected.)
The soul-passionofChrist
Canon Liddon.
What is the explanation we are to give of this passagein our Lord's life? One
explanation which has been offered is that Gethsemane witnesseda last and
more desperate assaultofthe evil One; but for this the Bible gives no clear
warrant. Certainly, the evil One, after his greatdefeat on the mountain of the
Temptation, is said to have departed from our Lord " for a season," aa
expressionwhich seems to imply that he afterwards returned; but, so far as
the text of Scripture can guide us, he returned to assailnotthe 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 eachsuccessive assaultofthe 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 pressedon Him. lie 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 personalopponent; here He sinks as if in fear and
bewilderment to the very earth, as though a prey to some inward sense of
desolationand collapse. His own words, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful,"
point to some greatmental 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 actof His will, our Lord openedupon His
human soul a full view and apprehension of the impending sufferings of His
passionand death; and the apprehension was itself an agony. The whole
scene, the successionofscenes, passedbefore 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 soulthe 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 easilywas an agony, even in its
lightest form; and when we think of the accumulatedguilt of all the ages

clinging around and most intimately present to Him, canwe wonder that His
bodily nature gave way, that His Passionseemedto have been upon Him
before its time, and that "His sweatwas as it were great drops of blood falling
to the ground."
(Canon Liddon.)
The Christian's Gethsemane
Canon Liddon.
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 forgetGethsemane. Goodindeed it is to retire to this
inmost sanctuaryof 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 allthings, in contactwith realities, but they are the
realities of the world of spirits at the leastnot one whir less realthan the
stones and the gasesofthe world of matter. The soul of Jesus in Gethsemane
was engagedin a fearful struggle, but it was a struggle with issues reaching
not into the next few weeksoryears 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
goodChristians canenter 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 suchas 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, "Notmy will, but Thine,
be done."
II. THERE ARE FORMS OF DOUBT RESPECTINGGOD'S GOODNESS
AND PROVIDENCE,WHICH ARE A GREAT TROUBLE AT TIMES. NOT

self-causeddoubts, but embarrassments which besetearnestand devout souls
under stress of greatsorrow or calamity. The bestremedy 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 GOD'S SERVICE
DISTASTEFUL. Prayerbecomes insipid and unwelcome, duty is an effort
againstthe 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, notwhat 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 generallyis, by a
preface of weakenedhealth and lingering sickness. In many cases it has
happened that at the very beginning of an "illness which was to end with life,
a clearpresentiment of this has been graciouslyvouchsafed. "I was sitting at
luncheon," said one of the best of Christ's servants in this generation, "andI
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 Son's 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 whichcome with
constantand 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.)
Christ's agonyin the garden
H. Melvill, B. D.
I. WE DWELL MORE ON THE BODILY ANGUISH OF OUR LORD
THAN THE METAL. We figure to ourselves the external woes ofwhich 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. Youmust be aware that anguish of soul more
than of the body is the everlasting portion which is to be swardedto sinners;
so we may expectthat the soul-agonyof 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 SORROWFULUNTO DEATH The soul cannot die, yet so
exceeding was Christ's sorrow that He could speak of it as nothing less than
actualdeath. The soul was the sin-offering.
1. We would have you be aware ofthe enormous costat which you have been
ransomed.
2. It gives preciousness to the means of grace thus to considerthem as brought
into being by the agonies ofthe Redeemer. Will you trifle with them?
3. Having spokennot only of the exceeding sorrowfulnessofChrist's soul, but
of the satisfactionwhichthat sorrowfulness yields, I would not conclude
without a vision of His glorious triumphs.
(H. Melvill, B. D.)
Divine sorrow
DeanStanley.
I. THE CAUSES OF HIS SORROW.
1. That gloommay have been the sense ofthe near approachof death with all
the dread misgivings which besetthe spirit in that supreme hour.
2. It may have been the sense of loneliness, ofthe ingratitude, the failure of
His disciples and countrymen.
3. Or it was the sense ofthe loadof human wickedness entering into His soul,
so as almostto take possessionofit. "He who knew no sin was made sin for
us." These troubled His soul.
4. This scene is the silent protestagainstthe 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 efficacyand in the
answerof prayer than the mere demanding and receiving the specialblessings
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 actof prayer gives strength, will open our souls to
supporting angels.
2. Notthe 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 seenand the unseen. Without the agony, without the cross, Christianity
and Christendom would not have been. If any actor event in the world's
history was essentialto its onward progress, essentialto the elevationand
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 conflictand this unity which lend such a breathless
interest to the whole story of this week, whichbreathes 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 conflictand a unity which still in its measures
continue, and shall continue, as long as the will of humanity struggles and toils
on earth to accomplishthe will of Divinity. Not our will, but God's will be
done. Notour will, for we know not what is bestfor us. We still see as through
a glass very darkly, the end is not yet visible. But God's will be done, for He
knows our necessitiesbefore we ask, and our ignorance in asking. His will, His
supreme will in nature and in grace, letus 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.
(DeanStanley.)
Prayer
F. W. Robertson, M. A.
I. THE RIGHT OF PETITION. We infer it to be a right.
1. Becauseit is a necessityofour nature. Prayer is a necessityofour humanity
rather than a duty. The necessityto
(1)that of sympathy;

(2)the necessityof 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
God's Spirit is in yours.
II. ERRONEOUS NOTIONSOF WHAT PRAYER IS. They are contained in
that conceptionwhich He negatived, "As I will." A common conceptionof
prayer is, that it is the means by which the wish of man determines the will of
God. The text says clearly, "Notas I will." The wish of man does not
determine the will of God. Try this conceptionby four tests.
1. By its incompatibility with the fact that this universe is a systemof laws.
2. Try it by fact.
3. Try it by the prejudicial results of such a belief. Gives unworthy ideas of
God. Considerthe 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 answeredprayer is a proof of grace. We shall be unreasonably depressed
and elatedwhen we do or do not getwhat we wish.
III. THE TRUE EFFICACYOF 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 succeedin 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 leastof petition and desire, and most of
waiting upon God; in which petition often passes into thanksgiving.
(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Prayer to seek God's will, not man's wish
F. W. Robertson, M. A.
Practicallythen, I say, Pray as He did, till prayer makes you ceaseto pray.
Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in
God's will. The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to
obtain the goodthings 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 appearedan angelunto Him from
heaven, strengthening Him." That was the true reply to His prayer.
(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Submission a progress
C. J. Vaughan, D. D.
Let us come into the presence of the Suppliant — this most human, yet most
Divine Person, who is wrestling here in an agonyeven more spiritual than
mortal. It is night. Christ has left the guest-chamber. He has crossedthe
brook Kedron. He has entered a garden, oftentimes His resortduring 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 secretprayer 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 setbefore us in Christ.
I. That all sorrow, all suffering, even if it be anguish, is A CUP. It is something
definite, of a certainmeasure. It is of the Father's 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 earnestconfessionofthe comparative value of two wills — your
will and God's. Jesus wentawaythe secondtime, and prayed. And what was
this secondprayer? "O My Father, if this cup may not pass awayfrom Me,
exceptI drink it, Thy will be done." This secondprayer asks notat all for the
removal of the cup. The first was prayer with submission; the secondis
submission without even prayer. Here is an example, set us by our Lord, of a
progressive, growing submissionto the mighty hand of God. I do not mean
that our Lord had to learn, in the garden of Gethsemane, a lessonof
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 (2 Corinthians 12:8, 9) had
askedrelief, and not been answered? Beyondthe 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 longerconcerning it, only Thy will be done.
(C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)
The figure of the cup
Horace Bushnell.
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 takenaway, is a
judicial infliction? This figure of the cup is used in Scripture for all kinds of
experience, whetherjoyful or painful. Thus we have "the cup of salvation,"
"the cup of consolation,""the cup of trembling," "of fury," "of
astonishment," "ofdesolation." WhateverGodsends upon man to be deeply
felt, and by whatever kind of providence, whether benignant, or disciplinary,
or retributive, is calledhis cup.
(Horace Bushnell.)
Jesus praying
C. H. Spurgeon.
There are severalinstructive features in our Saviour's prayer in His hour of
trial.
1. It was lonely prayer. He withdrew even from His three favoured disciples.
Believer, be much in solitaryprayer, especiallyin times of trial.
2. It was humble prayer. Luke says He knelt, but another evangelistsays He
"fell on His face." Where, then, must be thy place, thou humble servant of the
greatMaster? Whatdust and ashes should coverthy head? Humility gives us
goodfoot-hold in prayer. There is no hope of prevalence with God unless we
abase ourselves thatHe 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 notuntil you
prevail.
5. It was the prayer of resignation — "Nevertheless, notas I will, but as Thou
wilt."
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gethsemane
W. H. Davison.
I. Gethsemane suggestsour blessedRedeemer's longing for human sympathy.
"Tarry ye here and watchwith Me." It is a purely human feeling.
II. Reminds us of the sacrednessofhuman sorrow and Divine communion.
III. Reveals the overwhelming depth and fulness of the Redeemer's 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 chiefesthuman 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
E. Stillingfleet.
I. The occasionof 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 earnestnessofit.
4. The submission of it. Enforce two things:
I. There is an aversionin 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 Father's cup
E. Stillingfleet.
It is a Father that gives the cup.
1. A Fatherwho knows what is fittest to be given us.
2. A Fatherwho stands by His children to help and assistthem.
3. A Fatherwho will abundantly reward the taking of what He gives.
(E. Stillingfleet.)
Our Lord's example of resignation
J. Jortin.
To show how the Son of God exercisedthis virtue here upon earth.
1. We all desire the conveniencesoflife, and to be above dependence. For our
sakes He became poor, and never complained on that account.
2. Hard labour attended with wearinessis disagreeable.Our Saviour's 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 goodcapacities,and tiresome
to inform slow understandings.
5. Return of basenessand treacheryfrom 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 showedgreatlenity.
6. A goodman, 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 exposedto malicious calumny, is a
greattrial of human patience. This our Saviour endured.
8. To see multitudes involved in a greatcalamity is a grief to a charitable man.

9. Future evils, when we see them coming and are sure we cannotescape them,
torment us near if not quite as much as when they are present.
10. Men love life and are unwilling to lose it. Mostpainful and ignominious
was the death which Christ endured.
(J. Jortin.)
Inducements to resignation
J. Jortin.
1. A belief in the goodnessofGod.
2. The reward in heaven which we may secure.
3. The behaviour of our Lord which we should be anxious to imitate.
(J. Jortin.)
Christ's agony
A. L. R. Foote.
In the garden Christ is exhibited to us in a two-fold character-as oursurety
and as our example. As our surety, suffering for us, and as our example,
teaching us how to suffer.
I. Our surety.
1. How greatwere the sufferings of the Redeemer, and what was their true
character.
2. How terrible the wrath of God is.
3. How greatthe guilt of sin is.
4. How greatis the love of the Father and of the Son for sinners.
II. Our example. From it we learn —
1. That our being severelyafflicted 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 greatesttrials.
4. The efficacyof prayer in bringing support and comfort under affliction.
(A. L. R. Foote.)

Storms beat round mountain souls
George Dawson.
It has been said by a greatpoet, that greatcharacters andgreatsouls are like
mountains — they always attractthe 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, saddestsoulthe
world has ever had living in it — the Lord Christ. Higher than all men,
around His head seemedto 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 world's truth,
have gained their life in this world and eternal rest in God.
(George Dawson.)
The broken will
George Dawson.
Man must be thrown down that his will may be broken; and his will must be
broken that Godmay reign within him. The will of God in man is life eternal.
(George Dawson.)
Falling on His face
George Dawson.
His greatlife 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. Forin rising, He laid down His own will and took God's will in its
place.
(George Dawson.)
God's providence an argument for submission
W. Bates.
His providence is comprehensive and complete; no unforeseenaccidents in the
freestand most contingent things, no unvoluntary obstruction in the most
necessarythings can break the entireness, or discompose the order of His

providence. How exactlyand easilydoes He manage and over-rule all things?
The whole world is His house, and all the successive generations ofmen 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 greatcare, yet unexpectedly
broke? So many cross accidents interpose, so many emergencies beyondall
prevention start up, that frustrate the designs and hopes of the most potent,
rulers of this world. But God disposes allthings with more facility than one of
us can move a grain of sand.
(W. Bates.)
Emblem of providence
W. Bates.
The sun applies its quickening influences for the production and growthof 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 scenesofthe elements, produces new seasons, andits active and
prolific heat forms and transforms whatsoeveris changedin nature. This is a
fit resemblance of the universal and specialoperations of Divine providence.
(W. Bates.)
Presentcomforts in affliction
W. Bates.
The gracious soulhas a taste and sight how "goodthe Lord is," as an earnest
of the fulness of joy in heaven. Hope brings some leaves ofthe tree of life to
refresh us with their fragancy;but love, of its fruits to strengthenus. 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 blessedabove, but they
are very reviving.
(W. Bates.)
Resignation

W. Bates.
The entire resignationof our wills to the disposing will of God is the
indispensable duty of Christians under the sharpestafflictions.
I. What is consistentwith this resignation?
1. An earnestdeprecationof an impending judgment is reconcilable with our
submission to the pleasure of God, declaredby the event.
2. A mournful sense of afflictions sent from God, is consistentwith a dutiful
resignationof ourselves to His will.
II. What is included in the resignment of ourselves to God in times of
affliction.
1. The understanding approves the severestdispensations ofProvidence to be
good, that is, for reasons, thoughsometimes unsearchable, yetalways
righteous, and for gracious ends to the saints.
2. This resignment principally consists in the consentand subjectionof the
will to the orders of heaven.
3. The duty of resignationconsists 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 God's originalsupreme right in our persons,
and all things we enjoy.
2. The righteousness ofGod 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 couldbe alteredor
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) Chastisementis the effectof His parental love.
(W. Bates.)
Comforts in trial
W. Bates.

The historian tells of a clearvein of water that springs from Mongibel, that
greatfurnace, that always sends forth smoke orflames, yet is as coolas if it
distilled from a snowy mountain. Thus the saints in the fiery trial have been
often refreshedwith Divine comforts, and such humble submissions and
gracious thanksgivings have proceededfrom their lips, as have been very
comfortable to those about them.
(W. Bates.)
Man's evil nature
W. Bates.
Proud dust is apt to fly in God's face upon every motion of the afflicting
passions;and by the resistance ofself-will He is provoked to more severity.
(W. Bates.)
COMMENTARIES
MacLaren's Expositions
Matthew
GETHSEMANE, THE OIL-PRESS
Matthew 26:36 - Matthew 26:46.
One shrinks from touching this incomparable picture of unexampled sorrow,
for fearlest one’s finger-marks should stain it. There is no place here for
picturesque description, which tries to mend the gospelstories by dressing
them in to-day’s fashions, nor for theologicalsystematisers andanalysers of
the sortthat would ‘botanise upon their mother’s grave.’ We must put off our
shoes, and feelthat 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 closelyon the mystery of such grief. We may go as near as
love was allowedto go, but stop where it was stayed, while we reverently and
adoringly listen to what the Evangelisttells us of that unspeakable hour.

I. Mark the ‘exceeding sorrow’of the Man of Sorrows.
Somewhere onthe westernfoot of Olivet lay the garden, named from an oil-
press formerly or then in it, which was to be the scene ofthe holiestand sorest
sorrow on which the moon, that has seenso much misery, has ever looked.
Truly it was ‘an oil-press,’in which ‘the goodolive’ was crushedby the grip
of unparalleled agony, and yielded precious oil, which has been poured into
many a wound since then. Eight of the elevenare left at or near the entrance,
while He passes deeperinto the shadows with the three. They had been
witnesses ofHis 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 beganto be sorrowful,’-as if a sudden wave of
emotion, breaking over His soul, had sweptHis human sensibilities before it.
The strange word translatedby 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-distractedstate which is produced by
physical derangementor mental distress.’A storm of agitationand
bewilderment broke His calm, and forced from His patient lips, little wont to
speak of His own emotions, or to seek forsympathy, the unutterably pathetic
cry, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful’-compassedaboutwith sorrow, as the
word means-’evenunto death.’ No feeble explanation of these words does
justice to the abyss of woe into which they let us dimly look. Theytell 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 graspof 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 init. His agonymust be
endured alone, therefore He bade them tarry there; but He desiredto 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 wordcame from them. They were, no doubt, awedinto silence, as the
truest sympathy is used to be, in the presence ofa great grief. Is it permitted
us to ask whatwere the fountains of these bitter floods that sweptover
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 strangelywith 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 weightof sin’s consequences wasconcentrated. ‘The
Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquities of us all’; that is the one
sufficient explanation of this infinitely solemnand tender scene. Unless we
believe that, we shall find it hard to reconcile His agitationin Gethsemane
with the perfectionof His characteras the captain of ‘the noble army of
martyrs.’
II. Note the prayer of filial submission.
Matthew does not tell us of the sweatfalling 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, renewedas eachmoment of calm, wonby it, was againbrokenin 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 spokenthan they report. Possiblywhat we have is only
the fragments that reachedthe three before they fell asleep. In any case, Jesus
was absentfrom them on eachoccasionlong enough to allow of their doing so.
Three elements are distinguishable in our Lord’s prayer. There is, first, the
sense ofSonship, which underlies all, and was never more clearthan at that
awful moment. Then there is the recoilfrom ‘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 ourpattern, if
He had not thus drawn back, in His sensitive humanity, from the awful
prospectnow so near. But natural instinct is one thing, and the controlling
will another. However currents may have tossedthe vessel, the firm hand at
the helm never suffered them to change her course. The will, which in this
prayer He seems so strangelyto separate from the Father’s, even in the actof

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
reachthe point of absolutely and unconditionally asking that the cup might
pass. Even in the actof 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, atany cost;and unless it can be
accomplishedthough the cup be withdrawn, He does not even wish, much less
will, that it should be withdrawn. So, the third elementin the prayer is the
utter resignationto 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 ceasefrom their own works do ‘enter into
rest.’ All the agitations which had come storming in massedbattalions against
Him are defeatedby 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 againHe leaves them to renew the struggle. The instinctive
shrinking reasserts itself, and, though overcome, is not eradicated. But the
secondprayer is yet more rooted in acquiescencethan 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 answerto its contingentpetition the
consciousness, accompanying the calm, that it was not possible for the cup to
pass from Him. The sense of Sonship underlies the complete resignationof the
secondprayer as of the first. It has no wish but God’s will, and is the
voluntary offering of Himself. Here He is both Priestand 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. ForHim, as for us, the Cross acceptedceasesto 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 againhis spent arrows, and beatenback
by the same weapon. The words were the same, because no others could have
expressedmore 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 strengthenedthrough

submission for submission. So His agonyis the pattern of all true prayer,
which must everdeal with our wishes, as He did with His instinctive
shrinking,-present them wrapped in an ‘if it be possible,’and followedby 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 answeredofwhich the issue is
our calm readiness for all that He lays upon us.
III. Note the sadand gentle remonstrance with the drowsythree.
‘The sleepof the disciples, and of these disciples, and of all three, and such an
overpowering sleep, remains even after Luke’s explanation, “for sorrow,” a
psychologicalriddle’ {Meyer}. It is singularly parallel with the sleepof the
same three at the Transfiguration-anevent 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 weigheddown their eyelids,
love should have kept them open. Such sleepof 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,
addressedto Peterespecially, as he had promised so much, but meant for all.
This was all that Jesus gotin answerto 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 earshotof His prayers. If ever a soultasted the
desolationof utter loneliness, that suppliant beneath the olives tastedit. But
how little of the pain escapes His lips! The words but hint at the slightness of
their task comparedwith His, at the brevity of the strain on their love, and at
the companionship which ought to have made sleepimpossible. May we not
see in Christ’s remonstrance a word for all? Forus, too, the task of keeping
awake in the enchanted ground is light, measuredagainstHis, and the time is
short, and we have Him to keepus company in the watch, and every motive of
grateful love should make it easy;but, alas, how many of us sleepa drugged
and heavy slumber!
The gentle remonstrance soonpasses overinto counselas 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 clearlythe 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 astraywill 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
lessonfor a wider circle than the sleepythree.
It is followedby words which would need a volume to expound in all their
depth and width of application, but which are primarily a reasonfor the
preceding counsel, as wellas a loving apologyfor 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, stillmore because, in its weaknesstowardgood, 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 watchand pray, the conflict
betweenthese two elements in the renewednature 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’sleepthat Christ left them undisturbed the secondtime. The relapse
is worse than the original disease. Sleepbrokenand 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 measuredby
hours; but at last it was broken by the enigmaticallastwords of our Lord.
The explanation of the direct opposition betweenthe 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 sleepon,
since the hour is come, in sad recognitionthat 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, whenit dwells with such poweron the
thought of ‘the irrevocable past’ of wastedopportunities and neglectedduty.
But the sudden transition to the sharp, short command and broken sentences
of the lastverse is to be accountedfor by the sudden appearance ofthe
flashing lights of the band led by Judas, somewhere nearat 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 wouldhave 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 Fatherhad given Him.
BensonCommentary
Matthew 26:36-38. Thencometh Jesus to a place calledGethsemane — A
garden, lying, it seems, atthe foot of the mount of Olives, which had its name,
probably, from its soil and situation, the word, from ‫איג‬ ‫ׂש‬ ‫,םינ‬ 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 Peterand the two sons of Zebedee, James
and John, who had been witnesses ofhis transfiguration and glory, and were
now to be witnesses ofhis humiliation and agony: and beganto 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 onevery 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 overwhelmedwith 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 greatthat 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 wishedthem to pray, adding, Tarry ye here and watch with me —
Had these disciples done as Christ here directed, they would soonhave found
a rich equivalent for their watchful care, in the eminent improvement of their
graces by this wonderful and edifying sight. ForChrist 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 accomplishedthe redemption of mankind.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
26:36-46 He who made atonementfor the sins of mankind, submitted himself
in a garden of suffering, to the will of God, from which man had revolted in a
garden of pleasure. Christ took with him into that part of the garden where he
suffered his agony, only those who had witnessedhis glory in his
transfiguration. Those are best prepared to suffer with Christ, who have by
faith beheld his glory. The words used denote the most entire dejection,
amazement, anguish, and horror of mind; the state of one surrounded with
sorrows, overwhelmedwith miseries, and almostswallowedup with terror
and dismay. He now beganto be sorrowful, and never ceasedto be so till he
said, It is finished. He prayed that, if possible, the cup might pass from him.
But he also showedhis perfect readiness to bear the load of his sufferings;he
was willing to submit to all for our redemption and salvation. According to
this example of Christ, we must drink of the bitterest cup which God puts into
our hands; though nature struggle, it must submit. It should be more our care
to get troubles sanctified, and our hearts satisfiedunder them, than to get
them takenaway. It is wellfor us that our salvationis in the hand of One who
neither slumbers nor sleeps. All are tempted, but we should be much afraid of
entering into temptation. To be securedfrom this, we should watchand pray,
and continually look unto the Lord to hold us up that we may be safe.
Doubtless our Lord had a clearand full view of the sufferings he was to
endure, yet he spoke with the greatestcalmness till this time. Christ was a
Surety, who undertook to be answerable for our sins. Accordingly he was
made sin for us, and suffered for our sins, the Just for the unjust; and
Scripture ascribes his heaviestsufferings to the hand of God. He had full
knowledge ofthe infinite evil of sin, and of the immense extent of that guilt for
which he was to atone;with awful views of the Divine justice and holiness, and
the punishment deservedby the sins of men, such as no tongue canexpress, or
mind conceive. At the same time, Christ suffered being tempted; probably
horrible thoughts were suggestedby Satanthat tended to gloom and every
dreadful conclusion:these would be the more hard to bear from his perfect
holiness. And did the load of imputed guilt so weigh down the soul of Him of
whom it is said, He upholdeth all things by the word of his power? into what

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