GETHSEMANE AGONY

JESUS WAS SWEATING DROPSOF BLOOD
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 22:44 44
And being in anguish, he prayed more
earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling
to the ground.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Self-surrender
Luke 22:42 (latter part)
W. ClarksonNotmy will, but thine, be done. These words are suggestive as
well as expressive. They suggestto us -
I. THE ESSENTIALNATURE OF SIN. Where shall we find the root of sin?
Its manifold fruits we see around us in all forms of irreligion, of vice, of
violence. But in what shall we find its root? In the preference of our own will
to the will of God. If we trace human wrong-doing and wrong-being to its
ultimate point, we arrived that conclusion. It is because menare not willing to
be what God createdthem to be, not willing to do what he desires them to do;
it is because they want to pursue those lines of thought and of action which he
has forbidden, and to find their pleasure and their portion in things which he
has disallowed, - that they err from the strait path and begin the course which
ends in condemnation and in death. The essenceofall sin is in this assertionof
our will againstthe will of God. We fail to recognize the foundation truth that
we are his; that by every sacredtie that can bind one being to another we are
bound, and we belong to him from whom we came and in whom we live, and
move, and have our being. We assume to be the masters of our own lives and
fortunes, the directors of our own selves, of our own will; we say, "My will,
not thine, be done." Thus are we radically wrong; and being radically wrong,

the issues ofour hearts are evil. From this fountain of error and of evil the
streams of sin are flowing; to that we trace their origin.
II. THE HOUR AND ACT OF SPIRITUAL SURRENDER. Whendoes the
human spirit return to God, and by what act? Thathour and that act, we
reply, are not found at the time of any intellectual apprehension of the truth.
A man may understand but little of Christian doctrine, and yet may be within
the kingdom of heaven; or, on the other hand, he may know much, and yet
remain outside that kingdom. Nor at the time of keensensibility; for it is
possible to be moved to deep and to fervent feeling, and yet to withhold the
heart and life from the Supreme. Nor at the time of associationwith the visible
Church of Christ. It is the hour at which and the act by which the soul
cordially surrenders itself to God. When, in recognitionof the paramount
claims of God the Divine Father, the gracious Saviorofmankind, we yield
ourselves to God, that for all the future he may lead and guide us, may employ
us in his holy service;when we have it in our heart to say, "Henceforththy
will, not ours, be done;" - then do we return unto the Lord our God, and then
does he count us among the number of his own.
III. THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR. When
do we reachour highest point? Not when we have fought our fiercestbattle, or
have done our most fruitful work, or have gainedour clearestand brightest
vision of Divine truth; but when we have reachedthe point in which we can
most cheerfully and most habitually say, after Christ our Lord, "Notmy will,
but thine, be done;" when under serious discouragementoreven sad defeat,
when after exhausting pain or before terrible suffering, when under heavy
loss or in long-continued loneliness, or in prospectof early death, we are
perfectly willing that God should do with us as his own wisdomand love
direct. - C.
Biblical Illustrator
The mount of Olives.

Luke 22:39-46
The mount of Olives
James Hamilton.The mountains are Nature's monuments. Like the islands
that dwell apart, and like them that give asylum from a noisy and irreverent
world. Many a meditative spirit has found in their silence leisure for the
longestthought, and in their Patmos-like seclusionthe brightest visions and
largestprojects have evolved; whilst by a sort of overmastering attraction
they have usually drawn to themselves the most memorable incidents which
variegate our human history. And, as they are the natural haunts of the
highest spirits, and the appropriate scenes ofthe most signal occurrences, so
they are the noblest cenotaphs.
I. OLIVET REMINDS US OF THE SAVIOUR'S PITY FOR SUCH AS
PERISH(see Luke 19:37-44). Thattear fell from an eye which had lookedinto
eternity, and knew the worth of souls.
II. THE MOUNT OF OLIVES REMINDS US OF THE REDEEMER'S
AGONY TO SAVE.
III. The Mount of Olives is identified with the supplications and intercessions
of Immanuel, and so suggests to us the Lord Jesus as THE GREAT
EXAMPLE IN PRAYER.
1. Submission in prayer. In praying for His people, the Mediator's prayer was
absolute:"Father, I will." But in praying for Himself, how alteredwas the
language!"Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless,
not as I will, but as Thou wilt."
2. Perseverancein prayer. The evangelisttells that there was one prayer
which Jesus offeredthree times, and from the Epistle to the Hebrews 5:7, we
find that this prayer prevailed.
3. The best preparation for trial is habitual prayer. Long before it became the
scene ofHis agony, Gethsemane had been the Saviour's oratory. "He ofttimes
resortedthither."
IV. The Mount of Olives recalls to us THE SAVIOUR'S AFFECTION FOR
HIS OWN. I fear that the love of Christ is little credited even by those who
have some faith in His finished work, and some attachment to His living
person.
(James Hamilton.)
Being in an agony
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

J. Marchant.Jesus commencedHis sacredPassionin the garden for these
reasons:
I. BECAUSE HE INTENDED TO OBSERVE A PIOUS CUSTOM.
1. It was His custom, after He had preachedand wrought miracles, to retire
and betake Himself to prayer.
2. It should be our custom, too, to recollectourselves in prayer, especially
when the day's work is over.
II. BECAUSE CHARITY AND OBEDIENCE URGED HIM.
1. Charity towards the master of the house, who, having left the supper-room
at His disposal, should not be molestedby the seizure of Jesus.
2. Love and obedience to His heavenly Father.
III. IN ORDER TO FULFIL THE TYPE OF DAVID. When Absalom had
revolted againsthis father, David and the people went over the brook Kedron,
and they all wept with a loud voice. Christ went over the same brook now,
accompaniedby His faithful friends.
IV. AS SECONDADAM HE WOULD MAKE SATISFACTION IN A
GARDEN FOR THE SIN OF THE FIRST ADAM WHICH HAD BEEN
COMMITTEDIN A GARDEN.
(J. Marchant.)
Gethsemane
J. T. Higgins.Now let us look at this scene ofpain and agonyin the lifo of
Christ, and see what lessons itsupplies to us. And I remark —
I. IT WAS SOLITARY SUFFERING. "He was removedfrom them." He was
alone. How weird and sombre the word! How it throbs with painful life I And
does not your experience substantiate the same thing? What a recitalyou
could give of pain, and sorrow, and heartache, and stern conflict you have
borne and sustained in solitude into which your dearestearthly friend must
not enter. But I remark further that this scene in the life of Jesus was one of
—
II. INTENSE SUFFERING. It is an hour of supreme agony! The betrayer is at
hand, the judgment hall, the mockery, the ribald jeers of the populace, the
desertionof His friends, the false charges ofHis enemies, the shame and pain
of the cross are just before Him. The bitterness of death is upon Him.
III. EARNEST PRAYER. "He prayed the more earnestly." What! Christ
pray? Did He need the help of this provision of the Infinite Father to meet the

exigencies ofsinful dependent man? Yes, the Man Jesus neededto exercise
this gift. It was the human Christ that was suffering. Prayer is an
arrangementin the economyof infinite wisdom and goodness to meet the
daily needs of Human lives. But see again, in this time of great suffering there
is —
IV. DEVOUT SUBMISSION TO THE DIVINE WILL. "Nevertheless notMy
will, but Thine, be done." Christ hero reveals a force and beauty of character
of the highest and most perfect kind. When a man can be thus brought to put
himself into harmony with the Divine plan and purpose, so as to say in true
submission and surrender, "Thy will be done," he gets to the very heart of the
saint's "higherlife" on earth; this is about as fall a "sanctification" as canbe
attained this side heaven. This is one of the grandest, the greatest, and
hardest, yet the sweetestandmost restful prayers I know. "Thy will be done."
This prayer touches all things in human life and history from centre to
circumference, nothing is left outside its sweepand compass. It is the life of
heaven lived on earth — the soul entering into deep and abiding sympathy
with the characterand will of God, and going out in harmony with the Divine
plan to "do and suffer" all His righteous will. What are some of the lessons
suggestedby this suffering scene in the life of Christ?
1. Every true man has his Gethsemane. It may be an "olive garden," where is
everything to minister to the senses,and meet the utmost cravings of the
human heart so far as outer things are concerned. Or, it may be out on the
bleak unsheltered moor, where the cutting winds and blinding storm of
sicknessand poverty chill to the very core of his nature: or in any of the
intermediate states of life, but come it does.
2. To pass through Gethsemane is a Divine arrangement, a part of God's plan
for perfecting human lives. Christ was there not merely because it was His
"wont" or habit, but as part of a Divine plan. He was drawn thither by unseen
forces, and for a set or definite purpose. It was just as much the will of God as
was any other actor scene of His life.
3. To pray for the cup to pass from us should always be subject to Christ's
condition, "If it be Thy will."
4. God everanswers true prayer, but not always in the way we ask. Ofthis we
may be sure, that He will either lift us from the Gethsemane ofsuffering, or
strengthen us to bear the trial
5. In greatsuffering, submission to the Divine will gains strength for the
greatertrial beyond.

6. I learn, finally, this grand lesson, that I would by no means miss — that in
all, above, and beyond, and through all, the Lord God reigns.
(J. T. Higgins.)
Jesus in Gethsemane
S. L. B. Speare.I. Upon the very threshold of our lessonlies the weighty truth:
WOE'S BITTEREST CUP SHOULD BE TAKEN WHEN IT IS THE
MEANS OF HIGHEST USEFULNESS. Wastedsuffering is the climax of
tragedy. Many broken hearts would have lived could it have been clearthat
the crushing woe was not fruitless. Unspeakable the boon if earth's army of
sufferers could rest on the knowledge that their pain was service.
II. FROM OUR LORD'S EXAMPLE WE LEARN THE HELPFULNESS IN
SORROW OF RELIANCE UPON HUMAN AND DIVINE
COMPANIONSHIP COMBINED,
III. OUR LORD'S CRUCIAL OBEDIENCEIN THE GARDEN AGONY
REFLECTS THE MAJESTYOF THE HUMAN WILL AND ITS POSSIBLE
MASTERYOF EVERY TRIAL IN PERFECTOBEDIENCE TO THE
DIVINE WILL. However superhuman Jesus'suffering, He was thoroughly
human in it. He had all our faculties, and used them as we may use ours. It is
no small encouragementthat the typical Man gives us an example of perfect
obedience, ata costunknown before or since. In the mutual relations of the
human and Divine wills all merit is achievedand all characterconstructed.
IV. JESUS'SOUL COULD HAVE BEEN "SORROWFULEVEN UNTO
DEATH" ONLY AS HIS SUFFERINGS WERE VICARIOUS.
V. GETHSEMANE'SDARKNESS PAINTS SIN'S GUILT AND RUIN IN
FAITHFUL AND ENDURING COLOUR. It is easyto think lightly of Sin.
VI. GETHSEMANE THROWS PORTENTOUS LIGHT UPON THE WOE
OF LOST SOULS.
VII. OUR LESSON GIVES TERRIBLE EMPHASIS TO THE FACT AND
SERIOUSNESS OF IMPOSSIBILITIES WITHGOD. Our Lord's agonized
words, " If it be possible," establishthe rigidity and absoluteness of
governmental and spiritual conditions. God's will and plans are objective
realities;they have definite and all-important direction and demands.
(S. L. B. Speare.)
The will of God the cure of self-will
E. B. Pusey, D. D.Awful in its bliss, more awful yet is the will in its decay.
Awful power it is, to be able for ourselves to choose God;terrible to be able to

refuse Him. We have felt, many of us, the strangeness ofthe powerof will in
children; how neither present strength, nor persuasion, nor love, nor hope,
nor pain, nor punishment, nor dread of worse, nor weightof authority, can,
for a time, bend the determined will of a little child. We are amazed to see a
powerso strong in a form so slight and a mind so childish. Yet they are faint
pictures of ourselves wheneverwe have sinned wilfully. We marvel at their
resisting our wisdom, knowledge, strength, counsel, authority, persuasiveness.
What is every sinful sin but a resistance ofthe wisdom, power, counsel,
majesty, eloquent pleadings of Almighty God in the sinner's soul? What is it,
but for the soul which He hath made, to will to thwart His counselwho hath
made it, to mar His work, to accuse His wisdom of foolishness, His love of
want of tenderness, to withdraw itself from the dominion of God, to be
another god to itself, a separate principle of wisdom and source of happiness
and providence to itself, to order things in its own way, setting before itself
and working out its own ends, making self-love, self-exaltation, self-
gratification, its object, as though it were, at its will, to shape its own lot as
much as if there were no God. Yea, and at last, it must will that there be no
God. And in its worstdecay, it accomplishes whatit wills, and (awful as it is to
say) blots God out of its creation, disbelieving that He is, or will do as He has
said, or that He will avenge. Whoeverwills that God wills not, so far
dethrones God, and sets up his ownwill to dispute the almightiness and
wisdom of the eternalGod. He is a Deicide. It matters not wherein the self-will
is exerted, in the very leastthings or the greatest. Antichrist will be but the
full unhindered growthof self-will. Such was the deep disease ofself-will, to
cure which our goodLord came, in our nature, to fulfil the leather's will, to
will to suffer what the Father willed, to "empty Himself and become obedient
unto death, and that the death of the Cross." And since pride was the chief
source of disease in our corrupted wills, to heal this, the eternalSon of God
came as now from His everlasting glory, and, as a little Child, fulfilled His
Father's will. And when He entered on His ministry, the will of His Father
was the full contentment, refreshment, stay, reward, of His soul, as Man. And
then, whereas the will of God is done either by us, in active obedience, oron us
and in us by passive obedience orresignationin suffering, to suffer the will of
God is the surest, deepest, safest,wayto learn to do it. Forit has leastof self.
It needeth only to be still, and it reposethat once in the loving will of God. If
we have crippled ourselves, andcannot do greatthings, we can, at least,
meekly bear chastening, hush our souls and be still. Yet since, in trials of this
soul, the soul is often perplexed by its very suffering, it may be for your rest,
when ye shall be calledto God's loving discipline of suffering, to have such
simple rules as these.

1. It is not againstthe will of God even strongly to will if it should be His will,
what yet may prove not to be His will. Entire submissionto the will of God
requireth absolutely these two things. Wholly will whatsoeverthou knowest
God to will; wholly rejectwhatsoeverthou knowestGodwilleth not. Beyond
these two, while the will of God is as yet not clearunto thee, thou art free. We
must indeed, in all our prayers, have written, at leastin our hearts, those
words spokenby. our dear Lord for us, "Notas I will, but as Thou." We shall,
in whatever degree Godhath conformed our will to His, hold our will in
suspense, evenwhile yet uncertain, ready to follow the balance of His gracious
will even while we tremblingly watch its motions, and our dearestearthly
hopes, laid therein, seemready gradually to sink, for the rest of this life, in
dust (2 Samuel 16:10). And so thou, too, whatever it be which thou willest, the
health and life of those thou lovest as thine own soul, the turning aside of any
threatened scourge ofGod, the healing of thine aching heart, the cleansing
awayof harassing thoughts or doubts entailed upon thee by former sin, or
coldness, ordryness, or distraction in prayer, or deadness of soul, or absence
of spiritual consolation, thou mayest without fear ask it of God with thy whole
heart, and will it wholly and earnestly, so that thou will therein the glory of
God, and, though with sinking heart, welcome the will of God, when thou
knowestassuredlywhat that will is.
2. Noragain is it againstthe will of God that thou art bowed down and
grieved by what is the will of God. And even when the heaviness is for our
own private griefs, yet, if it be patient, it, too, is according to the will of God.
For God hath made us such as to suffer. He willeth that suffering be the
healthful chastisementof our sins.
3. Then, whateverthy grief or trouble be, take every drop in thy cup from the
hand of Almighty God. Thou knowestwellthat all comes from God, ordered
or overruled by Him. How was the cup of thy Lord filled, which He drank for
thee?
4. Again, no trouble is too small, wherein to see the will of God for thee. Great
troubles come but seldom. Daily fretting trials, that is, what of thyself would
fret thee, may often, in God's hands, conform thee more to His gracious will.
They are the dally touches, whereby He traces onthee the likeness ofHis
Divine will. There is nothing too slight wherein to practise oneness with the
will of God. Love or hate are the strength of will; love, of the will of God; hate,
of the will of devils. A weak love is a weak will; a strong love is a strong will.
Self-will is the antagonistof the will of God; for thou weft formed for God. If
thou wert made for thyself, be self thy centre;if for God, repose thyself in the
will of God. So shalt thou lose thy self-will, to find thy better will in God, and

thy self-love shall be absorbedin the love of God. Yea, thou shalt love thyself,
because Godhath loved thee; take care for thyself, because thou art not thine
own, but God careth for thee; will thine own good, because andas God willeth
it. "Father, nevertheless, notas I will, but as Thou." So hath our Lord
sanctifiedall the natural shrinkings of our lowerwill. He vouchsafedto allow
the natural will of His sacredManhoodto be "amazedand very heavy" at the
mysterious sufferings of the cross, to hallow the "mute shrinking" of ours,
and guide us on to His all-holy submission of His will.
(E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
Christ's preparation for death
J. Flavel.1. The prayer of Christ. In a praying posture He will be found when
the enemy comes;He will be taken upon His knees. He was pleading hard with
God in prayer, for strength to carry Him through this heavy trial, when they
came to take Him. And this prayer was a very remarkable prayer, both for
the solitariness ofit, "He withdrew about a stone's cast" (verse 41)from His
dearestintimates — no earbut His Father's shall hear what He had now to
say — and for the vehemency and importunity of it; these were those strong
cries that He poured out to God in the days of His flesh (Hebrews 5:7). And
for the humility expressedin it: He fell upon the ground, He rolled Himself as
it were in dust, at His Father's feet.
2. This Scripture gives you also an accountof the agonyof Christ, as well as of
His prayer, and that a most strange one;such as in all respects neverwas
known before in nature.
3. You have here His relief in this His agony, and that by an angel dispatched
post from heaven to comfort Him. The Lord of angels now needed the comfort
of an angel.Itwas time to have a little refreshment, when His face and body
too stoodas full of drops of blood as the drops of dew are upon the grass.
1. Did Christ pour out His soul to God so ardently in the garden, when the
hour of His trouble was at hand? Hence we infer that prayer is a singular
preparative for, and relief under, the greatesttroubles.
2. Did Christ withdraw from the disciples to seek Godby prayer? Thence it
follows that the company of the best men is not always seasonable. The society
of men is beautiful in its season, andno better than a burden out of season. I
have read of a goodman, that when his stated time for closet-prayerwas
come, he would sayto the company that were with him, whateverthey were,
"Friends, I must beg your excuse for a while, there is a Friend waits to speak
with me." The company of a goodman is good, but it ceasesto be so, when it

hinders the enjoyment of better company. One hour with Godis to be
preferred to a thousand days' enjoyment of the best men on earth.
3. Did Christ go to God thrice upon the same account? Thence learnthat
Christians should not be discouraged, though they have soughtGod once and
again, and no answerof Peace comes. If Goddeny you in the things you ask,
He deals no otherwise with you than He did with Christ.
4. Was Christ so earnestin prayer that He prayed Himself into a very agony?
Let the people of God blush to think how unlike their spirits are to Christ, as
to their prayer-frames. Oh, what lively, sensible, quick, deep, and tender
apprehensions and sense ofthose things about which He prayed, had Christ!
Though He saw His very blood starting out from His hands, and His clothes
dyed in it, yet being in an agony, He prayed the more earnestly. I do not say
Christ is imitable in this; no, but His fervour in prayer is a pattern for us, and
serves severelyto rebuke the laziness, dulness, torpor, formality, and stupidity
that is in our prayers. Oh, how unlike Christ are we! His prayers were
pleading prayers, full of mighty arguments and fervent affections. Oh, that
His people were in this more like Him!
5. Was Christ in such an agonybefore any hand of man was upon Him merely
from the apprehensions of the wrath of God with which He now contested?
Then surely it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for
our God is a consuming fire.
6. Did Christ meet death with such a heavy heart? Let the hearts of Christians
be the lighter for this when they come to die. The bitterness of death was all
squeezedinto Christ's cup. He was made to drink up the very dregs of it, that
so our death might be the sweeterto us.
(J. Flavel.)
The agonyin Gethsemane
C. H. Spurgeon.I. Meditating upon the agonizing scene in Gethsemane we are
compelled to observe that our Saviour there endured a grief unknown to any
previous period of His life, and therefore we will commence our discourse by
raising the question, WHAT WAS THE CAUSE OF THE PECULIAR
GRIEF OF GETHSEMANE? Do you suppose it was the fear of coming scorn
or the dread of crucifixion? was it terror at the thought of death? Is not such a
supposition impossible? It does not make even such poor cowards as we are
sweatgreatdrops of blood, why then should it work such terror in Him? Read
the stories ofthe martyrs, and you will frequently find them exultant in the
near approachof the most cruel sufferings. The joy of the Lord has given such
strength to them, that no cowardthought has alarmed them for a single

moment, but they have gone to the stake, orto the block, with psalms of
victory upon their lips. Our master must not be thought of as inferior to His
boldest servants, it cannotbe that He should tremble where they were brave. I
cannot conceive that the pangs of Gethsemane were occasionedby any
extraordinary attack from Satan. It is possible that Satan was there, and that
his presence may have darkenedthe shade, but he was not the most
prominent cause ofthat hour of darkness. Thus much is quite clear, that our
Lord at the commencementof His ministry engagedin a very severe duel with
the prince of darkness, and yet we do not read concerning that temptation in
the wilderness a single syllable as to His soul's being exceeding sorrowful,
neither do we find that He "was sore amazedand was very heavy," nor is
there a solitary hint at anything approaching to bloody sweat. Whenthe Lord
of angels condescendedto stand foot to foot with the prince of the power of the
air, he had no such dread of him as to utter strong cries and tears and fall
prostrate on the ground with threefold appeals to the GreatFather. What is it
then, think you, that so peculiarly marks off Gethsemane and the griefs
thereof? We believe that now the Fatherput Him to grief for us. It was now
that our Lord had to take a certaincup from the Father's hand. This removes
all doubt as to what it was, for we read, "It pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him,
He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin."
"The Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all." Yet would I
exhort you to consider these griefs awhile, that you may love the Sufferer. He
now realized, perhaps for the first time, what it was to be a sin bearer. It was
the shadow of the coming tempest, it was the prelude of the dread desertion
which He had to endure, when He stoodwhere we ought to have stood, and
paid to His Father's justice the debt which was due from us; it was this which
laid Him low. To be treated as a sinner, to be smitten as a sinner, though in
Him was no sin — this it was which causedHim the agonyof which our text
speaks.
II. Having thus spokenof the cause of His peculiar grief, I think we shall be
able to support our view of the matter, while we lead you to consider, WHAT
WAS THE CHARACTER OF THE GRIEF ITSELF? Trouble of spirit is
worse than pain of body; pain may bring trouble and be the incidental cause
of sorrow, but if the mind is perfectly untroubled, how well a man canbear
.pain, and when the soul is exhilarated and lifted up with inward joy, pain of
body is almost forgotten, the soul conquering the body. On the other hand the
soul's sorrow will create bodily pain, the lowernature sympathizing with the
higher.

III. Our third question shall be, WHAT WAS OUR LORD'S SOLACE IN
ALL THIS? He resortedto prayer, and especiallyto prayer to God under the
characterof Father. In conclusion:Learn —
1. The real humanity of our Lord.
2. The matchless love of Jesus.
3. The excellence and completeness ofthe atonement.
4. Last of all, what must be the terror of the punishment which will fall upon
those men who rejectthe atoning blood, and who will have to stand before
God in their own proper persons to suffer for their sins.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gethsemane
C. H. Spurgeon.I. Come hither and behold THE SAVIOUR'S
UNUTTERABLE WOE. We cannot do more than look at the revealedcauses
of grief.
1. It partly arose from the horror of His soulwhen fully comprehending the
meaning of sin.
2. Another deep fountain of grief was found in the fact that Christ now
assumedmore fully His official position with regardto sin.
3. We believe that at this time, our Lord had a very clearview of all the shame
and suffering of His crucifixion.
4. But possibly a yet more fruitful tree of bitterness was this — that now His
Father beganto withdraw His presence from Him.
5. But in our judgment the fiercestheat of the Saviour's suffering in the
garden lay in the temptations of Satan. "This is your hour and the power of
darkness." "The prince of this world cometh."
II. Turn we next to contemplate THE TEMPTATION OF OUR LORD.
1. A temptation to leave the work unfinished.
2. Scripture implies that our Lord was assailedby the fear that His strength
would not be sufficient. He was heard in that He feared. How, then, was He
heard? An angelwas sent unto Him strengthening Him. His fear, then, was
probably produced by a sense of weakness.
3. Possibly, also, the temptation may have arisen from a suggestionthat He
was utterly forsaken, I do not know — there may be sterner trials than this,
but surely this is one of the worst, to be utterly forsaken.

4. We think Satanalso assaultedour Lord with a bitter taunt indeed. You
know in what guise the tempter can dress it, and how bitterly sarcastic he can
make the insinuation — "Ah! Thou wilt not be able to achieve the redemption
of Thy people. Thy grand benevolence willprove a mockery, and Thy beloved
ones will perish."
III. Behold, THE BLOODYSWEAT. This proves how tremendous must have
been the weightof sin when it was able so to crush the Saviour that He
distilled drops of blood I This proves, too, my brethren, the mighty powerof
His love. It is a very pretty observationof old Isaac Ambrose that the gum
which exudes from the tree without cutting is always the best. This precious
camphire-tree yielded most sweetspices whenit was wounded under the
knotty whips, and when it was piercedby the nails on the cross;but see, it
giveth forth its best spice when there is no whip, no nail, no wound. This sets
forth the voluntariness of Christ's sufferings, since without a lance the blood
flowed freely. No need to put on the leech, or apply the knife; it flows
spontaneously.
IV. THE SAVIOUR'S PRAYER.
1. Lonely prayer.
2. Humble prayer.
3. Filial prayer.
4. Persevering prayer.
5. Earnestprayer.
6. The prayer of resignation.
V. THE SAVIOUR'S PREVALENCE. His prayers did speed, and therefore
He is a goodIntercessorforus. "How was He heard?"
1. His mind was suddenly rendered calm.
2. God strengthenedHim through an angel.
3. God heard Him in granting Him now, not simply strength, but a real
victory over Satan.Ido not know whether what Adam Clarke supposes is
correct, that in the garden Christ did pay more of the price than He did even
on the cross;but I am quite convincedthat they are very foolish who getto
such refinement that they think the atonement was made on the cross, and
nowhere else at all. We believe that it was made in the garden as well as on the
cross;and it strikes me that in the garden one part of Christ's work was
finished, wholly finished, and that was His conflict with Satan. I conceive that
Christ had now rather to bear the absence of His Father's presence and the

revilings of the people and the sons of men, than the temptations of the devil. I
do think that these were over when He rose from His knees in prayer, when
He lifted Himself from the ground where He marked His visage in the clay in
drops of blood.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The agonyof Christ
J. Burns, D. D.I. THE PERSON OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS SUFFERER.
1. The dignified essentialSonof God.
2. Truly and properly the Sonof Man. Had our nature, body, soul.
II. THE AGONY WHICH HE ENDURED.
1. The agony itself.
(1)Deep, intense mental suffering.
(2)Overwhelming amazement and terror.
2. The cause of Christ's agony. It arose —
(1)From the pressure of s world's guilt upon Him.
(2)From the attacks ofthe powers of darkness.
(3)From the hiding of the Divine countenance.
3. The effects of the agony. He fell to the ground, overwhelmed, prostrated,
and sweatas it were, greatdrops of blood.
III. THE PRAYER WHICH HE OFFERED."He prayed more earnestly."
Observe —
1. The matter of His prayer. It was for the removal of the cup (verse 42). As
man, He had a natural aversionto pain and suffering.
2. The spirit of His prayer was that of holy submission, devout resignation.
3. The manner of His prayer.
4. The intensity of His prayer. The success ofHis prayer.Application:
1. Learn the amazing evil of sin.
2. The expensiveness ofour redemption.
3. The sympathy of Christ (Hebrews 4:15).
4. The necessityof resignationto the will of God.
(J. Burns, D. D.)
The Saviour's bloody sweat

J. Marchant.I. THE CAUSES OF THE BLOODY SWEAT.
1. A vehement inward struggle.
(1)On the one hand He was seizedby fear and horror of His passionand
death.
(2)On the other hand He was burning with zealfor the honour of God and
redemption of men.
(3)How greatwill be the anguish of the sinner at the sight of everlasting death
and the endless pains of hell!
2. The representationof all the sins of the past, present, and future.
3. The considerationthat His passionwould prove useless to so many.
II. THE MANNER OF HIS SWEATING BLOOD.
1. He sweatblood in the strict sense ofthe word.
(1)Natural blood.
(2)In a natural way.
2. He was full of sorrow.
3. He fell upon His face.
(J. Marchant.)
The witness to the power of prayer
Canon Knox Little.I. AN ACT OF REAL PRAYER IS GREAT,
POWERFUL, AND BEAUTIFUL; a spirit in an energy of pure, subdued, but
confident desire, rising up and embracing, and securing the aid of the mighty
Spirit of God. If we canbelieve the powerof prayer, we may put forth the
force of the soul and perform that act. How then canwe learn that power? My
answeris, From Christ. Everywhere Christ is the Representative Man. This in
two senses.
1. He is human nature in sum and completeness as it ought to be. To see
humanity as God imagedand loved it, to see humanity at its best, we must see
our Master.
2. And Christ represents to us perfect human conduct. To see how to act in
critical situations we must study Christ. In critical situations? Yes! there is the
difficulty, there also the evidenced nobleness of a lofty human character. I
need hardly say(for you know who Christ was)the most critical moments in
human history were the moments of the Passion. Oh, perfect example! Oh,
severe and fearful trial! Christ knelt alone amidst the olives, in the quiet

garden, in the lonely night, and Dear, His weary, sleepyfollowers. It is a
simple scene, but Christ's spirit was in action. What was the significance of
the act? It was very awful. It was an "agony," a life-struggle, a contest. Much
was involved in that moment of apparent quietude, of realstruggle; but one
lessonat any rate is important. Examine it. Here we have a witness to the
powerof prayer.
II. THE AGONY WAS LITERALLY A CONTEST. Whatwas the nature of
the struggle? It was a contestwith evil; of that we are certain, although the
depth and details are wrapped in mystery. Anyhow the struggle was with a
force of which, alas!we ourselves know something. No one can live to the ago
of five-and-twenty, and reflectwith any degree of seriousnessonhimself or on
the world around him, without knowing that evil is a fact. We find its cruel
records in the blood-stainedpages of history. We listen, and amidst whatever
heavenly voices, still the wailof its victims is echoing age afterage down the
"corridors of time." Our own faults and follies will not efface themselves from
the records of memory; in the brightness of the flaring day of life they may
fade into dim and shadowyoutline, but there are times of silence — on a sick-
bed, in the still house at midnight, in the open desolationof the lonely sea —
when they rise like living creatures, spectralthreateners, orblaze their
unrelenting facts in characters offire. Their force was not realized in the
moment of passion. But consciencebides its time, bears its stern,
uncompromising witness when passionis asleepordead. Sin is a matter of
experience. It has withered life, in fact, in history, with the deathly chill and
sadness ofthe grave. Somehow allfeel it, but it is prominent and stern before
the Christian. He can never forget, nor is it well he should, that we are in a
world in which, when God appearedin human form, He was subjected to
insult and violence by His creatures. Thatis enough. That is, without
controversy, the measure of the power, the intensity of evil. If there is to be a
contestwith evil, it is clearly a contestwith a serious enemy.
III. HOW CAN WE THROW BACK SO FIERCE A POWER? THE
ANSWER BROADLY IS, RELIGION. Religionis a personalmatter; it must
hold a universal empire over the being of eachof us; it must rouse natural
forces only by being in possessionofsupernatural power. Brothers, to possess
a religion which can conquer sin we must follow our Masterin the severity of
principle, of conviction, of unflinching struggle. The external scene of His trial
was simple, but He fought, and therefore conquered. Certainly He fought with
evil, "being in an agony."
IV. "FOUGHT WITH EVIL." "What do you mean?" you ask. Evil! Is evil a
thing, an object, like the pyramids of Egypt, or the roaring ocean, oran

advancing army? Evil is the actof choice of a createdwill. It is the rejection
by the creature of the laws of life laid down, not as tyrannical rules, but as
necessarytruths, by the Creator. Evil takes three active forms, so says
Scripture, so we have learned in the Catechism:the accumulatedforce of bad
opinion, that is "the world"; or the uncertain revolt of our own corrupt
desires, that is "the flesh"; or a living being wholly surrendered to hatred of
the Creator, that is "the devil." Think of the last. You realize the severity of
the contestin remembering that you fight with a fiend. Satan is a person. In
this is he like ourselves. Ofman it is said "he has thoughts of himself." This is
true of Satan; he can think of himself, he can purpose with relentless will, he
can plan with unparalleled audacity. There are three specific marks of his
character—
1. He is inveterate in his hatred of truth, lie is a liar.
2. He is obstinate in his abhorrence of charity, pure intention, and self-
sacrificing devotion. He is a murderer.
3. He shrinks from the open glory of goodness.He is a coward. To "abide in
the truth," to "love good," and "love one another with a pure heart
fervently," and to have holy fearlessness inthe power of God is to be in direct
opposition to him. From this it is evident that our contestis with a tremendous
enemy, and that againstus he need never be victorious. My brothers, there
are two shadows projectedover human life from two associatedand
mysterious facts — from sin, from death. In that criticalmoment when the
human will is subjectedto the force of temptation and yields to its sway, in
that solemn moment when the human spirit is wrenched awayfor a time from
its physical organism, there is a specialpowerdangerously, not irresistibly,
exercisedby the being who is devotedto evil. A hint of this is given in
Scripture in the allusion to the spirit "that now workethin the children of
disobedience," a hint of this dark realm certainly in the prayer by the grave-
side that we may not "forany pains of death fall " from God. There is a
shadow-land. How may we contemplate it without hopeless shuddering, how
think of entering it without despairing fear? Now here is a primary fact.
Christ our strength as wellas our example boldly entered, and in the depths of
its deepestblackness conqueredthe fiend. "He was made sin"; "He became
obedient unto death"; and for all who will to follow Him, His love, His
devotion is victorious. "We are more than conquerors through Him who loved
us." Yes! In union with Christ we can do what He did. O blessedand brave
One! We may follow His example and employ His power. His power!How
may we be possessedofit? In many ways. Certainly in this way. It is placed at
the disposalof the soul that prays. This is in effect the answerof Christ's

revelation to the question, Why should we pray? Two facts let us remember
and actupon with earnestness.
1. The value of a formed habit of prayer. Crises are sure to come and then we
are equally sure to act on habitual impulse. Christ learnedin His humanity
and practisedHimself in the effort of prayer, and when the struggle reached
its climax, the holy habit had its fulfilment. "Belong in an agony He prayed."
And —
2. It is in moments of contestthat real prayer rises to its height and majesty.
"When my heart is hot within me," says the Psalmist, "I will complain"; and
of Christ it is written, "Being in an agonyHe prayed more earnestly." Prayer,
too, as the Christian knows, is not always answerednow in the way he
imagines most desirable, but it is always answered. If the cup does not pass, at
leastthere is an angelstrengthening the human spirit to drain it bravely to the
dregs. Subjectively, there is comfort; objectively, there is real help. What
might have been a tragedy becomes by prayer a blessing; desire which if
misdirected might have crushed and overwhelmed us, becomes whentruly
used with the Holy Spirit's assistancea raw material of sanctity. Certainly
from prayer we gain three things: a powerful stimulus, and strength for act or
suffering; a deep and real consolation;and the soothing and ennobling sense
of duty done.
(Canon Knox Little.)
Our Lord's bloody sweat
J. Eadie, D. D.There are some who only suppose that by this phraseologythe
mere size of the drops of perspiration is indicated. But the plain meaning of
the language is that the sweatwas bloody in its nature; that the physical
nature of our Lord was so derangedby the violent pressure of mental agony
that blood oozedfrom every pore. Such a result is not uncommon in a
sensitive constitution. The face reddens with blood both from shame and
anger. Were this continued with intensity, the blood would force its way
through the smallervessels, andexude from the skin. Kannigiesserremarks,
"If the mind is seized with a sudden fearof death, the "sweat, owing to the
excessive degreeofconstriction, often becomes bloody." The eminent French
historian, De Thou, mentions the case ofan Italian officer who commanded at
Monte-Mars, a fortress of Piedmont, during the warfare in 1552 between
Henry II. of France and the Emperor Charles V. The officer, having been
treacherouslyseizedby order of the hostile general, and threatened with
public execution unless he surrendered the place, was so agitatedat the
prospectof an ignominious death that he sweatedblood from every part of his

body. The same writer relates a similar occurrence in the person of a young
Florentine at Rome, unjustly put to death by order of Pope Sixtus V., in the
beginning of his reign, and concludes the narrative as follows:"When the
youth was led forth to execution, he excited the commiserationof many, and,
through excess ofgrief, was observedto shed bloody tears, and to discharge
blood instead of sweatfrom his whole body.'" Medicalexperience does so far
corroborate the testimony of the Gospels, andshows that cutaneous
hemorrhage is sometimes the result of intense mental agitation. The awful
anguish of Him who said, "My soulis exceeding sorrowful, evenunto death,"
was sufficient cause to produce the bloody perspiration on a cold night and in
the open air.
(J. Eadie, D. D.)
The angelwho strengthenedJesusOna certain occasion, whenthe Rev. J.
Robertsonhad been preaching one of a series ofsermons, on "Angels in their
revealedconnectionwith the work of Christ," Dr. Duncan came into the
vestry and said: "Will you be so kind as to let me know when you are going to
take up the case ofmy favourite angel?" "Butwho is he, Doctor?" "Oh!guess
that." "Well, it would not be difficult to enumerate all those whose names we
have given us." "But I can't tell you his name, he is an anonymous angel. It is
the one who came down to Gethsemane, andthere strengthenedmy Lord to
go through His agonyfor me, that He might go forward to the cross, and
finish my redemption there. I have an extraordinary love for that one, and I
often wonder what I'll sayto him when I meet him first." This was a thought
Dr. Duncan never weariedof repeating, in varied forms, whenever the subject
of angels turned up in conversation.
Succouredby an angelIn the EcclesiasticalHistoryof Socrates there is
mention made of one Theodorus, a martyr put to extreme torments by Julian
the Apostate, and dismissed againby him when he saw him unconquerable.
Rufinus, in his History, says that he met with this martyr a long time after his
trial, and askedhim whether the pains he felt were not insufferable. He
answeredthat at first it was somewhatgrievous, but after awhile there seemed
to stand by him a young man in white, who, with a softand comfortable
handkerchief, wiped off the sweatfrom his body (which, through extreme
anguish, was little less than blood), and bade him be of good cheer, insomuch
that it was rather a punishment than a pleasure to him to be takenoff the
rack. When the tormentors had done, the angelwas gone.
Angelic ministry

W. Baxendale.The onlychild of a poor woman one day fell into the fire by
accident, and was so badly burned that he died after a few hours' suffering.
The clergyman, as soonas he knew, went to see the mother, who was knownto
be dotingly fond of the child. To his greatsurprise, he found her calm, patient,
and resigned. After a little conversationshe told him how she had been
weeping bitterly as she knelt beside her child's cot, when suddenly he
exclaimed, "Mother, don't you see the beautiful man who is standing there
and waiting for me?" Again and againthe child persisted in saying that "the
beautiful man" was waiting for him, and seemedready, and even anxious, to
go to him. And, as a natural consequence, the mother's heart was strangely
cheered.
(W. Baxendale.)
The safeguardagainsttemptation
R. Macdonald, D. D."Satan,"says BishopHall, "always rocks the cradle when
we sleep at our devotions. If we would prevail with God, we must wrestle first
with our own dulness." And if this be needful, even in ordinary times, how
much more so in the perilous days on which we are entering? Whateverwe
come short in, let it not be in watchfulness. None like to slumber who are
expecting a friend or fearing a foe. Bunyan tells us "that when Hopeful came
to a certain country, he beganto be very dull and heavy of sleep. Wherefore
he said, 'Let us lie down here, and take one nap.' 'By no means,' saidthe
other, 'lest sleeping, we wake no more.' 'Why, my brother? Sleepis sweetto
the labouring man; we may be refreshed, if we take a nap.' 'Do you not
remember,' said the other, 'that one of.the shepherds bid us beware of the
Enchanted Ground? He meant by that, that we should beware of sleeping.'"
"Therefore letus not sleep, as do others;but let us watchand be sober."
Slumbering and backsliding are closelyallied.
(R. Macdonald, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(44)And being in an agony.—The
Greek noun primarily describes a “conflict” or “struggle,” ratherthan mere
physical pain. The phenomenon describedis obviously one which would have

a specialinterestfor one of St. Luke’s calling, and the four words which he
uses for “agony,” “drops,” “sweat,” “more earnestly” (literally, more
intensely), though not exclusively technical, are yet such as a medicalwriter
would naturally use. They do not occurelsewhere in the New Testament. The
form of the expression, “as it were, greatdrops (better, clots) of blood,” leaves
us uncertain, as the same Greek word does in “descending like a dove,” in
Matthew 3:16, whether it applies to manner or to visible appearance. Onthe
latter, and generallyreceivedview, the phenomenon is not unparalleled, both
in ancient and modern times. (Comp. the very term, “bloody sweat,” notedas
a symptom of extreme exhaustionin Aristotle, Hist. Anim. iii.19, and Medical
Gazette for December, 1848, quotedby Alford.) If we ask who were St. Luke’s
informants, we may think either, as before, of one of the disciples, or, possibly,
one of the women from whom, as above, he manifestly derived so much that
he records. That “bloody sweat” must have left its traces upon the tunic that
our Lord wore, and when the soldiers castlots for it (Matthew 27:35;John
19:24), Mary Magdalene, who stoodby the cross, may have seenand noticed
the fact(John 19:25), nor could it well have escapedthe notice of Nicodemus
and Josephwhen they embalmed the body (John 19:40).
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary22:39-46Everydescription which the
evangelists give of the state of mind in which our Lord entered upon this
conflict, proves the tremendous nature of the assault, and the perfect
foreknowledgeofits terrors possessedby the meek and lowly Jesus. Here are
three things not in the other evangelists. 1. When Christ was in his agony,
there appeared to him an angelfrom heaven, strengthening him. It was a part
of his humiliation that he was thus strengthenedby a ministering spirit. 2.
Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Prayer, though never out of season,
is in a specialmanner seasonable whenwe are in an agony. 3. In this agony his
sweatwas as it were great drops of blood falling down. This showed the
travail of his soul. We should pray also to be enabled to resistunto the
shedding of our blood, striving againstsin, if ever calledto it. When next you
dwell in imagination upon the delights of some favourite sin, think of its
effects as you behold them here! See its fearful effects in the garden of
Gethsemane, and desire, by the help of God, deeply to hate and to forsake that
enemy, to ransom sinners from whom the Redeemerprayed, agonized, and
bled.
Barnes'Notes on the BibleIn an agony - See this verse explained in the notes
at Matthew 26:42-44.

Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary40. the place—the Garden of
Gethsemane, onthe westor city side of the mount. Comparing all the accounts
of this mysterious scene, the facts appear to be these: (1) He bade nine of the
Twelve remain "here" while He went and prayed "yonder." (2) He "took the
other three, Peter, James, and John, and began to be sore amazed [appalled],
sorrowful, and very heavy [oppressed], and said, My soul is exceeding
sorrowfuleven unto death"—"Ifeel as if nature would sink under this load,
as if life were ebbing out, and death coming before its time"—"tarryye here,
and watchwith Me";not, "Witness forMe," but, "BearMe company." It did
Him good, it seems, to have them beside Him. (3) But sooneven they were too
much for Him: He must be alone. "He was withdrawn from them about a
stone's-cast"—thoughnearenough for them to be competent witnessesand
kneeleddown, uttering that most affecting prayer (Mr 14:36), that if possible
"the cup," of His approaching death, "might pass from Him, but if not, His
Father's will be done": implying that in itself it was so purely revolting that
only its being the Father's will would induce Him to taste it, but that in that
view of it He was perfectly prepared to drink it. It is no struggle betweena
reluctant and a compliant will, but betweentwo views of one event—an
abstractand a relative view of it, in the one of which it was revolting, in the
other welcome. Bysignifying how it felt in the one view, He shows His
beautiful oneness with ourselves in nature and feeling; by expressing how He
regardedit in the other light, He reveals His absolute obediential subjectionto
His Father. (4) On this, having a momentary relief, for it came upon Him, we
imagine, by surges, He returns to the three, and finding them sleeping, He
addresses them affectingly, particularly Peter, as in Mr 14:37, 38. He then (5)
goes back, notnow to kneel, but fell on His face on the ground, saying the
same words, but with this turn, "If this cup may not pass," &c. (Mt 26:42)—
that is, 'Yes, I understand this mysterious silence (Ps 22:1-6); it may not pass;
I am to drink it, and I will'—"Thy will be done!" (6) Again, for a moment
relieved, He returns and finds them "sleeping for sorrow," warns them as
before, but puts a loving constructionupon it, separating betweenthe "willing
spirit" and the "weak flesh." (7)Once more, returning to His solitary spot,
the surges rise higher, beat more tempestuously, and seemready to
overwhelm Him. To fortify Him for this, "there appearedan angelunto Him
from heaven strengthening Him"—not to minister light or comfort (He was to
have none of that, and they were not needed nor fitted to convey it), but
purely to sustainand brace up sinking nature for a yet hotter and fiercer
struggle. And now, He is "in an agony, and prays more earnestly"—even
Christ's prayer, it seems, admitted of and now demanded such increase—
"and His sweatwas as it were greatdrops [literally, 'clots'] of blood falling

down to the ground." What was this? Not His proper sacrificialoffering,
though essentialto it. It was just the internal struggle, apparently hushing
itself before, but now swelling up again, convulsing His whole inner man, and
this so affecting His animal nature that the sweatoozedout from every pore in
thick drops of blood, falling to the ground. It was just shuddering nature and
indomitable will struggling together. But againthe cry, If it must be, Thy will
be done, issues from His lips, and all is over. "The bitterness of death is past."
He has anticipated and rehearsedHis final conflict, and won the victory—now
on the theater of an invincible will, as then on the arena of the Cross. "I will
suffer," is the grand result of Gethsemane:"It is finished" is the shout that
bursts from the Cross. The Will without the Deedhad been all in vain; but His
work was consummated when He carried the now manifestedWill into the
palpable Deed, "by the which WILL we are sanctified THROUGH THE
OFFERING OF THE BODY OF Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb 10:10). (8) At
the close ofthe whole scene, finding them still sleeping (worn out with
continued sorrow and racking anxiety), He bids them, with an irony of deep
emotion, "sleepon now and take their rest, the hour is come, the Sonof man is
betrayed into the hands of sinners, rise, let us be going, the traitor is at hand."
And while He spoke, Judas approachedwith his armed band. Thus they
proved "miserable comforters," brokenreeds;and thus in His whole work He
was alone, and "of the people there was none with Him."
Matthew Poole's CommentarySee Poole on"Luke 22:43"
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd being in an agony,.... Orin a conflict,
and combat; that is, with thee devil, who now appearedvisibly to him, in an
horrible form: after his temptations in the wilderness Satanleft him for a
season, till another opportunity should offer; and now it did; now the prince
of this world came to him; see Luke 4:13 and attackedhim in a garden, where
the first onset on human nature was made: and now began the battle between
the two combatants, the serpent, and the seedof the woman; which issued in
the destructionof Satan, and thee recoveryof mankind. The Arabic version
leaves out this clause;and the Syriac version renders it, "being in fear"; and
to the same purpose are the Persic and Ethiopic versions; that is, of death;
and must be understood of a sinless fear of death in his human nature, to
which death, being a dissolutionof it, must be disagreeable;though not death,
barely considered, was the cause of this fear, distress, and agony he was in;
but as it was to be inflicted on him for the sins of his people, which he bore,
and as it was the curse of the law, and the effectof divine wrath and
displeasure:

he prayed more earnestly; repeating the words he had said before with great
eagerness andimportunity, with intenseness ofmind, and fervour of Spirit,
with strong crying, and tears to him that was able to save him from death,
Hebrews 5:7
and his sweatwas, as it were, greatdrops of blood falling to the ground. This
accountof Christ's bloody sweatis only given by Luke, who being a physician,
as is thought, more diligently recordedthings which belongedto his profession
to take cognizance of;nor should it be any objectionto the truth and
credibility of this fact, that it is not mentioned by the other evangelists, since it
is no unusual thing with them for one to record that which is omitted by
another; nor that this is wanting in some Greek and Latin copies, as Jerom
(w) and Hilary (x) observe;since it was expunged, as is supposed, either by
some orthodox persons, who weaklythought it might seemto favour the
Arians, who denied that Christ was of the same impassible nature with the
Father; or rather by the Armenians, or by a setof men called
"Aphthartodocetae", who assertedthe human nature of Christ to be
incorruptible: but certain it is, that it is in the most ancient and approved
copies, and in all the Oriental versions, and therefore to be retained; to which
may be added, that it is taken notice of, not to mention others, by those two
early writers, Justin Martyr (y), and Irenaeus (z); nor should its being so
strange and unusual a sweatatall discredit the history of it, since there have
been instances of this kind arising from various causes;and if there had been
none, since the case ofour Lord was singular, it ought to be credited. This
bloody sweatdid not arise from a cachexy, or ill state of body, which has
sometimes been the cause of it, as Aristotle observes, who says (a), that the
blood sometimes becomes sanious, andso serous, insomuchthat some have
been coveredwith a "bloody sweat":and in another place he says (b), that
through an ill habit of body it has happened to some, that they have sweata
bloody excrement. Bartholinus produces instances in plagues and fevers (c);
but nothing of this kind appears in Christ, whose body was hale and robust,
free from distempers and diseases,as it was proper it should, in order to do
the work, and endure the sufferings he did; nor did it arise from any external
heat, or a fatiguing journey. The above writer (d) a relates, from Actuarius, a
story of a young man that had little globes of blood upon his skin, by sweat,
through the heatof the sun, and a laborious journey. Christ's walk from
Jerusalemto the garden was but a short one; and it was in the night when he
had this sweat, anda cold night too; see John 18:18, it rather arose from the
agonyin which he was, before related: persons in an agony, or fit of
trembling, sweatmuch, as Aristotle observes (e); but to sweatblood is

unusual. This might be occasionedby his vehement striving and wrestling
with God in prayer, since the accountfollows immediately upon that; and
might be owing to his strong cries, to the intenseness andfervour of his mind,
and the commotion of the animal spirits, which was now very great, as some
have thought; or, as others, to the fear of death, as it was setbefore him in so
dreadful a view, and attended with such horrible circumstances.Thuanus (f),
a very grave and credible historian, reports of a governorof a certain
garrison, who being, by a stratagem, decoyedfrom thence, and takencaptive,
and threatened with an ignominious death, was so affectedwith it, that he
sweata "bloody sweat" allover his body. And the same author (g) relates of a
young man of Florence, who being, by the order of Pope Sixtus the Fifth,
condemned, as he was led along to be executed, through the vehemence of his
grief dischargedblood instead of sweat, allover his body: and Maldonate,
upon this passage, reports, that he had heard it from some who saw, or knew
it, that at Paris, a man, robust, and in goodhealth, hearing that a capital
sentence was pronouncedupon him, was, atonce, all over in a bloody sweat:
which instances show, that grief, surprise, and fear, have sometimes had such
an effect on men; but it was not mere fear of death, and trouble of mind,
concerning that, which thus wrought on our Lord, but the sense he had of the
sins of his people, which were imputed to him, and the curse of the righteous
law of God, which he endured, and especiallythe wrath of God, which was let
into his soul: though some have thought this was owing to the conflict Christ
had with the old serpent the devil; who, as before observed, now appearedto
him in a frightful forth: and very remarkable is the passage whichDr.
Lightfoot, and others, have cited from Diodorus Siculus, who reports of a
certain country, that there are serpents in it, by whose bites are procured very
painful deaths; and that grievous pains seize the person bitten, and also "a
flow of sweat like blood". And other writers (h) make mention of a kind of
asp, or serpent, called"Haemorrhois";which, when it bites a man, causes him
to sweatblood: and such a bloody sweatit should seemwas occasionedby the
bite of the old serpent Satan, now nibbling at Christ's heel, which was to be
bruised by him: but of all the reasons and causes ofthis uncommon sweat,
that of Clotzius is the most strange, that it should arise from the angels
comforting and strengthening him, and from the cheerfulness and fortitude of
his mind. This writer observes, thatas fearand sorrow congealthe blood,
alacrity and fortitude move it; and being moved, heat it, and drive it to the
outward parts, and open a way for it through the pores:and this he thinks
may be confirmed from the fruit and effectof Christ's prayer, which was very
earnest, and was heard, as is said in Hebrews 5:7 when he was delivered from
fear; which deliverance produced joy, and this joy issued in the bloody sweat.

Some think the words do not necessarilyimply, that this sweatwas blood, or
that there was blood in it; only that his sweat, as it came out of his body, and
fell on the ground, was so large, and thick, and viscous, that it lookedlike
drops, or clots of blood; but the case rather seems to be this, that the pores of
Christ's body were so opened, that along with sweatcame out blood, which
flowed from him very largely; and as it fell on the ground, he being fallen on
his face to the earth, it was so congealedby the coldin the night season, thatit
became really, as the word signifies, clots of blood upon the earth. The Persic
version, different from all others, reads, "his tears, like blood, fell by drops
upon the ground". This agony, and bloody sweatof Christ, prove the truth of
his human nature; the sweatshows thathe had a true and real body, as other
men; the anxiety of his mind, that he had a reasonable soulcapable of grief
and sorrow, as human souls are; and they also prove his being made sin and a
curse for us, and his sustaining our sins, and the wrath of God: nor could it be
at all unsuitable to him, and unworthy of him, to sweatin this manner, whose
blood was to be shed for the sins of his people, and who came by blood and
water, and from whom both were to flow; signifying, that both sanctification
and justification are from him.
(w) Advers. Pelag. l. 2. fol. 96. F. (x) De Trinitate, l. 10. p. 155. (y) Dialog. cum
Tryph. p. 331. (z) Adv. Haeres. l. 3. c. 32. (a) De Hist. Animal. l. 3. c. 19. (b) De
Part. Animal. l. 3. c. 5. (c) De Cruce Hypomnem. 4. p. 185, 186. (d) lb. p. 184.
(e) Problem, sect. 2. c. 26, 31. (f) Hist. sui Temporis, par. 1. l. 8. p. 804, 805. (g)
lb. par. 4. l. 82. p. 69. (h) Solin, Polyhistor, c. 40, Isidor. Hispalens. Etymolog.
l. 12. c. 4.
Geneva Study BibleAnd being in an {n} agony he prayed more earnestly:and
his sweatwas as it were great{o} drops of blood falling down to the ground.
(n) This agony shows that Christ struggled hard and was in greatdistress:for
Christ struggledhard not only with the fears of death as other men do (for in
this regardmany martyrs might seemmore constantthen Christ), but also
with the fearful judgment of his angry Father, which is the most fearful thing
in the world: and this was because he took the burden of all our sins upon
himself.
(o) These do not only show that Christ was true man, but also other things
which the godly have to consider of, in which the secretofthe redemption of
all mankind is containedin the Son of God when he debasedhimself to the
state of a servant: such things as these no man can sufficiently declare.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK"/luke/22-44.htm"Luke 22:44. ἐν
ἀγωνίᾳ, in an agony (of fear), or simply in “a great fear”. So Field (Ot. Nor.),
who has an important note on the word ἀγωνία, with examples to show that
fear is the radical meaning of the word. Loesnersupports the same view with
examples from Philo. Here only in N.T. From this word comes the name “The
Agony in the Garden”.—θρόμβοι, clots (ofblood), here only in N.T.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges44. being in an agony]The word
which occurs here only in the N.T.— though we often have the verb
agonizomai—means intense struggle and pressure of spirit, which the other
Evangelists also describe in the strong words ademonein(Matthew 26:37)and
ekthambeisthai(Mark 14:33). It was an awful anguish of His natural life, and
here alone (Matthew 26:38;John 12:27) does He use the word ψυχὴ of
Himself. It was not of course a mere shrinking from death and pain, which
even the meanestnatures can overcome, but the mysterious burden of the
world’s guilt (2 Corinthians 5:21)—the shrinking of a sinless being from the
depths of Satanic hate and horror through which He was to pass. As Luther
says ‘our hard impure flesh’ can hardly comprehend the sensitiveness ofa
fresh unstained soulcoming in contactwith horrible antagonism.
as it were great drops of blood] Such a thing as a ‘bloody sweat’seems not to
be wholly unknown (Arist. Hist. Anim. iii. 19)under abnormal pathological
circumstances. The blood of Abel ‘cried from the ground;’ but this blood
‘spake better things than the blood of Abel’ (Genesis 4:10;Hebrews 12:24). St
Luke does not howeveruse the term ‘bloody sweat,’but says that the dense
sweatofagony fell from him “like blood gouts”—whichmay mean as drops of
blood do from a wound.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK"/luke/22-44.htm"Luke 22:44. Ἐνἀγωνίᾳ)
Ἀγωνία, the height of grief and distress (comp. note on Matthew 26:37, where
the expressions are λυπεῖσθαι καὶ ἀδημονεῖν, for which Mark has
ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι καὶ ἀδ.), arose fromthe presentationto Him of that cup. The
same word occurs in 2Ma 3:14; 2Ma 3:16; 2Ma 3:21; 2Ma 15:19. It properly
denotes the distress and agitationof mind which is attendant on entering upon
a contest[ἀγών], and an arduous undertaking, even though unattended with
any doubt as to the favourable issue.—ἐκτενέστερον, more intensely.[248]
[This was done at His secondand third departures, Matthew 26:42; Matthew
26:44;Matthew 26:39. Therefore it was immediately after His first
supplication that the angelappeared;and after eachof His prayers we may
suppose that the angel strengthenedJesus.”—V. g.])The more intensely with
both mind and voice: Hebrews 5:7. Therefore not only were the (three) nearer

disciples (Peter, James, and John) able to hearHim, but also the eight
others.—ἐγένετο δὲ, but His sweatbecame)Hereby is set forth (exhibited) the
intensity of His distress and agony.—ὁ ἱδρῶς, sweat)Although it was cold at
the time: John 18:18. [That sweatwas drawn out by the power received
through the angel, by the agony of the struggle, by the intensity of His
prayers, and His desire of drinking the cup.—V. g.]—ὡσεὶ θρόμβοι)αἵματος
θρόμβοι, clotteddrops (hillocks), from θρέψαι, i.e. πῆξαι, to fix or coagulate.
Θρόμβοι αἵματος, drops, thick and clotted, of real blood. The force of the
particle ὡσεὶ falls on θρόμβοι, not on αἵματος, as is evident from the factof it
(not αἵματος)having the epithet, and in the Plural, καταβαίνοντες. The blood
streaming from the pores in smallerdrops became clottedtogetherby reason
of its copiousness. Ifthe sweathad not been a bloody one, the mention of
blood might have been altogetheromitted, for the word θρόμβοι evenby itself
was sufficient to express thick sweat.—ἐπὶ τὴνγῆν, upon the earth) by reason
of its copiousness. Therebythe earth receivedits blessing.
[248]More earnestly straining every nerve in prayer. Ἐκτενής, Th. τείνω, I
stretch or strain.—E. and T.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 44. - And his sweatwas as it were greatdrops of
blood falling down to the ground. Some (for instance, Theophylact)
understand this "as it were" to signify that the expression, "drops of blood,"
was simply parabolic; but it is far better to understand the words in their
literal sense, as our Church does when it prays, "By thine agony and bloody
sweat." Athanasius evengoes so far as to pronounce a ban upon those who
deny this sweatofblood. Commentators give instances of this blood-sweat
under abnormal pathologicalcircumstances. Some, thoughby no means all, of
the oldestauthorities omit these lasttwo verses (43, 44). Their omission in
many of these ancientmanuscripts was probably due to mistaken reverence.
The two oldestand most authoritative translations, the Itala (Latin) and
Peshito (Syriac), contain them, however, as do the most important Fathers of
the secondcentury, Justin and Irenaeus. We have, then, apart from the
evidence of manuscripts, the testimony of the earliestChristianity in Italy and
Syria, Asia Minor and Gaul, to the genuineness ofthese two famous verses.
They are printed in the ordinary text of the RevisedEnglish Version, with a
side-note alluding to their absence in some of the ancientauthorities.
Vincent's Word StudiesBeing in an agony (γενόμενος ἐν ἀγωνίᾳ)
There is in the aorist participle a suggestionofa growing intensity in the
struggle, which is not conveyedby the simple being. Literally, though very
awkwardly, it is, having become in an agony:having progressedfrom the first

prayer (beganto pray, Luke 22:41) into an intense struggle of prayer and
sorrow. Wycliffe's rendering hints at this: and he, made in agony, prayed.
Agony occurs only here. It is used by medical writers, and the fact of a sweat
accompanying an agony is also mentioned by them.
More earnestly(ἐκτενέστερον)
See on fervently, 1 Peter1:22.
Was (ἐγένετο)
More correctly, as Rev., became. See on γενόμενος, being, above.
Greatdrops (θρόμβοι)
Only here in New Testament:gouts or clots. Very common in medical
language. Aristotle mentions a bloody sweatarising from the blood being in
poor condition; and Theophrastus mentions a physician who compareda
species ofsweatto blood.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
The Agony In Gethsemane BY SPURGEON
“And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly:and His sweatwas,
as it were, greatdrops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Luke 22:44
OUR Lord, after having eatenthe Passoverandcelebratedthe supper with
His disciples, wentwith them to the Mount of Olives and entered the Garden
of Gethsemane. Whatinduced Him to selectthat place to be the scene ofHis
terrible agony? Why there, in preference to anywhere else would He be
arrestedby His enemies? May we not conceive that as in a garden Adam’s
self-indulgence ruined us, so in another garden the agonies ofthe second
Adam should restore us? Gethsemane supplies the medicine for the ills which
followedupon the forbidden fruit of Eden. No flowers which bloomed upon
the banks of the four-fold river were ever so precious to our race as the bitter
herbs which grew hard by the black and sullen stream of Kidron.

May not our Lord also have thought of David, when on that memorable
occasionhe fled out of the city from his rebellions son, and it is written, “The
king also, himself, passedoverthe brook Kidron,” and he and his people went
up barefoot and bareheaded, weeping as they went? Behold, the greaterDavid
leaves the Temple to become desolate and forsakesthe city which had rejected
His admonitions! And with a sorrowfulheart He crossesthe foul brook to find
in solitude a solace forHis woes. OurLord Jesus, moreover, meant us to see
that our sin changedeverything about Him into sorrow–itturned His riches
into poverty, His peace into travail, His glory into shame–andso the place of
His peacefulretirement, where, in hallowed devotion He had been nearest
Heaven in communion with God, our sin transformed into the focus of His
sorrow, the centerof His woe. Where He had enjoyedmost, there He must be
calledto suffer most.
Our Lord may, also, have chosenthe Garden because, needing every
remembrance that could sustainHim in the conflict, He felt refreshedby the
memory of former hours there which had passedawayso quietly. He had
prayed there and gainedstrength and comfort. Those gnarledand twisted
olives knew Him well–there was scarcelya blade of grass in the Garden which
He had not knelt upon. He had consecratedthe spot to fellowshipwith God!
What wonder, then, that He preferred this favored soil? Just as a man would
choose, insickness, to lie in his own bed, so Jesus chose to endure His agonyin
His own place of prayer where the recollections offormer communings with
His Fatherwould come vividly before Him.
But, probably, the chief reasonfor His resortto Gethsemane was that it was
His well-knownhaunt. John tells us, “Judas also knew the place.” Our Lord
did not wish to concealHimself. He did not need to be hunted down like a
thief, or searchedout by spies. He went boldly to the place where His enemies
knew that He was accustomedto pray, for He was willing to be takento
suffering and to death. They did not drag Him off to Pilate’s Hall againstHis
will, but He went with them voluntarily. When the hour was come for Him to
be betrayed–there He was, in a place where the traitor could readily find Him.
And when Judas would betray Him with a kiss, His cheek was readyto receive
the traitorous salutation. The blessedSaviordelighted to do the will of the
Lord though it involved obedience unto death!
We have thus come to the gate of the Garden of Gethsemane, let us now
enter–but first, let us take off our shoes, as Moses did, when he saw the bush
which burned with fire and was not consumed. Surely we may say with Jacob,
“How dreadful is this place!” I tremble at the task which lies before me, for
how shall my feeble speechdescribe those agonies forwhich strong crying and

tears were scarcelyanadequate expression? I desire, with you, to survey the
sufferings of our Redeemer, but oh, may the Spirit of God prevent our mind
from thinking anything amiss, or our tongue from speaking evenone word
which would be derogatoryto Him either in His immaculate Manhood or His
glorious Godhead!
It is not easy, when you are speaking ofone who is both God and Man, to
observe the exact line of correctspeech. It is easyto describe the Divine side in
such a manner as to trench upon the human, or to depict the human at the
costof the Divine. Make me not an offender for a word if I should err! A man
had need, himself, to be Inspired, or to confine himself to the very Words of
Inspiration to fitly speak, atall times, upon the great“mystery of godliness”–
God manifest in the flesh–andespeciallywhen he has to dwell most upon God
so manifest in suffering flesh that the weakesttraits in manhood become the
most conspicuous.
O Lord, open my lips that my tongue may utter right words! Meditating upon
the agonizing scene in Gethsemane we are compelledto observe that our
Savior endured, there, a grief unknown to any previous period of His life.
Therefore we will commence our discourse by raising the question, WHAT
WAS THE CAUSE OF THE PECULIAR GRIEF OF GETHSEMANE?Our
Lord was the “Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief” throughout His
whole life and yet, though it may sound paradoxical, I scarcelythink there
existed on the face of the earth a happier man than Jesus of Nazareth!The
griefs which He endured were counterbalancedby the peace ofpurity, the
calm of fellowship with God and the joy of benevolence. This last, every good
man knows to be very sweet–andall the sweeterin proportion to the pain
which is voluntarily endured for the carrying out of its kind designs. It is
always joy to do good, costwhatit may.
Moreover, Jesus dweltat perfectpeace with God at all times. We know that
He did so, for He regardedthat peace as a choice legacywhichHe could
bequeath to His disciples. Before He died, He said to them, “PeaceI leave with
you, My peace I give unto you.” He was meek and lowly of heart, and
therefore His soul had rest. He was one of the meek who inherit the earth. He
was one of the peacemakers who are and must be blessed. I think I am not
mistakenwhen I say that our Lord was far from being an unhappy Man. But
in Gethsemane all seems changed, His peace is gone, His calm is turned to
tempest.
After supper our Lord had sung a hymn, but there was no singing in
Gethsemane. Downthe steepbank which led from Jerusalemto the Kidron
He talked very cheerfully, saying, “I am the Vine and you are the branches,”

and that wondrous prayer which He prayed with His disciples after that
discourse is full of majesty–“Father, Iwill that they, also, whom You have
given Me be with Me where I am”–is a very different prayer from that inside
Gethsemane’s walls, where He cries, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from
Me.” Notice that all His life you scarcelyfind Him uttering an expressionof
grief. But here He says, not only by His sighs and by His bloody sweat, but in
so many words, “My soulis exceedinglysorrowfuleven unto death.”
In the Garden the Sufferer could not concealHis grief and does not appear to
have wished to do so. Thrice he ran backwardand forward to His disciples–
He let them see His sorrow and appealedto them for sympathy. His
exclamations were very piteous and His sighs and groans were, I doubt not,
very terrible to hear. Chiefly did that sorrow revealitself in bloody sweat,
which is a very unusual phenomenon, although I suppose we must believe
those writers who recordinstances somewhatsimilar. The old physician,
Galen, gives an instance in which, through extremity of horror, an individual
poured forth a discoloredsweat, so nearlycrimson as, at any rate, to appear
to have been blood. Other casesare given by medical authorities.
We do not, however, on any previous occasionobserve anything like this in
our Lord’s life. It was only in the last grim struggle among the olive trees that
our Champion resistedunto blood, agonizing againstsin. What ailed You, O
Lord, that You should be so sorelytroubled just then? We are clearthat His
deep sorrow and distress were not occasionedby any bodily pain. Our Savior
had doubtless been familiar with weaknessandpain, for He took our
sicknesses, but He never, in any previous instance, complained of physical
suffering. Neither at the time when He entered Gethsemane had He been
grieved by any bereavement. We know why it is written, “Jesus wept”–itwas
because His friend Lazarus was dead–but here there was no funeral, nor sick
bed, nor particular cause ofgrief in that direction.
Nor was it the revived remembrance of any pastreproaches which had lain
dormant in His mind. Long before this “reproachhad brokenHis heart,” He
had knownto the full the vexations of contumely and scorn. They had called
Him a “drunken man and a winebibber.” They had chargedHim with casting
out devils by the Prince of the devils–they could not say more and yet He had
bravely facedit all–it could not be possible that He was now sorrowful unto
death for such a cause. There must have been a something sharper than pain,
more cutting than reproach, more terrible than bereavement, which now, at
this time, grappled with the Savior and made Him “exceedinglysorrowful,
and very heavy.”

Do you suppose it was the fearof coming scorn, or the dread of crucifixion?
Was it terror at the thought of death? Is not such a supposition impossible?
Every man dreads death and as Man, Jesus couldnot but shrink from it.
When we were originally made, we were createdfor immortality and,
therefore, to die is strange and uncongenial work to us. The instincts of self-
preservationcause us to start back from it, but surely in our Lord’s case that
natural cause couldnot have produced such specially painful results. It does
not make even such poor cowards as we are sweatgreatdrops of blood! Why,
then, should it work such terror in Him?
It is dishonoring to our Lord to imagine Him less brave than His own
disciples, yet we have seensome of the most feeble of His saints triumphant in
the prospectof departing. Readthe stories of the martyrs and you will
frequently find them exultant in the near approach of the most cruel
sufferings. The joy of the Lord has given such strength to them that no
cowardlythought has alarmed them for a single moment–they have gone to
the stake, orto the block with songs ofvictory upon their lips! Our Master
must not be thought of as inferior to His boldest servants!It cannot be that He
should tremble where they were brave. Oh, no! The noblest spirit among yon
band of martyrs is the Leader, Himself, who in suffering and heroism
surpassedthem all! None could so defy the pangs of death as the Lord Jesus,
who, for the joy which was setbefore Him, endured the Cross, despising the
shame!
I cannot conceive thatthe pangs of Gethsemane were occasionedby any
extraordinary attack from Satan. It is possible that Satan was there and that
his presence may have darkenedthe shade–buthe was not the most
prominent cause ofthat hour of darkness. This much is quite clear, that our
Lord, at the commencementof His ministry, engagedin a very severe duel
with the Prince of Darkness, andyet we do not read concerning that
temptation in the wilderness a single syllable as to His soul’s being exceedingly
sorrowful. Neither do we find that He “was sore amazedand was very heavy.”
Nor is there a solitary hint at anything approaching to bloody sweat. When
the Lord of Angels condescendedto stand footto footwith the Prince of the
powerof the air, He had no such dread of him as to utter strong cries and
tears and fall prostrate on the ground with threefold appeals to the Great
Father.
Comparatively speaking, to put His foot on the old serpent was an easytask
for Christ and did but costHim a bruised heel. But this Gethsemane agony
wounded His very soul even unto death. What is it then, do you think, that so
peculiarly marks Gethsemane and the griefs thereof? We believe that, then,

the Fatherput Him to grief for us. It was then that our Lord had to take a
certain cup from the Father’s hand. Not from the Jews, not from the traitor,
Judas. Not from the sleeping disciples, nor from the devil came the trial, then–
it was a cup filled by One whom He knew to be His Father, but Who,
nevertheless, He understood to have appointed Him a very bitter potion, a cup
not to be drunk by His body and to spend its gallupon His flesh, but a cup
which specially amazedHis soul and troubled His inmost heart.
He shrunk from it and, therefore, you canbe sure that it was a draught more
dreadful than physical pain, since from that He did not shrink. It was a potion
more dreadful than reproach–fromthat He had not turned aside. It was more
dreadful than Satanic temptation–that He had overcome!It was a something
inconceivably terrible and amazingly full of dread–whichcame from the
Father’s hand. This removes all doubt as to what it was, for we read, “It
pleasedthe Lord to bruise Him, He has put Him to grief: when You shall
make His soul an offering for sin.” “The Lord has made to meet on Him the
iniquity of us all.” He has made Him to be sin for us though He knew no sin.
This, then, is that which causedthe Saviorsuch extraordinary depression. He
was now about to “taste death for every man.” He was about to bear the curse
which was due to sinners because He stoodin the sinner’s place and must
suffer in the sinner’s stead. Here is the secretofthose agonies which it is not
possible for me to set forth before you! It is so true that–
“‘Tis to God, and God alone,
That His griefs are fully known.”
Yet would I exhort you to considerthese griefs, that you may love the
Sufferer. He now realized, perhaps for the first time, that He was to be a Sin-
Bearer. As God He was perfectly holy and incapable of sin. And as Man He
was without original taint–He was spotlesslypure–yetHe had to bear sin, to
be led forth as the Scapegoatbearing the iniquity of Israelupon His head. He
had to be taken and made a Sin Offering–and as a loathsome thing, (for
nothing was more loathsome than the sin offering)–to be takenoutside the
camp and utterly consumedwith the fire of Divine wrath!
Do you wonder that His infinite purity startedback from that? Would He
have been what He was if it had not been a very solemn thing for Him to stand
before God in the position of a sinner? Yes, and as Luther would have said it,
to be lookedupon by God as if He were all the sinners in the world, and as if
He had committed all the sin that ever had been committed by His people–for
it was all laid on Him and on Him must the vengeance due for it all be poured.
He must be the center of all the vengeance andbear away upon Himself what

ought to have fallen upon the guilty sons of men. To stand in such a position,
when once it was realized, must have been very terrible to the Redeemer’s
holy soul.
Then, also, the Savior’s mind was intently fixed upon the dreadful nature of
sin. Sin had always beenabhorrent to Him, but now His thoughts were
engrossedwith it. He saw its worse than deadly nature, its heinous character
and horrible aim. Probably at this time, beyond any former period, He had, as
Man, a view of the wide range and allpervading evil of sin and a sense ofthe
blackness ofits darkness–andthe desperatenessofits guilt as being a direct
attack upon the Truth of God. Yes, and upon the very being of God! He saw,
in His own Person, to what lengths sinners would go. He saw how they would
sell their Lord, like Judas, and seek to destroy Him as did the Jews. The cruel
and ungenerous treatment He had Himself receiveddisplayed man’s hate of
God, and, as He saw it, horror took hold upon Him and His soul was heavy to
think that He must bear such an evil and be numbered with such
transgressors–to be wounded for their transgressions andbruised for their
iniquities. But not the wounding nor the bruising distressedHim so much as
the sin itself. That utterly overwhelmed His soul. Then, too, no doubt, the
penalty of sin beganto be realizedby Him in the Garden–firstthe sin which
had put Himin the position of a suffering Substitute. Then the penalty which
must be borne because He was in that position. I dread, to the last degree, that
kind of theologywhich is so common, nowadays, which seeksto depreciate
and diminish our estimate of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers
and Sisters, that was no trifling suffering which made recompense to the
Justice of God for the sins of men! I am never afraid of exaggerationwhenI
speak of what my Lord endured. All Hell was distilled into that cup of which
our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, was made to drink! It was not eternal
suffering, but since He was Divine He could, in a short time, offer unto God a
vindication of His Justice which sinners in Hell could not have offeredhad
they been left to suffer in their own persons forever.
The woe that broke over the Savior’s spirit–the greatand fathomless oceanof
inexpressible anguish which dashed overthe Savior’s soul when He died–is so
inconceivable that I must not venture far lest I be accusedofa vain attempt to
express the unutterable! But this I will say–the very spray from that great
tempestuous deep–as it fell on Christ, baptized Him in a bloody sweat!He had
not yet come to the raging billows of the penalty itself, but even standing on
the shore, as He heard the awful surf breaking at His feet, His soul was sorely
amazed and very heavy. It was the shadow of the coming tempest. It was the
prelude of the dread desertionwhich He had to endure when He stoodwhere

we ought to have stoodand paid to His Father’s justice the debt which was
due from us! It was this which laid Him low. To be treated as a sinner, to be
smitten as a sinner, though in Him was no sin–this it was which causedHim
the agonyof which our text speaks.
Having thus spokenof the cause of His peculiar grief, I think we shall be able
to support our view of the matter while we lead you to considerWHAT WAS
THE CHARACTER OF THE GRIEF ITSELF? I shall trouble you, as little as
possible, with the Greek words used by the Evangelists. I have studied eachof
them, to try and find out the shades of their meaning, but it will suffice if I
give you the results of my careful investigation. What was the grief itself?
How was it described? This greatsorrow assailedour Lord some four days
before He suffered. If you turn to John 12:27, you find that remarkable
utterance, “Now is My soul troubled.” We never knew Him say that before!
This was a foretaste ofthe greatdepressionof spirit which was so soonto lay
Him prostrate in Gethsemane.
“Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this
hour’? But for this cause came I unto this hour.” After that we read of Him in
Matthew 26:37, that, “He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.” The
depressionhad come over Him again. It was not pain. It was not a palpitation
of the heart, or an aching of the brow. It was worse than these. Trouble of
spirit is worse than pain of body–pain may bring trouble and be the incidental
cause ofsorrow–butif the mind is perfectly at peace, how wella man can bear
pain! And when the soul is exhilarated and lifted up with inward joy, bodily
pain is almost forgotten, the soul conquering the body. On the other hand the
soul’s sorrow will create bodily pain, the lowernature sympathizing with the
higher.
Our Lord’s main suffering lay in His soul–His soul-suffering was the soul of
His suffering. “A wounded spirit who can bear?” Pain of spirit is the worstof
pain. Sorrow of heart is the climax of griefs. Let those who have ever known
sinking spirits, despondencyand mental gloom, attestthe truth of what I say!
This sorrow of heart appears to have led to a very deep depressionof our
Lord’s spirit. In Matthew 26:37, you find it recordedthat He was “deeply
distressed,” andthat expressionis full of meaning–ofmore meaning, indeed,
than it would be easyto explain. The word, in the original, is a very difficult
one to translate. It may signify the abstractionof the mind and its complete
occupation, by sorrow, to the exclusion of every thought which might have
alleviatedthe distress.
One burning thought consumedHis whole soul and burned up all that might
have yielded comfort. For a while His mind refused to dwell upon the result of

His death, the consequentjoy which was set before Him. His position as a Sin
Bearerand the desertionby His Father which was necessary, engrossedHis
contemplation and hurried His soul awayfrom all else. Some have seenin the
word a measure of distraction–and though I will not go far in that direction–
yet it does seemas if our Savior’s mind underwent perturbations and
convulsions widely different from His usual calm, collectedspirit. He was
tossedto and fro as upon a mighty sea of trouble, which was workedto a
tempest, and carried Him awayin its fury. “We did esteemHim stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted.” As the Psalmistsaid, innumerable evils
compassedHim about so that His heart failed Him. His heart was melted with
sheerdismay. He was “deeply distressed.”
Some considerthe word to signify at its root, “separatedfrom the people,” as
if He had become unlike other men, even as one whose mind is staggeredby a
sudden blow or pressedwith some astounding calamity, is no more as
ordinary men are. Mere onlookerswouldhave thought our Lord to be a man
distraught, burdened beyond the possibility of men, and borne down by a
sorrow unparalleled among men. The learned Thomas Goodwinsays, “The
word denotes a failing, deficiency and sinking of spirit such as happens to men
in sickness andwounding.” Epaphroditus' sickness, wherebyhe was brought
near to death, is called by the same word, so that we see that Christ’s soul was
sick and faint–was not His sweatproduced by exhaustion? The cold, clammy
sweatofdying men comes through faintness of body. But the bloody sweatof
Jesus came from an utter faintness and prostration of soul. He was in an awful
soul-swoonand suffered an inward death whose accompanimentwas not
watery tears from the eyes, but a weeping of blood from the entire man.
Many of you, however, know in your measure what it is to be deeply
distressedwithout my multiplying words. And if you do not know, by personal
experience, all explanations I could give would be in vain. When deep
despondencycomes on. When you forgeteverything that would sustain you
and your spirit sinks down, down, down–then can you sympathize with our
Lord. Others think you foolish, callyou nervous and bid you rally yourself,
but they know not your case. If they understood it, they would not mock you
with such admonitions. Our Lord was “deeply distressed,”very sinking, very
despondent, overwhelmedwith grief.
Mark tells us, next, in his 14
th verse that our Lord was “sore amazed.” The Greek worddoes not
merely import that He was astonishedand surprised, but that His amazement
went to an extremity of horror, such as men fall into when their hair stands on

end and their flesh trembles. As the delivery of the Law made Moses
exceedinglyfear and quake, and as David said, “My flesh trembles because of
Your judgments,” so our Lord was strickenwith horror at the sight of the sin
which was laid upon Him and the vengeance whichwas due on accountof it.
The Saviorwas first “distressed,”then depressed, “heavy,” andlastly, sore
amazed and filled with amazement–foreven He, as a Man, could scarcely
have known what it was that He had undertaken to bear.
He had lookedat it calmly and quietly and felt that whatever it was He would
bear it for our sake. But when it actually came to the bearing of sin He was
utterly astonishedand takenaback at the dreadful position of standing in the
sinner’s place before God–ofhaving His holy Fatherlook upon Him as the
sinner’s Representative, andof being forsakenby that Father with whom He
had lived on terms of amity and delight from old eternity. It staggeredHis
holy, tender, loving Nature–andHe was “sore amazed” and was “very heavy.”
We are further taught that there surrounded, encompassedandoverwhelmed
Him an oceanof sorrow, for the 38 th of Matthew contains the wordperilupos,
which signifies an encompassing aroundwith sorrows.
In all ordinary miseries there is, generally, some loophole of escape, some
breathing place for hope. We cangenerally remind our friends in trouble that
their case might be worse. Butin our Lord’s griefs, worse couldnot be
imagined, for He could say with David, “The pains of Hell get hold upon Me.”
All God’s waves and billows went over Him. Above Him, beneathand around
Him, outside Him, and within–all–allwas anguish and neither was there one
alleviation or source of consolation. His disciples could not help Him–they
were all, but one, sleeping–andhe who was awakewas onthe road to betray
Him. His spirit cried out in the Presence ofthe Almighty God beneath the
crushing burden and unbearable load of His miseries!No griefs could have
gone further than Christ’s and He, Himself, said, “My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful,” or surrounded with sorrow “evenunto death.”
He did not die in the Garden, but He suffered as much as if He had died. He
endured death intensively, though not extensively. It did not extend to the
making His body a corpse, but it went as far in pain as if it had been so. His
pangs and anguish went up to the mortal agonyand only paused on the verge
of death. Luke, to crown all, tells us in our text, that our Lord was in an
agony. The expression, “agony,”signifies a conflict, a contest, a wrestling.
With whom was the agony? With whom did He wrestle? I believe it was with
Himself. The contesthere intended was not with His God–no–“notas I will
but as You will,” does not look like wrestling with God. It was not a contest
with Satan, for, as we have already seen, He would not have been so sorely

amazed had that been the conflict. It was a terrible combat within Himself, an
agonywithin His ownsoul.
Remember that He could have escapedfrom all this grief with one resolve of
His will and, naturally, the Manhood in Him said, “Do not bear it!” And the
purity of His heart said, “Oh, do not bear it, do not stand in the place of the
sinner.” The delicate sensitiveness ofHis mysterious Nature shrunk altogether
from any form of connectionwith sin–yet infinite Love said, “Bearit, stoop
beneath the load.” And so there was agonybetweenthe attributes of His
Nature–a battle on an awful scale in the arena of His soul. The purity which
cannot bear to come into contactwith sin must have been very mighty in
Christ–while the love which would not let His people perish was very mighty,
too. It was a struggle on a titanic scale, as if a Hercules had met another
Hercules–two tremendous forces strove and fought and agonizedwithin the
bleeding heart of Jesus.
Nothing causes a man more torture than to be draggedhere and there with
contending emotions. As civil war is the worstand most cruel kind of war, so a
war within a man’s soul, when two greatpassions in him struggle for the
mastery, and both noble passions, too, causes a trouble and distress which
none but he that feels it can understand. I marvel not that our Lord’s sweat
was, as it were, greatdrops of blood, when such an inward pressure made
Him like a clustertrod in the winepress!I hope I have not presumptuously
lookedinto the Ark, or gazedwithin the veiled Holy of Holies. God forbid that
curiosity or pride should urge me to intrude where the Lord has seta barrier.
I have brought you as far as I canand must again drop the curtain with the
words I used just now–
“‘Tis to God, and God alone,
That His griefs are fully known.”
Our third question shall be, WHAT WAS OUR LORD’S SOLACE IN ALL
THIS? He sought help in human companionship and it was very natural that
He should do so. Godhas createdin our human nature a craving for
sympathy. We do not err when we expectour Brethren to watchwith us in
our hour of trial. But our Lord did not find that men were able to assistHim–
howeverwilling their spirit might be, their flesh was weak. What, then, did He
do? He resortedto prayer and especiallyprayer to God under the Character
of Father. I have learned by experience that we never know the sweetness of
the Fatherhoodof God so much as when we are in very bitter anguish. I can
understand why the Savior said, “Abba, Father”–itwas anguishthat brought
Him down as a chastenedchild to appeal plaintively to a Father’s love.

GETHSEMANE AGONY

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