And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
On Passover night in Gethsemane He left the larger company at the entrance, led Peter, James and John farther in, then withdrew a short distance beyond even them to kneel alone and pray. He pleaded that the cup be removed if the Father was willing, yet surrendered His own will in absolute submission and chose to drink it. That cup was bearing the sins of the whole world and being separated from His Father, and on His accepting it hung the destiny of a lost world. In that solitary agony He prayed more earnestly three times until His sweat fell as great drops of blood, and heaven sent an angel to strengthen Him to endure. When He returned He found His disciples sleeping for sorrow, unprepared for the trial because they had not watched and prayed with Him. His withdrawing to kneel gives the pattern for believers to seek God in humble, reverent solitude for strength to meet duty, temptation, and great trial.
Gethsemane Setting and Movements
It was Passover night as the way led to Gethsemane beneath a broad full moon while the city of pilgrims' tents lay hushed and quiet. The garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives was His usual place of retirement for meditation and prayer, where He braced His spirit for trial and duty. He often spent the entire night there while the disciples watched a little season and then slept at a little distance until morning, so His withdrawing called forth no remark.
He left the larger company of disciples at the entrance to sit and wait, took Peter, James, and John farther into the recesses of the garden, and then withdrew about a stone's cast, a short distance, beyond even them to kneel alone and pray. Peter, James, and John were the three favored disciples brought into the closest relationship with Him and His chief witnesses after His death. They also saw His transfiguration and beheld Him glorified, and were permitted to witness His agony.
After earnestly instructing His disciples He fell strangely silent and utterly sad so that His form swayed as if about to fall. As He faced His final agony each step required great effort, with twice His companions supporting Him to keep Him from falling. The Mount had been made holy by His presence in human nature and set apart by His prayers and tears there.
He knew the trying ordeal coming upon His disciples — His betrayal, His agony in Gethsemane, and His crucifixion — and knew which followers were unbelieving and weak in faith. So He deliberately brought a testing crisis earlier while still present to comfort, strengthen, and prepare His chosen. He did this that the weak and undecided would leave before the great trial. The faithful few would thus not be overwhelmed with surprise, sunk by fear and disappointment, or carried away when they saw Him betrayed and condemned in the judgment hall, humiliated and reviled by the multitude that had hailed Him as king and heard the jeering crowd cry crucify Him, but would remember the fickleness already seen and not hang their faith on the opinions of others.
Withdrawing, Kneeling, Praying
He withdrew a short distance from His disciples and companions into solitude to pray apart in lonely prayer. That withdrawing about a stone's cast to kneel was lonely prayer in agony of spirit as He pleaded with His Father.
He kneeled down and prayed, bowed in prayer, at times falling on His face and prostrated. Peter afterward remembered that agony and prayer there and the very place where He had been prostrated.
He had bidden them watch and pray with Him and had asked for human sympathy, yet He chose to pray apart. He hoped to find His disciples awake and able to comfort Him when He returned, for He needed their sympathy. He longed for human sympathy, support, and strength as He faced suffering and death for sinners. His disciples were asleep from sorrow when He came to them.
His longing for companionship in that hour of agony, separated from His disciples, shows that the desire for love and sympathy is implanted in the human heart by God. In the groves of Olivet He was bowed in anguished prayer not for Himself but for the sinners He came to save, as the representative of the race. His sorrow came from bearing the sins of the world and fearing separation from His Father, not from dread of the physical pain of crucifixion.
Cup, Submission, and Atonement
Withdrawn about a stone's cast, He kneeled and prayed that if the Father was willing the cup would be removed from Him, that if possible it would pass from Him. That prayer was about the suffering set before Him, and about the cup of separation from His Father as He bore sin. He prayed it three times for the cup to pass if possible.
Nevertheless He submitted His will to the Father's and not His own, in absolute submission and surrender. He faced the cup, chose to drink it, and consented to drink its bitter woe. The cup meant bearing the sins of the whole world and being separated from His Father. It was borne under the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being.
Though the sinless Son of God, He was treated as a sinner that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent. He was wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities, chastised for peace, and striped for healing. Having laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity, He lived a sinless life in man's behalf to make atonement on the cross. With a will capable of asserting itself to refuse this humiliation, He consented to suffer humiliation and death as the purpose of His coming into the world.
On that prayer hung the destiny of a lost world, for refusal to drink the cup would have meant eternal ruin to the human race. By enduring what He passed through and facing the suffering represented by the cup, He showed the cost of bearing the world's sin. He endured so that sinners might not perish but have everlasting life. His anguish in bearing sin and separation was so painful that He felt He could not endure it. Yet His suffering made it possible for humanity to grasp divinity and, through divine power, to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony.
His kneeling apart was wrestling with the Father over submission to the will of God rather than having His own way. It was wrestling for strength and for power to make the Father known in words and actions.
Agony, Strengthening, and Victory
On this night of His final agony He was overwhelmed with sorrow as He bore humanity's guilt and felt the terrible weight and burden of sin He was about to bear. It was profound agony as He wrestled alone with the powers of darkness. Each step toward that place required great effort, and twice His companions supported Him to keep Him from falling.
Being in an agony He prayed more earnestly, repeating the prayer three times as He faced the cup and the burden of the world's guilt. His sweat became as great drops of blood falling to the ground and moistening it, and in His anguish His blood fell. An angel from heaven appeared strengthening Him, heaven sent a messenger to comfort Him, strengthening Him to endure and take the world's burden upon Himself. Strengthened by the angel He accepted the cup and drank its bitter woe.
His solitary prayer through the night of agony came before the agony of the judgment hall and the cross. It illustrates the pattern that a night of prayer precedes great trial and that divine communion comes before acts of power.
This agony withdrawn about a stone's cast was continually recounted by His disciples with quivering lips and tearful eyes as the main theme of their preaching, teaching, and conversation about Christ. With it they recounted His betrayal, trial, and execution, the forbearance and humility with which He endured insult and torture, and the Godlike pity with which He prayed for His persecutors. With it they recounted His resurrection and ascension and His work in heaven as Mediator for fallen man, so that they were first called Christians because they preached Christ and prayed to God through Him. The garden agony apart where He knelt was among those events continually recounted.
Sleeping Disciples and Loss
When He rose from prayer and came to His disciples He found them sleeping for sorrow. They heard Him praying apart, but soon fell asleep and did not keep watch with Him. He had bidden them to watch and pray with Him, yet they slept while He wrestled alone.
He charged them to rise and pray lest they enter into temptation. As He prayed through the night of agony, the disciples slept and missed the scene's spiritual power and the evidence that could have strengthened them for the trials ahead. They missed the divine presence manifested there.
Their failure to stay alert to His voice left them unprepared for the terrible scenes ahead. Their failure to remain awake to spiritual instruction and in communion with God left them without the strengthening the scene would have given. Peter later remembered His agony and prayer there and the place where He had been prostrated. That memory deepened Peter's repentance and prepared him to sympathize with and strengthen others who were weak or tempted.
Pattern for Believers' Prayer
His kneeling a short distance from His companions gives the pattern for approaching God with humility, reverence, awe and dependence, showing that kneeling is the fitting and proper posture when offering petitions to God. It is a privilege to bow on the knees before the Lord when offering petitions, in both public and private worship. His followers approach their Maker with humility and awe after this example.
His example shows that He sought His Father in earnest prayer, especially in distress, and that prayer strengthened Him for the trials ahead. That earnest prayer to the Father prepared Him to meet duty and temptation and shows how to seek strength to resist the enemy. His withdrawing a short distance to kneel in solitude shows the need for solitude and communion with God in prayer when facing trial and when preparing for great trial and important work, and that strength for trial, duty and work is gained by resorting to prayer. The night of prayer in Gethsemane came before the agony of the judgment hall and the cross, illustrating the pattern that divine communion comes before acts of power.
As a suppliant He prayed to the Father for strength and grace to complete His work, and by communion with God obtained strength from on high and was invigorated and refreshed, braced for duty and prepared for toil. He then went forth to minister to the needy and to encourage and bless others with power. His practice teaches that prayer sanctifies ministry and worship gives strength for daily duties. Those who are truly His friends will likewise often commune with Him in implicit faith that prayers offered in His name will be answered.
His lonely prayer and agony of spirit as He pleaded with His Father are an example for His followers in their meek, self-denying life. They too will at times feel deep spiritual distress and agony of soul, pouring out earnest prayer and groaning in spirit after God. Yet such dark seasons when the soul is enshrouded in darkness need not drive them from Him. His wrestling apart to pray was wrestling for strength and for power to make the Father known in words and actions, and it is what believers must do when spiritual conflict comes from a heart lacking submission to God's will and wanting its own way, which is rebellion against God's way.
On Passover night in Gethsemane He left the larger company at the entrance, led Peter, James and John farther in, then withdrew a short distance beyond even them to kneel alone and pray. He pleaded that the cup be removed if the Father was willing, yet surrendered His own will in absolute submission and chose to drink it. That cup was bearing the sins of the whole world and being separated from His Father, and on His accepting it hung the destiny of a lost world. In that solitary agony He prayed more earnestly three times until His sweat fell as great drops of blood, and heaven sent an angel to strengthen Him to endure. When He returned He found His disciples sleeping for sorrow, unprepared for the trial because they had not watched and prayed with Him. His withdrawing to kneel gives the pattern for believers to seek God in humble, reverent solitude for strength to meet duty, temptation, and great trial.
Gethsemane Setting and Movements
It was Passover night as the way led to Gethsemane beneath a broad full moon while the city of pilgrims' tents lay hushed and quiet. The garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives was His usual place of retirement for meditation and prayer, where He braced His spirit for trial and duty. He often spent the entire night there while the disciples watched a little season and then slept at a little distance until morning, so His withdrawing called forth no remark.
He left the larger company of disciples at the entrance to sit and wait, took Peter, James, and John farther into the recesses of the garden, and then withdrew about a stone's cast, a short distance, beyond even them to kneel alone and pray. Peter, James, and John were the three favored disciples brought into the closest relationship with Him and His chief witnesses after His death. They also saw His transfiguration and beheld Him glorified, and were permitted to witness His agony.
After earnestly instructing His disciples He fell strangely silent and utterly sad so that His form swayed as if about to fall. As He faced His final agony each step required great effort, with twice His companions supporting Him to keep Him from falling. The Mount had been made holy by His presence in human nature and set apart by His prayers and tears there.
He knew the trying ordeal coming upon His disciples — His betrayal, His agony in Gethsemane, and His crucifixion — and knew which followers were unbelieving and weak in faith. So He deliberately brought a testing crisis earlier while still present to comfort, strengthen, and prepare His chosen. He did this that the weak and undecided would leave before the great trial. The faithful few would thus not be overwhelmed with surprise, sunk by fear and disappointment, or carried away when they saw Him betrayed and condemned in the judgment hall, humiliated and reviled by the multitude that had hailed Him as king and heard the jeering crowd cry crucify Him, but would remember the fickleness already seen and not hang their faith on the opinions of others.
Withdrawing, Kneeling, Praying
He withdrew a short distance from His disciples and companions into solitude to pray apart in lonely prayer. That withdrawing about a stone's cast to kneel was lonely prayer in agony of spirit as He pleaded with His Father.
He kneeled down and prayed, bowed in prayer, at times falling on His face and prostrated. Peter afterward remembered that agony and prayer there and the very place where He had been prostrated.
He had bidden them watch and pray with Him and had asked for human sympathy, yet He chose to pray apart. He hoped to find His disciples awake and able to comfort Him when He returned, for He needed their sympathy. He longed for human sympathy, support, and strength as He faced suffering and death for sinners. His disciples were asleep from sorrow when He came to them.
His longing for companionship in that hour of agony, separated from His disciples, shows that the desire for love and sympathy is implanted in the human heart by God. In the groves of Olivet He was bowed in anguished prayer not for Himself but for the sinners He came to save, as the representative of the race. His sorrow came from bearing the sins of the world and fearing separation from His Father, not from dread of the physical pain of crucifixion.
Cup, Submission, and Atonement
Withdrawn about a stone's cast, He kneeled and prayed that if the Father was willing the cup would be removed from Him, that if possible it would pass from Him. That prayer was about the suffering set before Him, and about the cup of separation from His Father as He bore sin. He prayed it three times for the cup to pass if possible.
Nevertheless He submitted His will to the Father's and not His own, in absolute submission and surrender. He faced the cup, chose to drink it, and consented to drink its bitter woe. The cup meant bearing the sins of the whole world and being separated from His Father. It was borne under the most fearful strain ever brought upon a human being.
Though the sinless Son of God, He was treated as a sinner that sinful human beings might be treated as innocent. He was wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities, chastised for peace, and striped for healing. Having laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and clothed His divinity with humanity, He lived a sinless life in man's behalf to make atonement on the cross. With a will capable of asserting itself to refuse this humiliation, He consented to suffer humiliation and death as the purpose of His coming into the world.
On that prayer hung the destiny of a lost world, for refusal to drink the cup would have meant eternal ruin to the human race. By enduring what He passed through and facing the suffering represented by the cup, He showed the cost of bearing the world's sin. He endured so that sinners might not perish but have everlasting life. His anguish in bearing sin and separation was so painful that He felt He could not endure it. Yet His suffering made it possible for humanity to grasp divinity and, through divine power, to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony.
His kneeling apart was wrestling with the Father over submission to the will of God rather than having His own way. It was wrestling for strength and for power to make the Father known in words and actions.
Agony, Strengthening, and Victory
On this night of His final agony He was overwhelmed with sorrow as He bore humanity's guilt and felt the terrible weight and burden of sin He was about to bear. It was profound agony as He wrestled alone with the powers of darkness. Each step toward that place required great effort, and twice His companions supported Him to keep Him from falling.
Being in an agony He prayed more earnestly, repeating the prayer three times as He faced the cup and the burden of the world's guilt. His sweat became as great drops of blood falling to the ground and moistening it, and in His anguish His blood fell. An angel from heaven appeared strengthening Him, heaven sent a messenger to comfort Him, strengthening Him to endure and take the world's burden upon Himself. Strengthened by the angel He accepted the cup and drank its bitter woe.
His solitary prayer through the night of agony came before the agony of the judgment hall and the cross. It illustrates the pattern that a night of prayer precedes great trial and that divine communion comes before acts of power.
This agony withdrawn about a stone's cast was continually recounted by His disciples with quivering lips and tearful eyes as the main theme of their preaching, teaching, and conversation about Christ. With it they recounted His betrayal, trial, and execution, the forbearance and humility with which He endured insult and torture, and the Godlike pity with which He prayed for His persecutors. With it they recounted His resurrection and ascension and His work in heaven as Mediator for fallen man, so that they were first called Christians because they preached Christ and prayed to God through Him. The garden agony apart where He knelt was among those events continually recounted.
Sleeping Disciples and Loss
When He rose from prayer and came to His disciples He found them sleeping for sorrow. They heard Him praying apart, but soon fell asleep and did not keep watch with Him. He had bidden them to watch and pray with Him, yet they slept while He wrestled alone.
He charged them to rise and pray lest they enter into temptation. As He prayed through the night of agony, the disciples slept and missed the scene's spiritual power and the evidence that could have strengthened them for the trials ahead. They missed the divine presence manifested there.
Their failure to stay alert to His voice left them unprepared for the terrible scenes ahead. Their failure to remain awake to spiritual instruction and in communion with God left them without the strengthening the scene would have given. Peter later remembered His agony and prayer there and the place where He had been prostrated. That memory deepened Peter's repentance and prepared him to sympathize with and strengthen others who were weak or tempted.
Pattern for Believers' Prayer
His kneeling a short distance from His companions gives the pattern for approaching God with humility, reverence, awe and dependence, showing that kneeling is the fitting and proper posture when offering petitions to God. It is a privilege to bow on the knees before the Lord when offering petitions, in both public and private worship. His followers approach their Maker with humility and awe after this example.
His example shows that He sought His Father in earnest prayer, especially in distress, and that prayer strengthened Him for the trials ahead. That earnest prayer to the Father prepared Him to meet duty and temptation and shows how to seek strength to resist the enemy. His withdrawing a short distance to kneel in solitude shows the need for solitude and communion with God in prayer when facing trial and when preparing for great trial and important work, and that strength for trial, duty and work is gained by resorting to prayer. The night of prayer in Gethsemane came before the agony of the judgment hall and the cross, illustrating the pattern that divine communion comes before acts of power.
As a suppliant He prayed to the Father for strength and grace to complete His work, and by communion with God obtained strength from on high and was invigorated and refreshed, braced for duty and prepared for toil. He then went forth to minister to the needy and to encourage and bless others with power. His practice teaches that prayer sanctifies ministry and worship gives strength for daily duties. Those who are truly His friends will likewise often commune with Him in implicit faith that prayers offered in His name will be answered.
His lonely prayer and agony of spirit as He pleaded with His Father are an example for His followers in their meek, self-denying life. They too will at times feel deep spiritual distress and agony of soul, pouring out earnest prayer and groaning in spirit after God. Yet such dark seasons when the soul is enshrouded in darkness need not drive them from Him. His wrestling apart to pray was wrestling for strength and for power to make the Father known in words and actions, and it is what believers must do when spiritual conflict comes from a heart lacking submission to God's will and wanting its own way, which is rebellion against God's way.